Get ready, this is a long one.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that doesn't necessarily excel at any one thing, but it has a strong grasp on how to design a solid RPG. I enjoyed what was here, but I can't help but feel like something was missing. It's nothing revolutionary, but it is a fun game with a great story about what it means to be human.
I first want to address my history with this game. My interest was first piqued when I saw the gameplay demonstration in 2018, but like most people, I was completely entranced by the game at E3 2019. Not just because of wholesome 100 based Keanu, but because it seemed as though you had a great deal of freedom to truly become anyone in the game. You had freedom of choice in combat and missions, and the game promised a complex, branching storyline in which every decision you made had deep, far-reaching consequences on the story, and how people react to you.
This, of course, only ended up being sort of, but not really true in the final game. Most of us know the whole story about Cyberpunk's launch, so I won't regurgitate it here. What disappointed me most wasn't the technical performance or laundry list of bugs - it was the broken promises.
In the end, only the final mission had any real consequences. There was no branching storyline to speak of. This, coupled with the fact that the game was... unfinished when it released, led me to avoid the game at launch. It seemed like there was fun to be had, but I was disappointed in the fact that the thing I was most interested in was not there. Why promote Night City as a setting where you can carve a path for yourself if that path is predestined anyway?
When I played the game, though... my outlook changed. Certain missions did have multiple outcomes, like the Delemain questline, for example, and even if there was no effect on the world itself, I did enjoy seeing the different rewards (and lack thereof) for my actions. Also, you could at the very least set up like six different endings through a few questlines, and I very much appreciated that. In fact, the ending I chose happened to align perfectly with how my Nomad playthrough began, and my own philosophies when approaching the story the game was trying to tell. It was the perfect ending, honestly.
I particularly connected with the story, and I came to accept the fact that a branching storyline would have severely affected the impact that this narrative would have. The game had to be this way, and without spoiling anything, the choices you have in the end are perfectly complimentary to the game's thesis about being human, and how that line blurs through the relationship between man and machine, and corporations and citizens. If anything, the game was ahead of its time when it was being developed, foreshadowing a power imbalance that would only grow more dissonant in the 2020s.
Night City also explores several nuances that I took a liking to. I particularly vibed with the concept of Braindances, which go beyond virtual reality and allow the player to feel and live out every sensation as if they were really the person the BD was recorded from. What this leads to, naturally, is an underground porn and snuff ring where BDs of real murders are being distributed to sellers twisted enough to want to experience that shit, which in turn ties into a emotional questline with great characters that I won't spoil here.
What is truly at the heart of Cyberpunk's themes of life and humanity are the relationships you form throughout the game. Against the backdrop of that aforementioned power imbalance, and the scattered lives of those around you, everyone is just trying to survive. I found myself connecting to several characters' backgrounds and circumstances; even Johnny Silverhand managed to win me over by the end of the game, despite how much of a piece of shit he'd been. And that's really what it's all about - beneath everything, we are all human. The conversation I had with Takemura on the rooftop of a construction site made me realize... oh wow, maybe there is some humanity to everyone after all... even corpos. And while we don't know if there is a way to tear down that unjust system without consequences, it is worth trying. Fighting. Surviving. Living.
I'm not going to argue that the delivery of this game's themes is perfect, but they resonated with me, and the ending I chose felt like the best way to close out my story, and how I perceived the themes of this game. Rather than being afraid to lose people closest to me, I decided to let them help me and take risks because they love me, and take off for greener pastures - no matter what may come in the future.
Cyberpunk's role-playing elements do not revolutionize the industry. They're quite a few steps above Fallout 4, but they don't even come close to New Vegas. What the game does excel at is the world in place, its story and characters, and its gameplay. The builds you can create offer the most freedom to experiment and allow you to basically craft any kind of playstyle you like. I turned myself into a time-freezing, shotgun and katana-wielding killing machine, and I was a force to be reckoned with, for sure, but you can also run a stealth-centric build where you hack and distract enemies, a blunt-force trauma kind of warrior, a nuisance that can passively heal - basically, this game's skills are your sandbox, and they perfectly accompany both the open-ended mission structure, and my desire to see these characters' questlines through to the end. Honestly, even the jank was entertaining and endearing. As long as the bugs aren't disruptive, I am thoroughly entertained by bugs in Bethesda games, and Cyberpunk's bugs were rarely disruptive for me, so I had a few good laughs throughout my playthrough.
All in all, Cyberpunk 2077 came together really well in the end, and I had a good time. It does feel like there's something missing, and I'll always wonder what might have been, but only after Starfield released did I realize just how Cyberpunk managed to get its role-playing elements, setting, story and gameplay all right. Bethesda seems to have transformed into a pale, listless shadow of its former self, and I have a feeling Cyberpunk's legacy is going to shake out differently, being perceived as an all-time great RPG that people eventually warmed up to. Preem shit, choom.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that doesn't necessarily excel at any one thing, but it has a strong grasp on how to design a solid RPG. I enjoyed what was here, but I can't help but feel like something was missing. It's nothing revolutionary, but it is a fun game with a great story about what it means to be human.
I first want to address my history with this game. My interest was first piqued when I saw the gameplay demonstration in 2018, but like most people, I was completely entranced by the game at E3 2019. Not just because of wholesome 100 based Keanu, but because it seemed as though you had a great deal of freedom to truly become anyone in the game. You had freedom of choice in combat and missions, and the game promised a complex, branching storyline in which every decision you made had deep, far-reaching consequences on the story, and how people react to you.
This, of course, only ended up being sort of, but not really true in the final game. Most of us know the whole story about Cyberpunk's launch, so I won't regurgitate it here. What disappointed me most wasn't the technical performance or laundry list of bugs - it was the broken promises.
In the end, only the final mission had any real consequences. There was no branching storyline to speak of. This, coupled with the fact that the game was... unfinished when it released, led me to avoid the game at launch. It seemed like there was fun to be had, but I was disappointed in the fact that the thing I was most interested in was not there. Why promote Night City as a setting where you can carve a path for yourself if that path is predestined anyway?
When I played the game, though... my outlook changed. Certain missions did have multiple outcomes, like the Delemain questline, for example, and even if there was no effect on the world itself, I did enjoy seeing the different rewards (and lack thereof) for my actions. Also, you could at the very least set up like six different endings through a few questlines, and I very much appreciated that. In fact, the ending I chose happened to align perfectly with how my Nomad playthrough began, and my own philosophies when approaching the story the game was trying to tell. It was the perfect ending, honestly.
I particularly connected with the story, and I came to accept the fact that a branching storyline would have severely affected the impact that this narrative would have. The game had to be this way, and without spoiling anything, the choices you have in the end are perfectly complimentary to the game's thesis about being human, and how that line blurs through the relationship between man and machine, and corporations and citizens. If anything, the game was ahead of its time when it was being developed, foreshadowing a power imbalance that would only grow more dissonant in the 2020s.
Night City also explores several nuances that I took a liking to. I particularly vibed with the concept of Braindances, which go beyond virtual reality and allow the player to feel and live out every sensation as if they were really the person the BD was recorded from. What this leads to, naturally, is an underground porn and snuff ring where BDs of real murders are being distributed to sellers twisted enough to want to experience that shit, which in turn ties into a emotional questline with great characters that I won't spoil here.
What is truly at the heart of Cyberpunk's themes of life and humanity are the relationships you form throughout the game. Against the backdrop of that aforementioned power imbalance, and the scattered lives of those around you, everyone is just trying to survive. I found myself connecting to several characters' backgrounds and circumstances; even Johnny Silverhand managed to win me over by the end of the game, despite how much of a piece of shit he'd been. And that's really what it's all about - beneath everything, we are all human. The conversation I had with Takemura on the rooftop of a construction site made me realize... oh wow, maybe there is some humanity to everyone after all... even corpos. And while we don't know if there is a way to tear down that unjust system without consequences, it is worth trying. Fighting. Surviving. Living.
I'm not going to argue that the delivery of this game's themes is perfect, but they resonated with me, and the ending I chose felt like the best way to close out my story, and how I perceived the themes of this game. Rather than being afraid to lose people closest to me, I decided to let them help me and take risks because they love me, and take off for greener pastures - no matter what may come in the future.
Cyberpunk's role-playing elements do not revolutionize the industry. They're quite a few steps above Fallout 4, but they don't even come close to New Vegas. What the game does excel at is the world in place, its story and characters, and its gameplay. The builds you can create offer the most freedom to experiment and allow you to basically craft any kind of playstyle you like. I turned myself into a time-freezing, shotgun and katana-wielding killing machine, and I was a force to be reckoned with, for sure, but you can also run a stealth-centric build where you hack and distract enemies, a blunt-force trauma kind of warrior, a nuisance that can passively heal - basically, this game's skills are your sandbox, and they perfectly accompany both the open-ended mission structure, and my desire to see these characters' questlines through to the end. Honestly, even the jank was entertaining and endearing. As long as the bugs aren't disruptive, I am thoroughly entertained by bugs in Bethesda games, and Cyberpunk's bugs were rarely disruptive for me, so I had a few good laughs throughout my playthrough.
All in all, Cyberpunk 2077 came together really well in the end, and I had a good time. It does feel like there's something missing, and I'll always wonder what might have been, but only after Starfield released did I realize just how Cyberpunk managed to get its role-playing elements, setting, story and gameplay all right. Bethesda seems to have transformed into a pale, listless shadow of its former self, and I have a feeling Cyberpunk's legacy is going to shake out differently, being perceived as an all-time great RPG that people eventually warmed up to. Preem shit, choom.