Cyberpunk 2077's Old Night City Map Reveals How the City Underwent Big Changes in Production. Some Districts Were Completely Reworked
We are left to wonder just how different exploring the Night City would be from what the final version offers us.
It's impossible to overlook the remnants of the removed content while traveling through Night City in Cyberpunk 2077. The futuristic city might have had even more to offer, considering the new additions that came with the premiere of Phantom Liberty - whether it's in terms of inaccessible buildings of different corporations or districts that we don't have official access to.
Meanwhile, it appears that even the most familiar streets could have had a completely different appearance. At least that's the conclusion we can draw from the early plans of CD Project.
Pacifica, as we don't know it
While wandering through the depths of the internet, we can come across remnants of the original plans for Cyberpunk 2077, including early Night City map projects that shed light on cut content. A YouTuber known as SirMZK unearthed one of them and compared the first variant with the final version.
At first sight, it's evident that the most significant changes have been made in Pacifica, a district suffering from Night City's declining economy, known for violence amidst sandy lands and wilting palm trees. Although the location remained the same, the early Pacifica was intended to offer significantly more places to visit.
Most of the visible area on the older map was once part of the "inaccessible combat zone," a battle area that could only be accessed through exploits. Over time, CD Project transformed it into Dogtown, known from Phantom Liberty, but previously there would be no content there except for empty streets.
SirMZK suggests that Pacifica could have been much more developed than the final version of the game suggests. The old map, for instance, features the symbol of a mega-block - a structure typical for technologically advanced streets. In the final version of the district, however, this building doesn't appear. Furthermore, the area itself was constructed based on a layout that differed from the original plans.
Roads erased from history
The mysterious and seemingly pointless roads are also an intriguing observation, with three of these routes visible right near Pacifica. The player was intended to be able to reach protein farms or, from the Badlands side, beyond the borders of Night City, according to the comparison with the final map.
Another intriguing secret is the presence of underwater bridges, with one of them being located in the actual Cyberpunk game - specifically, the bridge that connects Pacifica with Little China. According to the previous project, a second bridge was to be built between Pacifica and the spaceport.
The spaceport was officially introduced with the premiere of Phantom Liberty, although nothing indicated its existence in the base game. The map presented by SirMZK demonstrates that the location was initially planned along with an alternative road, which ultimately ended up as a closed construction project.
Furthermore, the material also made references to the casino and Arasaka Waterfront, physical locations in Night City that weren't used as accessible locations for players.
