Cyberpunk 2077

When playing through Cyberpunk 2077 you constantly feel as if you've just been given a Michelin starred meal that arrived half-eaten and with the occasional stray hair in every bite. You get a taste of excellence if you look in the right places and avoid looking too deep. Night city is such a detailed and wonderful setting that is completely underutilized. The city is dead, the NPCs are just scenery, the world does not react and does not feel alive, and that's a massive shame. The foundation is there, the main story and side missions are often times immaculate, but the majority of the mechanics in this game are either unfinished or mindlessly designed. Many promised features are missing, there is so much mindless padding, an endless sea of technical problems and bugs, design that cannibalises itself (like the overwhelming amount of map marker vomit, the constant phone calls about meaningless side jobs, etc), and so much unfinished content. CDPR have gone from hero to zero within a matter of days, their reputation is in shambles and they have lost my trust and the trust of a large chunk of their fanbase. It will take a long while to gain it back, and only a No Mans Sky type of effort will ensure this happens. I sincerely hope that will be the case because this game has the potential to be up there among The Witcher 3 as one of the best games ever made. Right now, however, I highly recommend you avoid it.

The title pretty much says it all. Graphics and sound are amazing, the writing of side missions is decent, gameplay is somewhere between okay and good, but the whole experience is brought down by the insane amount of bugs and the edgelord design / writing and pandering to or straight-up ripping off from pop culture.

Let's start with the positive: I played almost 90 hours and it is a fun game. BUT! A LOT of content was cut from the final verion. A lot of marketing videos show features/content that are not in the game. I understand that development is an iterative process and that certain features are removed due to design reasons. But the amount of cut content/features is just too large. I can understand that some people called the marketing "False Advertisement". The final version feels like a pale imitation of the advertised game. PROS: - Good story (linear, but still good) - Cyberware is nice, but could use some extra options in updates - Good combat - Driving is ok (room for improvement, especially the bikes) - Really good soundtrack & sound design - Many side quests - Night City is beautiful - Excellent graphics (But high-end PC needed!) CONS: - It is not a RPG - Lifepaths don't influence the story in a meaningful way - Police & NPC AI -> that CDPR shipped this game with such a dumb & barebones AI is unacceptable - Night City does not feel like a real city: NPC's just walk or stand static. - Too much cutting corners: Pacifica is empty and totally not "dangerous", soda cans are shown as bags, the bugs, removal of 3rd person cutscenes. - Very limited weapon customization: only scopes & silencers (not even paint ??) - Removed car customization (I would expect at least to be able to paint a car) - Soo many shops you can't buy anything from - Hacking watered down and limited In a world where body modification is "2nd nature", we cannot modify our character in a visible way ?! No barbers, tattoo artists or the shown prosthetics in marketing footage. CDPR went corpo and rushed an unfinished game out of the door. A lot of hype was created with many features that are not in the game, which is not acceptable. What had to be the game of the decade became the biggest disappointment of the decade. It's a fun game and worth its price, but it could have been so much more..

The game is ok, but feels mismanaged. It feels like an open-world setting with action-oriented gameplay. The RPG elements feel almost non-existent. Not worth it at full price in current state (sadly). Story is good but feels thin in the end. Side missions feel more like chores. Repetetive gameplay. Crafting system is useless really. Looting is tedious. CDPR, PLEASE change my mind in the coming months. Happy Holidays everybody!

What a shame I can't give this any higher than a 3-star rating. I refuse to keep playing until you guys get your priorities straight. Mind you, I'm not pissed at the DEVS, I'm more pissed at MANAGMENT! What the hell were you guys thinking, thinking CP2077 was ready to be released? what part of "It won't be released until it's ready" wasn't understood? CD Projekt managment is a blatant joke that needs snuffing out. ASAP! The Devs don't deserve this. They poured all of their hard work into this game and you guys just let it go it poo. For shame.