image copyright CD Projekt/CD Projekt RED 2020
Since release day, I’ve been jumping in and out of Cyberpunk as often as I can when not working. I had it pre-ordered & pre-installed, and was looking forward to this game all year, pushing past the numerous delays & setbacks. This was my most hyped game of this year and my most anticipated game in a long time. Did it live up to that hype so far? Yes and no. Let me explain why.
What hasn’t worked?
Ok so let’s get this out of the way, it’s what everyone knows about already & you don’t even need to play the game to know it has issues. I think, in this modern era of games, all new games launch with issues. It’s inevitable. But Cyberpunk launched with more than just issues, it launched unfinished. You’ve probably already seen the countless screenshots of NPCs T-posing, textures not loading in, player models not appearing, subtitles staying on-screen etc, I could go on for a whole paragraph. These are all bugs I’ve come across while playing so far, but does it ruin the experience? No. Sure they break the immersion a little, but these bugs don’t stop you from playing or progressing.
What does ruin the experience are the things that just do not work like they should. Take, for example, police AI, or more specifically the lack of one. Go all the way back to the original Grand Theft Auto on PS1, if you commit a crime and flee in a car, the police will actively chase you until you lose them or they kill you. Commit a crime in Cyberpunk, the game will spawn police near to you that weren’t in the area before who will shoot at you. A little annoying but so far it works. And it does work, until you walk away. You don’t even need to run, just walk. Walk around a corner and keep walking, and watch as the police don’t follow you. They will watch you go and keep shooting until you’re out of sight but won’t leave the area they were spawned into. Now try jumping into a car to get away and watch as they don’t get into their car to chase you. All you have to do is break their line of sight for long enough and they forget you even existed, regardless of how many wanted stars you have. The police just do not know how to chase you, and it means there’s no punishment for doing anything you like. The game’s world sets up the police to be this brutal, no-nonsense force that will put you down for looking at them. In reality, they are barely a nuisance at best.
Something that has also ruined the experience for me is how empty the world feels when you’re free-roaming. That might not make a lot of sense if you’ve seen videos of the world, it looks full of pedestrians walking around, cars driving around & the city looks alive. But when you actually take the time to walk around Night City, there just isn’t a whole lot happening. None of the pedestrians really react to anything when left to themselves, they just walk. Try to talk to one and they will say something totally random & out of context to what they’re doing. The cars constantly load in and out, sometimes even in view of the player, and the game struggles to maintain what cars have been loaded in around you so simply looking left and right changes what cars have been loaded in. It’s such a shame that the world feels so empty because it is absolutely gorgeous, and if the world NPCs had the same charm as the one’s from Watch Dogs Legion for example, it would make the game really stand out.
What has worked?
Enough of the negatives, let’s talk about what the game does well, because as many problems as it has it does some things incredibly well.
First, I need to talk about how the game looks. Cyberpunk looks insanely good, and yes even on last gen in my opinion. You are absolutely getting a better looking game on PC and PS5/Series X, but even on last-gen it looks so good. The neon lights, massive oddly shaped buildings, cyberpunk styles of clothing, how the environments look different in day and night times. Clearly so much work went into making this game look as Cyberpunk as possible and it absolutely succeeds on all fronts in my opinion. If you’re playing on PS4/Xbox One, you should definitely bear in mind that it will not look like the trailers, but it will still look incredible.
Another positive has to be the soundtrack and sound design. I will admit that I turn off the radio every time I get into a car in the game, but that’s just me, I do that in every game. All the songs I’ve heard through the radios throughout the world suit the city perfectly, with different genres playing in different areas to suit. The way the game uses sound as a means of engaging with enemies through your scanner is very well done too, letting you isolate and listen in to enemy conversations. The guns sound like guns, the explosions are satisfyingly loud, the blades have an over-the-top slicing sound that fits the combat perfectly. To top it all off, the combat music and various sound effects heard when in combat or stealth are very cyber-futuristic sounding and do a great job of immersing you into the game.
I think the biggest positive for me, and I think the most important thing when it comes to a good game, is the gameplay. The core gameplay is just plain fun. The world was built to run and jump around, and it feels great to do just that. Little things like automatically leaning around corners or over obstacles when aiming in cover, having enemies visible on the minimap when marked by the player, being able to switch between weapons on the fly with just a single button press, CQC with blades being extremely intuitive & fun, all of these things are done right and make the game flow, making the overall gameplay experience fun. There are little tweaks here and there that would make it even better, the hacking for example doesn’t feel that necessary right now in the early game, but there are very few things I can complain about gameplay wise.
So, is Cyberpunk 2077 the game CD Projekt RED wanted to release? I think I can confidently say no. Does it need some serious improvements to be even close to that game? Absolutely yes.
But is it the dumpster fire the internet seems intent on making it out to be? Definitely not. If you’re considering buying Cyberpunk but are hesitant because of all the negativity surrounding it, I really recommend picking it up and playing past Act 1. For me, it starts to become the game I wanted it to be once Act 2 begins, and if CDPR can implement the fixes they say are coming, it will be well worth playing through.
MTwo Reviews 