Cyberpunk 2077

Even without all the bugs: it's just not very good.

What to say that hasn't already been said? Let's dispense with arguments of "hype" and promises broken, because although you can make valid points on both of these, they also seem to detract from the real reason I am so disapointed; the game itself is bad. Let's also dispense with talking about console experience because I feel it's almost used as a smoke screen for real criticism of the game. Menus, gunplay, driving, customisation, NPCs, navigation, items. They are all a far cry from what we should *expect* from a £50, AAA title from an award winning game studio. It beggars belief how people are giving this game a 5/5 (really, 5 stars? A perfect score?!) and then saying the negativity is down to our expectations? Forget the expectations then; forget the trailers and the lore and the A-lister celebrities and all of that stuff. Another reviewer summed this game up perfectly "A shallow ocean of bugs". Emphasis on shallow, this game feels about as immersive as a sandbox action game of 20 years ago, like GTA III. This is not a "flawed gem" it's a Zircon. Plenty of games have come out in the last 20 years that sucked at release, and after many, many years of work turned out to be great products (Diablo 3 comes to mind). Honestly though, I'm probably never coming back to it.

Tl;dr-There are moments in the game that were quite solid and good and this is one of few open world games I actually finished, but around every corner there was disappointment and something to shatter any immersion. Wait for a deep sale and see if the issues are fixed. Some spoilers below: Characters: For me this was the strongest aspect of the game. The main story and side story characters were exceptionally well written, and it was the one thing that made me wanting to keep going on. The voice acting for them all is also quite solid. Stories/quests: Main story is ok but nothing too special, I had what I suspect was the "good" ending (as a Nomad, with Panam leaving together on the basilisk. Many side quests were meh, but there were still many interesting (enough) side stories that kept me going. Gigs became boring fairly fast, but I still did complete them all. Avoided most of the NCPD side missions, mostly because I saw now reason to want to help them out. Lifepaths: Easily the most disappointing aspect of the game. A short intro for each lifepath, then you are thrust into the same cut scene. With the exception of some dialogue options and maybe one or two missions, they really don't bring much reason to play the game 3 times. So much potential for lifepathes too. AI/NPCs. Easily the worst AI I've seen in gaming. Police, even if you don't kill random NPC's will sometimes randomly start attacking you. NPCs walking are just lifeless, visual noise that add nothing. Performance/bugs: Ok-ish? I have an i76700 and 1060 6GB, meeting the recommended specs. I played on medium and got between 40-50fps, at times when driving in the city dropping to the low 20s. I thankfully did not have a single crash in my 87 hours, and bugs were mostly limited to annoying, but not game breaking bugs. Final thoughts: Overlooking all the issues, I did still have fun most the time. But as of right now I'm glad it's over. Maybe I'll play it again later this year, maybe.

One of the worst and most broken games I've ever played. Nothing works. People complain that the console version doesn't work properly and the PC version is fine. This is absolutely not true. Continuous bugs that break the game happen constantly, every minute. This game has been released in an alpha state. It is unbelievable that CDPR thought it was OK to release this game. The worst 60€ I have ever spent in my life. Also, the graphics, in ultra, are not even that impressive. The story is mediocre being very generous. And the controls are ridiculously clunky and broken. The game is the most unintuitive thing I've ever seen. Even as an RPG, it's bad. It's absolutely linear, nothing you do matters. I can't force myself to play it anymore. You guys are going to have a hard time getting me to trust you again. I can't believe it's made by the same studio as The Witcher. And I greatly fear that The Witcher 4 will be just as mediocre, if that game is ever produced. My god... avoid like a plague, this game has no redemption, its issues cannot be solved at all without redoing it from scratch and making a new game.

I tried this again when patch 1.5 came out. It's still a huge mess. This is what I experienced: 1. Random crashes to desktop 2. Weapons in V's hand suddenly becoming invisible 3. Vehicle controls have been improved very very marginally. It's still nowhere near 'ok' 4. Still no way to configure a dodge key 5. The world and NPCs still feel dead, despite promised updates on this. 6. V and NPCs are still glitching or get stuck in an animation I could go on and on, but these are the worst imo. And I'm not even talking about features that were included in games like GTA or Saints Row, or should be fixed e.g. - more things to do than just gigs. Aside from story missions and some side quests all quests feel as dead as the world the game needs way more immersion to be called a role playing game - make stealth actually rewarding - vehicle customization - a crafting system rework (as it is now you can craft a gun out of components gotten from 3 packs of condoms and an ash tray). It's more tedious than fun. - pricing rework of junk items instead of making everything $3 to force you to participate in the poor crafting system - full talent trees rework. Almost everything is passive bonuses - many graphics improvements, e.g. dents and scratches on cars - system for committing crimes like robberies and heists At the current rate with which they are fixing things, I estimate it will take at least 5 years to get this in a state that games like GTA and Saints Row had on release.