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.
Related: Cyberpunk 2077's Physical Sales Jumped 374% Following Its PS Store Return
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.
Perhaps most shocking 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. This meant that the final delay wasn’t just to polish what was there, but to actually finish developing some of the more basic elements of the game. Even the phone calls – one of the most used features in the story – were unfinished, with character models not yet animated.
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.
