When Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced, the promise was intoxicating: a living, breathing metropolis where every civilian had their own daily routine, their own home, and a fully simulated life. A few years back, one journalist was actually tasked with following specific NPCs around Night City for an entire in-game day to document their schedules, eating habits, and clothing changes. The result? A heartbreaking loop of mindless back-and-forth walking, recycled character templates, and pedestrians who simply respawned the moment they disappeared from view. That project was abandoned quickly, and for good reason.
Flash forward to 2023, and the massive 2.0 patch – alongside the Phantom Liberty expansion – was supposed to change everything. Game director Gabe Amantangelo emphasized that pedestrian and crowd behavior had been a primary focus after the disastrous launch. So, did it finally bring the soul back to Night City? One tester, determined to find out, took a short stroll toward Dogtown. What she discovered was both hilarious and deeply disappointing – and years later, even in 2026, many of those same issues still haunt the streets.
Right after loading outside her apartment, the tester saw two NPCs merged into each other, stuck on a guardrail overlooking a deadly drop. Just a few steps down the road, the cracks in the crowd system became impossible to ignore. Duplicate character models littered the sidewalk, often loitering close together like confused clones. Reviewing the footage later, she counted seven identical versions of the same man – a guy with dreadlocks and a buckled jacket – all visible in a single shot. Seven! Could this really be the \u201crevamped\u201d NPC system?
But the true comedy began when the tester tried interacting with these so-called inhabitants. Citizens clutching soda cans held onto them as if they were priceless artifacts; even when V ran into them or fired a gun into the air, the cans remained mysteriously glued to their hands. No spills, no drops, no startled fumbles. When shots were fired, instead of the chaotic (and admittedly ridiculous) pre-2.0 reaction where every citizen suddenly packed a gun and opened fire, every single pedestrian turned and fled – in a neat, single-file line, at exactly the same speed, along exactly the same escape route. No one called the police. No one fought back. It was as if the entire crowd had rehearsed the same bad choreography.
And then there was the cop, half-buried in the sidewalk with only his shoulders and head protruding, acting as if everything was perfectly normal. A street artist sprayed graffiti nearby – the hissing sound filled the air – but absolutely nothing appeared on the wall. Even something as simple as stepping onto a curb caused every character model to briefly launch into a bizarre jumping pose, vanish, and then reappear on the raised surface before continuing on their way. On PlayStation 5, these glitches were reportedly even worse, a grim reality for console players who had been dealing with such immersion-breaking moments for years.
To be fair, some progress was undeniable even back then. Child NPCs finally became interactive, a small but meaningful touch. Vendors no longer pulled food out of thin, anatomically improbable places (though a few got stuck completely, unable to sell anything at all). Character models at least rendered properly after a second or two, with no faceless polygons or invisible motorcycles roaming the streets. But \u201cbetter\u201d still didn\u2019t mean \u201cgood,\u201d and it certainly didn\u2019t make the residents of Night City feel real – or even acceptable.
So, where do things stand in 2026? After numerous patches, hotfixes, and even the arrival of a new expansion, have the pedestrian systems finally lived up to that original vision? The answer is a frustrating \u201csort of.\u201d Let\u2019s look at a quick comparison:
| Issue | Pre-2.0 (2020) | Post-2.0 (2023) | 2026 Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duplicate NPC spawns | Extremely common | Very common | Reduced but still noticeable in crowded zones |
| Reaction to violence | Everyone instantly armed | Single-file fleeing | Fleeing paths are more varied, but crowds still lack individual panic logic |
| Collision & clipping | NPCs walking through objects | Police stuck in sidewalks, NPCs merging | Less frequent, but environmental clipping persists |
| Interaction with props | Basic, often broken | Soda cans unresponsive, graffiti broken | Props can now be dropped occasionally, graffiti renders most of the time |
| Routine simulation | None, walking loops | Minimal improvements | Still largely template-driven; no true daily schedules |
The table says it all: while the situation has improved incrementally, the core dream of a fully simulated populace remains just that – a dream. Walk through Night City today and you\u2019ll still spot the occasional clone pair, see a street vendor glitch mid-animation, or watch a crowd scatter in strangely synchronized panic. The soul of the city, that feeling that every passerby has a purpose, is still missing.
Perhaps the biggest question facing CD Projekt Red is not whether they can fix these bugs, but whether the foundational systems of Cyberpunk 2077 were ever capable of delivering true crowd simulation. When a game still relies on templates and spawn-radius tricks years after release, it\u2019s hard not to wonder: was it ever really possible? Or was the promise itself just a beautiful piece of science fiction?
As players, we\u2019ve learned to appreciate what works \u2013 the stunning visuals, the gripping stories, the incredible atmosphere. But every time a pedestrian walks through a solid barrier or seven identical dreadlocked men stand shoulder to shoulder, the illusion shatters. Night City in 2026 is a far cry from the empty disaster of 2020, yet it\u2019s still nowhere close to the vibrant, believable world we were first shown. And until that day comes, every glitched cop and robot-like crowd will keep reminding us that, for all its upgrades, Cyberpunk 2077\u2019s greatest trick never fully materialized.