Cyberpunk 2077 review

Exceptional

by xXWoodinatorXx

Concise Review:

While not the game I was expecting or hoping for, CP2077 is still a fantastic game with loads of quality content. Is it possible for a game to be a disappointment and still one of the greatest games of its genre? Yes it is. It’s CP2077.

Amazing: Character progression pacing is amazing for about 30 hours and then solid for another 15-25 hours, excellent longevity. The open world mechanics and quest design creates constant enjoyment with very few slow periods.

Great: Stories, writing, characters, voice acting. Overall amount of customization and character upgrades. Cyber ware and the unique gun categories add depth to the gameplay. Combat is great after the first ~4 hours. Very flexible play styles between, hacking, stealth, dialogue, and going in hot, including many different ways to fuck shit up.

Good: While a disappointment because of very high expectations, the city and world is still an entertaining sandbox play in.

Fine: 

Bad: During the very best scenes the graphics are fine but for a lot of the normal content they are awful and honestly embarrassing. Overall presentation is poor when compared to numerous other AAA titles. 

Awful: The number of duplicate NPCs is laughable. Bugs are not game breaking on the XSX but frequent enough to damage the immersion and on a few occasions caused more than minor frustration. It should be noted, CDPR’s release strategy was slimy and awful. Hiding the last gen console performance should be criticized. Classic corpo bullshit.


Journal Style Review:

The opening hour is a bit slow, which isn’t a surprise. Every big RPG starts slow because they have a lot they need to introduce you to. The witcher didn’t really pick up for like 8-10 hours. RDR2 took a long time to get going as well. I’m not worried about the start, but it hasn’t done anything to wow me early on.

The graphics are disappointing. Most of the main characters and set piece scenery looks fine but other characters and objects look pretty bad, and then some look straight up awful. I wish the series X version released at the same time. I wish this game had more polish. The polish, at least in its current state, is not reaching my expectations.

5 hours in. The writing and the voice acting is top notch. I like Jackie a lot. Dex is a great character too and I’m liking the V I have created. I don’t like the generic NPCs. I kind of expected more. I was probably expecting too much in regards to how lifelike I expected the city to be. It still feels like a video game. 

Jackie nooo!! I’m really liking the story so far. It is really good sci fi action. I haven’t done any real side quests yet but if they are as good as this main storyline I’m going to love this game.

The map intimidates me. So many icons and waypoints. I need to figure out what they all mean and which are live events I need to do right away. 

I’m figuring out how bounties work which has been fun. I’m switching up my play style and picking close waypoints on the map rather than picking from the quest list to see which way is a better experience.

I love the attitude and banter between V and Johnny.

I’m getting the hang of combat a lot more and it’s been a lot more fun. The guns that can charge up and shoot through objects are OP. Especially with the cyber ware eye mod that makes you see enemy outlines when they see you. I like the sniper a lot too. Also I’m slowly learning about hacking more and it’s benefits. I rarely play as a hacker in these types of games but this one seems to do a great job of it so I’m incorporating it more in my game plan. This game has a lot of cool systems built in. I’m really enjoying it, I just wish the visuals looked better. It’s a shame that so much of the excellence in this game goes unnoticed because of the distractions.

There are so many ways to customize your character: Armor, guns, mods, cyber stuff, attributes, perks. There has been a very enjoyable constant sense of progression. It’s very well done. 

The different clothing (armor) looks so goofy. My V looks like a fucking clown usually lol.

Picking quests and points of interest from the map is way better than choosing quests from the log. You get a better sense of the city and it’s fun to clear out small sections of the map. 

The BD detective work parts aren’t good. I try to rush through them. Fortunately they aren’t too frequent.

Mr. Hands is hilarious. Occasionally this game tries a bit too hard, and the humour doesn’t land 100% of the time, but for the most part the writing is great and sometimes it gets it perfectly.

The combat in this game is awesome at times. There are some great huge shootouts and the guns feel creative. The different ways you can use tech and smart weapons is great. The ways you can incorporate hacks and stealth is great. The gameplay has surpassed my expectations. The combat is better than I thought it would be.

Oh man I just spent a bunch of credits on some sweet cyber ware  like mantis blades and a charged super jump. Very cool stuff. Bought some passives perk mods also.

I’m at about 20 hours in. From hour 8 ish till now I’ve mostly been doing side quests and map things, and I’ve been loving it. I’ve loved just discovering all the different nuisances to this game. It’s been a blast.

There are some scenes where this game looks pretty good. When the lighting is right and you can’t see too zoomed in it’s sometimes got a very cool look to it. And it’s pretty fun listening to the radio driving around the city from waypoint to waypoint when you want something chiller. This game is an unbelievable way point clearing game. It keeps growing on me. I’m getting used to the world and graphics so it isn’t bothering me as much as it did at first.

This game has pretty good stealth combat as well, even though the AI isn’t great. Hacking is a fun stealth factor.

The guns are so cool in this game. Combat feels great because I love so many of the weapons. I can’t believe I’ve seen people mock the combat. Anybody saying the combat is awful hasn’t played past the opening sections. Or they suck, idk, but I’m having a blast and often end up shooting my way in or out of a situation because I simply want to.

Another small perk of this game: it’s very easy to sit down and play for 15 minutes or 4 hours. It’s flexible in how long you want to play.

I just maxed out street credit which happened at around 27 hours in. Sure I’ve been playing a lot but I still am surprised it didn’t take longer. Right now I’m predicting that I keep playing this game until either my character is essentially fully upgraded and I no longer feel there are any meaningful improvements left, or all the quests become too easy. I hope that’s take a long time.

I hope there are more cybermods and guns still. I love what I’ve seen so far but I hope I haven’t seen it all.

These missing cab missions are fun. There is something funny about a suicidal AI cab calling me a cunt.

I’ve realized that some of the more in depth side quests usually are in the journal. I’ve been focusing on them more and some of them have been greats solving the murder with river was fun. A couple of those Johnny missions weren’t bad either.

~38 hours in and while I’m still finding new and interesting side quests with meaningful storytelling, I have also found the sense of character progression to have slowed. At this point I do not anticipate CP2077 reaching an A+. I predict it ends up as a middle tier A. Still a fantastic experience. Less than I hoped for.

Getting the most frustrating bug so far with Panam’s quest. “Well what’s up V.” Fuck! I had to reload like 5 different times for the prompts to work. Really wrecked the mood.

I’m losing steam and getting close to being ready to finish this game. I’m a bit over 40 hours and the last 5 hours or so I’ve really just wanted to beat the main story but I’ve forced myself to do all the meaningful side quests that come in my feed because I don’t know what the end game will be like, and once I beat the main story I may stop playing pretty soon. Still I’d say this game gave me 30 amazing hours in the middle and another 15 or so pretty solid hours at the beginning and the end. I’ve never been a 60+ hour single player campaign guy. Both witcher and red dead I think I ended around 45 hours which was perfect for those games.

I beat the main story. I was a bit confused with the ending at first. I had the ending where Johnny takes over Vs body and leaves town. It’s an alright ending that’s growing on me the more I think about it, but I still think I’m a bit underwhelmed. The final mission is a bit anticlimactic I’d say. This game has a problem because I wanted to finish so much side content that by the time I got back to the main story I had forgotten some of the details and lost some of the build up. Still, this game ends as a mid tier A. A disappointment, but still a top tier game. A generational favourite.

I plan to mess around a bit longer, buy the fancy cars, complete a few more gigs. Who knows how long that will last, but I do still feel like playing around on this world. That is another testament to this games fun factor. 

Oooh man the Rayfield Cailburn car is sweet. I’m happy I played long enough to buy it. That thing is fun to drive. After really focusing on the major side quests and the main story at the end there, it’s been nice just flying through side gigs and driving around town between the closest locations.

Just unlocked the turbo R V-Tech and it’s even cooler than the caliburn. More my vibe. Very sweet.

This gun AI skippy is hilarious.

I’ve pretty much beaten the entire game. I’ve done every side quest and gig that’s in my journal or shows a waypoint on the map. I’m severely over powered for every combat. I think I need to call it quits. It’s been pretty great tho.

In conclusion. I liked CP2077 a lot.

Final Score: A