Also, if anywhere, cyberpunk would be the world where you have an AI installed in your head that gives a numerical representation to how dangerous a person is likely to be.
whoa there, that escalated quickly
you know levels 99.9% mean bullet sponges, so... nope.
The most common alternatives would have to be no levels at all, which still could lead to running into really dangerous people and not knowing it until too late, or level scaling (which IMO is the bane of good game design).
Well, if they tell you that max-tac, trauma team, full borg conversions and big robots are very dangerous, you know it and you don't try to fight them (but you can try, if you're very good you can do it since DMG are equal for both, they just have better "abilities/cyberware" and more advanced gear) 'till end game. A good game designer would make you face them gradually:
-in an early mission, first time you meet trauma team, you are forced to run away (jackie screams "jaina, trauma team is here! just run for your life!" if you don't you die),
-mid-game you start fighting a couple of them in another mission (you need to escape from a building during a swat/max-tac incursion and "the boss" before the exit is a couple of them, so you test their power in a controlled setting)
-eng-game: it's all max-tac and arasaka ninjas
We've got millions of examples in videogames where enemies are introduced this way, first one that comes to my mind (since is the most recent) is sekiro and these sons of bitches:
No levels, but trust me, you know a strong enemy when you meet one. You "just" need a good game designer who knows how to place enemies.
EDIT: demo showed how scanner can give you info about how dangerous an NPC is, that could subsitute levels with colours or word:
View attachment 11003845
So you don't end up fighting someone too strong /EDIT
An acceptable compromise for levels IMHO, is standard levels for enemy type: ALL scavengers (first demo) are level 2, ALL vodoo boys are all level 18 and ALL max tac officers are level 36 (bosses excluded, ofc). Levels do not reflect their DMG output or HPs (if not to minimum extent, an advanced assault rifle is better than a 9mm, and skinweave gives more defense or HP than a t-shirt), but their abilities:
-scavengers are normal guys with guns and that's it (level 2)
-vodoo boys have good cyberware for their limbs (unhuman strenght and speed) (level 18)
-trauma team has very good gear (level 25)
-max tac has both cyberware and gear (x-ray vision, smoke bombs, super strenght and speed, double jumps) (level 36)
You don't level up bullets' DMG or HP: a bullet deals 25HP in the body and 100 in the head, always, enemies' (and yours) defenses change thanks to gear and cyberware.
A scavenger dies with 1 headshot (100HP) from a 9mm gun (given gear has no levels), a vodoo boy as well, 2 if has skinweave (200HP), trauma team wear an helmet, so more headshots are needed, let's say 3 (300HP), max tac has everything, so can be bullet sponge for a 9mm, but all of them remain consistent throughout the game.
So you don't meet a level 2 scavenger and at end-game a level 30 scavenger which looks the same, but is stronger than a level 15 max-tac and weaker than level 40 max-tac. This is the problem with levels being immersion breaking. Not levels per se.
And now I think you'll move these posts somewhere else.