It isn't inherently but CP2077's action and dialogue sequences are designed, shot and framed in first person perspective. So that moment when you experience real death in the corner shop robbery BD and Judy is leaning over you with a quizzical look? That look only works when the character is close to you and looking you in the eye, like this:
Lets also re-imagine the car chase scene with Takamura in third person perspective. How would this work? When the arasaka borg leaps onto the bonnet and swings mantis blades at you, you see the edge of the blade whipping across your own vision, as if they are trying to kill you and they missed by an inch.
Most of the dramatic action in CP2077 is directed to be seen from first person perspective and although I was skeptical at first, I have to say after playing the game twice, it works for me on every level.
Not only does it feel directed and consistent, but it successfully conveys the feeling of being inside the game world. Of characters talking to you, not a third person avatar. Even better, it is narratively consistent because you and V become interchangeable. You look out of V's eyes, which are your own eyes, and you look down and see your own feet and hands. When Johnny starts invading your head, you question how much of the way you think is becoming Johnny and you don't realize until near the end that Johnny has become a lot like you. Then in the endings you finally see yourself in third person and its a huge moment because its like you are finally letting your old self go. You have externalized them and this is visually represented by the shift in perspective.
You can totally do immersive, emotionally resonant story telling in third person and The Last of Us is a great example of this. But TLoU is very much designed to tell its story from this perspective. It is designed with the mis en scene of a film and it has a film like quality to it. A common gripe with first person perspective in Cyberpunk is that "I can't see my own character". The whole point of using this perspective is that V is not your character. You are V. In TLoU you are a silent, invisible observer to the relationship betweel Joel and Ellie. They are not the same thing.
Another way to think about it is this. Could you imagine playing TLoU in first person perspective? Because I don't think that would work either. I've never been keen on games with interchangeable first/third person because it necessarily compromises visual story telling. Do third person really well or do first person really well and shift perspective if there is a narrative reason to do so, but don't go half way and try to accomodate both at the same time unless you are prepared to re-shoot, re-frame and re-direct all the action sequences and dialogue so it fits the unique qualities of each perspective. Sometimes the story just does not allow for this.
I don't just feel this way about perspective in visual story telling but in other aspects of game design too like difficulty settings. Its really a design principle. Souls games do not have multiple difficulty settings like Cyberpunk does not have multiple perspectives.
Fromsoft are not interested in giving the player an easier time. They specifically design their games to test players and the game is what it is. Thats why they feel so "designed", like every part of them has a purpose in service of a greater goal and I can appreciate the craft in that. They have a very specific vision of what their games are, what they do and how it will affect players and they do not compromise it. They are never going to add a "wuss" mode to the game where you have infinite stamina, nor should they because overcoming adversity strikes at the very core of what a Souls game is. You are meant to struggle. You are meant to get beat down. You have to experience this before you can learn to overcome.
Then you have games with lots of difficulty settings where its not clear how much of a challenge the player is meant to experience. The only thing you can vary is how much of a bullet sponge the enemies are and how quickly you die when you get hit. In this case, I prefer the Fromsoft approach - limited but designed and executed exceptionally well as opposed to broad but generic.
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