So, does Cyberpunk: 2077 offer any of the following? I encourage you to answer these questions if you are willing and able to, even just a simple “yes” or “no” is fine here:

1. Can you wander around the in-game world after completing missions? (The game Rage didn't let me do this after completing the missions). a) Do building interiors remain open after missions? b) Are building interiors diverse in nature (i.e. not reused unlike in Grand Theft Auto: Online for player ownable properties)?
2. What is the nature of the Easter Eggs in the game – are they abundant, and unique to certain locations of the playable world? a) Are they highly interactive*, and/or do they trigger unique player character actions and animations to make the game feel less predictable?
3. I hear one can customize the character's genitalia, but can the game offer more granular customization in other areas? a) How “male” or “female” one's body appears, irrespective of the character's defined gender? b) Default walking style? c) Combat styles? d) Ability to change the appearance of the clothes beyond their colors, such as how they are worn (e.g. tucked in shirts, hoodies turned up, pants worn below the waist)? e) Cross-dressing?
4. Are there multiple ways players can use an equippable item? a) If melee weapons exist, do they vary in size? b) If melee weapons exist, is the melee combat more complex than that of typical first person shooters?
5. If vehicles are driveable and customizable in this game, can players seat three passengers in a 2+2 convertible car with its roof down?
6. Does the player's environment change through non-mission actions, such as being more aware of the player's presence and influence in a similar way to how Apex Legends constantly shows the best squad in the session through billboards on the map?

Why I care so much about the game's mechanics

In the previous section, I listed some of the game mechanics that have caught my attention from and seem to be unique to Saints Row 2. I am quite fond of Saints Row 2 because the game's world itself felt incredibly unique, in large part because of those mechanics – there were so many things to personalize even compared to The Sims games regardless of whether mods have been used or not**, and if I didn't want to do any of the missions and minigames indicated around the map, the game just gave me things to do even if they couldn't be obviously found***. Saints Row 2's game world felt closest to a virtual world for me because of the granular nature of the in-game mechanics.

Saints Row 2 to me also symbolizes the potential in how 3D computer programs and games could be used – to me, Saints Row 2's character customization system could even be a whole new art medium, a quite accessible one at that too without the user needing the fine motor skills of various other art media to create something.

Because of the creative direction of the Saints Row franchise, I found myself quite disappointed when many of these features were either heavily simplified or omitted – Saints Row 2, being the first Saints Row game to have a PC release, is also among the more forgotten Saints Row titles, with more of a focus on recent titles. Only Grand Theft Auto: Online has come close by including a few of these mechanics (although not all and not many), but the game has become a grindfest for me, and mostly focuses on being a virtual Hotwheels simulator.

While open world games have become increasingly common and almost expected, games after Saints Row 2 just didn't feel alive, as unique to me and as potentially useful outside their context as games – some examples I can think of are Watch Dogs 2 and Just Cause 4, where they simply just felt like generic third person shooters. Personalization of the characters was limited (because they were predefined, in part), and there was nothing to do once the main story line was completed. It felt like playing Grand Theft Auto: IV without mods, only with minigames to make things slightly more fun. I could even argue No Man's Sky just feels like vanilla Minecraft after a while, and the only reason Minecraft could be made interesting at all in my opinion is because of certain content updates, and the large catalogue of mods available for the Java edition of that game.

Update: While DayZ does have a few unique mechanics, the world of South Zagoria, Chernarus, starts to feel boring and repetitive unless servers use mods to make it feel interesting. The game is also more oriented towards survival and I find it difficult to see how it could prove as an inspiration in a non-gaming context, outside of SovietWomble insisting that DayZ before the standalone was announced or even more fully developed to release, indirectly inspired a whole plethora of battle royale shooters. I also dislike the online-only nature of the game and its sheer difficulty even in player versus environment only servers.

Update 2: Linking in this video to give you all a better idea of what I want from the game.

***

*I've seen someone I think while watching a Twitch stream comment about how they wanted Cyberpunk: 2077 to have programming mechanics – I'd be a fan of those too if they were a thing, but would prefer them to not be restricted to a mission-based action. The co-op horror shooter GTFO may be the closest to achieving this, with computer terminals placed around the map – these terminals function like a command-line interface, similar to terminal emulators in modern computers or generally computers between the 70s and 90s.

**Despite its reputation for character customization without mods and sometimes even with them, The Sims games seem to be lacking certain mechanics related to it – in particular, this would be for what was stated in question 3d in the previous section, and until The Sims 4, question 3e.

***I also prefer it this way too, to give more of a sense of mystery to the game and make the game world less like a virtual sports arena.