Quick Cyberpunk 2077 Review

I've been playing Cyberpunk 2077 lately. A good friend of mine purchased it for me in late December as a birthday gift.

I won't lie, I have definitely been enjoying the game and the fun mechanics that the game offers such as the Quickhacking feature.

I don't spend a lot of time on gaming anymore, so it's taken me a while to really absorb the game.

Preface

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Much like everyone else born after the 90s, I've been gaming since I was a kid. Now that I've got more responsibilities and hobbies, I don't set aside a lot of time to enjoy gaming as much as I used to. 

I have spent ~36 hours on the game over the course of a month and a lot of that time has been spent on side missions and random events. Personally, I love role playing games that allow me to tackle my character's problems however I believe my character would. Whether that is talking my way through something, stealthing through it, or just going in guns blazing. Games like Fallout: New Vegas really capture that feeling.

This game does have skill trees and some exclusive dialogue choices, but they are somewhat lack luster. Oh, and the bugs...

My Opinion

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While I do enjoy the game, it feels like I'm playing a game in it's late "early-access" phase. There are numerous glitches with a lot of the systems that are supposed to run in the background.

For example, you will often run into duplicate NPCs or duplicate cars that are following the exact same pathfinding. Also, I've ran into issues where a random NPC is walking down the street, and as I go to approach them, they just fade out of existence right as I approach. Seeing something that you were going to interact with simply fade out of existence feels cheap and it feels like the game robbed me of an interaction. 

The Good

There are many things that Cyberpunk does right. The side characters and their story lines are actually interesting and they give you a chance to get to know each of the side characters and the things that they value. This is great for roleplaying and feeling invested in the quests and their characters. I love the driving sequences when you are the passenger seat. It's nice that the game gives you the opportunity to simply take in the sights and have an optional conversation with the character in the driver's seat. 

CDPR also did a great job designing the levels in such a way that they can be completed in your preferred style of gameplay. Your "gameplay style" is really a question of what weapons/cyberware you choose and how much you're going to invest into Quickhacks. You also have the option of choosing between stealth and combat.

You will also find objectives that will require you to solve a problem, such as getting past a blocked door. There are clearly many ways you can go about this, but the game might present you with an option to shove the door open IF your strength level is high enough. The same thing applies to some of the other stat points.

Mechically, the game feels great to play. The gunplay was done really well, especially when used alongside Quickhacks. The melee combat is definitely better than Skyrim's, haha. The NPCs react to being hit, so it doesn't just feel like you're striking a hitbox. Finally, there is always something to do or work towards. Often times, TOO much to do. It can be overwhelming, but luckily the game gives you space to play however you like and take your time.

The Bad

Continuing from my last point, there are many times when your character has the opportunity to say something that is only available to you because of a stat point, like your "Cool" stat or "Reflexes" stat. Often times, your character's origin story will also come into play, but it all feels very shallow. Most of the time, these exclusive choices do not actually contribute to your story, but rather allow you to say something witty or display your tech knowledge by blathering on about some techno-babble before being forced to pick the "Continue the story..." dialogue option, anyway. The outcome of these conversation rarely ever depends on your exclusive dialogue choices.

Also, THE BUGS! Plenty could be said... about the immersion breaking bugs... but I won't waste your time. You can view the video I linked all the way at the top if you wanna see how bad it gets. To summarize, the developers have built this grand world to immerse you, but the systems that it relies on break often which means that it often fails at the very thing it sought out to do.

to summarize...

Ending note

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While the concept was great and the design was streamlined for immersion; bugs frequently break that immersion. When that immersion is broken, the game feels like an aesthetically pleasing shooter/stealth game with surface-level dialogue branches and many unaddressed bugs and AI glitches. It's a high quality product that often fails to immerse you as much as it could. Darn, Bugs!

This is NOT to say that the story or sidecharacter questlines are surface-level stories. They touch on intersting topics about Sci-Fi, your "soul",  AI, etc.

I am simply saying that the "decisions" you make, only make surface-level changes to the story.

Frankly, I'd wait for all the bugs to be fixed before spending any more than $30 on this game. If the bugs have been fixed, I could see this selling for $40 in a year or two.

Thanks for reading :)

Let me know what you think in the comments.