Cyberpunk 2077 Review

• Platform: Google Stadia PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Xbox One Xbox Series X

• Release date: Dec 10 2020

• Publisher: CD Projekt

• Development team: CD Project Ord

• Genre: Open world, RPG

• Engine: REDengine 4

Cyberpunk 2077 has strongly divided the gaming audience into two camps - the humiliated and offended and the enchanted and the enchanted. We are closer to the first group and we believe that bugs are not the only and basic problem of the game. The fact is that everyone (including the development team) was expecting a game whose title would be inscribed in the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, what we got, in the end, is far from what was promised, but also from what was expected. 

It is probably by far the most serious and ambitious AAA game set in a dystopian world, so it is no wonder that fans of the Cyberpunk universe glorify the plot and atmosphere of this title. Night City in 2077 is anything but a pleasant place to live. Crime, murders, robberies, drugged maniacs, twisted cyborgs, and 6-year-old children are some of the reasons why a normal person would run away from there with his head regardless. But whichever profile you choose at the beginning of the game (Nomad, Street Kid, Corpo), you’ll spend most of your time right in that crusher of human souls.

The entire Cyberpunk genre is primarily inspired by the cult film Blade Runner, and the CD Projekt Red managed to evoke that atmosphere and theme extremely well. The city is "covered" with colorful and unusual video billboards, retro-futuristic cars, and harsh living conditions. The graphic presentation is a good indicator of what we can expect from the next generation of consoles and in general, it raises the atmosphere to a much higher level. Although it is an RPG title, the characters are mostly impressive, the voice acting is above average, and the dialogues are not sterile.

The introduction to the plot is unnecessarily long, while the research is limited - the game just drives you like on rails, until after 4 hours it takes you to a destination. Depending on the chosen profile, the missions will differ a little, but the course of the story itself will not change significantly. In this part of the game, the only bright spot is Jackie Wells, the guy with whom you will make the most significant connection. The pace rises only when you meet Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, after which you get the freedom to explore Night City and all that this city has to offer.

The side missions are partly reminiscent of the experience Witcher 3 had to offer. Unfortunately, most side activities do not have any added value in terms of choice. Wandering on the roofs, stepping into not so accessible and safe parts of the city, will not bring you anything more than a beautiful landscape. The problem is also that most tasks (either major or minor) do not have a significant impact on the outcome of the game itself, as most choices boil down to two different options that give a similar result.

In Cyberpunk 2077 several systems affect the way the game can be switched. The body can be modified with cyborg improvements from head to toe, and there are also attributes that make it much easier to navigate in and out of combat. It is worth praising the skill tree, which has a huge number of options that are not passive, but give significant improvements, so they can change the approach to gaming. Unlike Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, where character empowerment boils down to a boring “awakening” of statistics, Cyberpunk 2077 has thrown a focus on unlocking and enhancing specific abilities.

At first glance, there are many ways to approach the fight with enemies, but it soon becomes evident that sneaking and hacking opponents are a less effective way compared to the classic action gameplay. Sneaking is, unfortunately, one of the worst, slowest, and most annoying forms of fighting due to poorly designed levels and stupid opponents. 

Cold weapons such as katanas stand out in particular, while rifles seem much weaker concerning them because it is necessary to shoot too many bullets to defeat the enemy. The bad thing is that there is no reward, no rebuke for beating opponents or civilians. Of the more recent headlines, the system in Red Dead Redemption condemns and punishes deviant behavior far better (with the help of some kind of moral compass).

The most controversial thing is the bugs that are in abundance, and we were most bothered by those concerning the behavior of the NPC (especially in the introductory part of the game). There are also a lot of graphic bugs - textures are not loaded on time, streets are often left empty, some dialogues cannot be started, the police are created out of nowhere… The list of all these shortcomings can go on indefinitely, but one of the biggest sins is desperate performance on PS4 and Xbox One consoles. 

Adam Kicisnki (director of the CDPR studio) said just before the game came out: "The PS5 version is great, and the PS4 version is pretty good." We just wonder which version he had the opportunity to play since the final product on the consoles is still poorly playable. CDPR was supposed to take advantage of a different business policy and focus first on PC game development.

The interface has its pros and cons: character upgrades, inventory review, sorting, and selecting missions are very simple and clear, while bad shortcuts for accessing gameplay menus and an ugly map in 3D make the game less functional. CD Projekt Red has so far had no experience with making first-person games, so in some places, this comes to the fore, especially when driving a car (where it is possible to switch to the third person) or in dense urban areas full of pedestrians, who will often pass through you like a ghost. 

We think that it would have been much better if only the dialogues had been given in the first person, to more vividly portray the characters and their gestures. Perhaps the best solution is to allow the players to change which person they will play from, as they did with the car ride.

Cyberpunk 2077, according to the announcements of the development team and the expectations of gamers, had to be a game that would mark an entire decade. The game is far from mediocre, as certain aspects are remarkably well done, but unfortunately, we think it will never gain the status of a cult title. Kudos to the development team for the courage to embark on such an over-ambitious project, but we must not turn a blind eye to all the shortcomings that Cyberpunk 2077 possesses. 

It would have been best if the game had been rolled out in Early Access format, but there is still the possibility of a convalescent story happening, as was the case with No Man’s Sky and Star Wars: Battlefront II. In the current state, we give the PC version a rating of 7/10 (which, of course, is far from a bad rating), while with certain fixes (primarily in the field of artificial intelligence) Cyberpunk 2077 could get a rating of 8 to 8.5. 

System requirements

Minimal

• CPU: Intel Core i5-3570K or AMD FX-8310

• GPU: Nvidia GTX 780 or AMD Radeon RX 470 (3GB VRAM or higher)

• RAM: 8 GB

• HDD: 70 GB

• OS: Windows 7 64-bit

• CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 or AMD Ryzen 3 3200G

• GPU: Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 590 (6GB VRAM or higher)

• RAM: 12 GB

• HDD: 70 GB (SSD)

• OS: Windows 10 64-bit