"We did it, choom."
At long last I have climbed the mountain. I have visited Night City and I have seen V's quest to its fruition. I have bathed in a world that no longer cares about anything. A realm of pain, helplessness, and apathy.
Night City is an absolute nightmare.
But this shouldn't come as a shock. Anyone that's dabbled in the cyberpunk genre of literature can tell you that a future in which humanity has expanded beyond its physical limitations into realms of great power and imagination is also more often than not a hellish nightmare for the common person. Unfortunately for us, the developer team at CD Projekt Red has decided that you are not to be a common person - your V is to become a legend of the streets of Night City.
God. Somehow that's even worse.
Saddled with the left over AI construct of an anarchy-bent rock star and reeling from the death of your best, and perhaps only real friend in the city, Cyberpunk 2077 sends you on a quest for salvation in the world's worst city. The cops are overly aggressive, the people are incredibly hostile, and the city's run by morally and ethically bankrupt corporations that see you as a number instead of a human with a soul. It's a frustratingly somber experience in which you spend much of your journey preparing to embrace a death that you both didn’t earn and can’t avoid.
Christ.
Luckily, in the game’s 2.0 update, which refreshes many of the game’s systems, this desolation is complimented quite nicely by a skill tree that allows you to largely customize your V to your liking. Is your V going to prioritize blades and hacking? Maybe they’ll focus their energies on chasing down the denizens of Night City in a frenzy with a massive hammer. Perhaps you want to craft a V that’s a master of all, king of nothing. Regardless, the revamped perk system makes each path you choose a superbly interesting one - my V specialized in shotguns and submachine guns, dashing around the city with a double jump that made their ability to unleash a bloodlust with a hammer even more terrifying. Combine this with a responsive movement and excellent gunplay and you have quite the formidable first person action game.
So, if the game has many compelling perks and excellent gameplay, why do I feel confident that it’s a three star experience for me? I suspect much of it has to do with the loneliness the experience inspired within me - many of the game’s dense, richly scripted side quests are largely transactional. Everyone is out to destroy someone else through carefully measured psychopathy or wanton destruction and no one seems to care when the population of city seems intent on murdering each other. Though the game insisted that I was good friends with these people, I felt our relationships, even with Panam, the nomad woman that my V developed a romantic relationship with, felt transactional - they’d keep giving me attention as long as I rolled in when they needed to dig them out of a jam. The only authentic relationship o felt during my experience was with Jackie Welles, whose presence is eliminated as quickly as it’s introduced.
I completed every major character side quest and much of the game’s other miscellaneous gigs and more often than not I felt like I was a tool for other’s survival. That feeling did not change as I completed the game’s main story quest. As a result, my Cyberpunk 2077 experience, though fun and engaging, left me quite literally feeling nothing. As V’s life was on the line, I simply didn’t care very much.
The weirdest part of it all is that I’m sure someday I will return to night city and have myself a completely different experience. There’s so much variety and richness here that I’m sure I’d be able to have a completely fresh experience. Till then? Cyberpunk 2077 has left me as cold as the streets of Night City as rain falls overhead.
Wonderful game. Just not what I need from video games in October of 2023.
At long last I have climbed the mountain. I have visited Night City and I have seen V's quest to its fruition. I have bathed in a world that no longer cares about anything. A realm of pain, helplessness, and apathy.
Night City is an absolute nightmare.
But this shouldn't come as a shock. Anyone that's dabbled in the cyberpunk genre of literature can tell you that a future in which humanity has expanded beyond its physical limitations into realms of great power and imagination is also more often than not a hellish nightmare for the common person. Unfortunately for us, the developer team at CD Projekt Red has decided that you are not to be a common person - your V is to become a legend of the streets of Night City.
God. Somehow that's even worse.
Saddled with the left over AI construct of an anarchy-bent rock star and reeling from the death of your best, and perhaps only real friend in the city, Cyberpunk 2077 sends you on a quest for salvation in the world's worst city. The cops are overly aggressive, the people are incredibly hostile, and the city's run by morally and ethically bankrupt corporations that see you as a number instead of a human with a soul. It's a frustratingly somber experience in which you spend much of your journey preparing to embrace a death that you both didn’t earn and can’t avoid.
Christ.
Luckily, in the game’s 2.0 update, which refreshes many of the game’s systems, this desolation is complimented quite nicely by a skill tree that allows you to largely customize your V to your liking. Is your V going to prioritize blades and hacking? Maybe they’ll focus their energies on chasing down the denizens of Night City in a frenzy with a massive hammer. Perhaps you want to craft a V that’s a master of all, king of nothing. Regardless, the revamped perk system makes each path you choose a superbly interesting one - my V specialized in shotguns and submachine guns, dashing around the city with a double jump that made their ability to unleash a bloodlust with a hammer even more terrifying. Combine this with a responsive movement and excellent gunplay and you have quite the formidable first person action game.
So, if the game has many compelling perks and excellent gameplay, why do I feel confident that it’s a three star experience for me? I suspect much of it has to do with the loneliness the experience inspired within me - many of the game’s dense, richly scripted side quests are largely transactional. Everyone is out to destroy someone else through carefully measured psychopathy or wanton destruction and no one seems to care when the population of city seems intent on murdering each other. Though the game insisted that I was good friends with these people, I felt our relationships, even with Panam, the nomad woman that my V developed a romantic relationship with, felt transactional - they’d keep giving me attention as long as I rolled in when they needed to dig them out of a jam. The only authentic relationship o felt during my experience was with Jackie Welles, whose presence is eliminated as quickly as it’s introduced.
I completed every major character side quest and much of the game’s other miscellaneous gigs and more often than not I felt like I was a tool for other’s survival. That feeling did not change as I completed the game’s main story quest. As a result, my Cyberpunk 2077 experience, though fun and engaging, left me quite literally feeling nothing. As V’s life was on the line, I simply didn’t care very much.
The weirdest part of it all is that I’m sure someday I will return to night city and have myself a completely different experience. There’s so much variety and richness here that I’m sure I’d be able to have a completely fresh experience. Till then? Cyberpunk 2077 has left me as cold as the streets of Night City as rain falls overhead.
Wonderful game. Just not what I need from video games in October of 2023.