Ultimately...
Cyberpunk 2077 is a flawed masterpiece. I think everyone that plays it will find a set of faults that is unique to them, their console/computer, and/or perhaps their play style. Some players may be affected by bugs and crashes that still plague the game’s darkest corners, others might just be peeved that a piece of clothing clips through another at just the wrong angle. But to that, I say if you’re even remotely interested in the game… if you push through some of your personal woes, you’ll start to see the masterpiece shine through and you’ll have an undeniably fun experience. If you need more convincing, I've left a portion (about 30%) of my review below (up to Steam's character limit), and have the full article hosted on my website.
Gameplay
The best comparison I can make for Cyberpunk 2077 is by saying it plays as if Bethesda made a Deus Ex game with the gameplay style of their Fallout series. There are a couple of different ways you can approach combat, namely stealth and guns blazing. Then, a couple of different weapon types inspire those types of play. So a stealth-focused player might find themself surrounded by the likes of silenced pistols, stealth takedowns, knives, and some netrunner hacks. Players that favor the action of shootouts may find themselves rushing into combat wielding shotguns, light machine guns, katanas, and more. There are a lot of “combat scenarios” in the form of missions, police scanner hustles, gigs, and more for you to test these play styles to help you master your chosen form, or inform you of perhaps an alternate playstyle you might enjoy more.
Combat is snappy, and regardless of how you choose to play, it’s always satisfying to take down a bunch of chromed-up gangers patrolling a gig, or waves of enemies storming your position inside of a corpo-controlled super structure… Every weapon type is dialed in to be incredibly fun right when you pick it up, especially if you find an iconic weapon, which usually has an additional effect or two you won’t find anywhere else (akin to Destiny 2’s exotics). I think the best recommendation I can give is: I’ve played this game for over 160 hours through two playthroughs. While the story is excellent, I wouldn’t dare come back if the combat sucked or the moment-to-moment gameplay didn’t captivate me. It’s addicting and exciting, and it immerses you in the world of Cyberpunk, as an Edgerunner in Night City.
Outside of combat, you can expect yourself to have a good time listening to the plethora of radio stations while driving the streets of Night City in any number of purchasable vehicles, perhaps using the photo mode to capture some serene vistas or memorable moments, maybe listening to a character express their woes, or perhaps you’re just out shopping and walking around Night City.
Narrative and Worldbuilding
Cyberpunk 2077 has INCREDIBLE narrative and worldbuilding. The questions that arise in your mind as you play many of the quests will make you question technology, humanity, fate, and more, all through the lens of the Cyberpunk universe. Some quests will have a comedic tone to them, as you find yourself hunting down rogue taxi AIs, only for the questline to culminate in a head-scratching finale, where your choices in the final decision are nothing but serious, morally grey answers filled with even more questions. In some other quests, the nature of the missions, and the horrific events that transpire are so dark, that even behind the monitor of my computer screen I couldn’t help but feel a foreboding sense of terror, to the point where I was expecting a jumpscare that would never come. Other times I would sit with a character at a point in their quest line and talk with them, while we look on at the city in quiet contemplation, promoting thoughts and feelings of a serene hope for the future, yet still while feeling a twinge of dread knowing everyone is at the mercy of the city that always wins. CD Projekt RED’s ability to immerse you as V, and take you across a broad emotional spectrum, within the same universe, in the same game, across several different kinds of stories, is absolutely a masterclass stroke, and I argue is second to no other game I have played within recent memory. I can’t possibly express that enough.
Graphics and Performance
For this playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, I played on my PC, with an RTX 3070 and a Ryzen 7 CPU. Performance out of the box was good, I opted into playing with Ray-Tracing, but the preselected setting for that was almost a bit too much and I did get some frame dips, so I turned the quality down in some areas and afterward had a smooth experience. I also played for a bit on SteamDeck, though this was only to play Roach Race on the couch (which worked wonderfully, btw).
Audio
The soundtrack is GOD-TIER. The emotional weight that the ambient tracks can convey as they’re played in the context of the game—I’m talking The Sacred and the Profane, Been Good to Know Ya, Outsider No More, The Voice in My Head, Rite of Passage… Absolute masterpieces. I cannot properly convey how incredible of a job P.T. Adamczyk & team did. I would pay top dollar to see it live. I don’t even know what I need to say to make people believe this is one of the best game soundtracks of all time. And that’s just me praising the somber ambient stuff, I could go on for days talking about Rebel Path, V, Pat(idiots), Cyberninja, not to even MENTION the Radio music with artist inclusions like GRIMES, Run the Jewels, and more. It is DIALED into perfection and has so much music I would be amazed if you didn't find something you liked.
Conclusion
If you've read even a small portion of this review, you understand that I think very highly of this game, and it should come as no surprise that I do in fact place it within my personal best-of-all-time list, perhaps even within my top 10 of all time. It is a flawed masterpiece, but it is a masterpiece nonetheless that has resonated with me in a wholly unique way that no other video game has been able to do. It’s games like this that make me want to keep playing games and experiencing their stories, characters, soundtracks, and messages.
The gameplay is as my friend puts it, “undeniably fun”, the world-building and narrative are top-notch, and the soundtrack is absolutely GOD-TIER both on the ambient side and the artist inclusion side. It is impossible to not see brilliance around every turn. It's a shame that every player will find their own set of faults with the game and for one reason or another won’t play it, or will stop playing it before they can see the brilliance within. Some may find game crashing bugs, others won't be impressed with the story, and another set may find moment-to-moment gameplay or its systems lacking. But I genuinely hope dear reader, that if you’re even slightly interested in playing Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll push through its flaws to give the masterpiece contained within a chance to shine through and show you what it’s made of.
In short, for me, the flaw that bothered me the most was the level cap. The part of the game that is undeniably a masterpiece to me is those quiet moments outside of the killing, and the story. Moments where you could sit in quiet contemplation on the outskirts of the city… the music resonating just right… with thoughts and emotions given context through the narrative, and the missions. A thing of beauty, I know. Never fades away...
Cyberpunk 2077 is a flawed masterpiece. I think everyone that plays it will find a set of faults that is unique to them, their console/computer, and/or perhaps their play style. Some players may be affected by bugs and crashes that still plague the game’s darkest corners, others might just be peeved that a piece of clothing clips through another at just the wrong angle. But to that, I say if you’re even remotely interested in the game… if you push through some of your personal woes, you’ll start to see the masterpiece shine through and you’ll have an undeniably fun experience. If you need more convincing, I've left a portion (about 30%) of my review below (up to Steam's character limit), and have the full article hosted on my website.
Gameplay
The best comparison I can make for Cyberpunk 2077 is by saying it plays as if Bethesda made a Deus Ex game with the gameplay style of their Fallout series. There are a couple of different ways you can approach combat, namely stealth and guns blazing. Then, a couple of different weapon types inspire those types of play. So a stealth-focused player might find themself surrounded by the likes of silenced pistols, stealth takedowns, knives, and some netrunner hacks. Players that favor the action of shootouts may find themselves rushing into combat wielding shotguns, light machine guns, katanas, and more. There are a lot of “combat scenarios” in the form of missions, police scanner hustles, gigs, and more for you to test these play styles to help you master your chosen form, or inform you of perhaps an alternate playstyle you might enjoy more.
Combat is snappy, and regardless of how you choose to play, it’s always satisfying to take down a bunch of chromed-up gangers patrolling a gig, or waves of enemies storming your position inside of a corpo-controlled super structure… Every weapon type is dialed in to be incredibly fun right when you pick it up, especially if you find an iconic weapon, which usually has an additional effect or two you won’t find anywhere else (akin to Destiny 2’s exotics). I think the best recommendation I can give is: I’ve played this game for over 160 hours through two playthroughs. While the story is excellent, I wouldn’t dare come back if the combat sucked or the moment-to-moment gameplay didn’t captivate me. It’s addicting and exciting, and it immerses you in the world of Cyberpunk, as an Edgerunner in Night City.
Outside of combat, you can expect yourself to have a good time listening to the plethora of radio stations while driving the streets of Night City in any number of purchasable vehicles, perhaps using the photo mode to capture some serene vistas or memorable moments, maybe listening to a character express their woes, or perhaps you’re just out shopping and walking around Night City.
Narrative and Worldbuilding
Cyberpunk 2077 has INCREDIBLE narrative and worldbuilding. The questions that arise in your mind as you play many of the quests will make you question technology, humanity, fate, and more, all through the lens of the Cyberpunk universe. Some quests will have a comedic tone to them, as you find yourself hunting down rogue taxi AIs, only for the questline to culminate in a head-scratching finale, where your choices in the final decision are nothing but serious, morally grey answers filled with even more questions. In some other quests, the nature of the missions, and the horrific events that transpire are so dark, that even behind the monitor of my computer screen I couldn’t help but feel a foreboding sense of terror, to the point where I was expecting a jumpscare that would never come. Other times I would sit with a character at a point in their quest line and talk with them, while we look on at the city in quiet contemplation, promoting thoughts and feelings of a serene hope for the future, yet still while feeling a twinge of dread knowing everyone is at the mercy of the city that always wins. CD Projekt RED’s ability to immerse you as V, and take you across a broad emotional spectrum, within the same universe, in the same game, across several different kinds of stories, is absolutely a masterclass stroke, and I argue is second to no other game I have played within recent memory. I can’t possibly express that enough.
Graphics and Performance
For this playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, I played on my PC, with an RTX 3070 and a Ryzen 7 CPU. Performance out of the box was good, I opted into playing with Ray-Tracing, but the preselected setting for that was almost a bit too much and I did get some frame dips, so I turned the quality down in some areas and afterward had a smooth experience. I also played for a bit on SteamDeck, though this was only to play Roach Race on the couch (which worked wonderfully, btw).
Audio
The soundtrack is GOD-TIER. The emotional weight that the ambient tracks can convey as they’re played in the context of the game—I’m talking The Sacred and the Profane, Been Good to Know Ya, Outsider No More, The Voice in My Head, Rite of Passage… Absolute masterpieces. I cannot properly convey how incredible of a job P.T. Adamczyk & team did. I would pay top dollar to see it live. I don’t even know what I need to say to make people believe this is one of the best game soundtracks of all time. And that’s just me praising the somber ambient stuff, I could go on for days talking about Rebel Path, V, Pat(idiots), Cyberninja, not to even MENTION the Radio music with artist inclusions like GRIMES, Run the Jewels, and more. It is DIALED into perfection and has so much music I would be amazed if you didn't find something you liked.
Conclusion
If you've read even a small portion of this review, you understand that I think very highly of this game, and it should come as no surprise that I do in fact place it within my personal best-of-all-time list, perhaps even within my top 10 of all time. It is a flawed masterpiece, but it is a masterpiece nonetheless that has resonated with me in a wholly unique way that no other video game has been able to do. It’s games like this that make me want to keep playing games and experiencing their stories, characters, soundtracks, and messages.
The gameplay is as my friend puts it, “undeniably fun”, the world-building and narrative are top-notch, and the soundtrack is absolutely GOD-TIER both on the ambient side and the artist inclusion side. It is impossible to not see brilliance around every turn. It's a shame that every player will find their own set of faults with the game and for one reason or another won’t play it, or will stop playing it before they can see the brilliance within. Some may find game crashing bugs, others won't be impressed with the story, and another set may find moment-to-moment gameplay or its systems lacking. But I genuinely hope dear reader, that if you’re even slightly interested in playing Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll push through its flaws to give the masterpiece contained within a chance to shine through and show you what it’s made of.
In short, for me, the flaw that bothered me the most was the level cap. The part of the game that is undeniably a masterpiece to me is those quiet moments outside of the killing, and the story. Moments where you could sit in quiet contemplation on the outskirts of the city… the music resonating just right… with thoughts and emotions given context through the narrative, and the missions. A thing of beauty, I know. Never fades away...