Unusual Alliances: Cyberpunk 2077's Police and Criminals Join Forces Against Players?

Players of Cyberpunk 2077 have started to notice a peculiar behavior in the Night City police force. It appears that the police are now developing a habit of arriving at the scene and immediately targeting the player, creating the impression that they might be inadvertently aiding nearby criminals. The police in Night City have had a turbulent history in Cyberpunk 2077, characterized by inconsistency at launch and occasional random spawning even when no crimes were being committed. At best, they were an annoyance, but at worst, they could abruptly shatter the player's chances of success.

Fortunately, the NCPD (Night City Police Department) has undergone multiple overhauls through patches and updates, with none more significant than the recent Update 2.0 for Cyberpunk 2077. This update, which serves as a prelude to the highly anticipated Phantom Liberty expansion, is available as a free download for all players and brings substantial enhancements and fixes to the game. It introduces features like vehicular combat, revamped perk trees, and more. The police system has also received an overhaul, ensuring that police no longer materialize out of thin air and using road barricades and MaxTac (Maximal Tactical Unit) appropriately. However, some player reports suggest that the police may now be suffering from tunnel vision.

Discussion threads on the Cyberpunk 2077 subreddit have been cropping up, highlighting ongoing issues with the NCPD. One particularly noteworthy thread, authored by a user named Suspicious_Trainer82, mentions that despite appreciating the changes in Update 2.0, the police often arrive and immediately target the player, even when gang members and criminals are in the vicinity. This peculiar behavior gives the impression that criminals and law enforcement are inexplicably teaming up against the player. A comment on the thread suggests that this aggression from the police can be used strategically to lure them into gang hideouts, where the two factions can engage in combat while the player remains hidden nearby.

The thread also features other comments about peculiar police behavior in Cyberpunk 2077. Some players feel that the recent changes have swung the pendulum too far in the opposite direction, leading to issues where certain skills like Contagion inadvertently trigger police aggression as they spread. In some cases, players have experienced situations where an entire clinic turns hostile against them, yet the police outside remain oblivious to the chaos. Later, when players attempt to assist in subduing gang members for the NCPD, the police suddenly turn hostile against the player instead.

While there are still some inconsistencies with the police behavior, the recent Update 2.0, along with the Phantom Liberty expansion, has undeniably had a significant impact on the overall game. On the PC platform, Cyberpunk 2077 has once again climbed up Steam's concurrent player chart, with more players expected to return to the game now that the expansion is available.