One New Cyberpunk 2077 Romance Feature Could've Been So Much Better

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's 2.1 update launched on December 5, 2023 — the same day as the release of the Ultimate Edition bundle — and included a wealth of new, highly requested features. These included the highly requested metro system seen in trailers and other promotional material prior to the game's 2020 release, enhanced gameplay mechanics, improved boss battles, and more. It also included «hangouts» where V could interact with their romantic partners further outside the game's main missions.

The announcement of 's 2.1 update came as a surprise after earlier reports suggested that the massive 2.0 update that accompanied the game's expansion would be the last. This was further indicated as many developers at CD Projekt Red moved on to other titles such as the upcoming game, and 's sequel, currently codenamed "". While 2.0 did add several features players had been requesting since the game's launch, such as car combat and better police AI, 2.1 has taken this further to finally give players the experience originally promised by the studio in its earlier promotional footage.

Aside from hooking up with Meredith Stout, Joytoys, or letting Johnny Silverhand have a long overdue date with Rogue, V has four main potential romantic partners in. For a male V, these options are Panam Palmer, a Nomad from the Aldecado family and Johnny Silverhand's former bandmate Kerry Eurodyne. For a female V, the hacker Judy Alvarez, and former NCPD detective River Ward are romancable.

When originally launched, these characters could only be interacted with in their own storylines, and via the occasional messages on V's in-game phone, and after players did the last mission with their love interest, that was the last time they saw them in person until the very last