ACTUAL NOTE : 4.8/5 DISCLAIMER(S) : No spolier in this review. Finished my 1st try at the game in +30h, but I mostly sticked to the main quests, and the worst bug I had to deal with is the glitching vegetation that is display as a "first layer", even above the UI. SUMMARY : Cyberpunk 2077 offers an immersive and beautiful world and narrative experience, with complex and diverse characters and missions, including the "narratively driven" secondary quest. The combat is okay and can get fun once you have build your V with more Cyberware. That being said, the prologue and first few hours of the game don't do justice to the game potentiel. Stick around, its worth it. MAIN STORY : The main quest story is original, brutal and immersive... and bleak ; even the "good" ending brush against melancholy, even if it's slightly optimistic. There is a few different arcs to follow and the main story is influenced by secondary quests. SECONDARY QUESTS : I haven't done most secondary quests, but the ones I did were well written and among the best I played in a game. SIDE ACTIVITES/THE GIGS : They are not forced on you, you have to decide to look for the fight, which give you controls on what and when you do them. They are diverse in the challenges and settings they offer. WORLD BUILDING : The game really shines there. The street are alive with people and cars, the city vibrates around you, some vistas or alley ambiences are amazing, and, through the missions and the advertising, the radio and TV scattered around, you really feel like their is an entire world out there, beyond your character. COMBAT : Fun, but not great. Close quarter battle can get really messy and chaotic. Stealth and frontal assault can both work, but depending on your ennemies, you have to be smart about it. Quickhacks can get really useful in combat once you improve the skills. DRIVING : The feel of most car is average, but the design (exterior and interior!!) are unbelievable.
SUMMARY : Truly great narrative experience with a good-to-average gameplay and a weird (and sometimes annoying) pacing due to objectives requiring many round trips within and between regions, with sometimes ill-placed or absent fast travel points. REVIEW BASED ON: One finished playthrough of 40 hours at easy-normal difficulty (switch a few times) with a diplomat (maxed charisma and intuition) and mage (all magic skills maxed out) ; all side quests finished except finding the professors notes hidden in different regions ; friendly with every companions and factions. REPLAYIBILITY: Average. Some decisions seems to make a real difference at the end and the feel of combat can varies depending on your character, but the cores of the missions will not change and the narrative is about discovering and exploring, so it might not be as fun the second time around. ADVICES FOR FUTURE/NEW PLAYERS : It is possible to combine skills from different "archetype", but I advice to specialize in one at the beginning, considering the interaction between skills and talents, and only invest in others later. Also, look for the Skill altars early, since they don't matter as much later, once you character gets stronger. THE ACTUAL REVIEW : - Decent graphics and great artistic design ; - Really stable and no crashes in 40 hours (CPU i7-7700K 4.2 GHZ + GTX 1070 Ti + 16Go RAM) ; - Good audio with music and sounds that strengthen the ambiance ; - Diverse companions and characters with strong identities ; - Interesting major and minor factions that are not monolithic, in the sense that you will find individuals and groups following different goals and paths within each one ; - Interesting main missions, if not perfect toward the end ; - Great side quests that complement the main quests (except the few really awful "fetch and run around" missions) ; - Good-to-average combat mechanisms that sometimes suffers from weird cameras angles and unprecise dodge and block.
