I'm rating this game poorly because it feels unfinished and is a baffling step backward in terms of quality from CDPR's last big game. In Witcher 3, even though Geralt wasn't my own character, I felt far more invested and had much more control over his development, story, and the fate of his world. Cyberpunk 2077 starts by building up to you starting from scratch on the mean streets of Night City. However, after a brief intro, suddenly it cuts to a montage, telling you that you did a bunch of cool stuff and now know all the cool people and are pretty cool yourself. I've played a lot of games, but this moment gave me an intense physical reaction I've never experienced while gaming before- a drop in my stomach like, "uh oh, this won't at all be what I've been led to expect this is going to be." After the montage, people talk to you like they know you and are your friend but I had no idea how I was supposed to know them or what my relationship with them was supposed to be. It was confusing and disorienting. Playing on Hard, I enjoyed picking skills and feeling overpowered as I cleared icons off the map, but I started feeling bored after 30 hours (I maxed out my level and street cred in about half that). Despite people everywhere, the world feels empty and lonely. Your character and Silverhand are rude and annoying, and I didn't care to see how the story would resolve. I felt no need to continue; this is an experience you can have with any dumb AAA open-world game. I uninstalled Cyberpunk 2077 to make space for other games I actually wanted to play, and don't have any regrets about it, which is maybe the saddest part about this whole thing for me. I'll definitely reinstall and play the heck out of this game if it's ever finished, but it seems CDPR feels like this is the blockbuster they told us it would be, so this might just be it. I'm glad some folks have had fun, but unless there are big changes, Cyberpunk 2077 will remain a shallow, irredeemable disaster to me.
