I Replayed Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 in 2026: The Car Combat and Police Chases Still Feel Half-Baked

In 2026, I decided to return to Cyberpunk 2077 for another full playthrough, this time with the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty installed. The rebuilt police system, vehicle combat, and dynamic car chases felt like the kind of open-world chaos I’d wanted since 2020. But after clearing dozens of fixer gigs, finishing Phantom Liberty, and spending hours provoking MaxTac, I still can’t shake the feeling that CD Projekt Red focused on the wrong edges of Night City.

Back in 2020, the community was massively let down by the game’s police AI. Cops would spawn behind your back to punish civilian transgressions, breaking any sense of consequence. Almost three years later, CDPR finally brought the system up to the standard we all hoped for at launch. Now you can initiate a full-on GTA-style pursuit across Night City, firing back at pursuers from behind the wheel and smashing through roadblocks. Cop chases are surprisingly intense, and shaking them off can be a real challenge even at lower wanted levels.

🚔 Police chases are a fun novelty that doesn’t last

While police chases initially prove fun, they tend to lose their luster after a couple of encounters. Sure, you can cosplay as Edgerunners’ David Martinez and go down in flames as a true cyberpsycho. Yet beyond that enticing one-time offer, the most heavily advertised 2.0 additions fail to bring anything particularly exciting. Worse, they can inadvertently undermine some of Phantom Liberty’s surprises. By introducing MaxTac operatives as a dynamic event available anywhere in 2.0, CDPR unintentionally undercut one of Phantom Liberty’s pivotal story missions, which centers around surviving a MaxTac attack.

To put Cyberpunk 2077’s dynamic chase mechanics to the test, after completing Phantom Liberty I set out to clear all the remaining fixer gigs for my high-level character. There were a ton left to tackle. Several dozen such missions later, I regret to say that dynamic chase sequences appear to be missing from the game’s minor side quests involving vehicle theft, where they could have added much-needed excitement. Within all of Phantom Liberty’s content, there is precisely one mandatory car combat chase, and it is disappointingly brief and nowhere near as thrilling as I hoped.

🚗 Car combat and driving still feel undercooked

Let’s take a closer look at the driving aspect of Cyberpunk 2077. Even though it has come a long way since the game’s initial release, with various vehicle types now offering distinct handling and a sense of weight and inertia, the overall driving still leaves much to be desired. Cyberpunk 2077 marks the studio’s first foray into car physics, and despite all the team’s best efforts to match the competition, their inexperience is still evident. Driving can often feel unpredictable, with weird skids around corners and a limited sense of control, compounded by lackluster collision effects.

Nevertheless, the team dedicated one of Phantom Liberty’s two dynamic events to car-related activities. Exploring Dogtown and its surroundings, you can steal marked cars and deliver them to an autofixer known as El Capitan. Due to the less-than-stellar car handling, tight time constraints, and humble rewards, these delivery missions end up somewhat lacking. I’m uncertain if many fans would find them enjoyable enough to replay.

Moreover, there are just not enough reasons to use cars in Cyberpunk 2077, and even less so in Phantom Liberty, given the compact and densely populated layout of the new Dogtown district. There is still no car customization available. You cannot even pick the color of the vehicle you’re buying, let alone install machine guns or rocket launchers on them—even though some of your vehicles are weaponized by default.

💻 Hacking remains a repetitive chore

There are numerous aspects left in Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 that could use some revamping. Take hacking, for instance, which you encounter multiple times during each quest. It boils down to a single minigame: deciphering the encrypted matrix before time or buffer limits expire, accompanied by the exact same background tune. In a title that can easily span over 100 hours of gameplay, that is somewhat disappointing. For comparison, in Mass Effect 2—a game that requires far less hacking than Cyberpunk 2077—there were three distinct hacking minigames.

It is true that hacking every access point you come across might be excessive, particularly since money and crafting components hold relatively little significance in Cyberpunk 2077. But why not show some affection for these crucial systems as well? By rebalancing the economy, introducing car customization as a meaningful investment, and diversifying the hacking process, the team could greatly boost multiple key aspects at once.

🎯 The missing bounty hunting system

Another missed opportunity is the lack of a bounty hunting system with a reward on V’s head, akin to the one in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, where you also take on the role of a mercenary. Just think about it: doesn’t it strike you as odd that despite all the trouble V has caused to some of Night City’s most powerful people and gangs, there’s no one out there hunting them? If such a system existed, it could further benefit from added car chases and vehicle combat, throwing dynamic interactions with bounty hunters who might disrupt your missions when you least expect it.

🧩 Conclusion: half-baked additions at a cost

All things considered, even with all the enhancements brought by the 2.0 update, Cyberpunk 2077 still falters most when you engage with its open world systems, which were never initially designed to support this kind of reactive gameplay. Opposing the police forces or tackling car delivery missions can be a fun way to pass an hour or two, testing their limits, but the game’s magic often fades away due to lackluster NPC reactions as soon as you try to cause mayhem on the streets.

• ✅ What works: the rebuilt police AI, MaxTac arrivals, and some vehicle handling improvements

• ❌ What falls short: rare chase sequences in side quests, no car customization, repetitive hacking, no bounty hunting

• 🔧 What could fix it: economy rebalancing, meaningful car investment, diversified hacking minigames, dynamic bounty hunters

Ultimately, the 2.0 update ends up with two rather superfluous additions that seem half-baked and exist just for the sake of it—all at the cost of less noticeable yet potentially more valuable and justified features we never got.