Cyberpunk 2077 is a flawed game, and there is a lot of valid criticism. A common to be addressed is that it shipped in a horribly buggy state, though having started my playthrough roughly 1 month after the release I have to say I have encountered only a few bugs.
When talking about the game I think it's reasonable to compare it to GTA, which is kind of the top dog of the genre, and I'd pick Cyberpunk over it anytime. Keeping that in mind, here's a quick breakdown of my thoughts for the game:
- Combat: I love that Cyberpunk has so many options on how to handle battles. Shooters were never up my alley (Cyberpunk does it reasonably well for the genre), and Swords/Melee works decent (better than in say Skyrim, imho), but I love that Cyberpunk is a reasonably competent Stealth game too. Hacking is additional icing on the cake.
- Story: The core story is pretty great by any standard, and I am impressed how well CDPR executed telling it. Side characters are a different story. I think they should have cut their number by about 30-50% so those who are left could shine more (now most are forgettable).
- The World: Night City is great, but it lacks variety. I get that they were going for the dirty, grungy feel, but there's too many missions in such environments. When driving through the world one can see more variety, which leads to an issue:
- Driving: I never felt that driving in Cyberpunk was satisfying. Basically no damage models, vehicles feel like rubber toys, little to do except accelerating and breaking. As a consequence I avoided driving whenever possible.
Other points:
- Map: It is a mess. Named POIs / Icons for orientation are very much missed.
- Quests: More variety would be appreciated. The braindances are a nice idea, but are really tedious and take out tempo in practice. More driving-related missions would be a good change of pace if driving was more fun.
- Character Editor: Great for any RPG, but more occasions where I see my character please.
