Cyberpunk 2077 was possibly one of gaming’s most anticipated games of the last decade, if not of all time. Expectations were so high, that fans were expecting a ten out of ten game, a modern masterpiece, a work of art, and anything else you can do to praise a piece of pop culture. Launch day arrives, and to no one’s surprise, the game didn’t live to such high expectations. With endless glitches and bugs, many felt like their eight years of waiting was for nothing. However, to me, Cyberpunk 2077 lived up to the hype. Ignoring the obvious problems, this game’s open world, plot, characters, music, miscellaneous tasks; everything was top notch and has hope for the future of Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC, and eventual fixes to the performance problems.
Starting off, you play as V, who has different goals in mind depending on which route you decide at the start of the game. The overall end goals however are the same: to bring down the corrupt corporation, Arasaka.
Just as a heads up, I’ll try my best to even out the good and the bad in this post, since there is so much good in the narrative of the game, and with different dialogue options depending on your current stats and which route you decided on in the beginning, there’s so much content in this game, that it can be difficult trying to hear and see every single unique clip and event. The problem is however, is that in the grand scheme of things, the unique dialogue options don’t matter to the story, as many people thought it would. Yes, you do get more lore and motivation behind V’s character, but in the end, if you think a dialogue option will change the story drastically, other than the ending, that’s not the case. Even though I dislike it when games give the player that false sense of change, the story itself was so solid, that once I finished the game, I felt content enough with everything that happened in my playthrough.
Another aspect of Cyberpunk 2077 that I found great, but overwhelming, was its open world. Cyberpunk’s central location, Night City, is full of walking and talking people, shops, restaurants, clubs, skyscrapers, all of that and more. The place is so lively, that even with the downgraded graphics and choppy frame rate (I played on the PS4 Pro by the way), I was still so immersed with the place. CDPR nailed that city feeling, and didn’t cut any corners. They made sure that everything in Night City was as close to a real-life city as it can be, and they easily accomplished that, with the different locales I mentioned, NPCs that you can talk to, events that should be seen while everyone’s asleep, and more.
In Night City, you also take on different side quests, gigs, purchase vehicles, and a lot more. At first, I was very overwhelmed with the different side jobs I received. Even for someone who’s played a bunch of open world games, Cyberpunk 2077 was just so much more massive compared to anything else I’ve seen. It’s so massive, that I even felt like it was very distracting to the main story. Of course, you can just ignore every single side job and progress with the story, but as someone who likes to take care of the side jobs first before moving on, it felt daunting trying to take care of as much as I could. This is more of a personal nitpick rather than an actual problem with the game, but since many players play the same way, I feel like it should be noted.
Another part of Cyberpunk 2077 that had me by surprise, were the main and side characters seen throughout the story. I wasn’t expecting much from Cyberpunk 2077’s characters, just V, Jackie, and Keanu Reeves for the most part, but boy was I wrong. There is a wide range of characters, each with their own goals, motivations, desires, all of that. In hindsight, it’s no wonder their characters were made with such good care, since the story is practically the same way, a wide story with multiple player driven parts, with different motivations, desires, etc.
Speaking of player driven, Cyberpunk 2077 is easily the biggest game when it comes to customization. For starters, the character customization is jam packed with different hairs, eye patterns, teeth, head shapes, fingernail colors, and yes, even penis sizes. Half of the things in the customization aren’t even seen in gameplay, but it’s the thought that counts, and major credit needs to be given to CDPR for even including such an in-depth character creator. In addition, the varying menu options in the game are insane too. First off, there are the caring skill trees, which have so many options to pick from, it easily hit most, if not all player types. Next, there’s the weapons you collect in the game, each with the ability to mod and enhance with the crafting mechanic, which is a whole ‘nother can of worms. In addition, there’s the clothing/ armor you get in the game, which also have mods just like the weapons. I think you get my point here. There’s a lot to play around with, and it’s impressive to see how well CDPR managed to create such an in-depth game.
As you can tell, there is so much good inside of Cyberpunk 2077. While those were some aspects of Cyberpunk 2077 that I felt compelled to mention, this game is so huge on its own, that really, I can go on and on about this game. Everything from its narrative to its open world; there’s an incredible amount of polish and love put into this game. But unfortunately, since the Internet is so fast paced, the bugs and glitches knocked down the thoughts of so many players. Trust me however, after a year or two, when CDPR fixes most, if not all the problems, this game will be seen as a gaming marvel, just because how each and every aspect of this game, from a game design standpoint, goes above and beyond. I wouldn’t be surprised if this game is seen as a modern classic in the future, as it will totally be rediscovered as one.