What did you think of Cyberpunk 2077

12/02/2021

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 crashes were a pain, it meant reload time in a close to seamless open World
As a big fan of the original paper based RPG as a teen, no surprise that I enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077


I started writing this post on the 11th Jan, it’s now a month and a big quality patch later

I’ve finished off nearly every one of the side quests, completed just about every ending, and after ~110 hours I can easily say Cyberpunk 2077 is perhaps my favourite RPG game of all time… & given the bugs and it’s still not the PS5 version, I can only see it getting better!

So why is it so great?

For me that it’s true to the original paper based RPG lore; Silverhand, Alt, Rogue, these are characters of legend, close to William Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy protagonists.

Casting Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand was a work of genius, remember we were rolling up & powerplaying the long trench coat wearing Edgerunner characters [shit I was wearing trench coats and biker boots :p ] long before The Matrix, and then in ’95 Reeves had starred in the dramatisation of Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic… perhaps one of the first movies I regarded as true cyberpunk genre.

& how different was the idea of data leaking into Johnny Mnemonic’s mind from the engram corruption of Cyberpunk 2077?

So to now bring the more mature Keanu into Night City is quite tongue in cheek, and a cool nod to the mediums that came before the game.

Are there still issues with the game?

Shit yeah, although not as many session breaking crashes.

  • still experiencing random crashes, although far from the frequency of pre patch
  • Would love the teleporting Night City Police force to be sorted
    • really poor that they just appear from nowhere and are really over powered
  • objects like cars & people to be continuous, not simply dropping in and out
  • the same random NPC’s not at Rockstar quality; not as varied or intelligent, sadly running on loops and rails with single line text dialogue
  • there are scenes with high density pedestrians, but then other times where I wonder where all of the city occupants have disappeared to
  • road traffic can also be sparse
  • why no public transport or ubiquitous flying vehicles?
  • stuck in first person… except when driving.
    • what use are costumes if you can’t see them?
  • can’t just sit anywhere… or steal a random car
  • why do lifts take so long?

But on the positive flip side:

  • the playing area is truly epic, Night City detailed and varied
    • love the visible economic diversity between those with and without
    • the graffiti & animated billboards
    • people jamming on guitars… I like guitar music; but why can’t I toss them a few eddies & get a response?
  • music and audio is amazing, some really cool diverse tunes
  • with next to no in game loading times; unless you’re teleporting across Night City
  • weapons, vehicles, clothing, cybernetics are rich, original, and varied… but I still can’t cut my hair
  • combat rocks, and the hacking element blends really well
  • the version of bullet time works perfectly
  • hottest video game hetro / homo sex scenes without been too vulgar
  • the fixer system works well, reminiscent of Frontier: Elite II
  • easy to be cash rich; frequent weapon drops to cash in at vending machines
  • voice and video acting is top quality, have to remind myself this isn’t the PS5 game yet… & did I mention Keanu 🙂
  • Intuitive Character skill development with attributes and perks
    • will be interested to see what the blank 6th Attribute class is… I guess netrunning 🙂

I’m not sure about the crafting side of things, you can go through a full game without creating a single item… but guess same goes pretty much for hacking

My playtime may ease in the next few months, but I’m really looking forward to the PS5 version and any DLC that becomes available… let’s hope that the recent hack on CD Project Red doesn’t de-rail any new additions.

Really looking forward to the next Deus Ex after this… actually I should finish the last title in the series, although don’t think it will impress much after this?

What did you think of Cyberpunk 2077 choom?