Cyberpunk 2077

Reviewing a game like Cyberpunk 2077 comes with a lot of background of which I'm sure most are aware. The game was one of the most hotly anticipated titles of last year - and probably within the last 5 years - because of the ambition showcased during way-too-early gameplay videos from the developer. 

It suffered numerous delays of which gamers are usually willing to forgive, per the mantra: "A delayed game may eventually be good, but a bad game is bad forever." The developers, CD Projekt Red had earned a ton of goodwill from the gaming community for creating one of the best games of the last decade: The Witcher III (which is probably one of the best games I've ever reviewed too). 

Cyberpunk represented a departure for the ambitious Polish development company. They were moving away from the 3rd person, fantasy game based on a preexisting world (novels of the same name) and creating their own, unique futuristic landscape while also transitioning to first-person shooter. It was a very ambitious undertaking, but also one they had plenty of time to pull off. 

Long story short, the game's release in December of last year was a disaster. On high-end PCs the bugs were minimal, but it was all but unplayable on "base" PS4s and Xbox Ones. If you had the "pro" version of either of those, it was mildly playable. Gamers were infuriated, refunds were issued, and the game - again, I'll reiterate that it was one of the most anticipated of all time - was pulled from the PlayStation store, of which it has yet to return as of this writing. Even worse, gamers were finding it nearly impossible to get the new systems, PS5s and Xbox Series X, that could actually handle the game and are still too hard to come by. 

In case you've been wondering, yes. PS5 makes it incredibly easy to share my own screenshots of games that I review

Wow. Much fast. So speed

As details emerged, the story was a saddening and maddening example of executives who don't listen to their employees. Developers and the actual coders/creators had been screaming from the rooftops that the game was not ready for now-last-gen consoles. Executives ignored them. For their hubris, their stock took a nose-dive and the company's bonus structure was reorganized to give more to the developers (well-deserved) than the executives who butchered the launch. 

As you may know, I was lucky enough to get a PlayStation 5 back in late November. So I've struggled to fully grasp the disappointment that many have felt with Cyberpunk because it has generally worked fine for me on the new hardware. There's a wildly interesting business case study that will come of all this someday, but for all intents and purposes I'll be rating the game from my experience with it versus what the overall consensus is. Just please know that if you lack the hardware to play this (e.g. high end PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X) it's probably best to hold off. 

Aside from all the drama around its release, I played Cyberpunk 2077 slowly. Why? Because I wanted to not get too far (or complete it) before the actual PS5 version released. Currently I'm playing the PS4 game/disc. Once it was announced the PS5 version was delayed until Q3 2021+, I lost patience and have been playing it at my leisure, no longer really caring if I ever get to experience the highest-end version or not. I move from game to game quite quickly and I can almost guarantee that I'll no longer have the time or interest by the time November 2021 rolls around. 

Extra long preface aside, how is Cyberpunk 2077? Is it as massive a disappointment as its launch? No, it's not nearly as massive as the disappointment you've heard when it works. In fact, it's a wildly imaginative game with an impressive and fully realized open world, a cast of memorable characters, and a captivating, if not messy narrative. I've generally loved it and it satisfies the "one more thing" itch that comes from the best of open world games. 

I would buy this car in real life

I always feel like somebody's
watchin meeeeeee

In terms of what I don't like, Cyberpunk 2077 has a fairly short list, but the impact of these items tends to grow overtime. There are enough bugs even on hardware as powerful as a PS5 that it's worth mentioning and I've had more than a handful of crashes (though none recently, to be fair). I feel like each new update from the developers tends to make things wonky as recent ones have left more T-posed NPCs around the world (probably 1 out of every 100) and looting has become spotty. Speaking of looting, it's f**king annoying here and the first game that can move us forward from mashing a button to pick up stuff in these looter-shooters is going to be massive. With Cyberpunk, looting is important, but often painful. You must be looking straight at the item, then press Square. Often times - worse after recent updates - when I'd look at items, I'd be unable to loot or have to just mash Square to finally pick it up. This isn't consistent, but it's often enough that it began to drive me crazy and was one of those bugs that progressively irks you over time. 

Related to looting, the UI and management system for clothing, weapons, etc. has its own pros and cons. Sticking with cons for now, the process to review your inventory and select things to sell or dismantle is beyond tedious. I get that in any RPG I'm likely to lose quite a few hours doing inventory managing, but with Cyberpunk it was obnoxious to compare what I received to what I had equipped, see if it was better, individually break them down, or individually sell them. Again, going forward, the game that can streamline this will be a benefit for the whole industry.

Panam, I love you

Lastly, the main story's ending is a huge letdown, ending with a whimper rather than anything remotely as exciting as what came before it. The build up is palpable and before I knew it, I was stuck in a really boring "Epilogue" that lasted around 30 minutes before I finally beat the game, got the credits, and was sent back to the open world. Even worse is the writing at the end is awful and it's clear they mostly wrote themselves into a corner around how to resolve the relationship between V (your protagonist) and Johnny Silverhand (who lives in your head). It tries to be about as existential as possible and falls flat on its face; aiming for a Bioshock-level twist and resulting in something that was pompous and nonsensical. This is particularly disappointing because I found the rest of the story captivating, exciting, and unique. 

So yeah, Cyberpunk isn't perfect. In particular, I think it's more that it disappoints in key areas versus actually ever doing anything outright terribly (except for the bugs). This was the game that was supposed to blow us all away and be the only thing we'd play for months so when something has that much hype, the disappointments are bound to hurt that much more. 

Oh look! It's John Wick!

Luckily, there's plenty that Cyberpunk does really well. Probably most noticeable is that the game has a distinct style...a unique vibe. It's a game, much like some of the characters, with a chip on it's shoulder. This is decades in the future so the technology advancement is there, but yet the quality of life seems to have decreased. Night City is a crowded, dirty, neon-lit place with rude people, violent crimes left and right, and downright sexual ads on most billboards. Sex sells. Violence sells. Tech sells. There was never a time while playing this game where it feels like a shade of something else; it is uniquely its own and the world they've crafted is one that I'd love to continue exploring. Not quite on a "Rockstar" level, this open world is very busy and features enough variety to make it feel like a real city without being boring. In addition, the designs of fashions, vehicles, guns, and characters are all really impressive. Cars in particular are f**king awesome, some of which making my jaw drop in how sleek, sexy, and futuristic they looked. Unfortunately, customization of any of this stuff is purely based on what has the highest stats so things like customizing your car's color, your guns colors, or even what clothes you wear isn't an option. For a game this big and significant, that's truly a huge miss.

Aside from the aforementioned lame ending, the story here is engaging, packed with memorable and (mostly) well-written characters. You play as V, a protagonist who gets the psyche of Johnny Silverhand stuck in his head during a heist-gone-wrong. The chip is slowly killing him and he must race to separate it from his mind. My male-based V (one of the first times I've chosen a male protagonist in quite some time) had solid voice acting, even if he's a bit of a douche. Lines are delivered naturally as you select what you want to say and he's got the ability for more tender moments or action-based one-liners when he needs it. Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, is a wildly unique character mostly because of Reeves' performance. At times, it felt like the acting was stellar, and other times it's cringeworthy which creates such an interesting overall character that I'm inclined to think it's a subtly brilliant performance. The story deals a great lot with the seedy not-so-underground of Night City and multiple other side quests open up completely unrelated and powerful stories of their own, much like The Witcher 3 did so incredibly. My favorite of which was building a relationship with a Nomad group and woman. Panam (her name) is such an incredible character, both in performance and how realistic the relationships grows that I became attached to her - willing to risk anything to end up at her side. Yes, her character design is bonkers hot, but she's also a genuine character who has a worthwhile growth arc. Many other characters earn their keep in different ways but by and large, this game has a lot of people and a lot of story in which it rarely disappoints (but again...that ending sucks). 

The open world of Night City has a lot to do right off the bat and you can pretty much go anywhere. Looking at your map can be overwhelming (in mostly a good way) because it's clear there's so much to do. Side quests, police requests, hidden to-dos, and more litter your map almost so densely that it's hard to choose which one you want to select at times. At the end of the day, I found that most of what you're going to do in Cyberpunk is variation of the go-here-shoot-this or go-here-sneak-around variety. That's a bit of a let down in some regards, but I found there were enough twists on the formula and surprises at various locations throughout that it would take me a while to get bored of it. Not to mention that continuously playing in a certain style, or with a weapon, helps you to upgrade faster. 

That's quite a...ahem...tight dress

In particular, the upgrading is one Cyberpunk's most rewarding, complex, overwhelming, and best features. You can upgrade various segments of your skillset with specific points and then "double click" within each of those skillsets to choose various upgrades within various branches they create. Even after hours of playing, I'd say that over half the skills are still locked away from me and I created a character with mostly evenly spread skill points. These upgrades aren't just all percentage buffers either. Some are skills that make a difference (i.e. slow motion when enemies see you) or can unlock new paths. On top of all the upgrade options from the skill trees, you then enter your character's inventory where you can outfit your weapons, clothing/armor, cybernetics, and cyberdeck (skills you can use with quickhacking). If that sounds like a lot, that's because it is and the game does a pretty awful job at walking you through it, but once you get the hang of it it means that there are endless possibilities for what kind of player you want to be. 

On the surface, you may think that Cyberpunk is a straightforward FPS a la Call of Duty or something similar. In some ways it is, but I found the combat here is generally slower because it's more challenging. Cyberpunk has a shocking learning curve; it was quite hard when I started playing and I died a lot. Most encounters looked like me taking lots of cover and popping off shots. Even later in the game, taking 2-3 hits from most enemies has your health almost completely wiped out. Unfortunately, the AI is horribly stupid 90% of the time so this becomes a rare occasion that you get lit up, but even still, I found that going in guns-a-blazing was usually a way to get killed. Stealth is made far more unique by "Quickhacking", probably the most unique tool in your arsenal that overlays a UI on your screen, allowing you to ping to see where enemies are, shut down cameras, trigger enemy grenades, etc. It arguably adds a 4th layer to the combat (stealth, melee, gunplay, quickhacking) and I found it was worth investing time into because it was highly effective. When you do need to use firearms, there's a lot to enjoy here with revolvers, shotguns, assault weapons, snipers, and more - most of which have some distinct feature to them. Finding a new purple or orange weapon was exciting throughout, even if I used generally the same layout the whole time: silenced pistol, silenced sniper, "smart" assault weapon.

Despite the technical bugs, Cyberpunk 2077 is generally a gorgeous game, especially on PS5. There's a level of shine/polish that I'm sure will emerge on the actual PS5 version, but even the PS4 version is packed with details in each environment, character model, and weapon. They're fantastic, but also not so good they justify the bugs but working smoothly, this would likely be one of the best looking games in your library. Even more impressive is the sound and music of which Cyberpunk nails it. The music - both original score and soundtrack - do a lot to add to that "chip on your shoulder", futuristic vibe and the soundtrack (only available while driving) bumps hard. Sound effects of weapons, cars, hacking, etc. are all well done and add to the vibe too. 

"Look, let's talk this out, ok?"

I've clearly gone very long on Cyberpunk 2077, which I new would happen because...well, there's a lot to talk about. It's probably one of the most interesting, unique, disappointing, but promising videogames I'll ever review. It's commercial "failure" (it still sold a s**tload of copies) is a perfect example of developers probably being too ambitious and executives being too confident. That's a dangerous combination of which they're paying the consequences. But CD Projekt Red is a collective of tons of talent and I hope they survive, pick themselves up, and deliver a masterpiece next. Cyberpunk 2 deserves to be made, but not if it takes another 10 years and still comes out unfinished. As for Cyberpunk 2077? It will forever be memorialized as one of the most disappointing games of all time, even if the actual game - when working - is pretty awesome. 

CONS

• Even on PS5, there are enough bugs worth mentioning and I've had probably ~10 crashes. For a PS4 game on hardware this powerful? That's unacceptable
• Looting became a thorn in my side and got worse over time. Instances where I couldn't pick up an item at all were too frequent
• The UI to manage your inventory is poorly organized and makes it especially hard to compare one thing to the next and sell/deconstruct things efficiently. I was bogged down w/ inventory management here more than other games (not a weight-related issue, purely navigation)
• For such a captivating and interesting story, it sure does end with a thud; it's a pompous, boring section that believes it just blew your mind
• Like...a very weird/comical amount of sex "stuff"
• Lack of customization of anything. Clothes, cars, guns, tech...all comes as it is
• Could have done a better job at explaining upgrade options, outfitting your cybernetics/cyberdeck, etc.
• Why can I only have 3 weapons at any given time? Annoyingly limiting
• The AI is more often than not pretty bad

PROS

• Cyberpunk has a distinct vibe. It's a game/world with a chip on its shoulder and a clear attitude that is always there
• Highly unique at every turn. The fashion, vehicles (good Lord are there some awesome cars in this game), guns, and technology feel distinctly their own
• Captivating story that pulls you in and rarely lets up (until that s****y ending). The core missions are exciting and fun
• CD Projekt Red continues their trend of having incredible "side" stories and quests. They're the majority of the gameplay here and many of them are memorable
• Unique, memorable characters throughout. After starting rather generic, V turns into a likeable protagonist and Johnny Silverhand (and Keanu Reeves' performance) is something wild to witness
• #Panam&V4Ever
• Night City is a cool open world with plenty to do. Opening your map is consistently overwhelming in the best of ways and the game hits that "one more thing" itch
• A robust, complicated, and overwhelming (in good ways) upgrade system that truly makes an impact and provides you the ability to create a unique play style
• Difficult combat that has a good balance between gunplay, stealth, and quickhacking. Quickhacking in particular was a tool I used often
• Weapons are cool, if not a tad generic, but I found certain ones to fit my playstyle well
• Gorgeous, even when playing a PS4 version on PS5. There's a lot of detail and complex lighting that I'm sure looks jaw-dropping on the future PS5 version
• Wonderful sound design, original score, and soundtrack. It does a lot to add to the "vibe"

Rath's Review Score | 8.5/10