Before it was released Cyberpunk 2077 was probably one of the most anticipated video games in a long time. The game was made by the accomplished developers of the Witcher series and was really ambitious. Its debut didn’t go as planned though as it was filled with bugs and was a perfect example of a video game released before it was ready. This lead to a lot of bad reviews and general negativity towards the game. Since its release though the game has received quite a few updates which have fixed a lot of the game’s initial bugs. Through all of this I had waited for a reason to check out the game. Last week the PlayStation 5 version of the game was released which was a good enough reason to check out the game. Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long ways from its troubled launch to its current state as a compelling action RPG set in an interesting vibrant cyberpunk world.
In Cyberpunk 2077 you play as V. The world of Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in a future where technology has taken over and humanity has fully embraced utilizing cybernetic enhancements. You play as a mercenary who just arrived in Night City in order to make their fortune completing various jobs around the city. You may begin as just a simple mercenary, but after one of your jobs goes sideways you are thrust into a city on the brink of violence as powerful forces fight for control.
Cyberpunk 2077 is at its core an open world action RPG. The world features a main storyline along with side missions and various other missions scattered around the city. The city is quite large and detailed providing a lot of potential content. In a lot of ways Cyberpunk 2077 is similar to a lot of the open world games released these days.
The mission structure can differ quite a bit depending on the nature of the mission and your playstyle. The game features a number of different gameplay mechanics. While combat is probably the main gameplay element, the game has a number of other elements including an interesting detective/investigate mechanic where you try to piece together what happened in an area.
While certain missions require you to tackle them in a specific way, the game usually gives you quite a bit of leeway in how you want to approach your objective. This comes from giving players a choice on what type of combat they prefer. In many situations you can choose between going in stealthy or throwing caution to the wind and just attacking anyone that gets in your way. In most situations both are valid strategies. Successfully sneaking around lets you take out enemies without even having to engage in combat. If you would rather go in guns blazing though you can overpower enemies as long as you do a good job using cover and avoiding enemy attacks. On top of this the game also features both ranged and melee combat so you can use whichever you prefer.
In a lot of ways the combat and stealth shares a lot in common with many other action games. One area where the game differentiates itself is through the use of various cybernetic upgrades that you can install. Many of these can be used to hack into enemies or objects in your surroundings in order to distract enemies or even kill/hurt them. The game has quite a few customization options where you can craft your character to fit your desired playstyle.
While I never really got into the initial hype of Cyberpunk 2077, it was a game that intrigued me. It was unfortunate that the game was released before it should have been leading to its rocky start. Unfortunately too many games are released like that these days. I had hope that the game would improve over time and that is the main reason why I waited so long to check it out. While the game is still not perfect, I think it has overcome most of its initial problems and has become a really good game in its own right.
I will admit that I was a little underwhelmed when I first started playing the game. This isn’t because the game is bad. It just took some time to really get into the game. Part of this is because while the game is quite fun, many of the mechanics aren’t drastically different than other games that I have played before. Because of this it took some time for the game to grow on me. As I became more familiar with the game’s mechanics and started to utilize them more, it really started to turn a corner and show its potential.
For the most part I thought the gameplay was quite compelling. I really liked that the game usually gives you options of how to approach different situations. I personally think some approaches are better than others, but I like when games give players choices. For example I tended to focus more on stealth and the gun combat as the melee combat didn’t appeal to me all that much. Those who really like the melee combat though could focus on that aspect of the game. The game lets you play it how you want which helps with the overall immersion.
With how many issues the game had with its initial launch, a lot of people are probably wondering how the next gen (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S) update has gone. While the game still has some issues, it seems much better than the initial issues that the game had. So far the game has only crashed once for me, oddly during an early game cutscene. Otherwise I really haven’t encountered any huge game breaking bugs. Most of the bugs are graphical or physics based. Basically they have been the type of bugs that might slightly break immersion, but are kind of funny at the same time. If you are looking for a perfect game with no bugs, you aren’t going to get it with Cyberpunk 2077. The bugs don’t impact the overall experience that much though.
For the most part I enjoyed the gameplay of Cyberpunk 2077. I wish it had a few more unique mechanics at times as it sometimes feels like quite a few other games in this genre. I would say the biggest issue I had with the gameplay is just that it feels like the game tried to be too ambitious. The game tries to do a lot and most of it is pretty fun. At times though it feels like the game tried to do too much which left some areas of the game a little underdeveloped. The main story and some of the side missions are quite good. Some of the additional content kind of feels like it was added in for filler though where not enough time was spent polishing those aspects of the game.
With the gameplay out of the way, lets move onto the visuals and story. While I generally like futuristic/sci-fi themes, I have to say that I have never been the biggest fan of the cyberpunk theme. While it is an interesting premise, I wouldn’t say that it is one of my favorites. Despite this I have to say that I was impressed with the visual and story aspects of Cyberpunk 2077.
For the visuals I generally thought the game was quite impressive. While the game was originally designed to work on past generation hardware as well as the current generation hardware, I think the game is still quite visually impressive. There are occasional times where the visuals seemed more last generation, but there are other times where the world looks amazing. While the world of Cyberpunk 2077 is dark/grimy/etc, the world itself is quite impressive to look at. The character models are quite nice as well. There really isn’t much to complain about as far as the visuals are concerned.
As for the story I enjoyed it quite a bit as well. You can tell that CD Projekt Red spent a lot of time creating the world of Cyberpunk 2077. While it shares elements of other futuristic sci-fi movies/video games, it is quite unique as well. While the world of Cyberpunk 2077 is quite mature (the game received a M rating for pretty much every reason you could), it is a really interesting world to explore. The world is weird in that it is so different from our own (mostly due to the technological advancements) and yet it feels similar as well. In addition to the world, the characters are really interesting and unique.
As for the main story I found it pretty compelling. The story and world itself might actually be Cyberpunk 2077’s greatest strength in my opinion. The story starts off a little slow, but it really picks up and goes in some different directions than your typical story in this genre. If the premise interests you at all, I think you will really enjoy the story of Cyberpunk 2077.
Like all open world games, the amount of time you will get out of Cyberpunk 2077 is really going to depend on how you approach the game. The world is quite large and there is a lot to do in the game. If you just focus on the main story without spending much time on the side missions or other things around the city, the game will likely take at least 20 hours to complete. If you do more than just the main story though, the length of the game grows significantly. If you wanted to 100% the game I would bet it could take close to 100 hours. Thus unless you only focus on the main story, you likely will easily get your money’s worth out of the game.
On the topic of value, I wanted to quickly bring up that while the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions were just released, if you purchased a previous version of the game, you can get a free upgrade to the newest version of the game. For example if you own the PlayStation 4 version of the game, you can get a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version of the game. While Cyberpunk 2077 had a rough start for last generation consoles, I think this is a great thing for CD Projekt Red to do for fans that bought the game even when it had so many issues.
Cyberpunk 2077 had almost as bad of a launch as you could expect from a major video game release. Since that time though the developer has spent a lot of time fixing the game’s many issues and they have succeeded for the most part with the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S releases of the game. In many ways the game is like your typical open world action RPG. I wish there was a little more variety in the gameplay, but it is still a lot of fun. I like how the game gives you options for how you want to approach different scenarios. The game’s world is large and well developed which makes you feel like you are playing in a futuristic cyberpunk city. The game has come a long way and has for the most part reached the potential that most people had for the game before it was released. The game is still not quite perfect though as it does still have some bugs and some aspects of the game could have used a little more polish.
If you don’t generally like open world games or the cyberpunk theme doesn’t really appeal to you, I don’t think Cyberpunk 2077 will be for you. If you played the game at launch and didn’t care for it due to all of the bugs or have waited to play the game because of them, I think it is finally time to check out Cyberpunk 2077 as you should really enjoy it. As a positive if you already own a previous generation version of the game, you get a free upgrade to a PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X|S copy of the game.
Buy Cyberpunk 2077 online: Amazon (PC (Standard)
We at Geeky Hobbies would like to thank CD Projekt Red for the review copy of Cyberpunk 2077 used for this review. Other than receiving a free copy of the game to review, we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation for this review. Receiving the review copy for free had no impact on the content of this review or the final score.
