Cyberpunk 2077

• Genre: RPG
• Spoiler Free Review: Trying to be. Posting some story/dialog screenshots at the bottom.
• Time Played: 140 Hours
• Too Short/Long: Definitely feels a bit long because there is just so much stuff. I definitely feel like some of the gigs are there just to pad it out, but many of them still manage to build on the world, and some are even relevant to greater storylines. So it's hard to say it's actually too long, but almost any game that's more than 100 hours could probably stand to cut some content.
• Soundtrack: There are some amazing tracks, and while it may have some licensed, or some that had some collaborations, I think the vast majority was at least originally created for the game, and that said, damn. There are literal albums worth of music of a handful of different genres, and some real bangers in there.
• Why I played: I love cyberpunk as a genre, but prior to this game's release, I didn't really care. I saw an overhyped generic mess that overselling and uninspired. And maybe that wasn't entirely fair, but at least it wasn't quite as far off at release. After the game saw some revisions and made improvements, they never rereleased/updated the PS4 version, but PS4 players could get a free PS5 upgrade. Somehow that also meant people would sell PS4 copies for like 15 bucks, so I snagged the game on the cheap to give it a shot.
• Did I cry: Maybe a couple times, but more early-mid game than later on.
• Jank: At some point in its life it seems like this may have been the jankiest out there, and that might not entirely be true anymore, however, it's not without jank at all. All huge open world games experience some degree of problems. The more there is, the more that can go wrong. There were more than a few instances I had to restart the game because I literally couldn't continue playing. The main thing I somewhat frequently encountered, was a state where I could not bring up any menus and if I interacted with something that brought up a menu-like UI(like hacking panels), it would not come up and I would get stuck. Also sometimes I would get in a permanent state of combat or be unable to use any of the fast travels. The first time I experienced this I thought it was a story thing, so I was driving literally everywhere for many missions. I ended up restarting the game for an unrelated reason and found I could fast travel again - many hours later.
• Difficulty: I was playing the game on Normal originally, as I usually do and was finding it quite difficult at times. Eventually things evened out and then I found myself in a situation where I just couldn't level up any further. A quick look online suggested that you get more experience on Hard, so I switched to hard. It was hard at first, but eventually I got so powerful that "hard" was easy. I could have continued to very hard, but I worked hard to get where I was an liked feeling powerful toward the end of the game. Also, that final mission was still very difficult, I even considered switching back to easy, but I saw it through. Point is. There are so many variables in this game, it's probably hard to pinpoint what the perfect difficulty is. It's a very action heavy action game, but it's also still an RPG. Eventually your equipment/abilities/etc. could surpass what the game can offer.
• Recommend to others: This is not the same game it was at release, and as it currently is I would definitely recommend Cyberpunk to anyone who is vaguely interested. It may have some problems, but overall, it's just such an impressive game on so many levels. The effort that this game took, to put everything together is just unfathomable. The term AAA game is thrown around these days just to describe any potentially high quality, expensive to make, non-indie game. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the very few games I would say fully fits the AAA descriptor. This is a AAA game as defined. I feel like this is to games what Avatar(2009 film) was to 3D films. It's not the first, it's not the best, it's not going to be everyone's favorite, but it is arguably the definitive experience when you refer to it.

My little bullet points got a bit more out of control than they usually do. So where do I begin? At the end. Finishing Cyberpunk 2077 left me with that feeling I only occasionally get upon completing a game. A tightness in my chest, a strange combination of adrenalin and hyper focus, with a relieved exasperation. It's a complex feeling that occurs after certain... uhh... game changing, games?

I'm still honestly not even sure if Cyberpunk 2077 makes "the list", but I feel like it's only fair to put it to test. I'll wait until I come down from this feeling, whatever it is. Maybe at the end of the year I'll reevaluate. Especially since a few sequels to games in my favorites list are queued up to be played now. I imagine it might have some changes coming.

If I had to put simply just what is the biggest selling point of Cyberpunk? I'd just say the sheer amount of... stuff? It's vastness. Not only in world, but characters, abilities, weapons, missions, side missions, bonus content, etc. There is just so much, maybe too much. But what impresses me most about any of these things is the world itself. The sheer scale is unbelievable. The city is nearly comparable to a real life city in the raw square miles. Maybe a bit small if you were to compare them 1:1, but Cyberpunk's city has layers upon layers for you to travel this city. It's not filled up just to make it look good. Sure you can't go in every building, and many internal locations are restricted to a single mission. But there is just so much it's overwhelming. You can truly live in this city, and sure some corners, intersections and landmarks become recognizable. But can you truly know every corner? It would be quite a feat to do so, and it's just so impressive how much of it is filled, and unique. It at least doesn't appear cookie cutter, or at the very least, less so when you go down a real street of uniform buildings. I just can't get over the amount of detail and effort put in to this world.

It could stand to be a little less dirty... but also, I guess, that's kinda the point. Even for world building purposes though, I would have appreciated maybe 33% less trash. There are so many aesthetic moments, or cool areas just ruined by the fact there is trash and junk piled up. And while that certainly is fitting for some locations, it's just everywhere and ruins the vibe sometimes. Also do we really need to be able to pick up junk? Junk is practically worthless, you can have hundreds of items of junk and it doesn't amount to the sale of a single gun. It's kinda there to flesh out the world sure, but it either should have been more valuable or maybe have a certain few items matter. Like quest items? Maybe this was there and then abandoned as an idea. I don't know, but it seemed unnecessary. They could have just been stationary objects like anything else.

Since I'm on the negative, my next immediate complaint is the driving. I mostly rode motorcycles because they are cool, but also because cars handled a bit janky. Not to say they were terrible, but some were just simultaneously too slippery and too tight. I know car handling is something they updated pretty significantly, but it still kinda bugged me, I felt like for something so prominent it should have been just a bit more fun. Still, I barely ever used the auto-drive features, so I didn't really hate it. Just for how visually stunning some cars were I wish I wanted to use them more.

I don't really have much other negative to say. Sometimes the writing doesn't hit but with so much dialog I imagine there are many hands in the pot, not every line is going to. Overall though? Overall the writing is excellent. How many things were interconnected even if you weren't involved really made the world feel lived in, like it exists outside of my character. There is arguably too much to even parse and fully comprehend, but in those moments where you recognize something mentioned from an event 50+ hours prior in the game, it's like ahhh, nice touch. Certain things like throwing out it's unique terms like gonk and choom every other line might be a bit much, and hearing a business professional refer to his "peeps" can be a bit much, but I guess even Gen Alpha are at least 50+ at this point so maybe I'm supposed to cringe at the dialog a little. That said, at least they're consistent and in the end it probably does contribute to the world building. Though on consistency... I found Johnny Silverhand specifically to lack the most consistency in dialog, but also, I guess when it's a non-linear game it's hard to make this perfect, but it made it hard to love him, but I didn't think I was going to grow to like him and by the end really did, so they managed something.

Game play wise? Besides the sheer amount of things it does. The game is just fun to play. It's a little disappointing you kind of have to choose between hacking or attacking though. One of the bigger things that effect your gameplay style is what type of operating system you have. Berserk and Sandevistan OS's are both primarily combat related and kind of different ends of that, so I don't mind them being different, but Cyberdecks, which allow you to perform hacks on the environment, characters, vehicles, etc being mutually exclusive really changes the game play. I wish there was some kind of middle ground, or maybe Cyberdecks allowed you to use any/all or just many types of hacks, while Berserk and Sandevistan only allow a couple. I played the first half of the game with Cyberdecks and it was a lot fun and felt like a more unique game. But as I fought stronger opponents or just greater numbers, I needed something to back it up with. I went with Sandevistan as it worked with my Cyber Ninja who Climbs the City build, and slowing time to slice someone up a hundred times before they can react is a lot of fun.

That said, it gives you a lot of options for how to approach the game, and respecing is pretty easy, especially if it's just skills. Respecing cyberware is the biggest cost, so you have to be a little careful of your investments there. I just wish some of the options weren't mutually exclusive at any given point. There should have been a third combat option and then each of them have various levels of how much they focus toward combat/hacking. High Combat/Low Hacking, Medium Both, Low Combat/Low Hacking. Excluding it removed a certain something from the game and not everyone will experiment with all options that aren't readily available.

There is also leg cyberware that increases your movement speed - this is also a modifier I think should have been added to the other options for leg cyberware (Double jump, charge jump, sneaking skills/less fall damage). These are minor complaints. Only things I think would have made the game even more fun. By the end of the game, I didn't truly feel hindered or like I was really missing something, I just felt it would have been nice to run a little faster, jump a little higher, and hack some more stuff when I needed.

Anyway, I really really enjoyed the game. There is just so much and I was playing as a bunch of other games I really wanted to play were releasing. Part of me wanted to be able to put it on the back burner and come back, but I couldn't put it down for long, even when I wanted to try to focus on other games. I'm going to put just a bunch of other cool screenshots below here. Some may be more spoilery than others. Some very. The further down the more, maybe.

Selfies

Vehicles

All cars should look like this inside.

Group Photos

Easter Eggs/Build/Misc

Story/Spoilers

The text messages and other additions for those you romance are cute and a nice touch - maybe a bit awkward, but also kind of authentic. Maybe it's cringe because it's relatable.