Spoiler alert: This article contains story spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077.
Cyberpunk 2077 Creative Director Igor Sarzyński has argued that extending the game's first act would not have made it better, and that it was always intended to be as short as it was. While the sci-fi RPG got off to a notoriously rocky start, it has since rebounded to become one of the biggest comeback stories in recent gaming history. Despite that recovery, Cyberpunk 2077 still faces some criticism from fans, but its narrative direction clearly disagrees with some of the feedback.
It's now been five years since the action RPG came out, but it's far from idle. CD Projekt Red has released new Cyberpunk 2077 updates as late as September 2025, and the very famous ones Phantom freedom the 2023 expansion gave it a strong boost after launch. Even before these fixes improved the game's technical performance, players have consistently pointed to Cyberpunks story as one of its greatest strengths. Of course, there are still many who feel the story could have been better in some areas, and Sarzyński hasn't shied away from taking these criticisms head on.
Cyberpunk 2077 Story Lead Says Act 1 Doesn't Need To Be Longer
Sarzyński took to social media on January 5 to hit back at the notion that Cyberpunk 2077's first act should have been longer. While some say Cyberpunk 2077 has one of the best stories of any open-world game, its relatively short opening act is a point of contention among fans. A common criticism claims that the game should have given players more time to bond with Jackie before his death during the mission that serves as the plot's inciting incident. However, Sarzyński denies this idea and compares it to saying Star Wars should have spent more time with Luke on Tatooine before going with Obi-Wan and starting his Jedi journey.
According to the creative director, extending the prologue would result in a “meandering, unfocused experience”, as there would not be a strong sense of motivation or purpose prior to the Arasaka heist. One of the reasons this episode is comparatively short is that a cutscene uses a montage to jump forward six months as V and Jackie climb to the top of Night City's criminal underworld. Fans have often speculated whether these scenes were cut content, but Sarzyński denies this, saying the team “always planned it this way.” As early as 2021, fans discovered Cyberpunk 2077 removed a significant amount of content in its day one patch, but a longer first act was apparently not part of those cuts.
Sarzyński also pointed to the fact that fans can spend more time exploring everything there is to discover Cyberpunk 2077's Night City to stretch out the early moments of the story. Cyberpunk offers a fairly large open world, which Sarzyński says can offer up to 20 hours of content before moving on to the plot. All in all, the director says he thinks the opening missions offer a good balance between allowing time to get to know Jackie and not letting players wander around in a loop before the story kicks in. Of course, there was a lot of disagreement in the answers, so not everyone feels the same way.
Regardless of what the fans like Cyberpunk 2077opening act, CD Projekt Red has confirmed that there is more story left to tell in the franchise. The latest forecasts suggest Cyberpunk 2 may be targeting a late 2030 release, possibly releasing around the first game's 10th anniversary. Unfortunately, that would mean fans are only halfway through their wait for the sequel, but the developers are working on it, and hopefully it will launch in a better state than its predecessor.
- Released
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December 10, 2020
- ESRB
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M for mature: blood and gore, intense violence, nudity, strong language, strong sexual content, use of drugs and alcohol
