As the dust continues to settle after what can only be described as a controversial launch, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that might one day be remembered fondly. This, of course, depends on CD Projekt Red's ability to patch the game into something that eventually delivers on those early promises. Looking back at the game three months after its launch, it is clear that there's still some way to go.
One aspect of the game that managed to deliver since day one, though, was its storyline. The game boasted some truly imaginative main and side quests (some of which can net the player an awful lot of money), as well as a story that was driven by player choice (not to mention a large supporting cast of memorable characters). Even so, upon closer scrutiny, it becomes apparent that not all of its plot threads and branching paths added up. Needless to say, there are both minor and major spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077 ahead!
10 Why Did Arasaka Store Johnny's Engram?
Fairly early on in the game, V discovers the engram of mysterious rocker Johnny Silverhand, on the very biochip they'd been commissioned to steal from Arasaka. Interestingly, no explanation was ever truly given for why Arasaka had kept Johnny's engram in the first place.
It is understandable that they'd want to preserve his girlfriend, Alt Cunningham, being the brilliant Netrunner that she was. Johnny, on the other hand, had been nothing but a nuisance to them, and a dangerous one at that. They simply had no real reason to keep his engram, beyond a sadistic desire to see him brought back to life someday only to be tortured once again.
9 How Does An Engram Kill Its Hosts?
After V was forced to insert the biochip into their head, it was revealed that it was slowly replacing his consciousness with Johnny's engram. As a concept in a futuristic game, this was relatively easy to buy into. What proved a harder pill to swallow was the physical manifestation of that process, which resulted in V having periodic blackouts and nosebleeds.
This is the equivalent of faulty software bricking a hardware device, except the human consciousness isn't made up of 1s and 0s. Needless to say, the science behind the biochip and its inner workings was flimsy at best.
8 Arasaka's Efforts To Get Back The Biochip
The fascinating and powerful Arasaka corporation was described as the most powerful organization in Night City, while the biochip (or Relic as it was also known) was one of their most prized possessions. This makes it puzzling that they wouldn't put more effort into getting it back after it was violently stolen from Konpeki Plaza. Or more importantly, that they wouldn't bring the perpetrators to justice.
Beyond a pair of elaborate car chases at the end of the Heist mission, V wasn't hunted down by Arasaka agents for the remainder of the game, having free roam of Night City with barely any consequences. Players can probably put this one down to cut content, but this could still be considered quite the oversight.
7 Saburo Arasaka's Cause Of Death
On the topic of Saburo Arasaka's murder, any preliminary autopsy or examination of his body should have revealed that he'd died of strangulation; not poisoning as his son, Yorinobo, had alleged.
Granted, a man as powerful as Yorinobo (who presumably had the media and authorities in his pocket), could spin any web of lies he chose. With that in mind, why not spin one where the facts at least lined up with the evidence a bit more neatly?
6 Evelyn's Penchant For Betrayal
Evelyn Parker is one of the more interesting characters players meet in Cyberpunk 2077. Before the conclusion of her tragic story arc, she'd show her true colors. Not only would she betray the Voodoo Boys by trying to steal the Relic for herself, but she'd also try to betray Dexter DeShawn.
She'd ask V to cut him out of the Heist completely, shortly after he'd introduced V to her. The problem with this, though, was that it wasn't consistent with the version of Evelyn Judy had known and fallen in love with (going by the latter's description of the former).
5 The Voodoo Boys Planning To Kill V
During V's quest to remove the biochip, they came across the Voodoo Boys. In order to gain the group's trust, players need to carry out an errand for them. At the beginning of this mission, Placide installs a surveillance program onto V's cyberware. Except this would turn out to also house a lethal virus, which he intended to use to kill V the moment they'd finished using them.
The problem here is that Placide should've been able to tell (while plugged into V's cyberware) that V was in possession of the very same Relic they'd asked Evelyn Parker to help them steal from Yorinobo. As such, sending V into enemy territory on such a perilous mission didn't make any sense, considering how important the biochip was to them.
4 How Did The Voodoo Boys Find Out About Alt?
In Cyberpunk 2077, the Net is made of two distinct halves, separated by a powerful firewall known as the Blackwall. The new Net is where all the networks that support Night City reside, while the old web is where rogue AI programs and ghosts like Alt Cunningham run wild and free.
The game establishes that the Voodoo Boys' goal was to make contact with those rogue AIs. Still, it never revealed how they'd come to find out about Alt, who they saw as their go-between. After all, it was also established that they had no way of telling what was beyond the Blackwall.
3 Why Didn't Netwatch Try To Shut Down The Old Web?
Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of how networks operate would know that each network is made up of a bunch of computers connected to a server. The old web, then, was simply a collection of several such servers. Like any other network, it can be put offline by physically shutting down its servers.
This begs the question: why didn't Netwatch try to shut it down in such a manner? Aside from the servers being widely dispersed all over the world (or being inaccessible due to some of those areas becoming inhospitable), it is hard to justify having to build the Blackwall.
2 Judy In Her Apartment
The Pyramid Song mission was one of the most heartfelt and visually breathtaking missions in Cyberpunk 2077. It involved the enigmatic Judy taking V on an underwater tour of her former hometown. Depending on several factors like the player's gender and their chosen dialogue options, it can end with Judy deciding to leave Night City.
She even hands V the keys to her apartment, since she presumably wouldn't be needing them anymore. It is a bit jarring, then, that she can still be found lingering in her apartment several missions later, especially since she and V had already exchanged their final goodbyes.
1 Saburo's Quest for Immortality
In one of the game's multiple endings, the true nature of Saburo Arasaka's experimentation with the biochip is revealed. He'd used the technology to create an engram of his consciousness at the exact moment of his death. His plan was to restore that consciousness in another body, so that he could continue on as the leader of the Arasaka family.
However, Saburo was already 158 years old at that point. He'd succeeded in building the Arasaka family up to become one of the most powerful in the world. It really was a bit of a stretch, imagining what else he was hoping to accomplish that he hadn't managed to do already.