Cyberpunk 2077

For context: I started playing the game about 1.5 years ago, and stopped because of bugs, and resumed after the big update. TLDR: I played through the main game, completed probably about 60% of the sidequests, but I didn't really have any fun. I certainly wouldn't recommend you buy this as something to play and enjoy unless HEAVILY discounted. Even after the updates, there were still some situations where I had to reload an older save and redo some bits because of some bugs, e.g. a vital NPC that I needed to complete a mission was half stuck in the floor. Gameplay: Not fun. Shooting and driving and all of that is serviceable enough, but there is no joy in it. There was no looking forward to it for me. I am a sneak-based player, and the random, scatter-brained way some of the enemies behave made that a real annoying save-scum chore. Progression was just a convoluted mess. Even though I knew exactly the kind of character I wanted to play as (as pacifist as possible, sneak based), I had no idea what tree to choose and what branch to build towards. As a normal player, near the end, I had a bunch of unused attributes and perk points, that I was only using every time I needed some skill check in the game. Story was also a big convoluted mess, nothing stuck with me, nothing resonated with me, and a few months from now, I doubt I'll remember anything of it. Having said that, it was probably the strongest point of this game, and that's saying something. Music was also not enjoyable at all, even though there were genres that I could've liked on the radio. In the end I turned off the radio, and got annoyed every time it automatically came back on again.

Gift for Xmas 2023 along with all DLC. I like, but didn't love Witcher 3, and I'm not a big fan of FPS, but Cyberpunk gripped me more than most other game in recent years. I am currently 159 hours in, and only just started Phantom Liberty, after completing the main game and all sides, and I can honestly say, it's now one of my favourite games. I have enjoyed every aspect, from the main story, to sides and extras, even spending way too much time on outfits and cars! I am glad I avoided all of the bugs and performance issues of the launch, I understand if you played it back then and was put off, or read the reviews and avoided, but I must recommend you revisit it now in 2024, it's the time to try it!

As someone who grew up playing Cyberpunk 2020, the tabletop game, I used to joke that as long as 2077 let me find Rache Bartmoss dead in a fridge, it would be a 10/10 game. GOG only lets me rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

This is slowly turning into no man's sky 2

**Note: this review is only about the character creator, as I couldn't tolerate its weaknesses long enough to finish creating my character. I'll edit it if updates allow me to reach the actual gameplay.** Pre-release promotional material boasted an impressive character creation process, but I nevertheless had low expectations, and still ended up being disappointed in the end. 1. Keyboard navigation is messed up. For example, pressing E rotates your character, but also scrolls down in the menu if your mouse is hovering one of the options. I played on an AZERTY keyboard, which might have made an impact, but A was bound to both rotating the character the opposite way of E, and the equivalent of clicking the left/previous button on options. 2. Some options, like hair colour or skin tone, allow showing a menu with thumbnail previews, while others, like hairstyle, don't. 3. On the subject of hairstyles, there are no ponytails whatsoever, even though it's one of the "custom character 101" hairstyles. I ended up pressing Alt-F4 once I realised I couldn't create a character that would look even somewhat close to what I wanted him to look. I still give two stars because, well, it had some nice stuff, like a decent selection of hair colours.