Where the game shines: Combat is exhilarating but stealth is rewarding. A lot of variety on how you approach a map, with most having many possible entrances. Music is varied and vibrant. Everything from Run the Jewels to Miles Davis can be listened to on the radio. Even the game's own score surprised me. Most cyberpunk themed games would have a cheesy synthwave soundtrack slapped on but CP2077's soundtrack is more expressive and not obsessed with reminding you the 80s happened. Character customization, while not as robust as say Elden Ring or Skyrim, still allows you to add a lot of unique personality to your character. Worldbuilding is very in-depth. characters have their own lingo, the world has its own history, and many of the characters you meet introduce some deep theme. For instance, you may find yourself saving a buddhist monk that has been forced to undergo cybernetic augmentation, or driving someone to the doctor after a... phallic enhancement goes horribly wrong. Where the game falls short: The huge open world isn't very consistent with content. Some areas have millions of things to do and others are empty. It gives you 3 origin stories to choose from, but your choice doesn't change anything significant. There are some dialog options unique to each, but none that affect the course of the story. Would be cool for your choice of origin to have more impact. Game breaking glitches have been fixed, but many immersion breaking bugs remain. It kills any seriousness in the story when characters are T posing during cutscenes.
Before reading my review, note that the game is of course in early access. Your results may vary by machine, as well. That said, from my side, I paid $60 for a game that will not even launch from either GOG Galaxy, or directly from the folder. You may have better luck, as there are supposedly many fixes for this. However, none of them are working for me at the time of this review. Early access is always a dice roll, and I seem to have rolled snake eyes. Other reviews suggest my issue is rare and that when the game works, it's absolutely stunning. Just wish I could play the dang thing.
I love how the DRM treats me like a pirate, no matter how many DLCs I buy.
Open world(s) trading and combat simulator. Not quite Elite: Dangerous, but the game is fun in it's own right. Get ready for some configuration though, as this game has some messy controls straight out the box. I would try Xpadder or DS4 if you're using a controller. the game has native joystick support, but only for an axis and 2 buttons. (It's designed for flight sticks). If you're using keyboard and mouse, then using Dosbox's mapper will help you there. Just make sure to write everything down...
Never played this game when everyone else was talking about it. I couldn't dream of affording a computer that can run Crysis. GOG once again makes gaming magic possible. I was reluctant to pick it up because EA, but this game won't require you to wrestle with their hot garbage launcher Origin. I'd get this ASAP.
This game is almost ruined by a dumpster fire of a control scheme. Even in the launcher, you can only map a few of the keys. This isn't a glitch. Text on the top of the window straight up tells you "you can only map special keys like Shift and space." While I'm starting to see that most flight sims on GOG are just hot garbage in the controls department, I could give them a pass because A: the game is from a long time ago, or B: the awful controls are remappable, so you can at least fix it yourself. This game is not the case. Not only was it made in 2001, where we should know better, but even the launcher's control window only lets you map like 5 keys on the entire keyboard. You won't get any help either. your only chance at enjoying this game, according to the other players, is "buy a flight stick". You will get no tips, troubleshooting, or workarounds. If you can't play it, you just didn't spend enough money on your peripherals. After days of getting used to the most counter-intuitive mess of a control scheme (I was eventually smart enough to just give up on mapping it.), I did enjoy the game world, the music is top notch, and there's lots to do. Getting to the point where I could enjoy the game took many tries, however. Some will not have the time or energy to make it work when there are way better games out there that avoid this issue entirely. It's 6 bucks. What would you expect?
