The expectations placed on some developers can often end up working against them, simply because the final product will never meet such lofty heights. Well, Cyberpunk 2077 took the most hyped game of all time (possibly GTA V by my reckoning) and said here, hold my beer. The anticipation for Cyberpunk was in many ways well-founded, as CD Projekt Red did in fact give us The Witcher 3 which is undoubtedly one of the greatest games of all time. They have also shown themselves to be incredibly pro-consumer with free post-launch content, boycotting micro-transactions and generally having a good rapport with fans  Even the two paid expansions for The Witcher 3 were both exceptionally well made and big enough to be considered games in there own right. So after this monumental success, it was natural gamers would expect great things from their next big project set in the Cyberpunk universe.

The first substantial trailer in which you could see the world that CDPR were building was in 2018 and it blew people's minds. Night City was alive, bustling and dripping with atmosphere: the hype train had left the station. However, the hype went nuclear in 2019 with a CGI trailer that depicted a pivotal moment in the story, ending with the news that Keanu Reeves was actually in the game. Cyberpunk had hype, now it has Keanu and the gaming world was buzzing. With a somewhat breathtaking stage appearance at the same E3, this hype train had now achieved critical mass.

As gamers, we know all too well how disappointing a delay can be but I think most would also acknowledge that it is preferable to wait than see a game launch in a poor state. It was somewhat comforting that CDPR stated the game would release ‘when it was ready’ which became their mantra. However, after three delays little tiny alarm bells were going off across the industry and it was clear that something was not going to plan within CDPR. Features like the wall running being removed were signs of a development team fighting to bring things into shape. With each delay, the fans shifted from an understanding posture to increasingly frustrated and in some cases downright nasty. People making death threats over a video game delay should, in my opinion, be banned from using the internet for life.

As launch day approached the review embargo lifted and the initial reviews were very positive with a few outliers. Straight away it was obvious this review process was not being handled properly, namely that the reviewers had to use footage provided by CDPR, not discuss bugs and in addition, no console review codes were being handed out. It took a few hours but soon the news was gathering speed that playing Cyberpunk on old generation consoles was a total mess and nigh-on unplayable. As well as frame-rates in the low teens there was an avalanche of visual bugs and the game was constantly crashing for many. It was clear that CDPR had purposely held back the console reviews to avoid damaging sales on launch, something that is indefensible. With the game now being removed from PSN, refunds being offered and the developer’s reputation in tatters; this could be the biggest gaming disaster of all time. The share price of CDPR has lost over thirty percent at the time of writing and there is even talk of the company being sued by investors for financial damages. So while this is not technically part of my normal review process I thought it was important to give readers context on what was happening around this game. I will now zero in on the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077 and tell you what I think of this already infamous title.

Meat and Potatoes 

Cyberpunk 2077 is based on a tabletop role-playing game written by Mike Pondsmith, who has also acted as a consultant to CDPR in the development of the video game. The world of Cyberpunk is set in a future where corporations have replaced government and what it means to be human is under threat due to the dawn cybernetic enhancement. The first thing you will be asked to do in Cyberpunk 2077 is choose a life path and create your version of V. Each of the three character backgrounds will eventually run their course, converging together and opening up the city in the process. At this point, the life path choice becomes defunct apart from additional lines of dialogue here and there. This is a shame because initially it seemed like a fairly big aspect of your character and yet it is quickly forgotten. This was also an early indication that the development cycle had been cut short.

I would say at first glance the character creation gives a good impression with a decent range of categories such as nail patterns and teeth choices. There is even a choice regarding breasts and genitalia configuration (my hopes of a gun penis or rocket vagina were unfortunately dashed). It was only after I saw a few other friends and what they had created did it occur to me how similar we all looked. In a game that is played almost exclusively from a first-person viewpoint, it might seem odd that gamers would still want their looks just so. However, gamers are a funny lot and still, it seems most want a greater degree of customisation when it comes to body sliders and cybernetic limbs. There is a wide range of clothes in Cyberpunk, providing armour and stat boosts in the process. I remember the developer talking about how functional armour could have aesthetically pleasing attire placed over it but that system doesn’t seem to have been worked in. So I’m now hoping that we at least get some type of transmog option added, to get the stats we want while looking how we wish.

Before you complete the opening prologue of the game you will have been introduced to the majority of the game’s systems and through some excellent set-pieces. Jackie offers you a VR sim that plugs directly into one of the ports on your neck and I wish they would add more of these combat simulations. The well-publicised mission where you save the girl from the bathtub is part of this opening section and is largely identical. However, when we saw the heavy gunner blowing holes in the wall, it gave me the impression that wall destruction was a thing but it now seems that was just a one-off for show. While on the subject of downgrading I do think we have seen some of this practice from CDPR which I am gutted about. I know they did cover themselves many times in the gameplay demo, stating that ‘everything you are about to see is subject to change’. However, I believe if you show a really cool hacking system like in the demo and it changes to the point of being unrecognisable, you should put out another video before launch setting out what has changed and ideally why. This might sound harsh but it has always been one of my pet hates when these ‘gameplay’ demos are clearly designed to build hype with lots of cool little touches that never make it to the final cut. Show the game as it will be, if something improves great but if something gets taken out or downgraded then be transparent about that.

In many respects, the game does live up to the hype and even exceeds it. Brain Dancing for example is one of my favourite parts of the game and the first time I tried it I was blown away. In sort of a tutorial, you get to see a short recording of someone’s life right before they die. The computer builds a three dimensional set from the person's senses which you can then navigate and analyse. As you run back and forth through this sensory imprint there will be various areas of interest that present themselves either visually or through audio. The only issue I have with this fantastic investigative tool is that it just isn’t used enough. If the developers ever read my review, please add more content like Brain Dancing as it really does catapult your suspension of disbelief into the Cyberpunk universe.

The Truman Show

Night City is very much front and centre for the entire game and is in many ways one of the characters. When I first started exploring night city I was often stopped in my tracks as I gazed up at the monolithic skyscrapers and giant structures that dominate the skyline. There are also so many locations that offer unique structures or show enticing neon back streets promising salacious encounters. The artists have also used an effect that makes buildings with glass looking like there is a room inside, making you forget that some of the buildings are just for show. Even when getting up close and personal I have felt like individual places you visit have a grimy layer to them in the form of graffiti and human detritus.

Unfortunately, it is when you start to see the moving pieces of Night City that this impressive veneer starts to crack. Right from the off the pedestrians of Night City just seem lost and confused, often pacing up and down the same piece of street and never venturing past their set loop. Most will offer a one-line response if you try to talk to them but that’s your lot, I often felt like Truman Burbank discovering that the people who occupy his world are just actors there to fool him. It does seem like NPC’s in hub areas like outside your apartment, have had a little bit more work done on their pathing and activity. The only real reaction you will get from these lifeless drones is if you threaten them with either a gun or some wonky driving. They will then scatter like roaches and cower for their lives. We all know that (apart from maybe Watch Dogs Legion) NPCs occupying the streets of these digital cities are just there to give the impression that there is a population here and going about their lives regardless of you. However, on this front CDPR have utterly failed to create this illusion and unfortunately, it is one of the key ways the game breaks any sense of immersion.

If you do start putting these set props out of their misery you will instantly get a wanted notification but unfortunately, the law enforcement also feels lazy and underbaked. The big issue is that police officers will literally spawn in, even if you are in a room with only one exit they can magically appear behind you. If you do decide to scarper they don’t even seem that concerned with chasing you and the wanted level quickly vanishes. I apologise for the obvious comparison but many people were hoping for something akin to GTA V where police chases were a source of fun and tension. When you did commit a crime you had a brief window to escape or hide as the officers travelled to your location. Of course, the awesome police chases in GTA V would need some sort of vehicle AI and here we hit another major roadblock.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of a game, especially an RPG, is seeing the consequences of your actions. The quests Cyberpunk certainly have got plenty of cause and effect but once you step out into the larger game world it feels very sterile and unreactive. My apartment for example, never really changed throughout my entire playthrough (apart from my cat). I didn’t get emails pertaining to missions I had been on or companies I had interacted with. When I eat noodles in Chinatown I actually want to sit there like Deckard in Blade Runner eating them while watching emergent AI happening all around me. When I bump into people or ding their car I want them to get angry and maybe even attack me. When I steal items from people right in front of their face I expect a reaction, but here theft is literally ignored. Yes, I can have a shower but why? If I start to smell after a few days and people notice this in conversation that is what an RPG should be doing, giving me a reason to do these things. 

If Night City is indeed a living thing then its roads are the blood vessels taking resources where they need to go. It is a shame that the team couldn’t add a few more modes of transport or the ability to ride on the public trains (although you can unofficially). It is also a pity that those awesome flying cars we can see from the ground couldn’t be worked in, but I will concede this would have been a nightmare to implement. On the face of things the traffic in Cyberpunk looks ok, cars and trucks (strangely no bikes) going about their journey: until they come across you. The driver AI just doesn’t seem to be able to handle obstacles of any kind. There have been times where I’ve left my ride in the middle of the road and after doing my mission returned to a thirty car tailback. To be fair if they do get knocked off the road they will return to their path (if intact) but that is about it. When you do inevitably smash into other cars you will get audible insults but people will not leave their cars for any reason. The developers also need to work on how vehicles spawn because when zooming in on distant traffic you can easily see they are just two-dimensional images. I have also seen vehicles completely change when looking away for a second, which also needs to be fixed. On the plus side, I absolutely love driving in Night City but that wasn’t always the case.

The Ride

As I will cover in ‘Is It PC?’ my ageing system is just about able to handle this game at 1440p but in the city centre my frame rate tanks due to the sheer amount going on around you. The first time I drove my own car (in the prologue with Jackie) my fps dropped to 10-15 and this left me with a pretty poor impression (the pedestrians I accidentally mowed down would probably agree). It was only once I’d left the City behind for some Nomad quests that I realised how awesome driving can be. With a decent fps I was power sliding around corners like a pro and getting some real Mad Max vibes. 

As you make the acquaintance of more fixers they will start sending you the location of custom vehicles you can purchase. Once acquired these can then be summoned by V (no literally the button V) at any time. If you have the skill to do so you can also yeet people from their ride or just break into one that takes your fancy. While pinching other peoples cars is relatively easy you can’t keep them and I did find it satisfying building my own selection of cool rides. The team at CDPR have clearly put a tremendous amount of effort into these cars both externally and on the interiors. As the door slides open on my Coyote and I get inside there is this awesome feeling as the car roars to life. The internal controls all light up and the armoured windows fade to viewing mode. I have played a lot of open-world actions games and for some reason, nobody has even gotten the feeling of driving motorbikes right, until now. While playing on mouse and keyboard your view is controlled independently of your direction. With the speed of mouse input, this gives you a very quick way to check in other directions and see your best path. Burning around the tight streets of Night City with the awesome music in your ears is just sublime.

A Bit on the Side

Night City is immense, rich with content and littered with hidden corners to discover. I think in the coming months more people will start to uncover how many secrets there are waiting under the sprawl of neon and concrete. Weapons with their own AI, a stray cat to adopt, hundreds of easter eggs and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Yes, the systems of this city are underwhelming but there is no denying there is a lot to get stuck into if you can ignore the connective tissue. 

At any given time V will have a few ongoing missions that progress the main story, but like any good RPG, there are other endeavours to delve into. Like the Witcher 3, the side quests are not only worth doing, they are in fact where some of the best stories reside. These can either be happened across, appear as you progress in level or presented to you by characters in the game. Sometimes you will complete a mission with a certain NPC and assume that’s it, only to be contacted a few hours later for another slice of the pie. I found the pacing of these longer story arcs to be well thought out and they added a narrative backbone to an already excellent main story. Don’t underestimate the importance of these side quests, they can lead to riches and even alter the course of your destiny itself.

Each area of the city will have a local ‘fixer’ who has their finger on the pulse. They will offer you new ways to make money, vehicles for sale and introduce you to new contacts. One of the first fixers who will make your acquaintance will ask you to hunt down a list of Cyber-Psychos. These fights can be tough, especially so because your contact prefers them to be taken alive. That is actually one thing I liked about many of these side quests, your contact will often have a preferred method for you to use (non-violent/stealth etc) and your success will reflect the reward. You can also get involved with a little bit of vigilantism if that takes your fancy by stopping criminals and assisting the local police: just don’t accidentally shoot one. 

In Night City sex is a commodity just like everything else and it is quite possible to spend a few hours getting jiggy. I would say here the promotional videos have again run away with themselves and give us the impression that relationships could be casual as well as more intimate. Early in the 2018 gameplay demo, we see someone creeping out of V’s apartment after what was clearly a one night stand. You can go dancing in nightclubs but again, you can’t pick up random strangers and take them home. The only thing that comes close to this in the game is paying a sex worker for a few hours fun. These sequences are well choreographed and as graphic as I would have expected. While more realistic than other attempts at sex they still feel stilted and wooden (sorry). The only sexual encounter I did see that looked close to how a real couple might have sex is the encounter Johnny Silverhand has. I must admit that I was chasing someone in the game for a while with my female V only to discover late on that she didn’t bat for the other team. The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is saturated with sexual content of all descriptions, including people who have had their junk turned into actual junk. One mission has me racing an unfortunate chap to the hospital because his penis had ‘malfunctioned’.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

So it turns out that killing people is quite popular in the future, no wonder seeing as police officers despawn after running ten feet. Violence is the beat to which Night City dances and thankfully it is mostly excellent. Very quickly you will see that even small encounters in this game will have V swimming in weapons from pistols, shotguns, rifles and so on. While this is a great source of income and resources, having to visit the vendors every hour to unload is a routine I could live without. As is standard in most RPGs there is a colour grade which shows the quality of the weapon from grey (basic) right up to Orange (legendary). Some of these weapons can also come with an Iconic status indicated by the pattern on the icon, these weapons are ones you should try and keep because they have additional significance. 

By the art of crafting you can upgrade weapons so they essentially level up with you and gain additional mod slots. Unfortunately, mods never felt like they had much influence on the weapon performance due to some pretty low improvements: this needs to be overhauled. There were also a few strange design choices, such as I never found a single sniper silencer. The UI is also very unintuitive, for example seeing how much damage a pistol does compared to another is difficult because it shows the damage with the mods you have on. So you have to remove the mods and then compare them, which indicated this system was (is) also still being worked on.

Luckily the actual shooting is great with each weapon performing as they should. Powerful sniper rifles give a satisfying jolt and a close-range shotgun blast will rip through enemies like a hot knife through butter. Power weapons can also ricochet off surfaces which is very cool and tech weapons can actually pierce most pieces of cover. In my playthrough, I opted for high powered handguns while sneaking around causing havoc with my hacking skills. Hacking is a huge part of combat and while not at slick as Watch Dogs, I can’t imagine playing without it. Your Cyberdeck defines how many hacks you can carry and your buffer size is linked to hacking in the mini-game. Some hacks (daemons) will distract the enemy or cause temporary blindness while shutting down their cybernetic implants. Others are more full-on, making your foe shoot themselves or turn on his comrades. Using these abilities is, for me, what makes these combat encounters so much fun and lead to some really tense moments. 

Melee combat is a thing and can be very effective with the right build and weapons. You have basic attacks, powerful attacks and a block/counter. This setup applies to fists, swords and any other melee weapon you come across. There are also a few other more interesting alternatives such as the Mantis Blades or Mono Wire. While I do like the look of these weapons I would have liked them to have been given their own combat mechanics. 

Skill Check

As you play the game you will gain experience which in turn pushes you to your next level. Each level increase comes with points for core attributes as well as perk points that can be spent on the individual upgrades within those attributes. Even these perks trees will have different tabs, intelligence for example gives you a tab in breach protocol and quick hacking. In addition to this, you will also be gaining street cred which is required to access parts of your skill tree or use certain items. You gain street cred from taking part in the smaller missions around the city such as stopping a mugging or thwarting a local gang. On top of that, there is also a skill progression system that will increase as you use a skill. This is actually a great system that feels very organic because you will get better at the things you do the most. Like most of the systems in this game, I think the team at CDPR need to do a bit of fine-tuning as levelling up hacking skills did seem to take a long time, but this is a very minor issue.

How your character's build affects conversations isn’t on the same level as say Baldur's Gate and to be honest I never expected it to be. However, the amount of times you can change the outcome of a conversation with different skill checks is still very lean. In fact, additional lines based on your characters build often just lead to the same conclusion anyway, which was a disappointing discovery.  Raising your core attributes can give you new actions in gameplay situations, for example ripping doors open with brute strength or pulling sentry turrets off their stand for devastating firepower. After one substantial play through I obviously haven't had time to try different builds or see how they play out in a gameplay sense. However, overall while the perk trees do seem a little too stat focused, I do like the system overall and hope it is refined in future updates. 

Unfinished Symphony 

There is no point beating around the bush, Cyberpunk was released unfinished: the question is why? As I have already set out, the story, side quests and much of the game's content is both finished and of a high calibre. However, many of the systems that work to immerse the player in this world are either bare bones or just not there at all. How can it be that a game based in the Cyberpunk universe has literally no body modification after the initial character creation screen? How have the NPCs of this hyper immersive RPG been gifted the AI of a robot hoover? Simply put, why do so many parts of this game feel like place holders? 

The simple conclusion is that at some point late in the development cycle the people in charge decided the game was going to be released (for reasons unknown), told everyone to tie off their current section and get it to a presentable state. The hacking mechanic while serviceable isn't even a shadow of what was shown in the 2018 gameplay demo. Crafting is largely pointless due to the imbalance of resources required compared to the rewards. Restaurants also feel like pop up shops and using them leads you to a simple inventory of what you can buy. Food and drink initially look well padded out until you realise that there is only one buff for food, drink and alcohol. This is not even close to what was promised by the gameplay demos, hype trailers and interviews with the developers. While speaking to Game Rant a key UI dev called Alvin Liu explained how the police wanted system would work. Liu explained that unlike the police of a GTA game, Night City officers would be open to bribery and corruption: none of this is in the game. Even seemingly obvious interactions like the many arcade machines you see around the city cannot be played on, this would have been such an easy win for immersion.

I would like to know how those CEOs and bosses came to the conclusion that the best move was to put this game out in its current state. Even if making money was their sole objective, how has that worked out? Yes, they have officially made their money back (unless the refunds change that) but the catastrophic damage to the studio’s reputation and to future games can’t have been worth it right? I suspect there are a lot of developers over at CDPR who are devastated with this outcome and I wish the internet would remember that. Can you imagine putting eight years of your life into what was meant to be the greatest game ever conceived, only to have a disinterested management throw it all away? It’s always a shame when gaming projects don’t see completion, even with smaller games someone has put years of their life into it. Games like Metal Gear Solid V are a painful reminder of this because they are exceptional but also unfinished. However, with Cyberpunk I’d say we still have a real shot at seeing this game reach its full potential. Whichever path CDPR take with this game, patch-up job or a proper finish, it will give us a clear sign of where this developer is heading in the future.

Is it PC?

As games become increasingly complex it is also becoming nigh on impossible for a studio to release a game that is bug-free. Some are better than others of course, with the likes of Bethesda being infamous for bug-ridden games. CD Projekt Red has created one of the most beautiful digital cities gaming has ever seen but at launch, it is also one of the most broken. How you will play this game also depends massively on which platform. It’s never been a secret that if you want to play the optimal version of a game a powerful gaming rig is your best bet. However, the console versions of Cyberpunk can barely run and look shockingly bad. Developers who create these massive and ambitious worlds are always fighting a battle between frame-rate and visual fidelity: making these two ends meet is the goal. This, it seems, might not actually be possible on last-generation consoles and the consequences of this have knocked CDPR on their arse. This situation has been exacerbated by the way CDPR handled the media, effectively blocking gamers from seeing the console versions running prior to release and the only reasonable explanation is that they knew how badly these versions ran. While this is a review of the PC version of the game, I think it is important to note these failures for a wider understanding of the challenge CDPR have at their feet.

While the PC version has weathered these issues far better there is no doubt that the game needs a lot of optimisation as it only runs well on the more powerful rigs. The relatively new DLSS (deep learning super sampling) from Nvidia has given the PC version a crutch to rest on, boosting fps by a significant margin. There are various strengths of DLSS and my system will only run Cyberpunk on the highest setting. Unfortunately, this can also leave the visuals looking distorted and grainy. However, if you are rocking a 3000 series card you will be able to turn on RTX and on it’s highest level, this game looks jaw-dropping. If you ever wanted a game to show off how much RTX can enhance a digital world this is it. There is a fantastic video from Digital Foundry in which they show just how, on a powerful rig, this is easily one of the best looking games ever made.

Unfinished gameplay systems are not the only technical issue that the staff at CRPR need to fix, this game is possibly one of the most bug-ridden AAA games I have ever booted up. In my own playthrough I have seen many visual bugs from props getting stuck in the mesh of a character, NPCs walking through walls and hundreds of physics glitches. Sometimes these can be hilarious to witness but sadly they also cause a real break in immersion. In the final sequence of the game, I had a heavy metal track from a previous location playing over what was meant to be a calm and reflective moment. Thankfully I didn’t hit any game-breaking bugs and the serious save file issue has now been fixed.

If there is one aspect of Cyberpunk that transcends the bug issues it is the music, it is fucking amazing. CDPR has brought together a whole truckload of talented artists to perform as the fictional artists in the game. Grimes, Nina Kraviz, Refused and Tina Guo to name a few. When you enter a vehicle you have a choice of ten radio stations, each with their own flavour. In between new reports that cover live events you will be treated to punk rock, synthwave, industrial electric and more. Even with the choppy framerate, burning around Night City and getting lost in this exceptional musical triumph is exactly what I was looking for from Cyberpunk 2077.  

Conclusion

I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the most disappointing games releases I’ve ever seen. Predominantly because the woeful console versions have overshadowed the whole launch. I honestly believe that CDPR should have just cancelled the last generation versions once it became obvious they would run this poorly. Of course, there is no getting around the fact that the majority of Cyberpunks development was for these older systems. I do think that the unrealistic hype that saturated this game has made these failures all the more painful to swallow. It does seem like gamers are one of the most mercurial communities on the planet, one day you are the saviour of the gaming world and the next you’ve been cast down with the likes of Bethesda and EA. As we have seen with many gaming catastrophes such as No Man’s Sky, once there is blood in the water the internet will descend on you like a tonne of bricks. While I do agree that people should have the right to voice their anger at the situation, I also deplore the individuals who start making threats or harassing individuals from the developer in question. In the last two weeks, we've also seen thousands of media outlets desperately trying to find new ways to get a hot take on the launch, even going as far as to compare it to Hitler.

The most disappointing element to Cyberpunk is that underneath all the half-finished systems there is an exceptional game here fighting to get out. Many of the side quests are both engaging and feel individually crafted. The characters that cross your path are larger than life and these islands of distilled storytelling pull you into this world. Keanu Reeves also nailed his role as Johnny Silverhand by walking that fine line between utter dick (maybe even 100%) and loveable rogue. Despite all my issues with Night City itself, it does feel so good to hit the streets and see what is around the next corner: I just want the City to hit back from time to time.

CD Projekt Red has certainly reached for greatness here and up until a few weeks ago, this crash landing would have been inconceivable. I have to remind myself that while the Witcher 3 was phenomenal it took two previous games to get there. This project was vastly different to anything the studio had tried before and (assuming CDPR don’t hate Cyberpunk now) they could iron out many of these issues in a sequel. However, it is clear that for the foreseeable future CDPR will be getting this Night City in order, working on DLC and at some point the multiplayer version of CYberpunk 2077.

Many of us will thankfully never experience the kind of pressure that was on this developer to produce the game of the generation and I do believe it was that pressure that led to the terrible decisions around launch. I also believe that CDPR is still a fantastic company that genuinely wants to produce the best games they can. For that reason, I fully expect the team will rest over Christmas (and rightly so) and then get to work in January on rebuilding the trust they have lost over these last few weeks. If they can smash the bugs, enhance the cities systems and add some real customisation, these repairs will then make Cyberpunk 2077 a consistently excellent game worthy of the hype. There is nothing stopping you playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now and having a damn fine time doing so. However, I would say if you can wait for six or even twelve months do so and your patience will undoubtedly be rewarded.

Thank you for reading my review for Cyberpunk 2077. I was not provided with a review copy for this game and have spent a total of 87 hours playing the game for review. I fully intend to revisit Cyberpunk in the future and hopefully cover how well the game has been patched. I hope you enjoy my content and if you would like to know when I post more please follow me on Twitter @riggedforepic and add my site to your favourites.