Summary

• Especially after most of its bugs have been fixed, Cyberpunk 2077 is an impressive accomplishment.
• Certain gameplay mechanics and story beats don't really make much sense, however.
• From an omniscient vending machine to lackadaisical police, some things in Night City just don't add up.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a fantastic game that is defined by its story as much as its mechanics. Even at launch, amid an infamous cascade of technical issues, the story worked as a framework for players to latch on to. However, no story or world is perfect, and there are many things about Cyberpunk 2077 which do not make much sense.

While some of these issues are mechanical, most have to do with Cyberpunk's otherwise phenomenal story and worldbuilding. From small mechanical quirks like the percentages in the menu to the larger narrative holes like Arasaka's lack of drive to eliminate V, these issues tend to stick out once players stop to think about them. Despite that, it should be noted that these issues overall are relatively minor, and people should definitely try out Cyberpunk 2077 to answer these questions for themselves.

10 The Percentages At The Top Of The Menu Are Meaningless

Developers Droped This Mechanic But Never Removed It From The Menu

When a player loads up their save file and opens the menu, they will see up to three icons at the top of the screen, each with a percentage below it. The left is a symbol meant to represent V, the middle represents V's relationship with Johnny Silverhand, and the right represents the Relic that Johnny calls home. However, as revealed by CD Projekt Red, these percentage numbers in Cyberpunk 2077 are meaningless.

These percentages were originally supposed to be part of a game mechanic, but this mechanic was cut during development. It is strange that such a large amount of screen real estate is devoted to these numbers, which do not affect gameplay. Even the one thing people theorized was affected by the percentages, the secret ending "(Don't Fear) The Reaper," is unrelated to the Johnny number in the menu.

9 Crimes Can Be Done With Impunity If You Can Get Away

Do The Crime Because You Won't Do The Time

Despite Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update revamping crime in Night City, the system still has some strange quirks. V can cause catastrophic damage, killing dozens of ND officers and even facing down MaxTac squads, but once they hide in a corner for a little bit, Night City's police no longer care about V. They do not even place a bounty on V despite the chaos, bounties that V is able to pursue on their own time.

V can even purchase multiple apartments and vehicles throughout Night City, and the police never think about staking out their home.

People get bounties for putting pineapple on pizza, but slaughtering multiple MaxTac squads is apparently not worth the time to place a bounty on V. V can even purchase multiple apartments and vehicles throughout Night City, and the police never think about staking out their home, or putting out a call to find their vehicle. While this is likely a gameplay consideration, it is still nonsensical that no one is trying to catch V. If anything, there should be a task force singularly devoted to stopping the threat posed by V.

8 A Smart Vending Machine Is Not Such A Smart Idea

A Chatty Machine On The Verge Of Sentience

While traveling through Night City, V can come across a talking vending machine named Brendan blocked behind a dumpster. After removing the obstacle, V can return to Brendan throughout their Night City journey and learn more about it. This vending machine has been designed to speak with people to make them accurate recommendations for the drinks it sells. While Brendan pretends to be an AI for a while, it eventually tells V that it just has a highly advanced conversation algorithm.

While a company making a smarter vending machine to boost profits makes sense, the things Brendan knows about V stick out. Its dialogue indicates that it knows V has the Relic in their head, saying they "shouldn't be here" and that V is "like a glitch in the system." Even its final joke asking what happened to Johnny Silverhand after he stormed Arasaka Tower seems to hint at this knowledge. This knowledge would be kept highly secret, yet Brendan claims to know because he has been listening to people and putting the pieces together.

7 All Of Johnny's Gear Ends Up In Night City

All Of His Stuff Aged Miraculously Well

In the Cyberpunk 2077 timeline, Johnny Silverhand dies in 2023, over 50 years before the events of the game. After his death, Johnny's corpse was thrown into a shallow, unmarked grave on the outskirts of Night City before being trekked around the world by edgerunners. Despite this, all of Johnny Silverhand's gear, from his iconic Malorian pistol to even his car, ends up in Night City.

The fact that any of Johnny's equipment has survived is miraculous enough. Yet it is essentially in pristine condition, even the tank top from an abandoned hotel room. While most of this is excused by the care taken by collectors, others do not have this excuse, like Johnny's boots. Even stranger, everything is within the boundaries of Night City, meaning V is able to collect everything without a road trip. This is all convenient for the player, but is baffling in of the odds of it happening.

6 Two Deaths Of A Rockerboy

Is Johnny Silverhand Even Really Dead?

While V regularly interacts with a digital version of Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077, the original Johnny was killed by Adam Smasher in 2023, gunned down with an automatic shotgun. However, this does not track with the memories shown during the main story of Cyberpunk 2077, which shows the veteran rockerboy being interrogated by Arasaka after his supposed death before being killed by Soulkiller. These two versions of events conflict heavily with each other, and there is no definitive explanation.

There are several theories which attempt to explain this contradiction. The simplest is that they are not true memories, as the Relic only contains a potentially imperfect copy of Johnny's psyche. The Relic could also have been corrupted during the heist, since the reason for it being slotted into V in the first place was a loss of integrity from its container being damaged. It has also been speculated that the Relic contains an engram which is a mixture of Johnny Silverhand and Morgan Blackhand.

5 V's Relic Malfunctions Have A Sense Of Dramatic Timing

Ended Up Just Making Things Worse

Once V is revived by the Relic, they begin to experience physical symptoms of it wreaking havoc in their brain. These usually take the form of V coughing up blood and having static-filled vision, often accompanied by a "Relic malfunction" message. While these episodes add tension to the story by showing the Relic's progression and the deteriorating V, they also only occur during scripted moments.

It should be noted that malfunctions would occur randomly in the initial version of the release.

It should be noted that malfunctions would occur randomly in the initial version of the release, but they seem to have been removed after Cyberpunk's 2.0 update. While this is more convenient mechanically, it also detracts from the narrative, making it seem like the Relic only causes issues when it would be most relevant to a situation. The implication of this is that V is only making their condition worse by trying to get it fixed, and if they chose to ignore it, it would not progress.

4 Corpo V Rises Through The Arasaka Ranks Too Quickly

How Someone So Young Would Be So High In The Hierarchy

One of the lifepaths the player can choose as their start in Cyberpunk 2077 is the Corpo path. During this origin, it is revealed that V is incredibly highly ranked, working directly for the head of Arasaka's counter-intelligence division. While this is impressive, it is also more than a little convenient due to V's youth.

While V was 27 at launch, this has been retconned with the game's updates to 23, making it even more difficult to believe V's rise through the ranks of Arasaka. Dialogue exists which claims V got a promotion due to killing a spy, but this seems like something which could result in a minor promotion. Instead, they immediately become the second-in-command of one of Arasaka's most important departments, which does not make sense with the established corporate culture in Cyberpunk 2077.

3 Fixers Are Notified The Instant You Cross Into Their Territory

A Super Cybersense To Know When V is Near

While the ND may have a hard time tracking down V, Night City's premier fixers do not. The different fixers are all assigned to specific territories within or slightly outside the city, and they apparently have scanners at the borders of these territories, considering the fact they all know when V is near. Each fixer will call V once they enter the relevant territory, taking the time to introduce themselves and make it clear that work is available.

While this is convenient for gameplay, it also means fixers of Night City have a sixth sense of knowing when V is near. This calls into question how difficult V is to be tracked down, as there is no problem when work is being offered, but highly-motivated groups like the ND are completely incompetent when it comes to this task. While this is amusing to consider from a worldbuilding perspective, it is likely a gameplay concession meant to space out fixer introductions.

2 V Is Too Reckless With Mind-Altering Technology

Don't Slot Data Shards Into Your Brain Without Protection

The first mission which will be played by every V after their lifepath mission is the rescue of Sandra Dorsett, a corpo who was kidnapped by scavengers. In this mission, which occurs at the start of the game, V gets a virus by checking Sandra's biomonitor. Despite this early lesson in the dangers of inserting strange data directly into one's brain, V continues to throw caution to the wind in many circumstances when it comes to data shards and similar technologies.

Rarely does V even have the opportunity to ask what is on a data shard before slotting it into their brain, let alone consider the potential risks. One of the few times V has an option to question this is when providing their personal link at Clouds, which is a relatively low-risk scenario compared to many others V has no wariness about. Then again, considering the Relic allows V to survive several otherwise lethal hacks, maybe they have no need to worry.

1 Arasaka Does Not Try To Hunt Down V

Arasaka Goons Gave Up Too Easy

After the Konpeki Plaza heist, V is briefly chased by Arasaka goons right after they are rescued by Takemura. However, even those assassins were sent after the former Arasaka bodyguard, not V. While they might not believe V was alive at this point, their survival can easily be discovered later in the story. There also seems to be an interest in finding them even if there is nothing to find but a corpse, as evidenced by Arasaka trying to get Jackie's body from Viktor if the body is sent there from the Delamain cab.

V should logically be hunted down throughout the game by Arasaka. This could be achieved using the target system introduced in one of the later Cyberpunk 2077 updates, which also added a scripted hunter after V kidnaps Hanako. Alternatively, Arasaka assassins could appear at certain gig locations if V's street cred is high enough, acting as another obstacle in V's way during the mission.