I'd like to see the following:
♣ A more interactive game world. If you see a store door that says "Open", you can go in there. If you are in a park and you see a bench, you can sit on it. If you are talking to a girl on the street who says "I can warm you up, honey", there should be further options.
Otherwise, it feels like a dead, scripted game. You're walking down the street of Night City, which is full of stores and various interesting locations, but you're actually walking down a maze tunnel with a solid, non-contact wall instead of doors. Until a certain script starts, nothing happens, there is no interaction between the player and the world.
♣ A greater proportion of cyberspace and hacking in the game.
What does netrun look like in Cyberpunk right now:
1. The ability to mine components for viruses from routers, computers, and vending machines.
2. Some video clips of Alt Cunningham or Mama Brigitte.
3. Quick hacks in addition to the use of basic weapons in combat or stealth missions.
Is that really it? Well, if the game's lore says that netrunners are able to spend most of their lives on the Net, then the protagonist should be able to do the same, right?
What I'd like to see:
The beautiful landscapes of cyberspace. The abandoned databases, the war-torn digital fortresses, the inaccessible parts of the Net where evil maddened AI lurk. The attacks by monsters from the beyond on the protagonist through the Black Wall.
The hacking of corporate networks, the decryption challenges, the password cracking, the puzzle solving, the security countermeasures. The ability to pump up the netrunner's abilities to the stage where the protagonist will be able to create complex software products like Soulkiller on his own.
Where is Black Ice after all?! I want to see what Ice looks like in cyberspace, Gibson himself saw it, imagined it in his mind! Otherwise how could he write his books, right?
♣ Interrelation between lifepaths and the game's story.
It's already been written many times that there's really almost nothing depending on the lifepaths, just some differences in dialogs. Well, if it is not possible to give importance to lifepaths, maybe then it makes sense to make a specification, to introduce subclasses of the character, which will be as if constructed during the entire game?
Well, for example, if the protagonist is a streetkid, how does he typically interact with the police? If he kills cops, then he falls into the "thief" or "gangster" subclass, if he is loyal to the police, then he's an "affiliated mercenary". In the former case, he may not get some gigs requiring hostage rescue or elimination of criminal activity, but is more open to communication with street gangs, say. In the second case, on the contrary, at the top of his career he may receive gigs directly from MaxTac or the Night City Police Department, etc.
If say he's a nomad, how does he feel about the idea of family? Is he a loner or is he looking for a new alliance? Violent tendencies - if high then Raffen Shiv specialty, if not, peaceful drifter. Is he inclined to attack corporate convoys, say Militech ones or not, etc.
That is, to summarize: let lifepaths define the further specification of the character, that in it's turn would give a certain range of situations, unavailable in some part to other "versions of the protagonist", while his career in this or that sphere, reputation, some unique skills, options for interacting with a number of key characters and new game events will depend on his behavior in the these proposed situations.
Then, each played situation will leave some trace in the character of the protagonist, somehow reflected in his reputation. This will help in turn to escape criticism that protagonist is flat, that he does not develop over time. (This is a situation I'd like to avoid in new games)
