UPDATE: Not really sure what prompted me exactly, but I picked this game back up around two months ago (after putting it down in January) and finally beat it recently. I think after sitting on it for a while, I was able to view the game for what it was and not what I expected it to be, and I ended up enjoying it a lot more! They did also fix pretty much all the bugs I’d encountered on release, and it was a much smoother and cleaner experience. I still agree with pretty much everything I said in my first journal entry (below), but with progressing further into the game I learned to deal with the combat and really enjoy the story. The main missions still didn’t really thrill me, but the side missions were great. I loved the cast of side characters, especially Judy and Panam (my Boo). This game is still fundamentally flawed in ways, but there’s something really charming about the story and world that pull me in. I ended up really enjoying my time with this game and I’m glad I finished it. I’ll be playing any DLC that comes out for this as well.
Old Review:
I think Cyberpunk 2077 could have been a fantastic open world RPG with one of the most interesting worlds and stories of any game in the genre. Sadly, they underdeliver on most aspects of the game, and deliver something that feels lost in its own expectations.
Even comparing it to other open world RPG’s, it’s not very good. The map is super bloated, with so many icons of things to do it’s overwhelming. There’s not much customization, with the only thing you’re able to change being clothes which are tied to armor points, taking away the only incentive of customization in the game. As of my 20 or so hours so far, the first big mission where you break into Arasaka tower was pretty cool, and every other mission has been fine. They’re pretty generic and nothing special nor bad. There’s some cool side quests like the ones where you reclaim rogue taxi’s, but even those get repetitive and boring after a couple of them.
The FPS mechanics feel clunky and not at all responsive or satisfying to play. Combat always felt like a chore in this game, even after I turned off the default settings of gradual camera turning (which was dumb to have implemented in the first place). They’ve been talking about adding a multiplayer and that honestly sounds horrible. Having competitive modes based on this combat system sounds like the opposite of fun.
The other day I walked around the heart of downtown in this game for 5 or so minutes actively looking for anything to do. I didn’t find a single thing. There wasn’t one bar, club, shop, or anything of the sort that I could actually walk into and interact with. There were a couple of shootouts in the street which seems to be one of the only dynamic events in the game. I saw a really cool neon rainbow tunnel and thought “oh wow that’s cool I want to go check that out”. Turns out it was a train station that you can’t even enter, it was just a fast travel point, and this entire structure was just for looks. This all leads into my biggest problem with the game.
The world, for how detailed, dense, and vertical it is, feels remarkably empty and without soul. I rarely felt the feeling of “oh wow that looks so cool I want to go over there and check that out” that I should feel in an open world game, since I knew it was just for looks and I probably wouldn’t be able to do so. The immersion was also broken so often by stupid AI or bugs. There’s so many beautiful, tall buildings in this game, yet there’s no way to actually utilize them. You see flying cars all the time in the sky, yet you can’t drive any of them. How cool would it be to be able to drive around on the street and have the world that’s going on down there, and also drive around in the sky and see the world from a totally different perspective up there? Like if there were a bar near the top of a tower, and there was a hangar in the side of the building to park in and go inside?That’d be so cool! They tease you with how cool flying cars are by showing you them in the main missions (even in one of the first missions in the game) but never give you access. Huge missed opportunity there.
The story as well is fine, but doesn’t seem to really do anything super special. It doesn’t take full advantage of the cyberpunk genre and all the complex themes there are to explore there.
This game makes me sad, because I see so much potential in it. It could’ve been a 4 or maybe even a 5 star game for me, but there are so many areas throughout the game where they under-deliver what clearly could have been significantly more fleshed out mechanics and concepts. I hope that maybe a Cyberpunk 2 (if they ever decide to return to this IP) can expand on the good ideas that are already here, and make a game that lives up to the hype that this one had. I’m shelving this after 20 or so hours because I’m bored and disappointed, but I plan to return in a month or so and beat it. Maybe with the upcoming updates and finishing the full game my review could go up to 3 stars.
Old Review:
I think Cyberpunk 2077 could have been a fantastic open world RPG with one of the most interesting worlds and stories of any game in the genre. Sadly, they underdeliver on most aspects of the game, and deliver something that feels lost in its own expectations.
Even comparing it to other open world RPG’s, it’s not very good. The map is super bloated, with so many icons of things to do it’s overwhelming. There’s not much customization, with the only thing you’re able to change being clothes which are tied to armor points, taking away the only incentive of customization in the game. As of my 20 or so hours so far, the first big mission where you break into Arasaka tower was pretty cool, and every other mission has been fine. They’re pretty generic and nothing special nor bad. There’s some cool side quests like the ones where you reclaim rogue taxi’s, but even those get repetitive and boring after a couple of them.
The FPS mechanics feel clunky and not at all responsive or satisfying to play. Combat always felt like a chore in this game, even after I turned off the default settings of gradual camera turning (which was dumb to have implemented in the first place). They’ve been talking about adding a multiplayer and that honestly sounds horrible. Having competitive modes based on this combat system sounds like the opposite of fun.
The other day I walked around the heart of downtown in this game for 5 or so minutes actively looking for anything to do. I didn’t find a single thing. There wasn’t one bar, club, shop, or anything of the sort that I could actually walk into and interact with. There were a couple of shootouts in the street which seems to be one of the only dynamic events in the game. I saw a really cool neon rainbow tunnel and thought “oh wow that’s cool I want to go check that out”. Turns out it was a train station that you can’t even enter, it was just a fast travel point, and this entire structure was just for looks. This all leads into my biggest problem with the game.
The world, for how detailed, dense, and vertical it is, feels remarkably empty and without soul. I rarely felt the feeling of “oh wow that looks so cool I want to go over there and check that out” that I should feel in an open world game, since I knew it was just for looks and I probably wouldn’t be able to do so. The immersion was also broken so often by stupid AI or bugs. There’s so many beautiful, tall buildings in this game, yet there’s no way to actually utilize them. You see flying cars all the time in the sky, yet you can’t drive any of them. How cool would it be to be able to drive around on the street and have the world that’s going on down there, and also drive around in the sky and see the world from a totally different perspective up there? Like if there were a bar near the top of a tower, and there was a hangar in the side of the building to park in and go inside?That’d be so cool! They tease you with how cool flying cars are by showing you them in the main missions (even in one of the first missions in the game) but never give you access. Huge missed opportunity there.
The story as well is fine, but doesn’t seem to really do anything super special. It doesn’t take full advantage of the cyberpunk genre and all the complex themes there are to explore there.
This game makes me sad, because I see so much potential in it. It could’ve been a 4 or maybe even a 5 star game for me, but there are so many areas throughout the game where they under-deliver what clearly could have been significantly more fleshed out mechanics and concepts. I hope that maybe a Cyberpunk 2 (if they ever decide to return to this IP) can expand on the good ideas that are already here, and make a game that lives up to the hype that this one had. I’m shelving this after 20 or so hours because I’m bored and disappointed, but I plan to return in a month or so and beat it. Maybe with the upcoming updates and finishing the full game my review could go up to 3 stars.