Cyberpunk 2077 reviews

I'll just be sincere here, the game is fantastic. But it feels unfinished.

It has many good points. I could stay the whole day talking about it, but I'll keep to what I enjoyed most/what I saw in the first runs. The city is gigantic and mesmerizing like a lamp for insects. Lots of hidden things for you to look for. The campaign has a lot of cool and memorable characters like Judy, Panam, Johnny himself, they are very well built and their side quests I ended up liking more than the main one. The game universe itself is very large and with this game we are seeing only a fraction of it. You have your own apartment, gun stash, cell phone to talk to. You can totally modify yourself by following perk builds and body modifications for agi / int / str and that I found very cool. I suffered a lot to get the hang of it and choose the right points. Money comes reasonably easy to buy the best things. You can buy many different cars, and it's really nice to be inside them and see it all modeled.

But yeah, the game feels unfinished. And it is. The whole southern part of the map looks like it has nothing. Lots of features missing, like metro for example, a decent AI system. There was a lack of a system to improve the look (clothes, change the appearance of the character, arms, legs, etc.), the same with vehicles and guns, even your own apartment. Those are details that really make a difference and make the gameplay a unique experience, and I hope they add those in the future (if not, please modders hear my plea). Many things are useless or have little impact such as the reward system for example. The decisions in the dialogues do not affect the game as much as I expected. The quests have some very well elaborated and polished while others feels just whatever. Even the Braindance, they sold it so much on their previews and you see so little in the game.

Even with all that, I feel in love with the game. The bugs didn't really bother me, every game has it. It just feels unfinished. But I find it promising. CD sold a lot and it was not possible to do everything they wanted, or everything they promised, in that sense it disappointed me a little, but it didn't irritate me, it doesn't detract from what the game is. The problem is that they themselves promised a lot, and did not deliver due to time. But hey, CD is giving feedback, apologizing and being committed to improve, so let's wait and see the improvments on the way.

TL;DR: Fantastic game, but it is unfinished. If you believe this is a futuristic three letter game, stick to the old.

'Cyberpunk 2077' is a game which has had an enormous impact on the gaming industry. That be its initial announcement back in 2012, the famous Keanu Reeves reveal at E3 2019, or its three major delays throughout 2020. The game also experienced a huge amount of negative press on launch in December 2020 with its many issues, bugs and glitches, ultimately resulting in Sony removing the title from its very own Playstation Store.  A game like this only comes every so often. The last title I can think that had such an impact is most likely 'Red Dead Redemption II' or 'Grand Theft Auto V'. 

Regardless of what events came before or after the release of 'Cyberpunk 2077', the most important thing the game needs to demonstrate is that it is worth playing. To put it simply, yes this game is worth your time. It is also a game that has been significantly hyped, and for the quality of a game it is, I can confirm that this game does not meet the hype it had generated. 

Let's start with the good things 'Cyberpunk 2077' does as there are many outstanding features which the game has to offer. Firstly, the open-world environment of the game is truly incredible. The verticality of the city and its design is something I have never quite seen before. Highways dominate the streetscape, above and below, skyscrapers tower over the city and create this ultra-dystopian world where social class can clearly be seen by who occupies the high and low regions of the game's world. It was awesome to see so many buildings in the game be completely accessible by the player. Likewise, it was very impressive to see how the richness of every interior and exterior environment in the game. Markets, for instance, were always buzzing with food, people and activities. People in these environments interacted and ultimately made the world of the game feel incredibly real and liveable. It was also great to have such variation in the environments you could explore in the game. No one area felt the same as the other. I should also mention the level of detail put into the lighting featured throughout the game. Spaces are lit with a huge selection of stunning colours and shades. It is honestly remarkable the level of detail 'Cyberpunk 2077' has to offer. The strong graphics in the game reflect this level of detail extremely well. In particular, facial animation and character models were very well done. Even for NPC's that were just walking around in the world. This is without a doubt a next-generation game, similar to the way 'Red Dead Redemption II' was when it released back in 2018. 

Secondly, the score of 'Cyberpunk 2077' is absolutely awesome. Marcin Przybylowicz, P.T. Adamczyk and Paul Leonard-Morgan do a remarkable job at creating this vibrant and powerful soundtrack that enhances the experience of the game in every moment. A highlight for me was the track titled 'The Rebel Path' which is a song full of heavy synth layers side-chained by ultra-strong percussive hits and kicks. As a fan of electronic music, I had a great time listening to the IDM/EDM styled soundtrack of the game, even in its more ambient moments. 

Thirdly, the gameplay of 'Cyberpunk 2077' had a lot of strong points to it. The weapons felt powerful and very fun to use in the many combat scenarios the game offers to the player. I also found the few boss battles in the game to be very enjoyable, and at times, somewhat challenging. Vehicle handling, from my experience, was well done. I loved the motorcycles you could drive and found that they handled very well. 

Finally, the narrative of the game was fairly well done in my opinion. The main story had a few compelling characters, which through side quests and other activities, grew on me and allowed me to be invested in their contribution to the game's story. The voice acting was very well executed, especially in the supporting characters in the game. V's voice acting I found was compelling and versatile. Johnny Silverhand, voiced by Keanu Reeves, on the other hand, was less compelling, despite having a couple of moments where Keanu's voice acting was well done. 

Now, unfortunately, there were some not so good things about the game. The most obvious of these is the game's large quantity of glitches and bugs. Bugs I experienced included subtitles freezing, music being stuck on repeat, not being able to un-zoom my character's focus, and a couple of others as well. Never have I played a game with so many obvious glitches and issues, which is crazy seeing I've played numerous Ubisoft titles and not even they were as buggy as 'Cyberpunk 2077'. It does ultimately make the game feel rushed and unpolished which is a huge shame considering how amazing its world and environment is. 

Another area of the game that felt a bit lacking was its crafting and progression system. The UI for crafting was confusing and something I never used. Similarly, the progression tree in the game offered nothing that offered anything new or drastic to the game's core gameplay. Looting weaponry and gear was the only method I used to grow my character as in stores these items were way too expensive; often for no real reason. 

Ultimately, despite its clear faults, I found 'Cyberpunk 2077' to be a solid game that I can find myself returning to play in the future. I do feel that the game could have offered so much more, especially in its main narrative which for felt honestly too short clocking in at just over 17 hours. Having played 'Red Dead Redemption II' (which is my favourite game of all-time) and having similar expectations that 'Cyberpunk 2077' could be at the same level, I do believe it falls short. Similar to games like 'Just Cause 3' or 'Assassin's Creed IV', 'Cyberpunk 2077' is enjoyable and well-made but it does come as close to the masterpiece I believed it would be. It has all the elements it needed to be that game, I can see it just by playing it, however, it never leaps to those heights. It always feels like it is lagging behind its best elements. That to me is something I felt throughout the entire experience of playing the game, the feeling that "wow this is good, but I kinda wish this was better than good." Nonetheless, I had a good time with 'Cyberpunk 2077'.

I have played over 100 hours and am STILL discovering unfinished or swept away chunks of game. Probably thought I was going to say "I'm STILL finding cool stuff to do" but... eh. I know I said I finished this but I'm glitched out of a few missions... If this were complete and reliable, it'd still be a 7/10, though, let's not get it twisted. Deus Ex in an open world with real consequences this ain't, check out the youtubes and see for yourself that it's not any more deep than just a good FPS with loot and sex scenes. It's an RPG like Borderlands was is what I'm saying - not a terrible game by any means, just nowhere near as good as anyone expected. Mission Giver 1 tells you to go to Place 1 and shoot Guy 1. Repeat 100 times. Maybe they had to cut the really fun parts out because there doesn't seem to be anything of value in the non-mission critical areas of the map. Is there even a point to the swimming outside of one mission (which itself was one of many several escort and listen scenes)? Is there a point to having any contacts in your phone when you can't do anything with anyone? GTA IV was released in 2008 to put things into perspective. Remember that video about all the dope cars you can drive? You grind to save money to buy them from people you never meet but somehow know your phone number and call you to say "hey, V, got a sweet ride that'll cost you all the money you've earned so far stashed by a dock! Bye!" So why did I play it for so long?

Well, the game is 7/10 so there's no reason to snub it, nothing special, but Keanu and the soundtrack really do make up for a lot of its problems. Hacking and shooting is better than Watch_Dogs and Syndicate so if you liked that combo kill style, this game has it. Maybe some of it was denial, though - I mean, all those reviewers couldn't have been lying to us! YongYea and Alanah Pierce looked so happy when they talked about it months before it dropped, right? That's why it's more fun to watch it being played than to flatline every 50 minutes on your own, honestly. Get it in a year when they fix most of it.

update: kinda fixed. All the next fixes have been pushed a year. It's cheap now and this is the most final version we're getting so go for it.