>incestual pairings
>eugenics
>child murder
>patricide
>immolation
>jihad warriors
>dense politics

Yeah, I'm thinking five stars.

In stark contrast to CDPR's previous game, Cyberpunk delivers a subpar sidequest and companion relationship experience, along with weak RPG elements and roleplay options. However, its action set-pieces rival some of the most fun, erratic, eye-candy material and blood-pumping games I've ever played.

I found Cyberpunk to be best enjoyed in flowing from main mission to main mission, while making time to complete every single major character's sidequests. Some of these have abrupt endings, while others leave room for more closure and give the player a sense of solace and peace in an otherwise harsh, unjust, hateful and uncaring world. Random sidequests and gigs were rarely, if ever, worth the time, but the dedicated main character ones afforded me the rare sense of thematic congruence with the genre.

The main characters never connected with me on a deeper level like some others have. In The Witcher 3, I found nearly every major side-character to be almost as compelling as Geralt; in Cyberpunk, most characters fell flat to me, and as much as I liked them, I never felt them to be real people with real problems. Only at the end did I connect ever so slightly with Johnny, and that's due to following the secret ending route and completing his dedicated sidequests.
Even on that note, most performances are good. Takemura is a clear standout for me, and . Although I can understand why some feel Johnny Silverhand to be grating, I think Keanu Reeves got handed one-dimensional material that always made the character talk about "corps bad", without ever giving him any other character trait apart from that of a long-gone anarchist.
Talking about "corps bad", I felt Cyberpunk 2077 wasted its setting's potential. Takemura has one conversation with one half-decent argument in favor of corps, and that's it. The game is seldom interested in exploring themes of humanity, friendship, life or the problems brought about by centralized power and capitalism.

This game is stunningly beautiful. It manages to be vast in its array of backdrops for both heartfelt character moments and blood-pumping action sequences. Arroyo's desolate desert, Japantown's stunning lights and markets, Little China's oppressive near industrial complexes make even traversing the city more immersive. I admit there is little to do, but I wouldn't compare immersion in Yakuza's sheer density of activity in Kamurocho, to Baldur's Gate 3's impressive level of detail; likewise, I wouldn't compare any game to how well Cyberpunk's Night City envelops you in an environment that all works towards the same goal, be it through sound design, a phenomenal soundtrack that goes as hard as violence of its combat, vehicles, lights, advertisements, the way news broadcasts and radio stations react to what point you're at in the narrative, and character animation work that is nearly unmatched in the industry.

As an action game, it thrives. I wouldn't judge it as an RPG or a narrative because that's simply not what it excels at or, sometimes, is even trying to do. I never felt I lacked options for combat, and I had so much fun while running around at Mach 10, listening to synthwave / industrial / techno music while throwing knives and wielding one of the most badass revolver's I've ever used that I ended up running assaults and gigs just to experience more of it!

Through this combination of good voice acting, fantastically constructed atmosphere and beautiful environments, I found the character moments and conversations to be a good refresher and break from the action-oriented gameplay. This is how I look at Cyberpunk: a well-paced action game, one that has a beautiful rendition of a well-designed city to back up its high-octane action encounters and sometimes touching character explorations.

She said stop smoking...
I stop smoking...
She said stop drinking alcohal...
I stop drinking alcohal...
She said stop playing DRAKE OF THE 99 DRAGONS
I stop her Breathe...