Ok, thank you for confirming this devs. I am of very mixed feelings here right now.
I'm am not worried so much about those apartments in particular, but the fear of how many other "open world" elements are also being cut, that we haven't heard about yet. While it makes sense for devs to cut game elements due to resource management once the game gets closer to release, focusing on important stuff, I just can't help but wonder whether this game actually is going to end up the open world experience it was advertised as.
- At least V HAS an apartment. That's a plus, with some gameplay elements, apparently. That's important for immersion.
- However, that there is only one apartment tells me number of things by virtue of extrapolation. The premise was that the story is a "from rags to riches" kind of thing. One of the more obvious things you can give to a player to burn some money in this kind of setting, would be apartments. If V only retains the one, then that's kind of like saying that he/she doesn't break into major leagues, that he/she doesn't get rich during the course of the story, that he/she is going to end up just an poor anti-hero thats getting kicked from one mess to another. It tells us something about the story. "It's a city of dreams and I'm a big dreamer". I guess those dreams are not going to be realized, huh.
- I fear more than nothing else that the game will be a linear, restricted, only elements that pertain to the story kind of thing. Like Deus Ex MK, which is a pile of garbage. Completely unimmersive cardboard world, small maps, carboncopy NPCs on the streets, no real freedom etc, yawn-inducing story. Multiple apartments would've been an element signifying a more open world, which would set my mind at ease waiting for the release. Now, the good signals are getting considerably fewer after this E3. Cool graphics does not affect gameplay, I'm afraid, especially when we can't see them. I guess we need to start discussions about what "open world" actually means. I am afraid that the "interactive movie" style just doesn't fly at this time and day. I really hope CP2077 is more than that.
- Pawel said "right now", meaning the apartments might come later. At least this is a small comfort.