I liked Cyberpunk and loved Baldur’s Gate, but I hate that both games have the fake sense of urgency, where your character has an affliction that could kill them at any time and you’re racing against the clock (but not really) to fix it. It takes me out of the immersion because I don’t think my character would want to do any of the side quests or just live in the world. Why would V have any interest in street racing or buying clothes or investigating a B&E in for a politician if their brain is literally rotting away? Solving that should occupy their every thought, they would want to redline the main quest and solve their problem before it’s too late.

Edit: I’m all for games where the doom clock is part of the mechanics (XCOM, Majora’s Mask, Fallout 1, etc) but what I don’t like is them going “you only have a few weeks to live” and then you get a bunch of calls from people saying “meet me tonight, it’s urgent” “don’t keep me waiting” “I need to see you, now” only to find out that you actually have infinite time. I can’t think of a reason why this is a good design. All it does is give the player anxiety and makes them question if they should be doing all the shit the game throws at you. If you’re going to hang an ax over the players head, have it matter and follow through if they’re fucking around, or don’t do it at all.

This issue in cyberpunk could be solved by saying V has a year, or a couple months left to live. That way there is urgency but not so much that you feel like every second you spend not working towards your goal is wasted. Also it would make more sense that they’re able to put together a plan to take down a mega conglomerate if they have a longer time to gather resources, find allies, and plan.