Playtime: 61 Hours
Score: 10/10

An excellent game that has one hell of a comeback story! So like many others I was very excited for Cyberpunk after how amazing The Witcher 3 was. I almost pre-ordered it even when the game came out, and one horrible launch was enough for me to be like “fix your game, then I’ll play it!”, now after the 2.0 update, I decided to finally hop in and I’m glad I did!

I have always loved the Cyberpunk genre, as some of my favorite films include: Akira, Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. So I was interested to see it captured in a 3D open world game and not just another top down CRPG. And man did they deliver! Night City has to be one of my new favorite worlds to explore in gaming. The city is densely packed, with plenty of neon signs, crime on every corner and advertisements for some insane product. I felt like I was walking around on the set of Blade Runner! I don’t usually talk too much about graphics in my reviews as I usually feel like it's less important than other things like story and gameplay, but this game just looks so damn good! Perfect example of high fidelity graphics mixed with a great artstyle!

But onto the actual gameplay. While Cyberpunk does use GTA as its open world format it still very much feels like an RPG, down to skill checks, how you build your character and how you interact with the world. In some ways it reminded me of Dishonored, in how there’s often multiple ways to approach a situation or get into a building. When I did my first gig side mission, I had to save someone from a gang. At first I kicked the door in and blew them all away, guns blazing but afterwards I walked around and realized how many different ways I could have entered the building. After that I decided to take a mostly stealth approach in missions and it works really well in this game. And since I went for a Netrunner build, I could always hack into things to provide distractions or help me be stealthy. The hacking overall feels like Watch Dogs on steroids and I think it’s an awesome way to play the game. The open world missions also felt really good, especially the gigs. They were the best since there was a nice variety of things to do for each of them. Sometimes you have to kill someone, sometimes it's to plant a virus onto some computer etc. The best ones are when you have to rescue a hostage as these ones provide the most direct storytelling in terms of you actually speaking to someone and making choices.

The shooting feels good too with a nice variety of weapons, and a good loot system with some unique weapons you can find as well. I mostly went with a pistol and katana blade build and man is the melee combat satisfying. By the midpoint of the game, I could just rush right into a group of enemies and cut them all down with my sword with speed and ferocity. And you can actually dismember enemies which made it very visually satisfying to do. Customization is great overall both with all of the cyberware you can install and the pretty nice looking clothing you can get that is leagues better than a lot of the ugly armors from Witcher 3.

The leveling system is also nice as you get a 1 attribute and perk point per level. How high your attributes determine how far you can invest in the skill trees and perk points gets you some of the nice abilities or upgrades. Attributes also provide your skill checks whether that be in the game world or in conversations. I thought the skill checks were handled well and while they don’t have as much of an impact as I would have liked, the dialogue was always great so it made up for it and I like how many skill checks there were in the game. The lifepaths were also cool in this game as I went with a Nomad path. Ya, it's not as impactful as the origin stories are in Dragon Age, but I still think it was done well enough, as I quite often got Nomad options in dialogue and the endings, depending on what you choose kind of correlate with the lifepaths in a way, so I was able to choose an ending that was fitting for my V.

One quick negative before I talk about the story, was the driving. They did rework the driving apparently in one of the updates, but it was a mixed bag for me. Cars specifically felt weird as driving them straight was fine, but as soon as I had to turn, the cars tended to swerve around a lot like they had no handling whatsoever which made them unpleasant to drive. Bikes on the other hand felt really good to control and drive so I pretty much used those 90% of the time which is funny since I often feel the exact opposite when I play GTA. Plus you get an Akira inspired bike in the game, so you know I was driving that bad boy around Night City.

The story is where this game shines as the writing across the board was just S-tier to me. Unlike a certain other sci-fi RPG, cough Starfield cough, I just loved every interaction I had with characters as the dialogue always just felt so real. I loved Johnny Silverhand, not just because he’s played by Keanu Reeves but I loved seeing his progression as a character as he accompanied me everywhere. And he will chime in with his thoughts even if it's the most simple side quest. The side characters are also very strong with some great ones like Judy and Panam. I also just felt like my choices mattered and the main plot of V slowly dying was really well done, even though a “dying main character” is a trope I generally don’t like. But really, there just never was any quest or dialogue with an NPC that felt cringe or not on point for me, which is just so rare for me in games nowadays. Overall, a masterclass in video game writing!

And that about does it with my thoughts. While Cyberpunk had a rough launch due to some dumb decisions by CDPR, they really stuck with the game and patched the hell out of it, until it became the game we have today. Would my opinion be different if I played it back in 2020? Ya, I’d probably be more jaded, but I’m glad I waited it out until 2.0. This game is a masterpiece to me and would have been my 2020 GOTY if not for the bad launch. But otherwise, if you love the Cyberpunk genre, then this game is a must play!

All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/