Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customize your character’s cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you.
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(I am referring to the CURRENT state of the game, not how it LAUNCHED)
im not gonna say it's bad cause it's good but i really struggled to get into it
Lots of impressive things about this game. Never found any motivation to do any of the side stuff though.
This review contains spoilers
did this game deserve all the shit it got when it came out? most definitely. did cdpr lose touch with its audience after witcher 3? absolutely. did this become one of the best first person roleplaying games of all time? no doubt about it, yes! im part of a small group of dumb people who genuinely enjoyed this on release, but now with updates i'd be surprised to hear anyone who didnt. a very thrilling narrative with likable characters and keanu reeves surprisingly doesn't suck complete doodoo ass. actually very immersive, got me struggling with certain story beats because it put my roleplay first playstyle into question a lot (i am a guy in the early 2020s, i was not made to decide whether to keep a terrorist broski in my brain or not). gunplay is fun and somewhat challenging, melee is fun and braindead, hacking makes the game obsolete except for the ending (and is fun in a "playing a weird mobile game where i set traps for people and kill everyone). overall a good trashy time layered with thick and zany style, no one i wouldn't recommend this to.
A Masterpiece of Narrative Depth and Immersive Gameplay
Cyberpunk 2077 isn't just a game; it's a journey into a dark, thought-provoking world that challenges you to consider the toughest questions life has to offer. While it's not for everyone seeking pure action, those who appreciate rich dialogue options, immersive scenery, and profound narratives will find themselves deeply engrossed.
The story and characters are the heart of this game, compelling you to reflect on life's priorities as you navigate a city on the brink of chaos. Do you pursue fame and notoriety, or seek solace in the embrace of loved ones? The choice is yours, and the consequences are palpable, forcing you to confront the impact of your actions on the characters around you.
Speaking of characters, Cyberpunk 2077 boasts one of the most compelling casts in gaming history. Each character is expertly written and acted, blurring the lines between reality and virtuality. You'll find yourself emotionally invested in their stories, forgetting they're merely video game creations.
The gameplay mechanics, from the first-person perspective to the diverse combat options, contribute to the game's immersive experience. Whether you prefer a stealthy approach, guns blazing, or a mix of cybernetic augmentations, there's something for every playstyle, ensuring endless replay value.
In summary, Cyberpunk 2077 is more than just an action open-world game—it's a masterpiece of storytelling and character development. If you're looking for a dark, emotional journey that will leave a lasting impact, this is a game you can't afford to miss.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn't just a game; it's a journey into a dark, thought-provoking world that challenges you to consider the toughest questions life has to offer. While it's not for everyone seeking pure action, those who appreciate rich dialogue options, immersive scenery, and profound narratives will find themselves deeply engrossed.
The story and characters are the heart of this game, compelling you to reflect on life's priorities as you navigate a city on the brink of chaos. Do you pursue fame and notoriety, or seek solace in the embrace of loved ones? The choice is yours, and the consequences are palpable, forcing you to confront the impact of your actions on the characters around you.
Speaking of characters, Cyberpunk 2077 boasts one of the most compelling casts in gaming history. Each character is expertly written and acted, blurring the lines between reality and virtuality. You'll find yourself emotionally invested in their stories, forgetting they're merely video game creations.
The gameplay mechanics, from the first-person perspective to the diverse combat options, contribute to the game's immersive experience. Whether you prefer a stealthy approach, guns blazing, or a mix of cybernetic augmentations, there's something for every playstyle, ensuring endless replay value.
In summary, Cyberpunk 2077 is more than just an action open-world game—it's a masterpiece of storytelling and character development. If you're looking for a dark, emotional journey that will leave a lasting impact, this is a game you can't afford to miss.
When Cyberpunk 2077 dropped, my computer was a budget rig already going on ten years old. I assumed the old gal probably wouldn't handle the upcoming release too well, so I let it pass me by. Turns out this was a clever play on my part, for the game sucked ass at launch, and I already had enough on my plate as it was. The world kept turning, Cyberpunk sank into the murkiness of memories past. So it goes.
It's late 2023, people are talking about this game again. I haven't thought about Cyberpunk since the initial slew of giggles caused by cars sinking into the pavement, 3D penises, and the anti-fun teleporting police force. Turns out, CD Projekt Red was beavering away on un-fucking the video game and now people I trust are quickly reporting that they've managed it. Indeed, it's good now. There's a new DLC. There's a tie-in anime animated by Studio Trigger. There's clearly a big push going on, and it sticks in my mind. Before long, it's 2024 and I'm reinstalling Steam on a hot new PC after holding a memorial service for my now-deceased old gaming rig. What can I use to show this fucking thing off?, I wonder to myself. I notice Cyberpunk 2077 is 50% off. Why not.
I didn't know anything in detail about the Cyberpunk setting before booting the game up, but I spent enough of my misguided youth flipping through Shadowrun rulebooks to know the jist of what to expect. Corporations rule America, if not the world, and the increasingly commercialised future sucks. But at least you can install a jackhammer for your dick or relive a violent kidnapping using virtual reality. Strictly speaking, I don't know whether Shadowrun or Cyberpunk came first and don't care to get into the weeds of it, but this felt like a fairly loving depiction of the trash-heap future we've all come to know and love. Equal focus is given to the glitz and glamour of the ultra-rich as well as the dirt-grinding poverty experienced by the rest of the population. Night City looks good, and there were a couple of times when cruising between objectives I would pull over and just admire the scenery.
I'm grateful to the game's commitment in forcing the player to assume a role. Rather than a blank-slate glass of tap water, V is kind of a pisshead who fancies themselves bulletproof. This makes sense for someone who makes a living through violence and extortion in a culture which lionizes it. You can steer how V responds to things, usually whether you dismember someone who crosses you during a mission or whether you live and let live, but there are constants which you won't be changing. I found the consistency in this made it easier to pick options other than the usual doormat Neutral Good choice of letting everyone go and excusing every sleight against you. This world is a violent pit of suckass, so sometimes you have to shrug and ignore the dude tied up in your trunk. V isn't getting paid to ask questions. I also appreciate that some Quest NPCs aren't given any magical protection, so I was able to complete the questline about a middle-manager getting away with a hit-and-run crime by interrupting her with 90 submachinegun bullets to the head and departing through a window.
At its core, the story is a relatively simple one. The main thrust can feel longer than it is because it's so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of doing random sidequests, but the actual time it takes for V to get dicked over and have Keanu Reeves installed in their brain-computer isn't high. If you put your nose down and only hit the critical path, I don't think the game would take much longer than 20-25 hours on a first play. I don't think the main story would feel terrific if you did that, since a lot of the enjoyment for me comes from better understanding the world and the complexity of your struggle against it, which is informed massively by the more involved sidequests with major characters. At the end of the day, V wants to get the Keanu Pentium out of their dome, and has a few different paths to get there. I don't think the story is saying anything earth-shattering, but I also respect that it has a simple and narrow focus: find the cure, or die trying. No matter what ending happens to V, the world's going to keep on turning, and only a scarce handful of people will really know what went down. I like it. It's very ham-fistedly contrasted against Johnny Silverhand's desperate struggle to change the world (and the total failure to do so), but this isn't a harsh criticism. Sometimes the blunt instrument of narrative is fine, too.
Special mention should be made for the Phantom Liberty DLC, which has a much more reactive and crazy finale than the base game. At least, the path I wound up on was dope as hell. Capping the frentic encounter by strolling through a crowd of Tier 1 operators as they pop and fry with red/black lightning and spooky screams cut with low-fi modem noises is chef's-kiss good. This shit sizzles. More of this please.
The game's mechanics are its weakest point, in that knowing not all of them are ones you might want to engage with. At its core, Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person looter shooter with a GTA framework for driving and police action. I guess a more modern take would be Red Dead Redemption, but fuck you, I didn't play the cowboy game. You can get lost infinitely in identical plot-less sidequests that pop up while you are driving from A to B, which might tire you out before you do something with a bit more bite to it. Similarly, anything related to getting GTA-esque police stars is a waste of time and effort. Just drive past anything cop-related and save yourself the time.
The gun-game portion of this feels less mechanically brittle than something like Borderlands, but still runs into the same shortcomings: hitting someone in the head with an assault rifle bullet for 15% of their health bar never feels fun. This can be circumvented by not using assault rifles. I'm not sure what niche that weapon class was meant to fill, but they're effectively a long-range poking device which tries to be everything at once, specializing in nothing. If you want to explode someone in one hit, use a sniper rifle with explosive bullets or a double-barreled shotgun. If you want to kill someone in a hose of bullets, use a submachinegun. If you want to win the encounter, use a two-handed club or a katana. Just do not use assault rifles. Fucking popguns. Having played on Very Hard, the game was at its most fun when using bullet time implants to go all Metal Gear Rising on people or circlestrafe around them while dumping 1000 rounds/minute into their heads. Trying to play this as a tactical shooter ala Squad will just get you chipped down unless you vastly overmatch the encounter. I think if you are the kind of person who can enjoy a gun game where numbers come out of people's heads, this does the job very well, or at least as well as I have seen that kind of gameplay.
Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Cyberpunk 2077 more than I expected I would, given the apparently dogshit state it released in. I feel bad saying this about something with so much work put into it, but I don't think it's an era-defining masterpeice. It's a very good game that looks and plays well, with a focused story and a fun cast of characters. The tale it told did not make me think very hard, and the gameplay did not demand any tough decision-making on my part. The finest summer blockbuster you can muster, yeah, sure, but wake me when Labyrinth of Touhou 3 comes out.
It's late 2023, people are talking about this game again. I haven't thought about Cyberpunk since the initial slew of giggles caused by cars sinking into the pavement, 3D penises, and the anti-fun teleporting police force. Turns out, CD Projekt Red was beavering away on un-fucking the video game and now people I trust are quickly reporting that they've managed it. Indeed, it's good now. There's a new DLC. There's a tie-in anime animated by Studio Trigger. There's clearly a big push going on, and it sticks in my mind. Before long, it's 2024 and I'm reinstalling Steam on a hot new PC after holding a memorial service for my now-deceased old gaming rig. What can I use to show this fucking thing off?, I wonder to myself. I notice Cyberpunk 2077 is 50% off. Why not.
I didn't know anything in detail about the Cyberpunk setting before booting the game up, but I spent enough of my misguided youth flipping through Shadowrun rulebooks to know the jist of what to expect. Corporations rule America, if not the world, and the increasingly commercialised future sucks. But at least you can install a jackhammer for your dick or relive a violent kidnapping using virtual reality. Strictly speaking, I don't know whether Shadowrun or Cyberpunk came first and don't care to get into the weeds of it, but this felt like a fairly loving depiction of the trash-heap future we've all come to know and love. Equal focus is given to the glitz and glamour of the ultra-rich as well as the dirt-grinding poverty experienced by the rest of the population. Night City looks good, and there were a couple of times when cruising between objectives I would pull over and just admire the scenery.
I'm grateful to the game's commitment in forcing the player to assume a role. Rather than a blank-slate glass of tap water, V is kind of a pisshead who fancies themselves bulletproof. This makes sense for someone who makes a living through violence and extortion in a culture which lionizes it. You can steer how V responds to things, usually whether you dismember someone who crosses you during a mission or whether you live and let live, but there are constants which you won't be changing. I found the consistency in this made it easier to pick options other than the usual doormat Neutral Good choice of letting everyone go and excusing every sleight against you. This world is a violent pit of suckass, so sometimes you have to shrug and ignore the dude tied up in your trunk. V isn't getting paid to ask questions. I also appreciate that some Quest NPCs aren't given any magical protection, so I was able to complete the questline about a middle-manager getting away with a hit-and-run crime by interrupting her with 90 submachinegun bullets to the head and departing through a window.
At its core, the story is a relatively simple one. The main thrust can feel longer than it is because it's so easy to fall down the rabbit hole of doing random sidequests, but the actual time it takes for V to get dicked over and have Keanu Reeves installed in their brain-computer isn't high. If you put your nose down and only hit the critical path, I don't think the game would take much longer than 20-25 hours on a first play. I don't think the main story would feel terrific if you did that, since a lot of the enjoyment for me comes from better understanding the world and the complexity of your struggle against it, which is informed massively by the more involved sidequests with major characters. At the end of the day, V wants to get the Keanu Pentium out of their dome, and has a few different paths to get there. I don't think the story is saying anything earth-shattering, but I also respect that it has a simple and narrow focus: find the cure, or die trying. No matter what ending happens to V, the world's going to keep on turning, and only a scarce handful of people will really know what went down. I like it. It's very ham-fistedly contrasted against Johnny Silverhand's desperate struggle to change the world (and the total failure to do so), but this isn't a harsh criticism. Sometimes the blunt instrument of narrative is fine, too.
Special mention should be made for the Phantom Liberty DLC, which has a much more reactive and crazy finale than the base game. At least, the path I wound up on was dope as hell. Capping the frentic encounter by strolling through a crowd of Tier 1 operators as they pop and fry with red/black lightning and spooky screams cut with low-fi modem noises is chef's-kiss good. This shit sizzles. More of this please.
The game's mechanics are its weakest point, in that knowing not all of them are ones you might want to engage with. At its core, Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person looter shooter with a GTA framework for driving and police action. I guess a more modern take would be Red Dead Redemption, but fuck you, I didn't play the cowboy game. You can get lost infinitely in identical plot-less sidequests that pop up while you are driving from A to B, which might tire you out before you do something with a bit more bite to it. Similarly, anything related to getting GTA-esque police stars is a waste of time and effort. Just drive past anything cop-related and save yourself the time.
The gun-game portion of this feels less mechanically brittle than something like Borderlands, but still runs into the same shortcomings: hitting someone in the head with an assault rifle bullet for 15% of their health bar never feels fun. This can be circumvented by not using assault rifles. I'm not sure what niche that weapon class was meant to fill, but they're effectively a long-range poking device which tries to be everything at once, specializing in nothing. If you want to explode someone in one hit, use a sniper rifle with explosive bullets or a double-barreled shotgun. If you want to kill someone in a hose of bullets, use a submachinegun. If you want to win the encounter, use a two-handed club or a katana. Just do not use assault rifles. Fucking popguns. Having played on Very Hard, the game was at its most fun when using bullet time implants to go all Metal Gear Rising on people or circlestrafe around them while dumping 1000 rounds/minute into their heads. Trying to play this as a tactical shooter ala Squad will just get you chipped down unless you vastly overmatch the encounter. I think if you are the kind of person who can enjoy a gun game where numbers come out of people's heads, this does the job very well, or at least as well as I have seen that kind of gameplay.
Ultimately I enjoyed my time with Cyberpunk 2077 more than I expected I would, given the apparently dogshit state it released in. I feel bad saying this about something with so much work put into it, but I don't think it's an era-defining masterpeice. It's a very good game that looks and plays well, with a focused story and a fun cast of characters. The tale it told did not make me think very hard, and the gameplay did not demand any tough decision-making on my part. The finest summer blockbuster you can muster, yeah, sure, but wake me when Labyrinth of Touhou 3 comes out.