Polish development studio CD Projekt Red are known for their industry-shaking titles that raise the bar for the very medium of gaming as a whole especially with the acclaimed The Witcher series, however, it is not a stretch to say that their ambitious 2020 title Cyberpunk 2077 was also a massively impactful and influential game, this time for all the wrong reasons. In what can only be described as a development horror story, Cyberpunk 2077 released years too early into development after a long and devoted hype cycle since its announcement in 2012 and it became evident to anyone who bought the game in its early launch period that it was simply not finished. From incomprehensible glitches that rendered the game near unplayable to a release on previous generation consoles so poor it resulted in the game being pulled from storefronts due to being below even the minimum expected quality while gamers were offered refunds. As one of the gamers who witnessed the disastrous launch of the game and dismissed it, I eventually kept my eye on the game as the developers slowly started releasing updates, but ultimately swore off it until the release of "Update 2.0" in 2023, a radical overhaul of the game that, in summary is the game as it should've been and will be the version I'm reviewing.
The year is 2077 and the setting is Night City, where gangs are rampant and corporations are militarised to the point of effectively running the city. You play as V (short for Vincent or Valerie depending on the gender you select), who, after a botched heist, ends up with the digitised consciousness of an infamous long-deceased terrorist who waged war on the corporations back in 2023: Johnny Silverhand. Silverhand served as a colossal marketing focal point for the game in part due to his motion capture and voice actor, Hollywood star Keanu Reeves. Together, V and Silverhand race against the clock to undo what bound them together while falling deeper into a dark, dystopian rabbit hole. Along the way you will met a plethora of complex and intricate characters across a large range of social standings in Night City, from underground expert hackers to a legion of nomads who live on the outskirts of the city. The narrative explores this cast of characters and the city to its fullest through the game's meticulous writing and generally strong acting performances from both the lead and supporting cast.
As for the core gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person open world shooter that gives you free reign to explore the vast and colourful megalopolis and its surrounding outskirts as you follow the main story or do a variety of dirty work for various powerful people across the city, whether it be assassinations, theft, sabotage or any other crime you can think of. The city itself is divided into multiple territories each primarily run by a major gang, so being in their territory can sometimes net you an unfortunate encounter with their members should they catch you driving around. In the world of cyberpunk, most people install mind and body enhancing technology (or "cyberware") into their body, which you get a wide variety of options to choose from in terms of how you want to fight, whether it be enhanced legs that allow you to jump out of sight and optical upgrades to better see opponents from miles away or large, robotic arms capable of smashing anything in your path, the game's combat opens up immensely as you begin installing better cyberware to create a play-style to your liking.
This customisation is further enhanced by the perk system, in which you are given five aspects of your character to freely divert points you earn through finishing quests or defeating enemies to, each focusing on a different set of skills such as the reflexes perks allowing you to move faster or even deflect bullets with a blade while the body perks allow for incredible feats of physical strength. These perks also play a role in your dialogue choices, as certain encounters in the game will require you to choose a small list of specific options to say, with more of which available based on your overall investment into a perk set, such as the body perk allowing you to intimidate people easier. The ways you customise your character play a role in every aspect of the game, with an entirely new set of perks and even more cyberware available as part of a paid game expansion called Phantom Liberty.
Finally, there are your weapons, which can range from blades to guns of all kinds, with the ability to constantly replace, craft or upgrade said weapons through collecting the resources to do so, providing even more player expression in the way you navigate combat. The combination of cyberware, perks and weaponry can make or break your character and once you begin to understand what works for you, you will be an absolutely devastating force of nature and your name will slowly gain more infamy in Night City as the story progresses. This freedom also extends to the appearance of your character, as at the start of the game you get a vast amount of customisation options to make V look how you want from face shape to hair style and colour. It's through all these different fully customisable aspects of the game that you can make this experience truly your own, with the game even allowing for very easy reassignment of perks and complete alterations to your appearance at any time for the player to experiment with their character.
It feels truly amazing to slowly assemble a play-style that is truly your own and slowly see the pieces fall into place as you charge into dangerous situations all guns blazing or stealthily dispatch of enemies before half of them even realise you're there and the combat gives a vast amount of range in terms of how to deal with every situation, whether attempting to hack electronic devices to distract enemies or even hurt them without you even being near or charging in with your most powerful gun and attempting to blow hordes of enemies away. Nearly every situation in the game can be approached in a myriad of different ways and the game rewards your understanding of the combat by allowing you to utilise your knowledge as creatively as you'd like.
One of the most noteworthy and impressive aspects of Cyberpunk 2077 is the game's setting of Night City, which from your first drive to your last, is an incredibly rich and immersive explorable environment of crowded streets and shady markets, sprawling corporate buildings and underdeveloped civilian housing to the countless clothes, weapon and food stores all over the city. Meticulous attention was given to making every aspect of this city feel realised and authentic, down to the in-game car radio consisting almost entirely of original songs written for the game that can also be heard on radios near certain streets, while the sounds of obnoxious ad billboards and screens nearby accompany it to produce a distinctive atmosphere and sound to the city. It's remarkably easy to get sucked in to the haunting feeling of your futuristic surroundings as you spend more time exploring its various streets, highways and alleys.
The exceptional effort taken to establish the setting is bolstered by the strength of the game's main narrative, side quests and additional expansion storyline in how they explore certain characters on more complex, intimate notes and establish the deeper world building and history of the city while furthering V's story and giving the player even more opportunities to define their own experiences through the choices made across these quests. The game has a wide variety of endings determined by either a small range given at a choice near the end of the story or a greater range depending on the choices made throughout your whole adventure, rewarding the player for their effort of exploring more of what the game has to offer, with all the facets of customisation, exploration and narrative working collaboratively to incentivise this end goal. The overall core story remains the same, but the choice to determine how it ends adds all the more impact.
Fundamentally, Cyberpunk 2077 is the very definition of a role-playing game, truly pushing the standard for how far you can push player agency and expression in every aspect from the story to the gameplay and serves as a far cry from the original disaster that bore its name in 2020. It's honestly surprising to this day that a game I considered truly terrible at launch has since gone on to become a title I truly recommend, improving on its original state in every way conceivable.
The year is 2077 and the setting is Night City, where gangs are rampant and corporations are militarised to the point of effectively running the city. You play as V (short for Vincent or Valerie depending on the gender you select), who, after a botched heist, ends up with the digitised consciousness of an infamous long-deceased terrorist who waged war on the corporations back in 2023: Johnny Silverhand. Silverhand served as a colossal marketing focal point for the game in part due to his motion capture and voice actor, Hollywood star Keanu Reeves. Together, V and Silverhand race against the clock to undo what bound them together while falling deeper into a dark, dystopian rabbit hole. Along the way you will met a plethora of complex and intricate characters across a large range of social standings in Night City, from underground expert hackers to a legion of nomads who live on the outskirts of the city. The narrative explores this cast of characters and the city to its fullest through the game's meticulous writing and generally strong acting performances from both the lead and supporting cast.
As for the core gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person open world shooter that gives you free reign to explore the vast and colourful megalopolis and its surrounding outskirts as you follow the main story or do a variety of dirty work for various powerful people across the city, whether it be assassinations, theft, sabotage or any other crime you can think of. The city itself is divided into multiple territories each primarily run by a major gang, so being in their territory can sometimes net you an unfortunate encounter with their members should they catch you driving around. In the world of cyberpunk, most people install mind and body enhancing technology (or "cyberware") into their body, which you get a wide variety of options to choose from in terms of how you want to fight, whether it be enhanced legs that allow you to jump out of sight and optical upgrades to better see opponents from miles away or large, robotic arms capable of smashing anything in your path, the game's combat opens up immensely as you begin installing better cyberware to create a play-style to your liking.
This customisation is further enhanced by the perk system, in which you are given five aspects of your character to freely divert points you earn through finishing quests or defeating enemies to, each focusing on a different set of skills such as the reflexes perks allowing you to move faster or even deflect bullets with a blade while the body perks allow for incredible feats of physical strength. These perks also play a role in your dialogue choices, as certain encounters in the game will require you to choose a small list of specific options to say, with more of which available based on your overall investment into a perk set, such as the body perk allowing you to intimidate people easier. The ways you customise your character play a role in every aspect of the game, with an entirely new set of perks and even more cyberware available as part of a paid game expansion called Phantom Liberty.
Finally, there are your weapons, which can range from blades to guns of all kinds, with the ability to constantly replace, craft or upgrade said weapons through collecting the resources to do so, providing even more player expression in the way you navigate combat. The combination of cyberware, perks and weaponry can make or break your character and once you begin to understand what works for you, you will be an absolutely devastating force of nature and your name will slowly gain more infamy in Night City as the story progresses. This freedom also extends to the appearance of your character, as at the start of the game you get a vast amount of customisation options to make V look how you want from face shape to hair style and colour. It's through all these different fully customisable aspects of the game that you can make this experience truly your own, with the game even allowing for very easy reassignment of perks and complete alterations to your appearance at any time for the player to experiment with their character.
It feels truly amazing to slowly assemble a play-style that is truly your own and slowly see the pieces fall into place as you charge into dangerous situations all guns blazing or stealthily dispatch of enemies before half of them even realise you're there and the combat gives a vast amount of range in terms of how to deal with every situation, whether attempting to hack electronic devices to distract enemies or even hurt them without you even being near or charging in with your most powerful gun and attempting to blow hordes of enemies away. Nearly every situation in the game can be approached in a myriad of different ways and the game rewards your understanding of the combat by allowing you to utilise your knowledge as creatively as you'd like.
One of the most noteworthy and impressive aspects of Cyberpunk 2077 is the game's setting of Night City, which from your first drive to your last, is an incredibly rich and immersive explorable environment of crowded streets and shady markets, sprawling corporate buildings and underdeveloped civilian housing to the countless clothes, weapon and food stores all over the city. Meticulous attention was given to making every aspect of this city feel realised and authentic, down to the in-game car radio consisting almost entirely of original songs written for the game that can also be heard on radios near certain streets, while the sounds of obnoxious ad billboards and screens nearby accompany it to produce a distinctive atmosphere and sound to the city. It's remarkably easy to get sucked in to the haunting feeling of your futuristic surroundings as you spend more time exploring its various streets, highways and alleys.
The exceptional effort taken to establish the setting is bolstered by the strength of the game's main narrative, side quests and additional expansion storyline in how they explore certain characters on more complex, intimate notes and establish the deeper world building and history of the city while furthering V's story and giving the player even more opportunities to define their own experiences through the choices made across these quests. The game has a wide variety of endings determined by either a small range given at a choice near the end of the story or a greater range depending on the choices made throughout your whole adventure, rewarding the player for their effort of exploring more of what the game has to offer, with all the facets of customisation, exploration and narrative working collaboratively to incentivise this end goal. The overall core story remains the same, but the choice to determine how it ends adds all the more impact.
Fundamentally, Cyberpunk 2077 is the very definition of a role-playing game, truly pushing the standard for how far you can push player agency and expression in every aspect from the story to the gameplay and serves as a far cry from the original disaster that bore its name in 2020. It's honestly surprising to this day that a game I considered truly terrible at launch has since gone on to become a title I truly recommend, improving on its original state in every way conceivable.