Cyberpunk 2077 (2020)

This is a game I had wanted to play for a long time, and in the end I didn't regret a single hour spent in it.

To me, Cyberpunk 2077 feels like GTA on steroids: you don't want combat to end and both the progression system and the city itself are designed in a way that makes you never want to leave. And the game absolutely nails that. Time in Night City flies by and I could talk about it forever, but it's worth touching on some details.

The progression system - skills, weapon upgrades, buying apartments and cars - is all done really well. You start as just another nobody who can't even afford their own implants, but gradually build your reputation. As I said, the progression feels fantastic.

I also want to highlight the skill tree and implant system. There isn't extremely deep build-crafting, but you can still tailor the gameplay to your preferred style, which is a big plus. That said, I found two downsides:

1. Shotgun builds. The game clearly pushes you toward slow but extremely powerful shotguns. Personally, I felt more comfortable using something like a semi-auto shotgun (e.g., Saiga-style). For example, there's a late skill that boosts melee damage with the weapon stock by 100%, and then increases the next shot's damage by another 100%, looping like that. With a fast shotgun that has a large magazine, this mechanic just doesn't make much sense, even though it's a capstone skill.

2. Difficulty scaling. This feels like a common issue in games by CD Projekt Red. I started on a high difficulty, and at first it was challenging, but later on I would only die from falling off buildings. Implants give you a massive advantage, making combat easier - but at the same time more fun and varied.

The story is great - honestly, there's no other way to put it. The game clearly tries to hit you emotionally at the end, but after NieR: Automata, I'm a bit immune to that. Still, following the story was very enjoyable. Most side quests are genuinely interesting, and skipping them feels like a big loss. Only some gigs felt like pure grinding for XP and loot, though even those were fun for blowing up a few gangs.

One surprising thing: even years after release, there are still bugs. Mostly visual, but I encountered a couple of technical ones that required restarting the game, which was annoying. Still, I ended up forgiving it - the overall experience was just that enjoyable.

Highly recommended. And if you made it this far - what build did you play, and which implants did you like the most? As I mentioned, I went with shotguns and revolvers, and my favorite implant was the Sandevistan that extends its duration after a kill.

There's so much to love about this game. The setting, (most of) the writing, and the characterisation are all excellent, yet the core game falls into the same trap as every other open-world attempt, i.e.: "Here's an endless stream of side shit to do instead of the underwhelming plot." (I admit this is likely because I ended up doing a lot of aforementioned side shit, much of which was good, but still.)

And, yes, five years later, it's still janky, at least on PS5. Perfectly playable, it's more the little things: The "skip ahead" button simply not working sometimes; my car falling out of the sky; the terrible races; the one time where I completed a flashback and the screen looked like it had vaseline smeared all over it, which stopped only on reset...

But, the thing is: it's still really, really good. Once you get over the sense of feeling overwhelmed by the HUD, and the endless phone calls/messages - once it clicks - it's one of the better gaming experiences I've had in recent years. I wouldn't have put 50-odd hours into it otherwise, and the ending (that I picked) was fantastic, making all that repetitive crap inbetween seem worth it. It's an interesting pseudo-companion piece to Last of Us II for me, in the sense of them both being five-year old games I held off from for a long time.

I'd like to try Phantom Liberty at some point, but I'm good for now.

I have spent around 150h in the game, so believe have seen pretty much everything it has to offer. The good stuff:

• Character creation
• Great storyline
• Good combat
• Interesting quests

The not-so-good:

• I drove 1 car before I gave up on the driving controls. Thank God for Scorpio's motorcycle as it became my main way of transport due to how maneuverable it is. Driving a car was a big pain, especially when you have to turn.
• At some point around the late 30 to 40 level I got way too strong and completed all missions and side quests without any sort of resistance. I do play on a normal difficulty though because I'm not a dark souls fan so that might be my fault.
• At some point the gigs become repetitive
• There were some bugs that were somewhat annoying
• I only crafted some bullets and that seemed more than enough. Almost didn't use any consumables either.
• So V can get into a relationship but not do anything anymore with their love interest. Felt like a massive missed opportunity.
• You can own so many vehicles and apartments but didn't see any value in either really

Cyberpunk 2077 is a stunning game. Even almost 2 years after release it remains one of the most graphically advanced games you can buy. Especially on PC where CDPR makes great use of Ray Traced Global Illumination to significantly improve the realism of the game’s lighting. But even on PS5 the game still looks pretty good.

The story, while not necessarily what you’d expect from a cyberpunk story, is a more universal one about living life to the fullest that has its tearjerking moments & some fun ones too. The highlight has to be V & Johnny Silverhand’s dynamic. Keanu Reeves puts in a decent performance as Johnny, but the highlights in this department are the two actors they cast for V. Both Gavin Drea & Cherami Leigh put in solid performances as V. Which one you prefer is up to personal preference but for what it’s worth I prefer Cherami Leigh’s turn as female V. The side quests were actually pretty interesting too. Pretty much every one of them had some sort of story to it. Even the gigs have some if you do some reading.

As for the open-world, it is a pretty dense world with an emphasis on verticality to better create that feeling of this being an actual city. Even after finishing the main story I still play the game every once in a while just for that world.

The gameplay is solid, especially when you think of it as more a Deus Ex-esque Immersive Sim RPG than an FPS. Melee combat is about what you’d expect if you’ve played a game like Fallout though (as in: pretty simplistic)…

While the game was pretty buggy at launch, CDPR have put in the work to fix it and (unless you’re PS4 & Xbox One), there are more patches coming and they’ve even added some features that people were disappointed weren’t in the game at launch like Transmog (or the ability to change the appearance of what you’re wearing without impacting your stats).

Conclusion:

There is an amazing game in Cyberpunk 2077. The story is great, the gameplay is solid, the graphics are cutting edge and next-gen stuff that could possibly be the next Crysis (if Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn’t get that honour), and the characters are likable human beings. It’s just a shame that the game’s best qualities are held back by a rushed development cycle that was clearly in need of better management and both CDPR’s marketing department and the gaming community at large allowing the hype train to get out of control and failing to keep expectations realistic (I think I did a good job of managing expectations, but I don’t blame most people for getting caught up in the hype). At least the game is getting patched into a better state than it was at launch…

Ratings:

Creative Score (judges story, gameplay, voice acting, art direction, etc.): 9.0/10 (point knock-off for the underwhelming Lifepaths and lack of stuff to do in the open world)

Technical Score (judges graphics, polish, optimization, AI, etc.):

PC Version: 9.5/10

PS5 Version: 8.5/10

Business Practices score (judges how pro-consumer the company’s actions have been surrounding the game): 7/10 (pre-release, this would have been a 9 or even a 10, but I can’t overlook CDPR’s failure to manage the hype machine, the scummy handling of the console release, the way they conned Microsoft and Sony, and the utter mess the refund situation became. At least they are committed to making things right and have been putting out numerous patches for almost 2 years with a seemingly massive paid DLC coming next year)

Overall score (mostly ignores business practices unless they are detrimental to the game experience):

PC score: 9.5/10

PS5 Score (also applicable to Xbox Series X): 9/10 (points docked for the choice to use RT Shadows instead of RT Global Illumination or RT Reflections)

Es complicado hacer un review justa de Cyberpunk 2077. Todos sabemos lo complejo de su desarrollo y lo disfuncional de su lanzamiento, todas las decepciones y los problemas que ha traído. Yo en su momento viendo el percal decidí esperar lo que han sido casi dos años para darle una oportunidad, tiempo suficiente para que solucionen los graves problemas que afectaban al juego. Lo cierto es que, lamentablemente, el juego sigue achacado de todo tipo de bugs gráficos que te sacan de situación, un rendimiento terrible y algún que otro problemilla, pero para ser sinceros al menos es jugable y no se rompe en ningún momento.

La experiencia (obviando estos problemas) ha sido muy satisfactoria, CP2077 ha resultado ser un juego con muchísima personalidad, con unos temas muy interesantes y a la vez un buen sentido del humor, así como de una sensibilidad nada sensiblera. El juego brilla en sus relatos de Night City, cuando se para a hablar de las personas que conocemos por el camino, de la propia ciudad, de lo cotidiano y de lo que significa ser uno mismo. He echado de menos un mayor papel de los Fixers: que los golpes secundarios tengan una mejor presentación y calado, aunque todos ellos y el escáner de la NCPD sirven para darnos más rienda suelta para probar nuestra habilidad. Los "curros secundarios" son la mitad una parte importante del juego para dar espíritu a nuestro viaje, conocer a personas y a la ciudad, la otra mitad son algo más relajados y superficiales, pero hay equilibrio.

La jugabilidad y sus mecánicas no son lo más profundo del mundo, es obvio que está más enfocada a la fantasía de poder y en ese sentido cumple. Todas sus facetas son muy sencillas, pero su combinación resulta placentera y un mayor pulido a la IA de enemigos y ciudadanos hubiera paliado su mayor problema en este aspecto. Para futuras entregas (que espero que las haya) estoy seguro de que tendremos una jugabilidad mucho más "disfrutona" y compleja, pero considero que el resultado hoy en día es notable dentro del conjunto del juego.

Considero que la historia y la propia técnica narrativa de CP2077 son su buque insignia, la forma en la que distribuye su relato en principales, secundarias, eventos... es todo bastante orgánico. También el propio juego hace mucho porque conectes con sus personajes y con el propio V, cosa que pienso que consigue, a diferencia de muchos otros juegos que fracasan en este aspecto.

A mi humilde entender CP2077 es un juego indispensable, tanto para entender las problemáticas de la industria como por su propio valor. No creo que vaya a ser nunca lo que se prometió, pero es un juego que pese a su inestabilidad y resultado irregular te puede ofrecer un sabor único y una experiencia disfrutable como cualquier otra.

Firstly, it's set in a city rather than in nature and that just makes for an uglier environment. I only ended up taking a single in game photo / screenshot, which is really unusual for me in open world RPGs/action games. Running around a place that's full of trash... just not as appealing. The city vistas were sometimes cool, especially at night, just not as cool as nature.

The story was decent. I like the world they fleshed out. I did not like Keanu Reeves voice acting at all. It really ruined a lot of the story for me. All the other main characters were voiced well though. Some minor characters were terrible, like the Arasaka board members at the end.

Driving was not good, even after the 1.5 patch. I don't expect a game like this to be as fun as Forza Horizon 5 (which I was playing concurrently) but GTAV is very similar and the driving there is lots of fun. As a result, I mostly avoided driving and just ran or fast traveled. Had no interest in buying vehicles.

The graphics were good, but not mind blowing. I played on release on Xbox One X, but stopped when I got the point of no return in the story. I came back around the time of the 1.5 release and played on PC with an RTX 3070 on ultra settings and a 144 Hz monitor. Other games have been much more mind blowing, but part of this may just be my bias against the city setting.

I get why they went first person. But it means I rarely saw my character except when on the inventory screen. That's sad because there were so many cool clothes. Wish they would've implemented the thing where stats and appearance are uncoupled (like Assassin's Creed Odyssey) because I wanted to look cool but ended up looking ridiculous.

The music was pretty hit or miss. I was rarely driving so didn't experience many of the songs, but when I did, I was mostly skipping through and not finding much I liked. The atmospheric electronic stuff during gameplay was really good though. I really did not like the music in Witcher 3 (despite absolutely loving everything else in that game), so I was pleasantly surprised this time around.

Side quests largely met the high expectations set by Witcher 3. Sure, there was grinding fodder in there (police things, gangs, etc) but the gigs and proper side quests could be either quick little things, or really involved stories of their own. That element of surprise is part of what makes them so good. And the stories there are often as good as the main one; interesting characters and natural world building.

One piece of advise: get the double jump as early as possible. Once I discovered that in my first play through, it changed so much. On my second playthrough, I saved all my money until I could afford that unlock.

I'm really looking forward to the DLC stories. If they are anywhere near as good as the ones they did for Witcher 3, we're in for a treat.

Over a year after enjoying the disastrous release of Cyberpunk 2077, I finally installed, played and finished the game. I ended up putting ~65 hours into it, partly because I enjoyed the gunplay and the city design and partly (mostly) because of completionist syndrome. My overall reaction is... meh. There are some good things about the game:

1. Night city looks and feels great (nice neon aesthetic, interesting billboards, memorable skyline) and the surrounding areas (particularly the Badlands with its trash hills) are quite immersive.

2. The combat is broken (gameplay balance was not considered a priority) yet fun.

3. Some side quests and a few main quests (particularly in Act I) are interesting.

4. I generally like the rock star themes and would have liked it if they came up more.

5. The soundtrack is pretty good, to the point that I periodically Googled for individual pieces while playing. However, the soundtrack is usually appreciated when you are outside the city when it is not being drowned out by ambient noise.

6. I like the cyberpsycho fights for the most part.

However, the game suffers from fundamental problems that makes it mediocre at best:

1. Almost everything feels unfinished and unpolished, and many introduced mechanics rarely come up again. For instance, I didn't know swimming was a thing till halfway into the game and it ended up being used in a single mission.

2. The main protagonist is outstandingly uninteresting (I mean, their main motivation is becoming a legend?) and we never see any reasonable character progression throughout their story.

3. The main antagonist is uninspired and poorly characterized (Arasaka Corporation is the embodiment of 'capitalism bad' facepalm). The game does not exactly flesh out (as in, demonstrate through game world design; Douchy Silverhand whining about them repeatedly does not count) who or what they are actually antagonizing.

4. Many of the main plot points either do not make sense or feel contrived and only there for the sake of the spectacle.

5. The game is still buggy (glad I didn't play it after release), which breaks immersion and shows how rushed it was. However, this is mostly a superficial issue at this point (I played it on the PC).

6. The augmentation system, which is a big part of the Cyberpunk universe, is disappointingly basic. Among games with similar gameplay, the Deus Ex franchise did it much better.

7. There are hardly any role-playing elements when it comes to dialogue and story choices (compared to similar RPG titles). Dialogue choices mean nothing for the most part and your character background is irrelevant after the first twenty minutes of the game.

Overall, Cyberpunk 2077 was unreasonably hyped, both by gamers who were aggressively sucking CD Projekt Red's cock, and worse, by the company itself, which took advantage of the goodwill acquired through Witcher 3 to overpromise on practically everything about the game. If they had spent half the money they wasted on marketing on actual game development, they could have released a presentable AAA title instead of a clusterfuck. The nail in the coffin for Cyberpunk 2077 is that it will probably always be compared to Witcher 3, which, although not perfect, is vastly superior on multiple fronts while being an older game.

As an aside, I am usually unimpressed by open world games without high fantasy elements. Shooting the nth human in the head gets boring extremely fast and there are too few varieties of enemies (humans and maybe four types of robots) in Cyberpunk 2077 to keep things engaging. For me, these game universes, which are augmented versions of our modern society, work for narrative-driven linear gameplay, but cannot emulate the epic feeling of an alternate open world with magic, monsters, and much greater stakes.

Actual Score: 3.5/5

PS: Press F to Play sick solo

I just put the controller down after finishing everything this game had to offer (except for the trophies, which I don't even try to get). I got only one ending in this playthrough. After 145 hours of playing Cyberpunk 2077 I don't even know how I feel. I don't think I spent so much time playing a single, and I never got bored with it.

Yes, this game has a lot of flaws, mostly performance and technical flaws. But I already knew that coming in to play it, so I just had fun with all the bugs and glitches. They were never game breaking for me.

As for the story, this is a deep game. Everything, even side jobs, gigs, and anything in between, has some meaning and its own story or circumstance. Everything. I loved all the characters with their own personalities and quirks. The options where the story could go were diverse but never overwhelming. Excellent dialogue, although I would get lost sometimes since I am not used to that way of talking (very urban, or I don't know how to describe it. And hey, I am not a granny, English is my second language lol!).

I loved the gameplay, letting you choose how to play the game in terms of all guns blazing or more tech oriented. Both versions worked pretty well. I do have to mention that driving in this game is horrible. So bad, that I would just make fun of it. it may sound crazy, but I used fast travel only 3 times during this whole playthrough. I would drive everywhere, because even though the mechanics were bad. I liked to go around the city and just look at it.

Cyberpunk has a spot in my top 5 favorite games. I would have given it 5 stars if it wasn't for all the glitches. If you are still hesitant to try this game, I would recommend it, maybe after it gets more updates and it starts running like it was meant to. I will revisit it when the expansions are released.

There's no denying Cyberpunk 2077 isn't finished. It's awfully optimised and you can't go five minutes without encountering some kind of weird bug. However, there is a great game underneath. There's a beautifully designed world with side quests that make sense for the protagonist's way of life, whether it be jobs or a cool little story. The main story is broken up into two. There's V main quest to save their own life, and then there is the lives of the people you encounter and helping them with their problems and if you decide to, fall in love. I loved the characters in this game and I found the majority of the story and side content compelling. This is the kind of game I've always wanted, a sci fi world or city that you can get lost in. There are things that could be added to make it more immersive and there are a lot of things that need fixing. But I have faith that the actual devs at CDPR will finally be able to present the game they originally intended before company management got in the way. So close to being brilliant, but the technical issues dampen it.

I will also add that I played on the PS4 Pro, so it runs relatively well for me. I feel those who attempted to play on the regular PS4 and Xbox One.

I really hate that I can't give this game the 5 stars it would have got if every ambition from the creators was fulfilled, but I still enjoyed the pot, the world the gunfights and some cool tricks you can do with body augments and cyberwares.

I also really love a lot of the characters, voice acting was super good (Team Judy)

I played on PS4 Pro and the game looks okay for the most part, it is not broken but the bugs are clearly annoying to the point of loading the last save every couple of hours. I would really advise to wait at least a good year before diving into night city and even then only do so if you like open worlds experiences and looter shooters because it's not as deep as Deus Ex and clearly the RPG element is here but it's not Baldur's gate either. If you don't get your hopes unreasonably high you will find a pretty good game.

The big one. The one I've been waiting for since 2015 (only just found out about it after beating Witcher 3). Did it live up to my expectations? Kind of, I didn't watch many trailers or stuff before the release so my expectations weren't that high as some others.

The game is like GTA V meets Deus Ex with a classic cyberpunk story about life, death and consciousness. And that really is CD Project Red's strong card, their story, their characters and their dialogue. You feel really immersed in the cutscenes and strongly feel for these characters once you get to know them. The combat and enemy encounters is good and is fun most of the time. Voice acting and music is really good. I wish there were a couple of more songs on the radio stations though

What is not as great is the free roam though. Yes the quests, sidequests and combat is good but Night City feels much much emptier and less alive than I would have wanted. One of the few trailers I watched promised a living city but it feels more like a worse version of the GTA V world. And don't get me started on the driving and traffic. There's just so little to interact with in the world, there aren't even any barber shops or surgeons! You can't change your appearance after the beginning. Some of the "factions" or "gangs" that were in another trailer I saw, only showed up once in my playthrough. Some didnt even show up at all. I had hoped it would be more like Fallout where you get to know all factions and they're all important.

The abilities you unlock are fine, there is much room for improvement there. There's no transmog in the game and if you want to level up some shitty but good looking gear, it's not even gonna work because the crafting is completely unbalanced. It barely improves on the stats and it costs waaaaay too much. So, the only option is to look ugly or have a hard time in combat. Also you can't become a cyborg, like a full metal beast, which I really thought would be an option in the game. Instead, implants are just bonus stats and some bonus abilties and most of them don't show up on your body. Huge disappointment there. In terms of customization, it is pretty bad. And the "in depth" character creator? It's probably less in depth than Fallout 4's character creator. You can't even change body type.

Bugs. bugs bugs bugs. I am sure many of these will be fixed but the game has a big number of bugs as of the time that I'm writing this. Can't interact with objects, clothes disappearing, hair disappearing, T-poses, things falling through the ground, things staying in the air.. etc. It is not pretty. And it's pretty badly optimized. I had to play the game on 40 fps where I play similar new games at 60. Keys for PC feel like they're a second thought and nobody actually tested it. Trying to change the keys doesn't work, it doesn't save. And the default layout is pretty bad, like dashing for example. Its mapped to a double tap of any movement button. Which isn't that good when you're trying to be stealthy and your character dashes out straight into the line of fire.

Overall, the awesome quests and characters make up for much of this, but it doesn't make up for what was supposed to be the big one. 8/10.