Product Info

Platform

PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC

Publisher

CD Projekt

Developer

CD Projekt Red

Series

Cyberpunk

Genre

Action, RPG

Players

1

File Size (Minimum)

59 - 102 GB

Release Date (NA)

Dec 10, 2020

Purchase From

Amazon

Best Buy

Walmart

Target

GameStop

PSN Store

Microsoft Store

Steam

Epic Games

Game was reviewed on a purchased copy and played on the standard PlayStation 4 console, game version 1.06.

Cyberpunk 2077 is working hard to become known as one of the most disastrous game releases in video game history. CD Projekt Red’s newest title has become notorious for constant crashes and bugs so bad that it forces restarts. Graphic clipping has provided the internet with hilariously bad screenshots and a repeated source of frustration for players. Despite multiple patches, gameplay almost a whole month after release was still rife with crashes. Most disappointing, even after the glitches and crashes were eventually resolved, Cyberpunk 2077 is still just a very average game.

The Future Is Even Worse Than You Expected

The basic premise of Cyberpunk 2077 is that you are V, a mercenary looking for work in Night City in 2077. Morally questionable jobs are abundant, as Night City is populated with the roughest and toughest of society. Night City is independent from the rest of the country, instead being primarily controlled by MegaCorporations. This corporate sponsorship of an entire city has elevated some of the population to wealth, but left most in the dirty and crime-ridden streets. However, even the most destitute person manages to have cybernetic enhancements installed on their person. Technological integration is prevalent in Night City’s culture, and this includes crime. As V, you are contracted to steal an important piece of hardware from one of these MegaCorps, and when the job goes sidewise, you find yourself fighting for your life.

More FPS, Less RPG

While trying to solve this pressing problem, the player takes up assorted jobs, usually involving murder, while navigating Night City. Jobs are obtained from Fixers that continually call you with a laundry list of chores, or by stopping crimes in progress that are always popping up in your path. Walking and combat are accomplished in first person, without a third-person option. Driving, a necessary task as Night City is quite large, can be done in first or third person. Thankfully so, as driving in first person is nearly impossible with its terrible camera angles and glare. Originally promoted as a roleplaying game, the player will discover that your character’s customization doesn’t actually mean much. In your initial build, the player chooses between Nomad, Corpo (a corporate employee), or Street Kid. Despite sounding interesting, these choices don’t seem to have much impact on gameplay or story, merely providing a different starting point in the game and few different choices in dialogue that ultimately don’t lead to anything. This trait runs throughout the game, with multiple dialogue options that have minimal-to-no effect upon the receiving character, storyline, or gameplay. V doesn’t have much of a personality, besides surly, and the player never really gets a chance to build one. This results in a lack of attachment to the character, and consequently the storyline. The voice acting, for both male and female V, is adequate, but the constant tough guy/gal act gets tiresome.

The physical customization menu appears extensive at first, but lacks depth upon further inspection. While being able to pick your breast or penis size is amusing, basic choices like hair color or tattoos are limited, and everything is rendered with a bizarre green hue. Even clothing options are frustrating. The player is obliged to use the piece of clothing with the highest armor class, regardless of appearance, which is frequently unappealing. This also affects photo mode. There’s no easy way to equip a whole outfit, so taking a photo of V either requires you to equip each individual clothing piece, or wear your strange, mismatched combat gear. The only real choices of consequence in the game come in the form of a skill tree, where the player strengthens combat-focused abilities, like melee, ranged, and stealth attacks, hacking, and crafting.

Multiple Methods of Murder

Combat is a highlight of Cyberpunk 2077, giving the player a fun array of methods for dispatching abundant enemies. A diverse selection of weaponry is available, such as slow but powerful sniper rifles, auto-targeting assault rifles, shotguns for the player that doesn’t want to aim, and blades for melee combat. Swords and knives are as modifiable as the guns and pack as much power. Cyberware upgrades include Mantis Blades (knives stored in your arms) and Gorilla Arms for beating your opponent senseless. If typical melee and ranged combat gets boring, you can move to stealth attacks, though stealthing and enemy detection seems poorly executed compared to more recent games. One unique aspect of Cyberpunk 2077 is quick hacking, performed in combat, to afflict your enemy’s cyberware. You can shut down their eyesight, burn out their nervous system, disable their weapons, cripple movement, and perform other assorted attacks. Quick hacking uses up RAM, the mana of the future, and has cooldowns to limit usage. Quick hacking can also be used against devices in the environment, like turning off security cameras to avoid detection or overloading electrical transformers.

The game has four difficulty levels: easy, normal, hard, and very hard. Normal felt a little too easy, though, with boss battles being almost disappointingly straightforward. The only real difficulty at normal comes from the occasional sniper or from when you get caught in an explosion, killing you instantly. Harder difficulty settings are still relatively easy as long as the player is smart about combat and uses some basic strategies. Easy is appropriate only for someone solely interested in the storyline. 

Shopping Is Supposed To Be Fun!

All that combat provides a copious amount of loot. Your character has limited inventory space, so you need to decide if you want to sell frequently or leave items behind. Completing jobs and selling items are your primary ways of making money, which is then reinvested in better weaponry, armor, and cyberware. Drops are frequent and generous, which is typically a good thing, but an abysmally bad inventory system makes the process remarkably tedious. Favorite items can’t be marked in any way, so the player needs to be constantly aware that they don’t accidentally sell off a preferred piece of clothing or weapon. Since you are dealing with dozens of items, this is a slow operation that needs to be repeated often. The game allows you to compare items by showing stats for what you currently have equipped versus the item you are selecting, but it shows dissimilar guns. For example, if you have a sniper rifle and an assault rifle equipped, and you are looking at all the new assault rifles that you just acquired, it may compare the new assault rifles to your sniper rifle, rather than the equipped assault rifle. Similar weapons don’t stack, and need to be sold individually.

Poorly designed, counterintuitive menus permeate the game. Pulling up the frequently used map takes two button presses (and slow loading times don’t help). Cyberware upgrades don’t stack, but that isn’t readily apparent when purchasing. Sometimes, you receive rewards from merchants for completing tasks, but rather than just receiving the item upon interaction, you need to look through every single item they are selling to find the one marked as zero dollars. These nonsensical design issues, coupled with the constant crashing, cause an enormous amount of frustration.

But That’s Not the Worst of It

Cyberpunk 2077 promised a dystopian world filled with neon, danger, and adventure, but that atmosphere falls short as well. Despite featuring Grimes, the entire soundtrack feels half-baked and generic. While driving, the player has several radio channel options with different themes, but “off” was a preferred channel. The combat music is grating, and aside from adding to the anxiety of battle, its repetitive nature gets old quickly. Numerous bugs have been reported about the music getting stuck in a loop, too, though, ironically, it usually takes players a while to notice.

It’s not just the audio either. While Night City itself should have been a leading character, the futuristic veneer feels thin and uninspired, wide but not deep. Despite having numerous districts, each section looks the same as the last, made worse by the struggling visuals. Graphic language and imagery is commonplace, but it isn’t edgy; it’s just abrasive. Casual misogyny rears its ugly head, but rather than being part and parcel of Night City, it feels like the game was designed for the male gaze. Most of the characters exhibit a lot of bluster and bravado, V included, to signify the toughness required to live on the streets of Night City; none more so than Johnny Silverhand, V’s “companion,” played by Keanu Reeves.

Johnny’s constant needling is meant to stir V to action, but instead it just irritates, and while his character is supposed to soften as the game goes on, it never happens in a satisfactory fashion. Universally loved Keanu Reeves seems like a strange casting choice for Johnny. He does an admirable job with the character. There’s certainly no lack of talent, but interacting with Johnny doesn’t bring excited anticipation. Instead, he is just another thin, grim character in a thin, grim world. As a final kick in the teeth, this reviewer’s game crashed during the end credits, which had some of the nicest artwork and music in the game. 

It’s No Blade Runner

Cyberpunk 2077 tries too hard to come across as cool, dark, and gritty, and instead feels like a wannabe edgelord. A shallow environment with average gameplay makes this an unoriginal experience that feels like a flashy reskin of any other game. Add in the insane amount of hype leading up to release and the constant game crashes, and players are left with nothing but disappointment. Not cool, man. Not cool.