Cyberpunk 2077 Reviews

Cyberpunk 2077 – A Brief (mostly) Spoiler-Free Review

Playtime update on 3 January 2021: 90hrs PC, 70hrs Xbox One X.

It’s finally here. Probably the most hyped title of all time has finally released. I am of course talking about CD Projekt RED’s first foray into a game that is not partially titled The Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077.

NOTE: I have completed playthroughs of this game back on the 1.06 patch, on both Xbox One X and a PC with as main specs a Ryzen 7 2700x, RX Vega 64 GPU and 32GB of RAM.

First, let’s talk about the bad. Because there is plenty of it. Technical and visual bugs have reared their ugly heads in force in this game, with the base PS4/Xbox One versions being hit the hardest. Patch 1.04 did a bit to alleviate that, from what I’ve seen on the net so far, but it’s not enough yet. Besides that, the narrative controlling by CD Projekt is nigh-inexcusable. They should have shown actual gameplay of the base consoles and allowed those versions to be reviewed properly pre-launch, meaning that said reviewers were able to show live footage of the game instead of even more trailer material. Here’s to hoping that it’s a lesson learned for their next title, whenever that may release.

Back to bugs: this game is quite full of it. Many bugs are purely visual, but some of them can be severe enough that they make scenes that are intended to be emotionally heavy and heartfelt downright silly. As for the technical side of things, that is not as bad on PC, but on consoles the game has a tendency to crash fairly often. Especially on base Xbox One models, the game can sometimes look and run unconditionally horrible.

Technical state: PC: 8. Xbox Series: 7. Xbox One X: 6. Xbox One: 2.

But even with these problems, I can still say with confidence that this is one of the best games I have ever played. From the unbelievably detailed world that is Night City and the surrounding Badlands to the fast-paced, gripping story and side missions all over said city and some of the best writing in any game to date, the core of the game has all the ingredients to be remembered as a masterclass in its genre.

Night City is a place created with such unbelievable density and detail that you almost always can tell where exactly in the city you are, which is impressive for its size. Almost every corner has at least something to discover, from a bunch of gangers beating the shit out of hostages to a sidequest where you save a monk from becoming cybernetically augmented and many, many more. Traversing the city can sometimes be awkward, since vehicles seem to lose a lot of their control when going at high speeds. However, due to the density, fairly high base sprint speed and the city itself being as rich as it is, walking through the city is a worthwhile method of transport. I only used fast travel once in the entire game and that was more out of curiosity for the fast travel system than because I wanted to skip the journey.

The gameplay, while slightly less impressive than the city, still is fairly strong and it’s one of the elements where it really shows its RPG chops. Problems can be solved in many different ways and many different possible outcomes can result from those problems. Players can spec into almost any style they can think of, whether it is a full-on hacker operating from the shadows or someone who prefers to rush in and slap everything silly with a rather… adult weapon (I will not reveal more, it’s up to you to find out!). RPG stats also play a role in the environment, with some routes only becoming available with a sufficiently high stat in a certain attribute. Weapons initially handle rather clunky, but their effects get noticeably better as you gain proficiency with those weapons.

The story grips you by the proverbial nutsack from almost moment 1 and never lets go. It’s a relentless tale of surviving in a city that can easily chew you up and spit you out without anyone noticing. While the main campaign is fairly short, the side quests (especially the ones from major story characters) add much meat to the campaign and are absolutely worth playing through. Which brings me to the following topic: the characters and writing. Nearly everything is fantastically written in such a way that it stirs real emotion inside you while you’re playing. This is aided by excellent voice work from nearly everyone you meet (I’ve heard the voice acting for male V is not as good as the rest of the main cast). Especially the female VA for V knocked it out of the park with just the right husky twang in her voice to sound like a person genuinely inhabiting that world and interacting with the people inside. Besides the obvious main characters such as V and Johnny Silverhand (who is more than adequately voiced by Keanu Reeves), the major side characters could be main characters in their own story, such high quality is their voice work.

Dialogues are the other major way in which the game shows its RPG chops: probe far enough into a character’s dialogue and you may find hidden details which you would otherwise have never known. You can also use certain attributes to show that you really know your stuff or prevent a situation from escalating in a full-on shootout. Dialogue also offers quite a few different ways in which to interact with characters and can sometimes lead to either touching or downright funny situations. Because even in the dark future, a bit of humour is needed.

The soundtrack is yet another avenue where CDPR went all-out. Many different genres occupy the airwaves of Night City when using vehicles and the lack of ambient music while traversing NC on foot really allows the player to take in the sounds of the city. The original score made for main missions is a mostly heavy hitting, grungy 90’s style industrial electronic music that really accentuates the tone of the activity; from pulse-pounding beats in heavy combat to slow, melodical music during the game’s many emotional scenes, the music of Night City has something for everyone.

Core game: 10. (not perfect, but at the very least tied with the best core I’ve experienced so far).

When it comes to the above-described core, Cyberpunk 2077 has won a firm place in my list of favourite games of all time. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the technical state is mostly reflective (since a massive game like this is always going to have bugs) of the core game quality soon.

Verdict so far (technical state will be re-reviewed after Patch 1.2): PC: 9, Xbox Series: 8,5, Xbox One X: 8, Xbox One: 6.
This score is ((core grade + technical grade) / 2), separated by platform.

EDIT: Buy recommendation: PC: Yes. Xbox Series, One X: It's fairly close to an unconditional yes, but it can be worth it to wait out at least the January patch. Xbox One S/base: Wait for Patch 1.2 at least

Ethics statement: Played on PC, completed the story and did quite a fair amount of side content in about 45 hours of playtime. Stats here: https://www.gog.com/u/RelentlessRDS/game/1423049311?sort=use...

Feedback on this review is always appreciated when constructive.

Edit number many: if you are craving RPGs in a similiar setting, check out Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided.

For some context, I played this game for about 30 hours on the Xbox One X and 60 hours on the Xbox Series X.

I was lured into playing Cyberpunk by my love of near-future and post-apocalyptic science fiction. I'm a huge fan of the Deus Ex series, having played each iteration and loving every second of playing within that franchise. Knowing nothing about the game prior to buying it on launch day, I didn't go into it with many of the pre-conceived notions that many people who had followed the development of this game over the last seven years.

I'll start with gameplay before I get into the bugs and other technical issues. Ostensibly, this game is a pseudo-open-world shooter with stealth, RPG, and driving game mechanics. Think futuristic GTA, but with more emphasis on stealth / hacking options for combat. The gunplay is satisfying enough, if unpolished. I found the ADS mechanics jerky and sticky, not as fluid as playing something like an FPS. This isn't a huge gripe, but it was noticeable.

The quickhacking / breach protocol system is varied and impactful, especially later in the game, where certain quickhacks can make short work of what would otherwise be difficult enemies or groups of enemies. But something about the system just didn't feel...urgent? When you go to quickhack an enemy, time slows down, and that made it feel like there was less at stake when in the middle of a firefight. Obviously this leads to a less stressful experience overall but I would've liked to see the time-slowing mechanic ditched when you're in combat.

The driving in this game is a mess. The cars all handle pretty much the same, with the steering of each car being very jerky and hard to pull off without crashing into things. Cars are also very floaty, seemingly barely attached to the ground, and will go flying with the least provocation. Braking on cars is also frustrating, taking a much longer time to come to a complete stop than makes sense, even when not traveling at top speed. The traffic AI is also poor, as drivers on the road will literally sit behind your car and never move or attempt to drive around you. The roads also seem pretty sparsely populated with cars, especially in what you would expect would be congested city areas, but I actually appreciated this more as it made it easier to move around and not rely on the quick travel system.

The main story is generally engaging, though fairly linear with minimal branching opportunities (mostly towards the end) and with a few side missions with "main" side characters that can affect the rest of the game. Otherwise the missions you do for the various factions in the game (the Tyger Claws, Aldecaldos, etc) generally don't impact the world much, and certainly don't contribute to any kind of faction standing system or faction area control system, which I would have liked to see.

The voice acting is generally good, with Johnny Silverhand (voiced by Keanu Reeves) and the side characters being the highlight. But the background AI characters and some of the side characters are voiced poorly enough to be a distraction, which is disappointing. The character dialog is also generally mediocre to poor, with some laughably bad lines being delivered over the course of the games 60-80 hour main story / side mission running time. But there are only a handful of spots where this it's particularly bad.

If you commit crimes in Night City, which generally including assaulting or killing innocents (or getting close to a cop), the Cop AI will trigger and they'll start trying to take you down. This AI for cops in this game is LAUGHABLY bad as cops will regularly lose you if you run 50m down a sidewalk and make a turn into an alley. There's also a shockingly short amount of time between when your crime is reported and when cops forget your crime entirely. There also seems to be little change between the 1-star crime report and top-tier 4-star crime report. Sure, more cops will spawn, but you don't generally have to face more difficult cops (other than the occasional netrunner cop) and they'll forget your transgressions just as easily. Disappointingly enough, cops don't drop any loot when killed, so there's no benefit to killing dozens of cops for sweet, sweet loot.

Which brings us to the crafting system. The thought behind the crafting system in Cyberpunk is technically sound: you collect items (junk, guns, food, etc.) which you can break down into raw materials to craft items whose blueprints you find or purchase in the world. But the implementation of this system is poorly thought out and poorly implemented. There is a setting where you can automatically break down any junk items you find into constituent parts, which is a great time-and-space saving measure. But there's no similar system to mass-craft items like healing items, grenades, etc. and certainly no way to mass-craft weapons for selling. Which you'll need to do because Cyberpunk is pretty tight-fisted with handing out cash, which you'll need for purchasing vehicles, weapons, clothing, mods, and cyberware.

Currently the most efficient post-completing-missions non-exploitive way to make money in the game involves buying out soda cans from all the vending machines you come across, breaking them down, and crafting them into basic weapons you can sell at a profit. This is a horrendously tedious process, but will functionally be the only method available to you after you've completed all the game's side missions and NCPD dispatches. This is a major problem CDPR will have to address in the immediate future if they want people to continue playing past the time it takes to finish the main story.

Cyberware is generally implemented well in this game, with various systems you can modify (hands, legs, circulatory system, etc.) with different kinds and qualities of upgrades throughout the game. One of the leg upgrades gives you a double jump ability, which is a huge game changer. One of the mods to another system is the "Second Heart" mod which allows you to basically respawn after dying without having to reload a save (with a cooldown of course). These modifiers are huge, and affect gameplay significantly. But most of the Cyberware mods available don't approach this level of meaningful gameplay change, and that's disappointing. CDPR will surely be able to add other mods in the future, but for me at least, it didn't feel like my choices of mods largely changed much.

Which brings me to attributes and perks. Attributes are the overall governing stats (there are five of them) that will determine how you play the game: things like Body affect your HP and carrying capacity, Reflexes affect your evasion and gunplay abilities, Cool affects your Stealth, etc. Each time you level up (to a current max of Level 50), you'll receive 1 Attribute Point and 1 Perk Point. You can also earn additional perk points through various methods. Within each of these attributes is a subset of Abilities which level up with use (like Blades, Assault, Quickhacking, etc.). But these abilities can only level up to the level of your Attribute governing that ability. So if you want to max out your Blades skill, you better dump attribute points into Reflexes. There’s no way to increase Attributes other than assigning attribute points to your character at each level you gain. But each of the Skills you level up also contribute XP to your character, so you shouldn’t have a hard time leveling up rather quickly.

Once you level up a Skill to a certain level, you’ll be able to choose a number of perks related to that skill using your Perk Points. Some of these Perks are governed by your Attribute Level (so you can’t allocate points to a certain perk if your overall level is too low), and some are governed by your Skill level. You also receive additional perk points for leveling up a skill, so there’s incentive to generate XP for that skill if there are some perks you really want.

With five Attributes that can each reach Level 20 (that’s 100 Attribute points for those keeping track), you won’t be able to max out all your stats with the current level cap. But you are given some options for AP allocation at the beginning of the game during character creation that can defray some of these problems. Overall the Attribute / Skill / Perk system works well, though with any game of this kind, it always feels like I’m making tough choices towards the end of the game with the last few Attribute / Perk points I have left. I’d recommend finding a guide online about what the various perks / skills do, and plan out your character from there, or you’ll be faced with the prospect of missing out on some perks you wanted to have because you spent too many perk points in something else. ALSO, keep in mind that a couple of the achievements for the game require investment into certain attributes / skills, so make sure you know what those are or you could potentially miss out on a couple of the achievements.

Now, on to the bugs/glitches: I was immediately struck by how messy the game seemed within the first 10 hours of play. I experienced numerous texture pop-in issues, clipping, and character models failing to completely resolve, or appearing in places they shouldn't. I experienced 10 full game crashes in the first 23 hours of gameplay on the Xbox One X and dozens more game freezes which resolved themselves within a few seconds. These freezes and crashes mostly occurred when driving through the city, when the game loading the buildings and AI cars and people couldn't keep up.

I also had NUMEROUS quest-breaking or game-breaking bugs, including characters not able to be interacted with, necessary dialog not occurring, characters not maneuvering to a necessary spot to trigger an interaction, characters just not being around at all, locational requirements not triggering, targets not registering as having been killed, targets being unkillable, and all manner of things of this sort. I had to save and reload the game dozens of times to progress in various missions, and in some cases even had to resort to earlier saves to fix a bug.
Overall, if the game had only minor bug/glitch issues, my score for the game would be a solid 4/5. Cyberpunk would be a good – but not great – game which is not groundbreaking in any single way but cobbles enough gameplay elements together for a fun experience which should be easy for CDPR to smooth over the next few months. Most of the core gameplay elements that Cyberpunk implements have been done before, and done better by other games, but the setting, characters, and story are all pretty engaging. The City does feel somewhat hollow, but I could’ve easily seen CDPR adding more NPCs / side missions over the next few months to a year, really filling out the space for a compelling world and game experience.

But with the state that Cyberpunk was shipped in – wholly unplayable on launch model Xbox One and PS4 consoles, borderline unplayable on the upgraded Xbox One X and PS4 Pro models, and still a glitchy mess on the PS5 and Xbox Series X – I have to knock a full point off my score. After playing the game for 5-10 hours, I was excited at the prospect of what was to come. But that hope ultimately never came to fruition, and I’m left with a largely hollow game experience I don’t see myself returning to now that I’ve 100%ed the game. This may change if CDPR is able to right the ship and fix the litany of gamebreaking bugs, glitches, and technical issues and introduce meaningful, engaging DLC. But as it is, the core experience did not feel worth it.

Cyberpunk 2077: 3/5.

ETHICS NOTE: I played 72 hours of the game on an Xbox Series X pre-optimization patch. I have popped 40 of 44 achievements at the time of writing this review.

Cyberpunk 2077 is the definition of a hot mess. For every element of the game that is exquisite, you are met with a design choice or bug that frustrates and pulls you out of the experience. The game is distractingly buggy, and immersion can easily be interrupted. However, in those moments when all the elements come together, there is nothing quite like CD Projekt Red’s Sci-Fi epic.

The main character of Cyberpunk 2077 is Night City. The best open-world games always manage to make the world feel like it all exists without you even there to witness it. The city’s seedy alleyways, skyscrapers, luxury hotels, rotting industrial areas, and dilapidated housing estates are full of incredible amounts of detail. Night City is an intense, beautiful, and brutal place to exist in.

You play as V and the game presents you with three paths to choose from that dictate your back story and help shape who you will become and how you might relate to the wider story. Character customization is very in-depth and will take a good chunk of your time. While there are lots of dialogue options, there are times where the voice acting responds to a situation in a way that you might not want to or have expected with the choice that you made. It’s a minor complaint as V’s story is superbly crafted and touches on themes of legacy, artificial intelligence, loss, and unchecked corporations. V’s interactions with Johnny Silverhand, excellently performed by Keanu Reeves, really invest you in not just V’s story but also the larger world and the consequences of living in Night City and the toll that the city can take. The writing and performances are mostly great across the game, you will connect with and care deeply about many of the main characters you encounter.
Deciding how to determine your fate with a character can be agonizing.
Visually, Cyberpunk 2077 is staggering. When playing on an Xbox Series X, even without the optimization patch that is on the way in 2021, the game is truly breathtaking. The grimy ultra-modern architecture is absolutely bathed in neon and makes for a startling effect when played on an HDR-compatible console. Lighting effects are generally excellent, particularly the weather. Sandstorms blast across the Badlands and the game is at its visual best when it rains at night creating excellent reflections. Shadows are a slight weak spot, V’s shadow can look downright ludicrous at times, hopefully, this will be addressed via patches. Adding to the technical mastery of the visuals is the design of the different districts of Night City, each has its own distinct personality and despite the size of the city, it is quite easy to learn your way around due to the unique characteristics of the neighborhoods.

The gameplay is a mixed bag. The shooting is excellent, and Cyberpunk 2077 works very well as an FPS if you choose to play more of an outright assault build. Guns feel very balanced and nice and chunky. Highlights are the revolvers and shotguns which are devastating to use. V is very maneuverable too, sliding around with ease and able to climb very fluidly. A huge part of Cyberpunk 2077’s core gameplay is using quick hacking and manipulating the environment and people around you. The mechanics are executed very well, and it is very satisfying to approach an environment and have your hacker’s bag of tricks at your disposal to plan with. A personal favorite is the ability to detonate enemy grenades. It is very impressive to see the level of options the developer provides you with for how want to build your character. Modifying your body with cyberware is very satisfying and you can unlock new abilities that make it much easy to traverse the world which is appreciated. Leveling is a little complicated to learn initially and the sheer amount of abilities is a bit overwhelming. More tutorials could be useful however as it takes quite a while to wrap your head around how everything in the game works.

Other aspects of the gameplay are quite frustrating. The police and wanted systems in Cyberpunk 2077 are simply not up to scratch. Once you are wanted, police will randomly spawn in interiors out of nowhere. You can be in a room facing the only door and police will spawn behind you. This prevents you from planning your escape and instigating a realistic chase as there is simply no way to predict police movement. The driving mechanics are also disappointing. Vehicle handling is extremely twitchy and at high speed, it feels like you are driving on ice. The best way to get around Night City is on a bike as there less chance of you hitting things due to the over-sensitive handling. It is a shame as the vehicle designs are gorgeous. The sound design for all vehicles is excellent too.

All the audio in Cyberpunk 2077 is top of the class. Ambient sounds are crisp and well detailed, the city nightlife sounds are very absorbing. Special mention must be given to the soundtrack which absolutely slaps. When a fight gets going you are pounded with heavy synth and guitars. The music in the gunfights is reminiscent of the recent Doom games, it’s that good. The outrageous music in the action scenes is juxtaposed well by the quieter moments, the score beautifully underlines the games more emotional scenes to drive them home. Music is used to build tension very effectively; it is reminiscent of Hans Zimmer’s work in the Dark Knight trilogy. Cyberpunk 2077’s score is one of the best you will hear in any game.

Let’s talk bugs. I had a better time of it than most playing on an Xbox Series X but there were still many, many issues. The predominant bugs I encountered were U.I. overlap issues. At least once during every session, I would have something become stuck overlapped on the screen. Sometimes it was a gun stats tab, other times it was subtitles even though I didn’t have subtitles on. Most of these issues necessitated saving and reloading the game to get rid of it which killed the immersion. Lines of dialogue would often be repeated, calling your vehicle didn’t always work, NPCs would become would not respond to interaction and the GPS would lose its mind. That’s just a small selection. The game also crashed at least three times during my time with it. Otherwise, core performance was good. Frames were mostly locked to 30 or 60 depending on what graphics mode was selected and I experienced little if any slowdown. It’s just such a shame as I wanted to be absolutely drawn into the story and world, but immersion will be interrupted due to the bugs.

So much of Cyberpunk 2077 is excellent. The world, story, characters, music and most of the gameplay absolutely hooks you in. There are periods where everything works and you really lose yourself in Night City. That’s why the bugs and other gameplay issues are so disappointing, as it messes with what can be a fantastic experience. Unless you are desperate to avoid spoilers, I would recommend waiting for a few more patches, or if you have a Series X wait for the optimization coming later this year. Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game that will one day be an incredible game.

In 2008, developer CD Projekt RED announced that they were in the process of creating a title set in the Cyberpunk universe. Now, years later, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally available for multiple systems. Is the game worth the long wait, or is it better to wait a while before purchasing? I looked it up for you.

Developer CD Projekt RED has come a long way. Of course, for many people the studio is best known as the creators of The Witcher 3. And yes, that is indeed a great game. And no, that was certainly not the case at the launch of that game. An ambitious title that only reached its final form after a large mountain of updates and patches. Unfortunately, that is probably also the path that the studio now has to take with Cyberpunk 2077. Because to say that the release of Cyberpunk 2077 has been anything but flawless? That might be a bit of an understatement on the brink of 2020. But let's start at the beginning.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG based on a board game from the 1980s. Cyberpunk 2020, which immediately makes the title of the board game very current, was especially innovative at the time due to the in-depth scenarios, the setting with glam rock and punk, the use of cybernetics to improve your characters and the future setting as we often see in science fiction movies like Blade Runner.

A nice start
In this world you take on the role of V, a mercenary that you have to shape yourself at the start of the game. From the colors of his/her/their eyes, to the gender of your character, it's all covered. Including different sizes and shapes. Because what many people easily forget from the perspective of the action is that Cyberpunk is not just a shooter, but a fairly in-depth RPG where your choices influence your adventure.

Already at the start of the game you have to make a choice between three backgrounds. This choice determines how your character views the world. Are you a Nomad, a Streetkid or a Corpo? As a Nomad you belong to an itinerant group that especially appreciates freedom. As a Streetkid you grew up on the streets of Night City and you know how to easily make connections and as a Corpo you come more from a wealthy background where business, power and money are often leading for the people around you.

Regardless of your choice, you must then make several choices in the opening prologue of the game. How do you rescue someone from a den of opponents? Do you go stealthily or rather guns blazing? Although the game clearly leans towards a cautious approach, you won't be penalized for doing things your own way. Freedom of choice, different ways of playing and solid-feeling gunplay make the first hours of exploring Night City a lot of fun.

First cracks soon become visible
During my time in Night City on the Xbox One X, I occasionally noticed some graphical glitches. There were regular minor clipping problems with characters and their clothing, weapons were missing in the hands of characters who clearly had the idea that they were holding something and I sporadically fell through the map. Now these were occasionally things that I have experienced as irritating but never super annoying.
Many reviewers have had the opportunity to review the game on PC, and it's clear that CD Projekt RED's PR department has deliberately only released images from the Xbox One X, Series X, PS4 Pro and PS5. It is those consoles and the PC that can run the game reasonably to well. It does not alter the fact that many, potentially millions, gamers have acquired Cyberpunk 2077 based on the image and reputation of the developer. And that PS4 and Xbox One owners aren't getting the game they expected.

A quick look at YouTube reveals many, often hilarious, videos of Cyberpunk 2077's glitches and issues. And it may be said that Cyberpunk 2077 is a very strong game if everything runs as it should. The locations, music, characters, gameplay and versatility of the world has a huge amount of potential that certainly doesn't always come true in the game's current state.

Too many possibilities
Since Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG you will have a lot of options in the game. How do you equip your V? Which weapons do you prefer? What clothes do you wear? In many ways I still find it strange to make cosmetic choices for a character that is barely in the picture, but it's part of it. The choices for your characteristic skills such as Strength, Intelligence etc. often have consequences for the routes you can take. For example, a higher Strength gives you the ability to open closed doors more easily. But better hacking skills can also allow you to open routes that would otherwise remain closed.

Personally, with an RPG, I always try to be a charismatic talker who can talk his way out of just about any situation. Often I throw some points in Intelligence and Strength to be a bit of an all-round character. Stealth is always an option, of course, and once you've grabbed opponents you can knock them unconscious or simply kill them.

A rush job of twelve years of hard work?
So at its core, Cyberpunk 2077's gameplay is definitely solid and entertaining. Still, it is startling that a game that has already been announced before the release of the PS4 and Xbox One cannot run properly on the entry-level models. Frame rates are as low as ten frames per second in some instances, which basically means you're better off watching a slideshow. In addition, the amount of pedestrians also seems limited and you occasionally see them getting stuck in their limited routines. Somehow, such technical problems are somewhat understandable, since the game has of course been developed for a large number of systems and many extra hours have been worked at the studio, probably up to the moment of release and also in the coming months to finish the game. In many ways, Cyberpunk 2077 seems to have succumbed a bit to its own ambitions. Although the content of the game is nicely put together in terms of systems, it is the finish that clearly leaves something to be desired.

I am confident that CD Projekt RED will be able to improve the state of the game on the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X and PC in the coming months. But as for the condition of the versions on PS4 and Xbox One, I have my concerns about whether the systems are simply too weak to run the game in acceptable form. Of course, the release of The Witcher 3 on consoles was also plagued by bugs, weird crashes and a mediocre framerate and CD Projekt RED finally managed to polish that game well. But Cyberpunk 2077 is a very ambitious title in terms of systems, patterns and intensity of the various systems. That also makes it a lot more complicated to solve problems.

Conclusion
Cyberpunk 2077 has become a tough game to review. During my adventure with V I experienced beautiful, exciting, interesting and above all unique experiences that were unfortunately not always convincing due to the glitches I encountered. When a setting is set up so beautifully, the characters are almost all built up as three-dimensional characters and the gameplay potentially plays well, then it is such a shame if the experience is roughly destroyed by falling through a map, textures are loaded onto characters whether weird problems arise in the AI ​​of opponents.

Now, of course, some players will go through the game and never run into a problem. And other players will hardly be able to get through missions because the game doesn't load certain segments properly. That's just what can happen with a game that's built so intricately. But since Cyberpunk 2077's issues are appearing on a fairly large scale, I think it's better to put the game aside for a while and wait for most of the issues to be fixed. The final grade below is intended as an average rating for all versions. Of course, the PC version would score a higher score, as it does quite well. But it would be misleading to ignore Cyberpunk 2077's poor performance on the PS4 and Xbox One. When all bugs are fixed, at least a full budgy may be added. But until then, Cyberpunk 2077 still disappoints a bit.

First time publishing a review here! Hopefully it helps anyone looking for something to maybe nudge them over the edge to buy the game because to start with, it's become one of my favorite games to play and have fun in.
Also, I will be trying my best to avoid spoilers


So my story behind this: my sister buys me a hot new title almost every year for my birthday or Christmas, and sh grabbed me cyberpunk back when it came out in 2020. I haven't played the witcher, I don't know much about CDPR at all, was completely blind going into this game on release and had minimal expectations. My point is this: I was not going into this game hyped out of my mind to play it, I wasn't waiting for years like some... Nothing like that. So that's where this review is coming from. Also this was played exclusively on my Xbox One S


So on release and up until the 1.2-1.3 updates (I'd have to double check my save files) I played about 40% of the entire game, and then life got really busy and I wasn't able to dedicate the time I knew I'd want to to this game. At this point it was 20-35 hours or so in, and I knew I was really liking the game.
Recently I found more time on my hands, and started playing again sometime in January and just finished doing everything that a single playthrough has to offer. And my god, I am absolutely in love with this game. And as soon as I was done, I immediately created a new character and am looking forward to my next playthrough with a completely different playstyle.

Right from the beginning, I chose the starting path that seemed least interesting to me. The dialogue choices that is gave me (Corpo) were actually really interesting, and I found myself saving before engaging conversations and seeing how they played out differently purely because of how well voice acted the vast majority of this game is. Personally I never really experienced an attachment they were very clearly trying to create in the opening, but I'm thinking that's because I chose Corpo so it just didn't feel like it made sense, so I honestly can't really gripe on that too much. Handling it properly would've taken very complex writing, or adding completely different and new characters.

This games loot system, I find, works if you use it to its fullest (crafting things, disassembling, selling, etc. Etc.)
The levelling system, I find, pretty unique, and the skills and attributes scale and snowball in such a way that the game genuinely gets more fun as you progress. I played a close quarters/hacking specialist with mad crafting skills and never really hit full god mode even though I maxed my level and ended with 96 skill points.
The fashion is fantastic! I just absolutely hate that third person mode only exists as a mod on PC! Come on CDPR.


I truly love how the games world is laid out so you don't feel the need to just grind through the story immediately. And the way the ending is handled? My lord! *Chefs kiss* the vehicles are pretty fun and there's some for everyone I'd think, and there's a few tied to side missions and the like as well that are a pleasant surprise to come across. The weapons and crafting of them feels fresh. Like it's not groundbreaking, but there's enough unique stuff here and there to keep you cycling weapons and seeing what else works and how it works.
I dislike not having the ability to craft any iconic weapons you grab, in case you were to accidentally dismantle or sell them.

Yes, the side missions get kind of repetitive at times but then it hits you with the Jefferson's. Or River Wards storyline. Or things like that that REALLY hit hard. For me, the gameplay and maybe my build allowed different approaches to every situation and it was fantastic. Most sessions with this game were 6+hours, I just had a blast the whole time.

The characters you come across and the relationships you build feel very real and true to the world. The world feels very flushed out. Even the weird slang kinda started to sound normal by the end of it to me. Not completely, but almost.

The bugs I had experienced were few to none, and none game breaking. The game crashed maybe a dozen times through my whole playthrough. Xbone S.
I'd put it on par with Skyrim bugs, GTA bugs...nothing to major from my end.

Boss fights left a little bit to be desired...
Photo mode is fun, wish there was more storage for it

I do recommend saving frequently, the autosave feature is hut and miss

Cyberpunk does a lot right, however falls short just as much.

Firstly, let's talk about the quests. Cyberpunks are split into four categories. Main jobs, side jobs, gigs, and ncpd scanner quests. Now remove those last two and you have the only quests in the game worth doing.

The scanner quests are just going to an area, killing enemies not placed in any way where a certain play style is treated or in unique scenarios. These aren't far cry outposts or anything. It's literally just a group of enemies copypasted in with no story besides one note that has no impact on anything else in the game.

The gigs are slightly better, you get a call from a character to go to a unique location to steal something, kill someone, or save someone. However after doing around 10 of these you'll realize it's the same 3 missions just in different areas of the map, basically most Ubisoft side content. There are stories to these quests, but I literally did 30 of these gigs yesterday and can't remember the specifics of any of them. They are mostly boring filler content.

However the main story and the side jobs are some of the most well written and engaging stories in all of gaming. These are the only quests that also offer any choices beyond should I be stealthy or should I kill everyone. The acting is great and the gameplay and story scenarios are engaging. I wish I could say the same about the combat though.

This games combat, attribute, and perk system are useless. I upgraded my body/strength skill, bought the gorilla arms cyberware, and was able to just punch every single enemy to death with ease on the second to hardest difficulty. There is no reason to switch up your play style and the game actively discourages it. Why switch to a stealth build after you've already invested all your points into a shotgun build? You aren't given enough points to invest into all the attributes enough where any play style is viable. Instead you pick around two types of weapons you want to be good in and stick with them for the entire game. The game actively punishes you for not doing this as well.

Each play style has its own skill that you can level up to 20 if you invest enough attribute points in its specific attribute category. The issue is that the amount of xp needed is so ridiculous that by the time I had done every quest by just punching people I still was two levels off of street brawler 20, the perk for melee fighting with your fists. This is ridiculous and would be like if in fallout or skyrim you did every quest the same way with one skill and at the end were still only at 90/100 in that skill. This just makes it even less viable to ever change how you fight.

This makes every combat encounter feel the same, and it gets boring real fast. You can switch your weapons and how you fight, but you'll be weaker for it, and the game never challenges you with unique scenarios where a certain weapon or attribute would be better for certain enemies or enemy placements.

Finally there's all the downgrades from what they showed when they first annouced the game, countless missing features, the game being almost entirely broken at launch and the developers hiding this by not releasing console copies to reviewers and not allowing them to use their own footage.

Currently there are still countless visual and physics glitches I encountered, which to me were immersion breaking but were not there most of the time, so I mainly just found them funny. What isn't funny is all of the quest related glitches still in this game.

Characters who are supposed call you to start quests just never do, a quest you just finished doesn't complete, or a character in a quest just freezes and refuses to speak or move. These often require reloading previous saves to fix, and waste so much time. The fact that these are still in the game over two years after launch is awful, fallout 76 got it's act together quicker than this when it came to gamebreaking bugs.
This, and also for a game that doesn't even look visually amazing it's stuck at 30fps on Xbox Series S.

The open world is visually unique, with the various regions of the city having their own unique style and architecture. However it's very hollow. There's not a single area you can just explore. If a building or area isn't used for a vendor or as part of a quest, then you can't enter it. It's really just a backdrop to drive around in while going between different quests.

Finally the music and sound design is top notch. It really adds to the the story and combat and truly elevates the rest of the game. There are occasionally bugs with this too. Sounds and music will sometimes not play or won't stop playing, but this only happened a few times in over 80 hours so it wasn't that big of an issue.

Overall, if you're on Xbox One or any last gen console, don't buy this game. If you're on PC, or current gen consoles the only parts worth playing in this game are the main story and side jobs. Around 50-60% of this game is mediocre garbage and the other 30-40% of it is brought down by all the game breaking bugs and poorly thought out combat system. I bought this game on sale for 30$ and I think that's the only way this game is worth your time. If you're a completionist like me don't bother or you'll be bored out of you mind and agitated by all the quest bugs. However if you just want to experience a great story, this game is worth a shot for a heavily discounted price. 5/5 for the main and side quests, 1/5 for everything else, giving it a total of 3/5

I would love to write something about the game but what should i wrote with less than 5 hours playtime?!

I want to talk about a problem that few people talk about: the Update Hell.

EVERY update for this game is absurd. We talk 30-40GB

Back when i actually played the game this crap rolled out weekly.

Installed the game: ~60GB
started the game: 40GB Update
ok
5 Days later: 38GB Update
noped out.

Half a year later, i gave it another try
Installed the game overnight.
Started the game: Big update.

I didnt bothered with this nonsense since then.

NOW the DLC came out
Installed the game and the DLC and the patch.
this weekend i wanted to play it: heres the 38GB update
and while downloading this one, another 28GB update for Phantom Liberty popped up.
Oh btw it was the wrong update so do it again!
I beg your pardon?

That was the breaking point for me. I uninstalled everything and played something else.

I own and played many games but i NEVER saw this anywhere else and i didnt even mentioned the "smaller" updates between the big ones.
Whats the problem you may ask? Well, not everybody can run high speed internet and downloading 40 GB takes around 7 hours for me.

How CDPR thinks they make people want to play that game, when theres the daily chance that you have to download tons and tons of data AGAIN? It a mystery to me.

Get your act together CDPR.

Not a big review, but if I had known how little you actually play and how much you talk and follow directions I would not have purchased. If you follow the story its more or less only talking, after talking after talking and go to a place and its not far from a long, long movie with lots of different people and lots of different stories and its just tedious and confusing. Story is built a lot like Assassin Creed games and its not far from Assassins Creed in modern setting.

Then, inbetween all the annoying talking there are very good moments with editorstuff and a complex but new and fun modern way to deal with enemies. The different encounters when you move around the city are good and the size is also pretty good.

It chrashes often! No debating this. Cant drive a car fast on Xbox One x cause it freezes the game, and you will experience that you are stuck between for instance chair and the table and lots of other places. Cant fasttravel so you have to load previous game when this happens.

Collecting and sidemissions are pretty standard and its not a pretty city to run around in with most building and cars looking like sheit so all in all a 2.5 for me.

FYI after mission Play it safe game stopped and didnt give me anymore mainjobs. Tried to load previous but no luck so far. I see that i gotten a few downvotes and I must say I stand by what I wrote cause there is no gameplay during any of the main stories and if I wanted to see a movie I wouldnt paid 70 dollars