Reviews

Concise Review:

Amazing: The visual style to the combat including the gore, blood splatter and dismemberment is amazing.

Great: The weapon variety, enemy variety, boss variety, and location variety are all surprisingly creative, numerous and awesome.

Good: Combat mechanics are good not great, it’s a bit simple and button mashy at times, and too often you can win by cheesing in some way.

Fine: The simple weapon and character upgrades serve their purpose.

Bad: Aiming the bow or other ranged weapons sucks.

Awful: The camera angles are so painful, platforming is so frustrating due to the awful camera angles. The swimming controls are awful and it makes water sections a pain.


Journal Style Review:

I like the ninja violence. The blood splatter is excellent and excessive. The dismemberment is great. The combat feels quite good for an old game. I dislike the camera angles though. They are bad. Really bad. Still a pretty cool first mission. Ridiculous story but this obviously isn’t going to be about the story. The enemies look to be cool. If the enemy and weapon variety is sufficient then I think this game will be pretty fun.

Initial reaction is I like this game more than devil may cry V. DMCV Obviously looks a lot better than this game but this one has better combat mechanics and I like the style more.

I don’t like the platforming at all, mostly because of the camera. I hope it’s few and far between. Tight corridors combat is also less than ideal because of this camera.

Starting mission 3. So far the bosses have been challenging but fun. The enemy variety has been sufficient. I think this game is sweet.

The awful camera is starting to annoy me more. I really hate the platforming in the game. It’s awful. It’s hard but not in a challenging way it’s just difficult because you can’t tell what direction the game wants you to push the sticks because the camera is so fucking bad. I did not enjoy the sewers. The wolverine claws are cool though.

God the claws are so good. Definitely my favourite weapon. I love the combat feel to this game. The later open underground sections are great. I just hated the parkour parts.

I think I play the rest of this game almost entirely with the wolverine claws. I love them. They are so sick. This game fuckin rocks. I would be so psyched for a modern ninja Gaiden game with amazing graphics and a good fucking camera but this style of violent action combat. Fuck I would love that.

Boss fights are pretty epic. I liked the Goliath one. The electric worm wasn’t as good though.

These werewolves are fun. I was ready for a new enemy and it came right on queue.

The swimming controls are also awful. My favourite levels are the simply long and wide corridors so I can actually see shit.

Venice level was pretty good. The water boss fight i cheesed. It wasn’t that good.

Bone boss was good. The location and enemy variety is great.

The 4 armed werewolf king coliseum boss fight was a favourite. This game is awesome and the only thing holding it back from an A- so far is the horrible camera angles causing frustration.

The wolf kings giants scythe is awesome also. This game has excellent unique weapons and plenty of interesting unique enemies to fight. It’s awesome.

The scythe might be better than the claws. It definitely is better in heavy hit situations. It’s a very fun weapon. The number of weapons that feel different and unique is very well done. This game is awesome. I want a new one. Badly.

These hand canon chainsaw enemies are also great. The enemy variety is trending towards amazing. Same with weapon variety. Certain weapons are much more effective vs certain enemies. It’s very well done. 

The scythe I think is my new fave. I love it. Chapter 10 was great. Excellent new enemies and the blood lady boss fight was ridiculous and fun.

I’ll say it once. Ridiculous female characters. This game suggests that Japanese culture doesn’t respect women, at least not when this game came out. I feel embarrassed during cutscenes if anyone is around. That’s how bad it is.

Fuck me I died a lot during the underworld fire demon boss fight. It didn’t actually feel that hard but I struggled.

The ridiculous and all over the place story is kind of fun after awhile. The nonsense of this ninja jumping from one ridiculous conflict to the next is great.

Bloody skull Beetle was super hard. The bow boss fights are my least favourite. I used a lot of items on that fight. Turns out it was the last chapter, I thought there were more. It makes sense it was that tough. I will say the final 2 boss fights weren’t the best but overall I can’t complain. This game was really fun and definitely surpassed my expectations. I think even just a fancy remake of this game could be excellent. There are some areas where it could be greatly improved through modern quality of life changes and overall polish. NG2 finishes as a high B+.

Final Score: B+

'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'.

Aside from Tsushima, this should've been getting some GOTY awards as well. Talk about a sleeper hit, everything about this game is massive for the asking price, much like other games from this studio. Mini-sidebar: I've been homeless before and if you haven't, that's great, I don't wish it on anyone, even the people who streamed this and thought it was one big joke. Remember to read a book every 5 years and cut out toxic people from your life if they're not giving you money or food. With that said, Ichiban's the most lovable protag in any Yakuza game I've played even if hopefully only a few of you can relate as much. Majima so crazy lol the joker baby and Kiryu's a manly man who's out to make you a better man, yes, but they're both so exhausting sometimes. Ichiban wants to be a hero so he sees the world as one big RPG - he's a bro who's always trying to see the best in things and comes off goofy but endearing, the kind of guy you'd follow into battles with the Chinese mafia. However, it takes the "life is one big RPG" thing to a level that feels right at home in the world of Yakuza. This kind of meta-narrative thing probably has been done before in lesser movies and games but you really get the sense that garbage apps like LifeRPG were trying to make the idea of gaming self-improvement this accessible and cool. The story goes in predictably epic scale directions as you should expect but, if that's not your thing, I get that. Just play OutRun and darts for 100 hours instead. RGG games are like the Fast and Furious movies in that kind of way. You don't need to take it seriously at all and no one would blame you if you didn't but man is it more fun when you do.

This game in short is a flawed, but excellent experience. While those may seem contradictory, let me break it down for you. First, it is difficult to get running properly on a modern gaming rig, simply because it was designed for technology that wasn't available almost 15 years ago. There are glitches, not many, and nothing "game-breaking", but a few annoying ones. The game suffers greatly from monotonous plot progression elements, basically go to city, go to district, do some stuff, kill a guy, rinse and repeat many, many times. The collectables are not interesting and provide absolutely 0 benefit in doing them, and what's more, are very easy to lose place on (which is what I did). All that being said, the good in this game saves what could have been a mediocre game, into one that is memorable, definitely worth playing, and is the reason why a massively successful game series was launched from this title. First, the gameplay mechanics are incredibly detailed and well thought out. This is most evident for me in the combat system. I have played this game roughly 5 times beginning to end since the release, and I am STILL finding out different ways you can respond to enemies movements and to turn the battle in your favor. The combat in general is just very fluid and so much fun. I almost didn't mind the repetitive "Save the Citizen" mini-games, because I got to have a cool sword fight. The plot, in my opinion, is one of the best present in any media franchise, movie, tv, game, or otherwise. It is very gripping, very unique, and very well told (though I wish there were subtitles). The graphics have also held up beautifully, especially the environmental ones. All in all, an amazing game if you are willing to work through some kinks.