Cyberpunk 2077 was released just last week, and some things already have to be said about the game. From gameplay issues, the various bugs and glitches, to save files getting deleted, the list goes on. However, all these things cover the fact that there’s something good about Cyberpunk 2077 as well. In this Cyberpunk 2077 review, we’re going to go through the various things that the game offers as well as its various shortcomings. Strap yourself in because we’re going on a bumpy ride.
Here is our Cyberpunk 2077 game review for PC and consoles.
Where Can People Play Cyberpunk 2077?
First off in this Cyberpunk 2077 review, we need to state where interested people can play this game.
Cyberpunk 2077 can be played on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. Previous-generation consoles like the PS4 and Xbox 1 were supposed to be included in the launch as well. However, it’s encountering a slew of problems when played using older gen consoles. This will likely be the norm until CD Projekt Red fixes these issues with a patch next year. We’re going to go through all of that in the related sections of the article.
How Were the Reactions Upon Release?
The reactions of the fans and players when the game released was mixed and for good reason. From the myriad of bugs to the fact that the game can’t be played on older consoles, people are annoyed with the game that was hyped to oblivion but failed to meet expectations.
Cyberpunk 2077 Review for PC and Consoles
Let’s talk about how good Cyberpunk 2077 is on the PC and other consoles, shall we? Aside from the good, this Cyberpunk 2077 review will also talk about what went wrong with the game. However, let’s first discuss the good stuff.
Gameplay
Gameplay-wise, the game is incredibly good. However, there are a lot of things to talk about and tackle that can’t be put in just one section. It’s due to this fact that we’re going to break it down bit by bit into different sections to give each the attention they deserve.
Now that’s not to say that the game doesn’t have its flaws. There’s quite a bit to talk about in that area. However, that’s also going to be put in another section below.
Let’s start with the overall game before we get to the bugs, shall we?
Story
The story of Cyberpunk 2077 depends on which lifepath you chose when you made your character. Overall, there are three starting points that you can choose: the Street Kid, Corpo, or Nomad lifepaths. Each of these lifepaths affects how people treat you as well as the kind of choices you can make in the game.
Several examples of this include the reactions of various NPCs you will meet in Night City. If you’re a Street Kid, you know the streets of the city you call home. You can go anywhere in Night City’s streets and areas and people will know you’re the same as them. They might give you some information, some story paths might unlock, et cetera. However, the city’s various corporate elite will look at you in disdain. The Nomads around Night City’s outskirts will not treat you that bad but will keep an eye on you.
Meanwhile, getting the Corpo lifepath means you know the ins and outs of the corporate lifestyle. With the glitz and glamour, intrigue, and backstabbing, you can spot a corporate con from a mile away. The people in the upper echelons of Night City will treat you with some degree of respect, and you might be able to make inroads in them as well. However, watch out for the Street Kids and Nomads that think you’re a stuck-up asshole.
And lastly, the Nomad life path makes you a new face in Night City. You don’t even start at Night City at all. Due to this, The Street Kids will look at you with suspicion, but nothing untoward will happen unless you hit them first. The Corpos still look at you like you’re the scum of the Earth, though. Your best allies are going to be the other Nomads outside Night City. They look after their own, after all.
Combat
Overall, the game’s combat can be divided into three distinct styles. These can be Assault, Hacker, and Stealth. Each has its advantages and disadvantages with their specific perks and abilities that you can tinker with. The three combat styles also have their subcategories that you might want to take a look at and finagle to find your ideal play style. We’ll go on to more detail about this below:
Assault
Let’s start with the Assault style of combat first.
The assault build is pretty much what you go for if you want to charge at the enemy with guns blazing. You wanna go in and shoot everyone in the line of sight, and you wanna ensure they die before you do. In addition to this, you also need to make sure you can tank all the hits that are going your way as well.
Essentially, the Assault combat style is a walking tank. You build up HP, combat skills, and basically, just go in and hurt the enemy until they die. It’s a simple style of dealing with the enemies you meet in Night City. However, even something this simple has its own nuance to it.
To do an assault build, you need to get points in Body and Reflexes. Also, you might want to get the Regeneration and Invincible perks to keep you alive in a firefight. There are a lot of weapons and perks in Cyberpunk 2077, so much that you’ll be spoiled for choice. Due to this, you can build your assault build however you like. Wanna go in quick with the Mantis Blades? You can more than do so. Wanna fire guns and kill enemies? Sure. What about pummeling them to death with Gorilla Arms? Doable. All you need is to build V in such a way that you can take a hit and hit back harder in return.
All in all, this build is for those that want to feel the rush of battle. But what if you want to go for a more subtle approach? The next option might be the perfect choice for you.
Stealth
If you’re the player that loves to slink around and slowly pick off enemies one by one, then you’re in luck. The Stealth combat style has you covered with that and more.
Overall, taking the stealthy option is one of the best things to do in Cyberpunk 2077. This is because a lot of the game’s encounters can be done without even firing a single shot. You can modify your weapons to not kill your enemies as well.
Your best bet in this is to take up points in the Reflexes and Intelligence attributes. After all, you wanna sneak around and finagle with tech to hide from cameras and other forms of surveillance. Next up on the list are the perks of Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon. The former increases movement speed when sneaking while the latter allows you to do nonlethal aerial takedowns on unknowing enemies.
In terms of weapons, you want to ensure that they’re silenced so that enemies can’t detect you. If you’re going for a more up-close approach, melee weapons are your best bet. Knives are pretty much the go-to option for this. We would recommend the Mono Wire, but you can’t stealth attack with it, which is sad. Silenced pistols, SMG’s and sniper rifles are also great in stealth builds.
However, there’s one last build that you can go for in the game. And if you’re a tech-oriented player, you’re going to love this combat style the most.
Hacker
Last on the list is the Hacker combat style. The Hacker combat style emphasizes hacking your opponent’s cyberware. And depending on the kind of hack you did, you can do some pretty nasty things with it.
One of the more, devilish hacks you can do is overheat your opponent’s cybernetics. This sets their cybernetic parts on fire, dealing damage in the process. Do it again and you can turn their bodies to a crisp. Another devilish hack delivers a virus into the enemy’s cyberware. This virus then jumps from person to person, incapacitating whole groups in quick succession. If you want a more layman’s term of it, think of Hacking as spellcaster builds on other RPG’s.
If you want to go for a hacker build, you need to get stats on Intelligence and Technical Ability. Perks-wise, you will need Biosynergy, Forget-me-not, Diffusion, and Total Recall to quickly hack enemies. Meanwhile, getting Turret Tamer allows you to turn enemy turrets to your side, making them fire at your enemies.
In terms of weapons, you want to play similarly enough to a stealth build. And overall, you just want to use the various cyberware that you have installed to hack. Some of the better cyberware attacks include the Overheat and Contagion quick hacks. Another essential hack is called Breach Protocol, which weakens the resistance enemies have to your hacks.
Overall, you have a lot of leeway when you’re going for a hacking build. It might be one of the most powerful builds in the game in terms of effects.
Side Note About Hacking
One last thing, There’s a particular hack by the name of Breach Protocol. This hack is going to be a go-to hack for players in the game. And if used on enemies, it starts a hacking minigame. This minigame is also going to happen if you hack various machines in the world. It can be a vending machine, a PC, et cetera.
You only need to do one thing to succeed in this minigame: complete the sequence list given to you when the minigame starts. The more sequences you complete, the more effective your hacks, and the more rewards you get. As for how exactly you can do that, well, we’ll give you tips to accomplish just that.
The first thing you’ll notice is that there are a time limit and a buffer. The timer is self-explanatory, but the buffer is what you would call your turn count. This is how many turns you have to complete the sequences provided to you. Players can also increase their hacking timer and turn count by getting better hacking skill points and obtaining better cyberware respectively.
Lastly, the grid is the place where you pick various code sequences. The minigame alternates between columns, rows, and columns again when picking the codes. This means you need to plan your breach accordingly to get all the possible rewards. You might want to get a code that’s not in the sequence to get all rewards, but do note that this takes up your turn count.
Luckily, the minigame doesn’t start until you pick a code in the grid. So use that time to plan your hacks accordingly.
Audio, Music, and Atmosphere
Cyberpunk 2077’s music is particularly unique in the fact that a lot of it is made specifically for the game. There are a lot of cool soundtracks that play in radios, cars, TVs, et cetera. However, it’s the ambient sounds that can take the cake in this game.
Depending on where you go, you can hear the honking of cars, the harking of wares, and a lot more. The game’s ambient sounds are incredible and you might hear some interesting info if you listen closely. Night City is full of life and there are stories to be told everywhere you go. You never know, that guy there might have a quest, or maybe that woman knows a great weapon, et cetera.
You might as well just walk around rather than fast travel. It’s more cinematic that might get you sweet loot in the process.
Replayability
As mentioned back in the story section, there are three distinct lifepaths you can take at the start of the game. That alone gives a ton of replayability to Cyberpunk 2077. However, there are other good reasons why should replay the game after finishing the game once.
For one, there are six unique endings to the game. Yes, six. There’s the main ending, of course; two more basic endings, with one of them having an ending as well; a short ending that will be hard to swallow; and the secret ending that must meet certain conditions. Not only that, but there are a few things that are needed to acquire the other five endings. There are some of these endings that hinge on the player having a good relationship with certain characters.
Other than that, there are some weapons that you can’t get if you don’t kill the character that has them. However, these characters might have importance to the game’s myriad of stories. Should you kill them for that weapon? You haven’t finished his story yet, maybe leave him alive this playthrough and kill him the next?
Next in this regard are the game’s romance options. All told, V has the choice of four main romance options, two males and two females. As per the Witcher games, you can only choose one. Each option has specific choices to progress the romance. Thus, it’s another thing to consider when going through your playthrough.
In addition to the main romance options, you also have the side romances. These you can get in one playthrough, and they’re pretty spicy, all things told. However, finding said romances take a bit of searching, and you might not find them all on a single playthrough. So make sure to scour every nook and cranny of Night City for them.
World & Environment
The world and environment of Cyberpunk 2077 is a great thing to behold. That is the case if you’re playing on max graphics and either a tricked out PC or next-generation consoles. Night City is an eclectic mix of color and style, and there’s a lot of things for players to see.
Unfortunately, this graphical greatness can and will be downplayed if you’re playing on the lower end of the spectrum. From unloaded NPCs to blocky cityscapes, there are quite a bit of weird and kooky things that will happen if you’re playing on a medium-tier PC or a previous-generation console.
What Went Wrong?
Now, it’s not a question that in terms of gameplay, story, and replayability, Cyberpunk 2077 is a great game. However, we have to discuss why is this game much talked about. We need to talk about the things that went the other way. This part of the Cyberpunk 2077 review will talk about what are the bad things about the game.
Frame Rate Drops and Nigh Unplayability on Previous Gen
If you’re playing on PC, The game runs on a good-enough 30 frames per second on recommended requirements. However, players might notice that there are times when there’s a pretty steep frame rate drop in the game. In the worst-case scenario, this can also tank to 20 frames per second or less. This is apparent even on higher-end PCs with superb graphics cards and VRAM. This makes it a very frustrating experience for those affected. This isn’t an issue on next-generation consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, though.
Thus, next up on the list is the fact that the game is nigh unplayable on the PS4 and Xbox One. It’s incredibly telling that the game is unplayable on previous consoles. It’s as if the game was made to run best on newer consoles, while previous consoles are left in the dust. The game runs on a choppy 20 frames per second or less on the PS4 and Xbox One. And there are times when the game would either crash or not play at all on the previous-gen consoles.
Other Problems
Other than the problems mentioned, the game also has a plethora of bugs and other things that might affect gameplay and immersion. Here are some of the more annoying, infuriating, and sometimes hilarious bugs players have found in the game:
- Disappearing NPCs
- Game crashes
- Scripting issues affecting the game world
- Low-quality textures
- Crackling audio on PC players
- T-posing enemies and characters
- Missing inventory stats
Last but not least, and this one deserves a special mention, is the fact that save files can be corrupted. This is something that people didn’t expect when playing the game, and it’s a pretty dastardly bug that made some players swear off the game entirely.
The bug happens if you craft too many items or have too many items in your inventory, among other things. These actions increase the size of your save file, and getting to a certain threshold corrupts the file irreparably. As of right now, it’s discovered by players that save files are corrupted when they’re around 8MB in size.
What Are The Steps CD Projekt Red Are Doing?
CD Projekt Red is taking some steps to patch the game when it’s released. They had a pretty large Day 0 and Day 1 patches that had to be downloaded. Overall, these patches fixed some of the game’s more egregious bugs. However, the save file corruption and the frame rate issues persist.
They did state that the game will have additional patches coming in 2021, with each patch fixing the game even more. Time will tell if they would follow through in this, or if Cyberpunk 2077 would remain a buggy mess.
With that said, continue reading our Cyberpunk 2077 review to find out if it is still worth purchasing or not.
Cyberpunk 2077 Review: Final Verdict
So, what is the final verdict for this Cyberpunk 2077 review? Well, first off, the game is incredibly good. It’s something that we can recommend you play. In the future, that is.
Due to the various bugs and issues that plague the game currently, we recommend that you wait until the various patches that CD Projekt Red plans to implement are available in the game. This is to ensure that you have the best experience possible and that you don’t break your controller/keyboards in frustration.
