As Cyberpunk 2077 reached its half-year birthday, fans have been digging through the game to discover what could have been. I probably don’t have to explain that many were disappointed by the state of Cyberpunk upon release, but fan discoveries reveal that some concerns could have been addressed if the launch was pushed back into 2021.
This latest find comes courtesy of YouTuber Tyler McVicker, who used a simple trick that anyone with a physical copy of the game can pull off. By deleting all the update files and disconnecting your console of choice from the internet, you can play a September build of the game. The pre-day one patch version of the game is obviously unfinished in some areas, but in others actually has more content than what we got in December.
McVicker’s findings reveal that the various vendors that just awkwardly stand around in Night City were in fact meant to be selling items to the player. Some shopkeepers may have also moved around the city, as there are unused map icons for “travelling vendors”. Speaking of the map, it was originally meant to be fully 3D and able to give more precise directions if your destination was in a building.
This discovery shows just how pushed for time the developers must have been, cutting fairly big aspects of an open-world game so late in development. This was presumably done to prioritise bug fixing in more important areas - or just finish implementing them altogether. It's relatively normal for games to change between going gold and the day one patch. The features that were changed for the public release were likely scaled back due to bugs impacting the game, and the map was likely changed for readability reasons. Still, it's interesting to take a look at the differences between the versions.
Perhaps most surprising is how much of the game was developed in the final two months before launch. As McVicker highlights in the video, the UI uses completely different sound effects, and some perks are absent. McVicker is keeping a Google Doc updated with all the Cyberpunk version 0 findings, for anyone who wants to dive into a very different Night City.