Christ, I've sunk so much time into this game. I've played Owlcat's other titles, and loved a lot about them, but the kingdom management part always fell flat in some way. Here, I can firmly say, they stuck the landing. The large-scale combat game is starship combat this time around, and it feels wonderful, as does the "kingdom management" side of directing your empire as a Rogue Trader. Then, of course, there's the part that Owlcat has /always/ been good at, namely, making a wonderful, engaging, immersive, and well-written cRPG, and man, oh, man, as someone who grew up playing the isometric classics, and who's sunk an uncomfortable amount of time reading and thinking about 40k lore, this is firing on all cylinders. If you're even remotely tempted, grab it stat, you won't regret it.
"No more terrible disaster could befall a people then for them to fall into the hands of a Hero." -- Frank Herbert, Dune I think something obtains for games and hype cycles. Particularly one that was many years long, across console generations, on the heels of a game-of-the-generation like Witcher 3. And to be clear, I think Cyberpunk lives up to the legacy of Wild Hunt. It is, paradoxically, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that is *also* the victim of an out-of-control hype cycle. Witcher 3 was buggy on release. So was Witcher 2. The less said of Witcher 1, the better. Bugs are not unusual. I think the real difference is that, while Witcher 1/2 were underground titles -- local kids that made good -- Witcher 3 put CDPR in the global spotlight. So they expected Cyberpunk 2077 to arrive on release night in the same condition that the Game of the Year edition of Witcher 3 was in. That is, in no uncertain terms, patently insane. Is the game good? Yes. Unquestionably. I sunk 80+ hours (87h5m as of this writing) into it on one playthrough, from start to finish. I'm planning on starting another one very soon. The writing moved me to tears, Night City is a joy to explore and just *be* in, the "sidequests" are superb, as excellently written and well-crafted as the main story, and this is only the beginning. The storytelling potential in this setting is staggering. I wouldn't recommend buying it on consoles. But honestly, I wouldn't recommend playing on consoles, *period*, for a pile of reasons. If you're reading this review on this website, that probably isn't a concern. If you're willing to put up with a few graphical hiccups, grab this game, and set aside some time for it to eat your spare time. Take the scathing negative press with several salt licks. Outrage drives clicks, much more than sober, level-headed reporting. I'm willing to bet that the story you will experience in this title will stay with you for a long, long time.
This game gets SO many things right. I'm truly at a loss as to why it got panned, So, a little about me: I'm a long-time fan of the Cthulhu mythos, but I've had a hard time playing Cthulhu games. Dark Corners of the Earth was lovely, up until the rooftop chase scene, which threw me right out of the experience. But, I love the mythos, I love the style HPL had, and I find the mythos captivating. However, I waited on this game, because both this game and it's sibling title (The Sinking City) got _very_ mixed reviews. However, Call of Cthulhu was on sale here on GOG, so I gave it a go. What I found was, in short, the single best execution of capturing the mood of being in a Lovecraftian story in the medium of video games. That's not to say that the game is flawless. Far from it. It's a AA RPG that inherits a lot more from old school point-and-click adventure games. But within that framework, it _shines_. Don't pass this up!
Buy it. This is Memento crossed with Moon, as an interactive experience. I got this game as part of Twitch Prime. It'd been on my wishlist for a while, but other things always came up first. Man, do I regret that now. Cons first: * It's short. 3-4 hours is not uncommon. * The zero-g bits are a little cumbersome to navigate without proper up/down controls * You can only hold one item at a time. The game design obviously works around that, but it felt clumsy, and there were a few times where I threw an item I needed onto the floor instead of opening a door on the way to where the item needed to be used. Nevertheless, for something that is in spirit and old-school adventure game, this felt awkward as hell. Pros: * The writing is generally quite good * I love, love, love the conceit of exploring recordings of crew in different parts of the ship at the same time. * I felt like I got to know the characters involved really well. * I had a ton of fun watching things unfold. tl;dr -- buy it. It's good. It's fun. It's an old-fashioned adventure game in first person, set in space. What more could you want?
