Cyberpunk 2077: Review

 Cyberpunk 2077: Review - 

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

My phone rings. Dino, a high-level fixer in Night City, chats me up about how some rich corpo got robbed by a local gang and how they need someone to reacquire their goods, promising cash and street cred. After scoping out the location, I quickly hack the cameras, pinging gang members in the compound and dropping a virus in their systems that makes them more vulnerable to damage for a few minutes. I climb to a nearby roof and wait for the patrolling guard to turn away before leaping on top of the warehouse. Sneaking behind the guard, I grab him and drag him towards a conveniently located dumpster. After incapacitating him and throwing him in the dumpster in one slick move, I notice that his character model clips through the lid. Ignore that. 

Taking up position on the roof, I pull out a massive, silenced sniper rifle and begin headshotting lone guards in the surrounding vicinity, making sure no one is in their line of sight. The shadow texture breaks on one of the guards making his silhouette freak out as he falls. Ignore that. 

Eventually, one of the guards from the interior of the warehouse walks out and notices one of his dead comrades, immediately putting them all on alert. I turn back towards the center of the roof, tearing the screen dropping my frames for a quick second. Ignore that. I drop through a hole in the ceiling directly on top of a guard immediately downing him but I was spotted and gunfire erupts. The enemies start taking cover and peppering the container that I'm hiding behind while one of their more brazen members decides to be a hero and rush me with a bat. I unleash my Mantis Blades (wrist-mounted, extendable blades) and laugh maniacally as a slice the attacker into pieces. An animation bug makes my arm extend impossibly for a brief second. Ignore that.

With enemies advancing on my position cover to cover, I pull out a technical, precision rifle that can shoot through walls as long as I can mark a target and quickly peak over cover. Spotting one of the gang member firing at me from behind a concrete pillar, I quickly duck back behind cover. I see his red outline and charge up my rifle, blasting through both the shipping container that I'm hiding behind and his concrete pillar, watching his lifeless body fall. A grenade sails towards me but I know there are only two more in the warehouse so I switch to my smart SMG and dodge out of cover, highlighting the two who are left with the reticle. Then I simply fire wildly, watching with immense satisfaction as the homing bullets find their targets. One them decides to T-pose before dying. Still ignoring that. 

The warehouse is finally cleared so I spend some time looting each corpse, nabbing a new revolver that looks like its going to replace mine. One last thing to do, I get to the computer, jack in and get the stolen data. Another successful missio --- And my game crashes for the eighth time. Hard to ignore that. 

I know that the frequent autosaves won't let me lose too much progress but I also know that if I have to redo that job it won't have the same level of satisfaction, that it won't be as interesting, that I won't be as engaged. But I grit my teeth and do it because, despite everything it's still worth it to me. The question is, would it be worth it to you?

The Elephant in the Room

 

To my great distress, it is impossible to talk about Cyberpunk without mentioning the plethora of technical problems the games suffers from. It has become the primary talking point whenever someone is talking about the game and that is a massive disappointment considering how good the rest of the game is. I played the game on a base PS4 so, from all reports, I certainly experienced the brunt of the bugs, crashes, and problems that the game has shipped with. And honestly, it felt like it. Starting with the graphics, Night City during the day looks muddy with matted textures and granulated shadows mixed with hilariously bad pop-in especially while driving. Pedestrians and vehicles would blink into existence at a moment's notice particularly when you start or stop driving. To adjust to this, every time I got out of my vehicle after driving from another part of town, I would simply stand still for about 10-15 seconds and let the ambient sounds load in to avoid even crazier bugs and performance loss. Once the ambient sounds loaded in, I was generally alright to proceed without interruption. Although, this has to be the first game that changed the way I played to accommodate for the embarrassing bugs. Night City at night or the badlands fared better but still had their share of ugly textures, random pop-in, and stupid bugs. 

As for performance, I want to say that it stayed at 30 frames per second about 70% of the time, a frame rate that I'm fine with. However, the other 30% was a roller coaster of that plummetted between 10 and 20 frames. Typically, I was in an outdoor gun battle, I was driving around the city, or there were five or more enemies in my view when this happened. Again, I got used to the frequent dips and they didn't prevent me from playing the game, but they were there all the same. Secondly, the screen tearing in this game was horrendous. Frequently when turning, half of my screen would simply chill for a second before readjusting to the new viewpoint. Again, not every time I turned, but enough that it hurt to look at. Visual bugs also appeared consistently, with character models occasionally breaking, shadows moving separately from their characters, or objects randomly flying into outer space. All the tell-tale signs that this was a Bethesda game were here except its not a Bethesda game. 

Finally, and worst of all, there were the game-breaking issues that accompanied me throughout my time. I had a total of 14 game crashes during my 70 hour journey which were annoying, time-consuming, and immersion breaking. Furthermore, I had a major side quest bug where I couldn't progress at all since the mission was attempting to start the wrong part of the quest whenever I showed up to do it. This eventually fixed itself 30 hours later but still. As the crappiest cherry on top, once I reached about 75 hours of total playtime, I noticed that whenever I hacked something my game would screech to a halt, running at about 3 frames a second making it literally unplayable. This is apparently due to a memory leak in the save file. A recent patch fixed this specific and game ending problem. However, I continue to notice that the performance on my 75-hour character is vastly worse than my 4-hour character making me believe that it hasn't been completely fixed and preventing me from playing my main character as I don't want anything else to go wrong.

Overall, the game is a buggy mess. To call Cyberpunk an unoptimized and inconsistent jumble would be an understatement and, while I have faith that the developers will patch this game into a more playable state, as it stands, I cannot recommend this game to anyone beyond the most devoted and persistent gamers. I also want to reiterate that I played the game on a base PS4 where the problems are the worst so you may have better luck on the new consoles or on a powerful PC. Regardless, my experience was greatly impacted by the technical problems and that's the unfortunate truth.

Smart Writing Equals Good Storytelling

 

Now that the elephant in the room has finally been put down, I can actually talk about why I decided to push through the myriad of technical bugs and continue in Cyberpunk. And that starts with the industry leading writing team that CD Projekt Red has assembled. Every conversation, every interaction with major and minor characters alike flows with intelligent pacing and subtlety that few other games can even hope to achieve. There was not a single conversation that I skipped. Each character feels like they belong in the world and that they have their own goals, agendas, and personalities. One of the best moments in the entire story is just sitting on top of a construction site having a conversation with an interesting character. Genuinely, for fans of the genre or fans of good writing in general, Cyberpunk is a must-play. 

Furthermore, the actual story here is terrific. Engaging you with moralistic dilemmas that embrace the technological world, the tale is chalk full of fascinating set-pieces and mind-bending twists and turns. The much-hyped Keanu Reeves isn't a passing cameo but a consistently interesting presence throughout the game. The way that the game changes based on major story points is thoroughly refreshing making you wonder what might have happened had you done something differently. The overall tale of V, your protagonist, can be molded based on your choices within the game, your dialogue decisions, and your willingness to help out those in need.

The voice-acting from every single character feels pitch-perfect and elevates the exceedingly excellent writing. Even passing advertisements or the banter of a couple of loitering cops drew me in. To go along with that, the major side missions had me on the edge my seat each and every time. One story line had me going from solving a truly horrifying murder mystery to playing a virtual reality game with a couple of kids that had me laughing out loud at every turn. Yet the pacing never felt off or wrong, it just felt natural every step of the way. If there was one thing that kept me coming back to wade through the tide of glitches, it was to continue to experience the story, the writing, and the world of Cyberpunk.

A Merc in Night City

 

When Cyberpunk is running well enough, actually playing the game is excellent as well with fast-paced, kinetic action, a surprisingly entertaining stealth system, worthwhile and exciting loot, and a deep progression system that inspires multiple playthroughs. Duking it out with the insidious gangs and corporations of Night City made me grin ear-to-ear and wipe sweat from my brow in equal measure. With a solid, first-person cover system allowing you to pop out from any angle and a wide-variety of tools to use, each encounter felt fresh. At your disposal you have pistols, rifles, submachine guns, light-machine guns, shotguns, snipers, katanas, bats, throwing knives, and a whole host of hacking abilities ranging from a spreading viral infection to a blinding daemon that staggers foes. Ripping people apart with a katana feels just as good as silently cracking headshots or frying their brains with an incendiary quickhack. All of this is made better by the fact that the enemy AI (excluding bugs and issues) is actually intelligent, flanking you, taking cover, and rushing you with melee weapons when the moment calls for it. 

Each weapon class has three types of armament: power weapons hit hard and can ricochet, tech weapons can shoot through walls if charged, and smart weapons can track enemies no matter where you fire. Even further customization can be achieved through the different models of weapons that you can receive and the different mods you equip, making your weapons behave significantly differently. All of this doesn't even include your skill-tree which can great alter what you can do it combat based on the skills you've acquired. I specced into the 'Cool' tree which gave me access to the Cold Blood stacking buff. Each level I acquired granted me a new bonus when I defeated my first enemy, ranging from more armor to faster movement speed. My other major skill tree was 'Reflexes' which allowed my to use my pistol while running and mantling and gave me stupid amounts of critical headshot damage. However, I could have just as easily focused on 'Intelligence' giving my cyberhacks a significant boost in power or on 'Body' allowing my melee weapons to shine while I tanked the damage. The variety and execution of the various progression systems in Cyberpunk is leagues above the competition and will certainly inspire me to play through the game numerous times... once enough patches come out to fix the game. 

Perhaps the most surprisingly well-polished part of the gameplay is how fun the stealth is. Sneaking around and downing enemies, hiding their bodies in dumpsters, hacking security systems to turn off cameras and turn turrets hostile, using silencers to snipe unsuspecting guards, just everything works really, really well. It's probably the most interesting stealth game that I've played in a long time, allowing a wide variety of stealth approaches to work for nearly every encounter. However, none of that would even be possible if it wasn't for the consistently meticulous design of each and every level and area. From story moment set-pieces to your run of the mill gigs, each location is nearly perfect in design and complexity. There's cover for gun battles, there's multiple methods of ingress, there's a variety of hackable items, there's hidden areas with premium loot, there's no clear or obvious way to deal with any one situation and that is simply amazing considering just how many of these locations there are in the game.

The Look and Sound of Night City

 

It's hard to find a more divergent topic in Cyberpunk than that of the graphics and world-building. Sometimes, the game is simply gorgeous gazing out on fields of solar panels with drones flying overhead or talking with your highly detailed and well-animated significant other in a darkened room with the perfect ambient lighting. Other times, you'll be driving through the city and everything just looks like an incomprehensible blur, muddy textures combining unceremoniously with granulated shadows and pixelated sun rays. There's simply no consistent platform upon which to judge this game and that itself is a judgement. I will say that down the line, after a year of patches, fixes and updates, I believe the game will fall much more consistently on the side of beautiful as the graphical foundation of the game is solid, with vibrant scenery, clear art design, and bountiful pixels. Every once and while you'll catch a glimpse how the game is supposed to look and be stunned. However, for now, it's simply not there yet and the knowledge that something doesn't look right morphs into a new normality as you play the game, heavily detracting from the experience. 

On the other hand, despite the graphical failings, the world-building behind Cyberpunk is excellent. Every billboard, every building, every storefront consistently constructs a more vibrant world. The fact that I was never in doubt that I was in the same world whether I was in a luxurious penthouse or hiding from a sandstorm in some broken down camper speaks volumes about the character of the world here. Even as driving around, the radio stations bring the world together as every song was written and performed for this world. You'll hear pop music bouncing with lyrics that include Night City or body modification. You'll hear heavy metal railing against the control of the corporations in the world. Cyberpunk never breaks its immersion when constructing its world and is certainly the best in class at accomplishing this. 

Aside from the terrific original music through out, the sounds of the world are similarly excellent. With resounding booms from shotguns and snipers to the howling wind of a sandstorm, each sounds is excellent and draws you in closer to the world. The variety of car engine sounds alone is astounding with big trucks spewing gutteral melodies while the sports cars purr with power and finesse. Combining this sound design with the quality of the voice acting and music puts this game head and shoulders above the competition in terms of their soundscape. 

A Personal Question

 

The only way to conclude a review on Cyberpunk is with a personal question: How much technical imperfection are you willing to endure in order to enjoy one of the best video games of the generation? If your answer is 'a little bit', then this game is not for you quite yet. If your answer is 'a fair amount', then this game is still not for you quite yet. If your answer is 'I laugh in the face of bad frame rates, abominable textures and frequent game crashes', then I can recommend this game wholeheartedly. I fully expect this game to eventually become a classic but for the time being, if you can wait to play this game, please wait. The bugs and glitches and pop-in are more than a passing problem, the inhabit the very core of the game at the present time and its impossible to separate the terrific nature of the story, gameplay, and progression from them. 

With all of that said, if you can stomach the technical problems, Cyberpunk 2077 is amazing, through and through. Every aspect of the open world game is simply better here than anywhere else you've ever played it. The world-building, the story, the combat, the music, the progression systems, the loot, the writing, all of it is just at the highest level. For those looking for a deep dive into a rich cyberpunk universe with a compelling cast of characters, this game is that. For those looking for rewarding progression system where you can feel each level and each experience point alter the way you play the game, this game is that. For those looking for tense and action-packed shooter with numerous viable mechanics to mix up battles, this game is that. It's just so hard to see such quality marred by such technical incompetence. 

In a year's time, this game will be excellent, a pinnacle of the medium. As it stands, I simply can't recommend it to everyone.  

Final Verdict: 4.0/5.0*

 

 

*this is with expectation that bugs are slowly fixed

*5.0/5.0 if bugs are fixed - *3.0/5.0 as it stands 

Review Score Breakdown

1.0/5.0: Essentially unplayable, not enjoyable, or devoid of any gameplay satisfaction or erstwhile value.
2.0/5.0: Has a few, noteworthy features but is otherwise unremarkable or has a seriously detrimental downside.
3.0/5.0: The game has solid if unremarkable minute-to minute gameplay with a few highlights and considerable downsides.
4.0/5.0: The game is consistently fun and stimulating without any major bugs or issues holding it back.
5.0/5.0: This is an exceptional game that is simultaneously engrossing and thought-provoking in both subject matter and gameplay and is as close to perfect as they can make.