Cyberpunk 2077’s  big Update 2.0 release is just around the corner, and lucky for all our chooms out there, we’ve managed to get some hands-on with the update before launch, exploring the newly revamped police system and new vehicle combat system. Here’s everything you need to know and our impressions on how it plays!

Note: this impressions piece goes over the improvements and new features from Update 2.0 and not Phantom Liberty. For that, the review embargo lifts this September 20.

Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.0 Hands-On Preview:

TLDR Version:

• Skill trees have been simplified in order to make it easier to read and understand for both old and new players.
• New chase system – Cops will now chase you with their vehicles. New and old quests will also have enemies pursuing you. Aggroing enemies in the open-world can result in chases.
• Vehicle combat is great – You can now aim and shoot out of vehicles. You can also use quick hacks that’ll cause other vehicles to steer in different direction, come to a stop, and even self-destruct.
• New weapon mounted vehicles are available, some equiped with machine guns, other rockets, and sometimes both. We’re sure modders are going to have fun making Twisted Metal inspired vehicles.
• 2.0 Police System lives up to expectations.
• There are five wanted levels, instead of four.
• Police no longer spawn out of thin air, but instead will now drive out to your location with radio chatter playing of them coming to you.
• Each wanted level offer different tier levels of police. You’ll see normal police, armored ones, elite, robots, and of course the Psycho Squad.
• Different tiers of vehicles also start appearing, those being your standard squad cars and motorcycles, to armored trucks and weapon equiped ones.
• Maxtac (Psycho Squad) have a unique spawn animation – They are now flown in via airship, and drop down from it.
• The police have access to hacks, can pinpoint your location and even disable your vehicle.
• On foot cops will chuck grenades at you to try and stop you.
• They will barricade roads ahead of you if they’re in pursuit.
• If they have you pinned on a street, they will start to surround you and block exits with their vehicles. They’ll do this, even if it means ramming into one another. They’ll also use the vehicles as cover.
• City turrets appear to be gone, though I could be wrong.
• All these additions make the cops feel like a true threat to the players, unlike before where they sort of just existed.

Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion is dropping in the next few weeks, but before players venture off into Dog Town, CD Projekt Red is dropping a free update (available September 21) for all players that introduces a host of improvements, fixes, and, most of all, new features, which include a new skill tree, vehicle combat, and an overhaul to the police system. I won’t be talking much about the skill tree other than it appearing to be more “simplified” and user-friendly than the one before. Instead, I want to focus on the new vehicle combat system and the redone police system.

With the launch of Update 2.0, players will soon be able to shoot freely from their vehicles, whether stationed or while driving. It’s a standard feature in most open-world games, mind you, but one that Cyberpunk 2077 lacked. This, in ways, brings the game on par with other open-world games, such as Grand Theft Auto, and being able to now shoot out of your vehicle without ever leaving it feels right with this update.

You can also perform quick hacks as you drive. It’s sort of like Watchdogs, being able to go around and hack other vehicles, causing them to move on their own, come to an abrupt stop, and even explode. If there are turrets and other environmental objects, you can even hack them as you drive.

Mounted weapons in vehicles are also introduced in this update, with most being exclusive to Phantom Liberty owners. I’ve seen machine guns and rocket launchers on some of the cars, and using them during combat almost feels like CD Projekt Red’s spin on the Twisted Metal franchise, one I’m hoping to see further expanded down the road.

All these new features come together once you experience the new Chase system. While driving around Night City, taking on various missions, and interacting with different factions, I noticed that I would encounter car chases traversing between locations. Take the carjacking gigs; enemies will now chase you around the city, trying to stop you from delivering the car to its designated spot. You’ll find that you’ll get engaged in high-speed shootouts as enemies roll in with old, rusted cars, motorcycles, and even armored vehicles, all to try and stop you. There’s a sense of a threat around you now, and I do have to say it feels fantastic. Car chases genuinely add a layer of dynamic to the world that Cyberpunk 2077 has severely lacked since its release.

And speaking of what the game lacked in its original release, the police system has been fully overhauled with the 2.0 update, and wow, is there a significant difference. For starters, police no longer randomly spawn out of the void. When you start doing things, such as hurting civilians, police chatter will begin to play over the radio with units being dispatched to the area. They will physically drive out you now rather than pop out behind you when you aren’t looking, and this is shown on the mini-map as a dot with a zone of alertness around it.

Sometimes, if there are no units nearby, you won’t get spotted and, therefore, can quickly evade the wanted system.

The star rating and what each tier brings have been redone, too. Instead of four stars, there are now five, each level being a different tier of police. So tier one is your basic street police, whereas tier two starts bringing in the elites, swat, robots, and eventually Maxtac (Psycho Squad) for tier five. The way each tier comes into view is also different; where tier one is your regular police squad cars, higher tiers will start seeing APACs and other armored vehicles with mounted guns. Psycho Squad also has a unique spawning animation. Once you reach Wanted Star 5, alarm-like sirens will begin to play. When you hear these, you’ll see an aerial transport vehicle dropping off the Psycho Squad.

Surviving Wanted Level 5 isn’t easy either, as they’ll throw everything they can at you. When you’re on foot, they’ll rush in with vehicles, attempting to block all possible exits as they stockpile vehicles by each other in hopes of cornering you. Driving, they’ll chase you all over Night City, with incoming units deliberately ramming into you. Police officers will shoot out of their vehicles at you, and those on foot will chuck grenades at you.

While attempting to evade, the police will also use hacks to their advantage, and as you move up the wanted tier, so does their level of hacking. Try to lose them, and they’ll start triangulating your position and send units out once pinpointed. In a vehicle that’s too fast for them? Well, prepare to be breached as they attempt to take control, bringing your vehicle to a halt.

The 2.0 police system truly does make the police in the game a viable threat. I’ve tested it out and tried to push it to its limits, which you’ll see in an upcoming video come embargo day for Phantom Liberty. But to give you an idea, I went ahead and modded my game save to give V nearly infinite health, and sat around causing mayhem on the streets of Night City. The police just kept pulling up on one another, blocking a road on both sides with their vehicles and using them as cover. As the wanted level began to heat up more, they soon pulled out their machine gun mounted armored vehicle units in attempts to run me over. To no avail, since my save was modded my health would only take tiny bits off that I could barely see. So I kept stationed, and eventually the Psycho Squad appeared. This is where I ended up getting surprised because as it turns out, their damage output is significantly more — enough where a few hits actually killed me. Again, I can’t show you anything in-game, but here’s an image from GTA5 to give you a better idea of what I went up against.

Yes, a scene like this is entirely possible now.

The police’s AI has certainly come a long ways, though despite being a vast improvement in 2.0, it still has room for growth. You’ll still notice some instances where if you commit a crime and the police is notified yet there’s an officer literally right across the street, they still might not notice you. This happened quite a few times to me but nothing more tweaking can’t fix.

What does appear to be absent from this update though or rather removed, are the city turrets. I get it, since they were really only there to accommodate the lack of police chases, and personally I was never a fan of them. But, I would have loved to see cameras replace them instead, especially in the spots police officers don’t go to. I know I mentioned evading them is hard, which it is, but only if your not trying to actively hide from them. There are plenty of closed roads, and lonely alleyways for you to effortlessly hide in, with the police ignoring them most of the time. Having cameras spawn in these blindspots to alert police could be a feasible solution, though I am sure CDPR will further tweak the system.

But all-in-all, the system itself is impressive, and one worthy of meeting the expectations that players had when the game first launched. It’s a free update too, which is surprisingly to say the least as it really does change the whole game, and for the better. If you were someone who was holding out on playing the game, maybe for the expansion itself, I’ll say this update alone makes venturing into Night City well worth the risk.

MP1st was given access to Cyberpunk 2077’s Update 2.0 as part of our Phantom Liberty review.