[...]
There is some real deep shit going on. Mr. Blue Eyes is one example. He actually appears in the background of other quests. And that whole part about changing your memories is scary. then we have the whole AI possibly taking over human bodies. At some point are we dealing with a human or an AI in a body.
The endings also can get very philosophical. Is there a soul? Are we still the original V? What is consciousness and does the process change us?
There are other things that the game left open. The whole Black Wall and rogue AI's. Alt living behind the Black Wall. Is she a type of god there?
And of course how and why was Johnny Silverhand's engram placed on the relic. Most likely IMO it was Yorinobu in his deal with Netwatch as they are after Alt like the Voodoo Boys but for different goals.
And finally of course what will happen to V.
I know many will say that's it's a poor story and these are just plot holes or lazy writing that it wasn't explained. But I think it's exactly what CDPR intended. If their goal was to make many DLC's and future games then all of these must be left open for future expansions. They have to leave questions for us to ponder that are much deeper than if Panam is a good relationship or not. For those looking for a shallow story and didn't spend time getting deep into the game and actually listening to all the dialogue then the game's not for you. But if you put time into it the game is surprisingly deep.
To start with, the base material has a truckton of depth. Deep lore, some well rounded characters, factions, everything. The overall feeling I have after discovering that lore (no thanks to the horribly managed in-game shards) is that they barely scratched the surface here. Second, there were many deep topics handled in the last chapter of the ME trilogy, including whether or not Legion has a soul, the story was better put together with only a catastrophic ending. CP2077 suffers the opposite:
Soulkiller, Alt and the Black Wall are barely touched as topics, with the 2 major players up and about (VDBs and Netwatch) having 1 brief appearence in the entire game. And yeah, while Johnny's taking the lead role in this saga of ours, the main theme has to be deeply tied to the what lurks behind the dataforts.
The endings are... that point in time when you say "Okay, one more gig" and swiftly undo all the philosophy. That's one of the issues with them. The 2nd is related to how underused all the characters are. I don't care if any of them survive, because I wasn't given enough game time to do that. I also don't care about the endings because the game didn't really care about my choices - it was dead set to drag me on the roof, kicking and screaming if need be, regardless of what I chose to say or do.
So while the topics and the overall CP lore have enough depth to explore over an entire trilogy, the current approach is shallow at best. CDPR wasn't good at closing loose ends (Saskia and Iorveth say "hi!"). I don't say though that they didn't have a grandiose plan for CP2077. But the loose ends here and plot holes aren't a breach point for further content. They're this obvious because of time-constraints.
Mr. Blue Eyes and Yori's plans could... should've been better fleshed out. They chose, however, not to. The last time you meet the former is when you're hired to try and fetch another McGuffin which almost makes him a McGuffin too. We're being fed a few crumbs on Yori's past and current actions. But again, not enough to care. A deal with the Tinos to attack Militech, a long lasting disgust towards his father's vision. Why Netwatch? Why that small info about the chip in V's head being tailor-made for Saburo?
The story isn't given enough time to go deep. Nothing is. Gigs are shallow, gigs from the Queen of The Afterlife are pathetic (cus that's the best she can do, I guess?!). Characters that might've had something to add to the mix get flatlined for a quick emotional jerk reaction... To the point where you couldn't care less if "you" now is the same with "you" 1 second ago, 1 day ago, 1 engram ago.
Why can't you save anyone you try to care about? Why is it that, no matter what you do, the reason you are in the muck you're in doesn't become neither clear nor is it pushed in any way?
Let me explain a bit: Yori could've taken Johnny's shard to punish his father, by slotting it in before killin' him. That would've been quite a feat. But nope. He just took it so he could sell it to an organization we aren't being made to care about at all. That has some statues scattered around the city, some of them with enough life in them as to use their phones. WTB Logic?
Moving on, both the buggers above and VDB wanted to get their paws on the chip so they can use it to contact Alt. Mkay... and they did. Aaaand??? Nothing. A bulging blob of absolutely squat. In my playthroughs, I came out of the tub and thanked VDBs for scamming me twice. The biggest, most covert, most powerful gang in NC... wiped in under 5 minutes. Obviously, one can't do that with Netwatch, as 101933841.5 cops will spawn on your buttocks the moment you raise an eyebrow at them. But how did all this advance the going-ons further? Simple answer: they didn't. It ended up being just another silly plot device, with no depth, no purpose in the greater scheme of things.
We have hints of the still bubbling 4th Corpo War. Of Malestrom getting involved un to their red led sockets in activities that scratch the Black Wall. Of greedy corporations trying to squeeze more peeps by their nuts. But the game just let's'em all *woosh* by.
And lemme remind you of Jackie's words: "[...] Adam Smasher! LEGENDS are born in this city!". Did that guy feel or act as if he was one? With his entire 3 minutes of screen time? More like the average Saka mech with a human software. No legends, no friends, no meaningful end results. I mean, yeah, you either wreck the soul prison or add to it. Either way, things... don't change much. Saka can't give a rat's tail about what you just did to them, were you to wreck Mikoshi, as... not only they don't chase you if you run away, but you can even end up being a star of NC...
Sorry, but... as a story, it's shallow. The fact that you are going through it through 90% exposition and 10% acting isn't helping either. I do admit that it has... or rather had... huge potential. I say "had" because based on the leadership's latest mea culpa, only problem with this game are its bugs for pc and maybe poor optimization for last gen console (and even that after bragging not long ago about how the game plays incredibly smooth on them).
I am certain the creative minds of CDPR could've done much, MUCH better. Were they given enough time and better leadership.