Cyberpunk 2077: With Great Potential Comes Great Responsibility
Let me start with a bit of background about myself. I’ve played a lot of video games, and without a doubt my favourite genre has to be RPGs. Some of my favourites include The Witcher 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds, and Skyrim. This being said, Cyberpunk 2077 has to be my most favourite one yet.
Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in the year 2077 (well, duh) in Night City, a fictional place where cybernetic implants are commonplace and you can achieve anything you put your mind to. You play as V, a mercenary trying to establish himself in the city.
The World Design
Let’s start with the world design, which is absolutely brilliant. Night City feels like the world described to me in Neuromancer, a cityscape set in a dystopian future where despite of all the radical technological improvements, simple human problems have not been solved. Night City’s landscape is breathtaking, and throughout my 70 (and counting) hours in the game, I was never once disappointed in the design. I probably spent at least a good 2 hours in photo mode trying to take the perfect shot at various moments.
This isn’t without its fair share of problems however. While the city certainly has the futuristic theme to it, it also sort of feels “empty” at times. While there’s hundreds of people constantly walking and driving past you, none of them really feel like they’re real people, but rather complete robots when you attempt to speak to them. This establishes a rather common pattern in the game, the lack of good “AI”. Cars will randomly just stop behind you and wait if you stop in the middle of the lane, never attempting to pass you. People sometimes won’t even acknowledge you when you attempt to talk to them, or if they do, give a generic voice line. A lot of this reminded me of Skyrim, which came out almost 10 years ago now.
Due to this, I have to give world design a 8/10 since while the overall aesthetics are top notch, there are a lot of ways they could improve the “buzz” of the city.
The Writing
However the reason I love Cyberpunk 2077 so much is because of the story and the writing. It’s personally what I look for in an RPG, since that’s the whole point of role-playing. I want to believe in the characters and the story, feel like I’m part of all of it. This is where the game really shines. There are so many beautifully crafted characters, each with their own storyline and personalities. It’s the first time for me where I truly felt attached to certain characters (even Witcher 3 felt rather forced in this aspect), and it’s wonderful to see.
Every side mission has a lot of depth to it, exploring yet another person’s way of life in the mess that is Night City. Whether it be a monk who truly believes in anti-violence, or the nomad who simply wants the best for her family, they all have a backstory that you want to know about. Even gigs, which are your usual fetch quests, tend to have something more to them. A story behind the heist, reasoning for it and optional background lore that explains the reason for the hire if you’re interested. It isn’t some usual “I dropped this in a cave”, or “I had it stolen from me”. This being said, I do wish it was a lot more like the Witcher contracts in the Witcher 3, which required you to do a lot of research on how to fight the particular monster. These felt far harder and much more realistic, compared to Cyberpunk’s easy fetch quests.
I personally think the writing and story are a 9/10, missing a point solely due to the rather mundane difficulty of the gigs.
The Combat
Lastly, I want to quickly cover the combat in this game. Personally, I love the sheer number of options you have in fights. There are so many different and amazing playstyles, whether it be the bloodshed samurai, or the silent and undetected assassin, or even the netrunner who can take down an entire building without ever stepping inside. The skill tree is absolutely bonkers, and it reminds me of that of modded Skyrim, specifically mods like Requiem, Ordinator or even Perkus Maximus.
If you combine that with the sheer number of cybernetic implants and their respective modifiers, you’re able to pick a unique build that suits your character archetype. Heck, there’s even a way to travel faster than any car in the game by just running and hopping using implants. It’s wonderful talking to my friends and going over the various builds we use, as there are almost an infinite number of ways to play this game.
Nothing is without it’s flaws however. The biggest one is once again, the poor enemy AI. As the game progresses, a lot of enemies feel very weak and simple. There are no crazy enemy netrunners who can hack you back, or mantis blade users who run after you, or even patrols who aren’t completely inept at checking their surroundings. While I certainly have a ton of fun taking fights, they feel like a joke at times (even at harder difficulties).
All this being said, I personally find the combat fun enough to warrant a 8/10. I don’t find it to be the focus of the game, but I certainly wish it was a bit more polished.
The Bugs
What’s a Cyberpunk 2077 review without mentioning the hilarity of bugs present in this game? I feel bad since while I personally only experience a few visual bugs, I never experience anything truly game breaking, likely due to the fact that I played on a reasonably performant PC. I can’t really comment on the bugs due to this reason, but I certainly empathize with the poor experiences people have attempting to play this game on original PS4s and Xbox Ones. However, this is nothing that’s not fixable after launch. There have already been quite a few patches, and a few major ones yet to come in January/February of 2021. An important thing to note is The Witcher 3 also had its fair share of bugs and problems, but were quickly rectified following the launch, as well as plenty of free DLC to compensate for the troubles.
The Verdict
Cyberpunk 2077 is a game with immense potential. Leading up to the launch, people referred to the game as the defining moment in RPG history; the next generation of role playing games. Expectations were pushed higher and higher, leading to unmatchable expectations. Despite my personal reasonable expectations for the game, I did feel a little let down. There was a lot that could have been improved, from certain gameplay skips and the whole slew of bugs in the game, to the clear lack of good AI. It’s still one of my all-time favourites, simply due to how good it can be.
This game certainly has the potential to improve and actually become one of the defining titles of 2021 (when it should have been released). The only question is, will CDPR actually deliver?