I have marked this post as outdated! There may be a better review out already, or this review / opinion piece no longer reflects my views as of present day. You may still read it, although if there is a newer version I recommend reading that instead!
See: newer version here!
DISCLAIMER: If you think that I'm either a blind "shill", fanboy, and the game deserves all the hate it gets: you're wrong, please click off and don't come back. Thank you.
For the rest - there might be spoilers so be aware.
I like games. I like good games. I like enjoying those games. What I don't like is when a good game gets all the crap in it's face because vast majority of people say so. I also dislike similar people, who blindly go with what the majority says regardless of how true it may be or not. If you are relentlessly looking for blind hate material, I am sorry, but you won't find this type of garbage here. Modern media platforms have plenty of those, you shouldn't have issues finding those. This is not a hate piece so I can cash in on the popular horse that's getting beat-up. This is my honest experience with the game, and how it went by through my 80+ hours of playing.
I will only be primarily reviewing the game itself, and not other titles - that is out of scope for this review.
First I heard about Cyberpunk 2077 like... A long ago. A reaaaaaaaaaally long time ago. Case point, I saw the game with literally "Cyberpunk" in the title, and I immediately got hooked on the idea. "At long last, somebody is making a game about this topic!" I thought, and patiently waited since.
Many delays and patience testing later, December 2020 rolled out and the final countdown began. Months rolled into weeks, weeks rolled into days, days rolled into mere hours before I could slop my arse into the world of human augmentation. I watched the page with the countdown until official release of the game, and patiently waited until it all came down to 00:00:00...
December 10th hit. The cat is out of the bag. Cyberpunk 2077 is here. I patiently waited (for the last time) until the game got decrypted, and I went off into the world of Cyberpunk... I played for hours on end, and then coming back the next day like a drug addict asking for more.
The menu and the music just... hit me. They hit me like a brick covered in lemon juice. Straight into the head. Without a hint of hesitation, I started a new game.
Firstly, I got to pick which V I wanted to be. There are no "genders" or "sex" options actually. Since this is Cyberpunk, the only choices you have is the body build that you'd like to inherit - A musculine and feminine one. Do not worry, if you would like your V to have a female body and face but still have facial hair - Cyberpunk 2077 offers you that option out of the box. Basically, after you selected the body, you can attach almost anything you want onto your V regardless of what body have you selected. Go wild, choomba!
After your V's body is done, you get to select what background does your V come from. You get 3 options:
Nomad - The outcast of NC. Start out in the wild and let you be the wild person, as opposed to city resident.
Streetkid - The kid of NC's streets. Let the streets grow you up and shape you, showing you what NC is not a forgiving place.
Corpo - The ruler of NC. Start at the top of the chain, become what is the exact opposite of what Cyberpunk is.
I went with Streetkid option, since I felt like this was the most fitting title for my V to be. I might give other options a try some other time.
A little fun fact: Developers actually initially thought of making a 3x3 system of having 3 independent options on V's background. This, however, was retracted later - and, to be honest, I'm glad they did that. Having a 3x3 system would be stupidly hard to implement, stupidly hard to incorporate into the story and stupidly hard to have to account for all this just for a stupid background from which V comes from. I think a singular background option system is far more intuitive, simpler and effective in what it can offer you.
And then, finally, after your background is chosen, the game starts up at the point which background you have chosen. Since I have chosen Streetkid, I started in a bar with Pepe asking me to do a favour for him, because he owes to Kirk. And as the game started up even more, hoo boy...
Story is just... I cannot explain. This is not something words can transcribe. This should come from pure experience of it. The only thing I have is raw experience in my mind that if converted to words... Would not give as this of an impact as it would just sending what I experienced directly into the mind.
Each story character is written to the point I am no longer able to distinguish if I am watching an actor move around in the game or if I am witnessing a person in real time doing all the actions. Each story character packs a different story within itself... So there is a story - within a story! This is a storyception!
There is just an insane amount of detail that went into the writing script for this game. It has pretty much everything you could look for. Foreshadowing? Check. Plot twists? Check. Cliffhangers? Definitely check. There is just so much action and personality that went into it is absolutely insane.
As I said, you need to experience it, I cannot just... Say what it was, it doesn't do A QUARTER of being a fair review to the story. If this isn't one of the greatest stories out there, among veteran titles like Half-Life, Silent Hill and The Witcher, I don't know what is... Oh wait! Ironically, The Witcher games were made by the same people as Cyberpunk 2077! What a coincedence! It's almost as if people who made this game have a good sense of what a story should be, with experience.
The mainline story also has optional romance options - depending on what V you chose when you built them. Those are another little stories on their own and they're an insanely good example of a miniature character arc and development being executed within a small timeframe. I got so invested that, let me tell you, whenever I would receive a phone call from them asking me to help ASAP, I would drop anything I am doing at the moment and rush towards to help them out however I can. Characters are so well done that I get invested into them without even realizing it at first.
The main storyline also has quite a nifty little quirk throughout it. At the end of the first Chapter of the game, you get to meet a new... Friend. You get him by stealing an engram which contains a permanent signature of an old, pricky and arrogant rockerboy. Of course, he might not be a "friend" at first, and in fact I thought he was just a prick from the first experience. However, as you progress and V's mind is being merged with the relic as a part of it's malfunction, V starts to like his friend a bit more. I noticed quite a funny parallel - when V first met his new friend, V thought he was a prick - and so did I. As the game progressed, V started to like his friend more - and so did I. Me and V had the same relationship progression about the same person throughout the game. This is an insane relatability and character immersion that makes this story so great.
As Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG, you will have some basic RPG elements like inventory system, upgrades, levels, skill tree etc. This is not just a FPS, this is a fully fledged story-driven RPG. Keep that in mind when going into this game - as I have already seen plenty of people complaining that this isnt TPS Sandbox Chaos Wrecking Simulator 2077.
As for gameplay styling, it's up to you on what style would you like to play with. Stealthy pacifist? Sure, go ahead. Total maniac leaving nobody alive in the path? You got it. All you need is to just adjust your skill tree to that specific build, and the rest is handled by your skill. I have played a strategic netrunner, almost never opting into stealth unless mission explicitly tells me that it's optional - in which case I do it for the benefits.
Gun play is INSANELY satisfying, and even moreso on higher levels. Completely obliterating people with one shot with a shotgun will always remain one of the best things you can do in a game with shotguns and shooting at other things. Same goes for melee combat - INSANELY well done. Even though I chose to not fight in melee most of the time, I couldn't help myself but opt into it sometimes whenever I felt like it just because the way melee is handled is nothing but a spread knife buttering the bread.
Each quest is satisfying to complete and rewards you accordingly. This goes for story quests, side quests and gigs. Honestly, you know what? As I think about it, each trivial quest packs 200 times more personality than some storylines out there in the gaming industry. I felt more attached to a singular side quest than I did to stories in quite a good chunk of games. It's just that well done. I have nothing besides to say but - Bravo.
While that's all fine and dandy - Are there moments that the gameplay might feel repetitive? Sure, there are. No one is perfect. This isn't, however, detracting from the experience any. You just might feel like doing a chore-y task for a little bit, but nothing too major.
As for having more stuff to do in NC... I haven't really found myself in need of doing more stuff in NC, as I think it had plenty of stuff to do. I do not, however, mind more content being added in. Some of it actually got cut due to time constraints sadly, I do hope that it will be re-added later in the future as a part of an update or DLC.
The amount of detail developers have put into the game is absolutely insane. Each tidbit of almost every corner in NC is jampacked with liveliness and personality that I do not think I've seen elsewhere before, really. Wherever I would go, I would end up finding a little detail like people who inhabit the area, at what time they inhabit it and for what reason and so on. Almost everything in the game I could find was packed with liveliness where possible.
Driving vehicles may be a little bit tricky at first - The cars might feel like they're sliding on ice. However, after getting used to it for a while, I actually liked the handling of the cars quite a bit. Do note that, obviously, each car has a different handling so depending on the car that you might pick on driving - YMMV... Quite literally. My best pick for a car to drive in NC would probably go to Caliburn.
One word: Perfect.
Developers absolutely nailed the Cyberpunk atmosphere and the grimness of NC. Wherever I would go - I would see at least some sort of modification of the real world asset - reminding me that I am inside the world of Cyberpunk. Each modification of the real world fits Cyberpunk aesthetic absolutely perfectly.
I have nothing else to say. This is just spot-on - perfect.
I am not an avid graphical raging fanboy, however, this game looks very superb for what it is. You can make an insanely detailed realistic-like screenshots in the game without any mods - using only in-game filters and graphical options (Here is one, for example).
I for laughs decided to lower my settings to an absolute minimum and try to play that way. Surprisingly, the graphics were absolutely acceptable even at minimum levels. The only thing it missed at a first glance from ultra settings is grainy film-like overlay effect, motion blur and a little bit of lighting.
Not much else to say here. Very good graphics - Especially if you have an RTX capable GPU.
This could've been incorporated into "Atmosphere" section at this point, because the sound mastering is done absolutely on-point spot on.
But the music? Oh man... That is something else... I'd make a bold claim as far as to say that it could put up a fight against Doom (2016) and Doom: Eternal's OST. It just bangs this much. Everything from a damn main menu / V theme (which still gives me chills to this day) to a cover of Never Fade Away.
Each audio track and soundtrack are aligned perfectly in their respective places. Fighting off each gang gives you a unique soundtrack playing in the background indicating which gang are you fighting with. This small, but insane detail is what makes me appreciate sound artists for the game the most.
Voice actors did a phenominal job of VA-ing each character they were set to act for. The acting game is just on point. It's way too realistic, to the point where I got confused at times if this was a performance or a real time person. Kudos to everybody doing VA job for the game!
I think I covered most of the important stuff, here is other stuff that I don't think fits into any category.
The motion capture job is INSANELY well done! Each character has a very realistic body language which shows what each character is experiencing at that time. For example, before the heist you go for with Jackie, you talk with the fixer - Dex. During that meeting with Dex, Jackie sits on the couch while being visibly nervous about this entire thing. Another example - after something happens during Judy's story, you end up on the roof of her apartment where you talk to her for a bit. While you talk to her, Judy's leg is visibly bouncing as a result of stress or anxiety. It's that little attention to detail that developers absolutely nailed on the spot.
The game has bugs. Every game has bugs of some sort. I was playing PC version and I did not notice that much of them, and only a single game breaking bug that was fixed with a restart of the game. But yes, they do exist, and the game isn't perfect.
Talking about game not being perfect - Yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is not a perfect game. It is a good game, but it is not perfect. It's mostly an insanely well done piece that should get far more praise than the crap it gets at the moment, however, it is rough around the edges and could use quite a bit of maintenance. That is, however, is planned to be solved in the future. Hoping for the best.
In closing, I believe that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the greatest games out there. While no game is perfect, neither is Cyberpunk 2077 by any means, it definitely should be noted that it has achieved quite a bit, and not acknowledging that is just outright being ignorant. Things that this game does right ranges from story to tiniest of details, and I don't think it's fair to not account that in. I also do not think it's fair to compare the game to other games that are not even of the same genre - Cyberpunk 2077 was not meant to be a competitor with the big titles, it meant to be a niche filler that nobody has filled in.
The game is rough around the edges, but, overall, should have gotten a far better reception if not for the hate bandwagon made by people who made up insane expectations that were not accounted by the developers in the first place. Yes, I am aware that the development company made quite a few mistakes down the line - but so do others, on larger scale, yet nobody has even slightest care in the world that this is the case. This is just another popular circlejerk that everybody hopped upon to rake in the clicks, views or whatever for the personal gain.
As far as my opinion goes, I enjoyed the game a helluva lot. I invested a lot into it, and I am happy with what I got. I do not regret spending hours on end playing this, nor do I regret making a purchase of it. I absolutely love it.
As my personal rating goes, I'd give it a very rock solid 9/10. From me - Cyberpunk 2077 is a 100% must-play for people who like RPG's and deep, immersive stories crafted from an experienced team in Poland.
