Cyberpunk 2077

The game needs to be put back in the oven for a while to bake, improve, fix bugs, etc. but I doubt they are going to fix some of the fundamental disappointments here. What's good is the main story, side missions and the care put into the city. I am impressed by the detail level, the graphics and how it runs (after online guides). The investigative system used to play back memories (aka "BDs") was fun and novel -- I felt like I was a P.I. at times. What's not so good are missions locking up forcing reloads. The massive city while novel at first, is your only place to go and becomes monotonous. The combat choices offer a little bit of flavor; I've experimented with all of them to keep the game interesting as long as I can. But the skill trees to develop your character offer little more than +2% this or +5% that. One of the worst combos of their design mechanics has to be driving a variety of sloppy-handling vehicles around a city full of pedestrians you will inadvertently hit, thereby making OP murderous cops instantly spawn on you. Quickly fleeing the scene and driving away (should you survive) will reset you warrant in about 15 seconds with no other lasting ramifications. I fully expected my choices to matter, possibly making my way through a dangerous city by choosing my factions with care. But nope-- In the end you will find yourself sprinting into an area, and murdering everyone with a yellow arrow over their head as fast as you can. The AI will disappoint you even on Hard, upping it to Very Hard just means you will get 1-shot on occasions when their hit-scanning shots land. Stupid. Afterwards, get ready to become a human recycle center mashing the letter 'F' to loot everything, break it down with 'Z' and then hold your mouse button to craft...things...one...at...a....time. Look, come for the main story and the side missions and get out. But if you're looking for a game unlike one you've already seen a million times, but done worse -- look elsewhere.

Oh boy, where to start... Obviously, game isn't finished. It feels like almost everything cool they showcased is made worse or completely cut. My personal favourite from trailers, Trauma Team, gets no screen time what so ever. On gameplay, RPG elemets are dull and unimaginative. Taking account "table-top-origins", skill systems feels weird and not even slightest loyal to source material. Only imaginative thing in perks is their names, otherwise it just "+10% to thing X", seen thousand times over. There are so many cool things they could have done yet somehow ended with copy-pasting every other game ever. Plot just feels heavily cut. They said that main quest will be shorter but this is just a joke. There are no other major plot points others that marketing already spoiled (thanks!). Writing is great at best but at worst, it just makes no sense. City (map) itself is fine and great. Yet it feels dead and empty. NPC:s are braindead, cop system is non-existant. There are no safe-houses to spend your money on, no properties to buy. Basically, only thing you can spend heavy money is cars. Which of them most of are unplayable because you cannot see anything while driving on first person. As a cherry on top of the cake, there are bugs and glithes all over the place. The worst thing for me that the game still managed to be entertaining and fun, earning second star. Why is this the worst, you may ask? Because of the looming tough, how much better game could have been for a little more effort. And you keep constantly seeing glimpses of that thinking of yourself "oh, that was cut too." I am not sure if game can be salvaged. Not without heavy rework anyway. Cyperpunk 2077 Enchanted Edition, anyone?

I have never played a game with such a strong contrast between visual fidelity and technical advancement to outright insultingly bad gameplay mechanics and cheaply unfinished parts. The gaming experience goes from absolutely astonishing to piss poor in split seconds and then back. List of things that made me subtract a star for each of them: -1: Role-playing/Emersion/Atmosphere/Pacing: Visuals are great but everything else falls flat to mediocrity. Insanely little customization, the game constantly endorses you to look like a crack clown, more than 3/4 of dialog scenes the game expects me to choose a dialog option but if it is just one anyway why the hell do I have to interact with something that has no options to it - It feels worse than the "press F to pay respect" moment because it drags through the entire game. All the gangs are visually really nice but have absolute zero character to them (aside that Tiger Claws are harder to SMART target) and never hate or like you... -1: Gameplay and balance: The idea of the gameplay is nice, it is surprisingly quick with a very mobile character to play and theoretically there are many options to climb around stealthily. After the initial two intro missions, the quality constantly decreases until it's absolute garbage. Weirdly large numbers on the stats that are just randomly there to support the half assed out of place loot system. I didn't try to find exploits, but you literally get handed to you a weapon that can shoot through every material no matter the thickness. Enemies have no idea how to react to it. Stealth is brokenly powerful even without a single Skill point putting into it.... -1: The overblown promises, the developer crunch, the unacceptable handling of not giving out review copies of to anybody before launch knowingly that they are technically garbage while at the same time prohibiting journalists to show their own material.

The title sums it up - the game is half-baked. Everywhere you go, everything you see and do - it all feels half baked or is buggy. Granted, if you have a potent PC then bugs shouldn't be impossible to handle, but don't expect a bug-free experience. On a weaker machine? Don't even come close. When the game isn't buggy, then it always feels unifnished. Cars feel sluggish to control. Combat and in-game economy lacks any sense or balance. Plenty of advertised features are shallow and a bit sad. The title does have a few good things about it: it looks awesome (at least in static screenshots), and the various characters have great delivery and feel authentic - which is great! Unfortunately the main-story feels incredibly short... and seems to be missing one more act (which is in line with the "half-baked" aspect of the game). I wouldn't recommend getting this at this time. Wait 6-12 months for patches and DLCs.

Cyberpunk 2077 was advertised as an immersive open world RPG and it misses the mark in so many ways. Immersion is broken at almost every turn. From the broken AI to the missing dialogue on the TV in V's apartment. The story it's self breaks immersion more than a few times. Statements like "You can finish the game without doing the main story" are just lies. This game is worse than Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem or fallout 76 when it comes to missing features and missing content. If you look back at all the promises made by CD Projekt Red since 2012 they have failed to meet a single one. While there are some moments of brilliance, small details like changing gears when riding a bike for example, there are far to many missing features and cut content to fully appreciate what is here. Cyberpunk 2077 needed way more time "in the oven". What happened to releasing when it was done? To many times publishers and developers over promise and under deliver, this is one of those. While I hope CDPR will eventually fix some of what is broken, I don't think they are capable of delivering on their promises.