Cyberpunk 2077 User Reviews & Impressions

[Shemgrave]

I don't agree with your review, especially about Night City feeling lifeless. I don't get that vibe at all; it has a lot of culture and character to me. The NPC conversations going on all over the world are pretty neat, too. I mean, the AI can make the NPCs feel a bit generic at times, but overall I think the city feels pretty neat and unique.

Post automatically merged: Dec 16, 2020

Very well said and I agree with every word in it, and have beef with even more than that.

Funnily enough I was definitely one of those people who was dead certain that "this is it" This title will be a game changer for the industry. It will tick all the checkboxes and I probably won't be able to stop playing for weeks.

But here I am, after having a relative good time during the main story, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth.
And the more I linger on these forums, and the more I look into things I realise that this game is a skeleton more than anything. A barebone game that has a good fundamental, but in order to earn back the same kind of enthusiasm and respect I had for it, it has to do a lot more than bug and performance issues.

We need all the cut features in the form of free updates to begin with, and they need to listen to the community feedback regarding to the story.

And once those are taken care of, then I will be interested in expansions and multiplayer.

I think this might actually be the problem. Your expectations were unreasonably high. There's no way for a new game franchise without a few patches of bug fixes/etc and quality time and feedback to fulfill expectations like that.

 

[Kikinho]

I don't agree with your review, especially about Night City feeling lifeless. I don't get that vibe at all; it has a lot of culture and character to me. The NPC conversations going on all over the world are pretty neat, too. I mean, the AI can make the NPCs feel a bit generic at times, but overall I think the city feels pretty neat and unique.

Post automatically merged: Dec 16, 2020

I think this might actually be the problem. Your expectations were unreasonably high. There's no way for a new game franchise without a few patches of bug fixes/etc and quality time and feedback to fulfill expectations like that.

The thing is it actually wasn't that high. I actually didn't follow much of the marketing over the years so I didn't know much about the promised features.
I play on PC so bugs were minor, probably the most annoying ones were my char being bald in the mirror while wearing a bandana.
What left me super dissapointed was the ending of the story, only then I started to look into things and realise how much this game is simply not what it was promised. And the dissapointment just keeps building up.
I loved CDPR, it didn't even cross my mind they would back-pedal on anything they said in interviews and promised. But their shady moves, like hiding console previews and not being upfront about feature cuts... I have to see if I can trust their words again.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

After 30 hours I must admit the game is growing on me.

The criticism I have hasn’t gone anywhere... more interactivity, more skills (interactions, driving, social), improved existing charactersystems, expanded lifepath interactivity and useability, etc... all that still stands, and so does that the beginning of the game is poor both narratively and gameplaywise.

But doing the missions is kinda fun, albeit choresome for the afore mentioned reasons. And likewise for the same reasons I see absolutely no point in exploring the city beyond where the missions take me.

CDPR needs to breathe some life into this game, and preferably RPG life at that, because the game is still far from being even a decent RPG. It’s just a kinda fun, but weirdly handicapped open world immersive sim/adventure.

It’s clearly visible that the intent to create something good is there, but somewhere a left turn was taken and the high bar dropped.

I think the Cyberpunk franchise deserves a bit more than what’s there now (in line with what I said). And I don’t believe it’s an unreasonable nor undoable thought (even with the percieved bugproblem at hand).

I said elsewhere already, that there is a good game under there somewhere that raises its head occasionally, even an excellent one (possibly). It just needs - it cries for - all the smut cleaned out, a few bolts and screws added and some tuneups done.

 

[Kikinho]

It just needs - it cries for - all the smut cleaned out, a few bolts and screws added and some tuneups done.

Why would you clean out the smut? There is barely any in it as it is for a place like NC.

 

[AndreM]

I am nowhere done with the first playthrough and I am having a blast.

The world! The possibilities! The graphics! The crowds of people minding their own business! The feeling of being in a true cyperpunk world!
Somehow my FullHD setup on PC seems to skip all the major bugs that I see in the forums. RT on and looking awesome.
And regarding the expectations, when I preordered a very long time ago, I was pretty aware of what was going on with the witcher series regarding bugs on release. But after seeing what they did with Witcher 1-3, I am sure they will get this gem polished (pun intended) as well.
Uh and, one point besides the police thing, make it obvious in decisions if an answer will lead to an instant firefight. Or ar least more obvious than "drawn gun"
And the respec token is a bit too expensive, but I just had to get rid of the convert junk perk.
Oh and comparing to EA, come on guys? EA would have not announced paybacks, return options or patches. They would have anounced new MTX chests and skins.

 

[Ultrafunktional]

I love it, but I need a lower dead zone under 0 on analog sticks for better aim.

 

[kofeiiniturpa]

Why would you clean out the smut? There is barely any in it as it is for a place like NC.

Technical (and proverbial) smut, was the meaning. In how I continue, I also don’t mean bolts and screws literally.

 

[overhyped2077]

This is a great watch:

 

[Futalove]

Honestly, just gonna refund the game(gotta call Sony i guess) wait for price, come down, by it on pc(when I can upgrade) and let modders make the game what it was supposed to be. Including the nudity that should be there in first person

 

[lmills.117]

This is a great watch:

Oh my god, that ending. Best review I've seen yet. 100% honest and accurate.

 

[Nehezbegar]

I guess AngryJoe is a CDPR fanboy no more

Cyberpunk 2077 is a Glitchy Buggy Mess - Angry Rant! - YouTube

 

[marxduck]

It's mediocre. Less than the sum of its parts, some of which are actually pretty great (graphics, etc.).

Very well put and is what many who are giving this game a free pass seem to be missing. Missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.

...people expected Jesus to walk the earth again when cyberpunk2077 releases...

I don't think that's what's happening here. For some people, over-hyping a game will always be the case, but this cannot be used as a catchall excuse when what people are raising as the issue are actually pretty minimal expectations. Things like customizability of your character, seeing your character in reflections, SOME dynamism with NPC interaction - these are not pie in the sky expectations. Sorry, but this is not only standard stuff for a AAA game, but it is indeed what CDPR led us to believe we were getting.

But here I am, after having a relative good time during the main story, I was left with a bitter taste in my mouth.
And the more I linger on these forums, and the more I look into things I realise that this game is a skeleton more than anything. A barebone game that has a good fundamental, but in order to earn back the same kind of enthusiasm and respect I had for it, it has to do a lot more than bug and performance issues.

Exactly my thoughts - a skeleton! There exists the foundations for what could have been considered the best games of a generation. Between the bugs, the console review embargo, and the emaciated husk of the game itself, it just screams that the decision was made to push this out in a woefully unfinished state to try to capitalise on Christmas sales.

I think this might actually be the problem. Your expectations were unreasonably high. There's no way for a new game franchise without a few patches of bug fixes/etc and quality time and feedback to fulfill expectations like that.

This is the kind of weird response that makes me feel like I stepped into a parallel universe where Cyberpunk was actually a great game. How can we have such a different experience of the game? Tastes differ, sure, but I honestly think you're letting your desire for the game to be good eclipse a more rational assessment of the reality. When you say we expect too much, are you really suggesting that wanting to see reflections of your character is asking too much? That customising your hair, etc., is asking too much? That driving that is actually enjoyable, or a crime and punishment system where cops don't spawn on top of you, this is asking too much?

You can't be serious. Comparing this with other open-world AAA games - which is what this is - shows demonstrably that Cyberpunk is not of the same standard. Compare it with open-world AAA games from 2015 such as GTAV and Cyberpunk will still come up short in many respects.

I appreciate that you found a way to enjoy Cyberpunk, but you (and the many others that share your opinion) surely cannot just bat away this very legitimate criticism with 'your expectations were too high'. Maaaate. My expectations were closely aligned with what CDPR set them at. I expected a lot more and I'm pretty sure you and everyone else did too.

 

[overhyped2077]

High expectations and hype are fueled by game companies that have an advertising blitz and release trailers of, in this case, the "next-gen of open-world adventure" (I wonder if the person that came up with that is still employed). People can dampen this somewhat, but it all starts somewhere and that is the impact of marketing.

 

[Shemgrave]

Very well put and is what many who are giving this game a free pass seem to be missing. Missing the forest for the trees, so to speak.



I don't think that's what's happening here. For some people, over-hyping a game will always be the case, but this cannot be used as a catchall excuse when what people are raising as the issue are actually pretty minimal expectations. Things like customizability of your character, seeing your character in reflections, SOME dynamism with NPC interaction - these are not pie in the sky expectations. Sorry, but this is not only standard stuff for a AAA game, but it is indeed what CDPR led us to believe we were getting.



Exactly my thoughts - a skeleton! There exists the foundations for what could have been considered the best games of a generation. Between the bugs, the console review embargo, and the emaciated husk of the game itself, it just screams that the decision was made to push this out in a woefully unfinished state to try to capitalise on Christmas sales.



This is the kind of weird response that makes me feel like I stepped into a parallel universe where Cyberpunk was actually a great game. How can we have such a different experience of the game? Tastes differ, sure, but I honestly think you're letting your desire for the game to be good eclipse a more rational assessment of the reality. When you say we expect too much, are you really suggesting that wanting to see reflections of your character is asking too much? That customising your hair, etc., is asking too much? That driving that is actually enjoyable, or a crime and punishment system where cops don't spawn on top of you, this is asking too much?

You can't be serious. Comparing this with other open-world AAA games - which is what this is - shows demonstrably that Cyberpunk is not of the same standard. Compare it with open-world AAA games from 2015 such as GTAV and Cyberpunk will still come up short in many respects.

I appreciate that you found a way to enjoy Cyberpunk, but you (and the many others that share your opinion) surely cannot just bat away this very legitimate criticism with 'your expectations were too high'. Maaaate. My expectations were closely aligned with what CDPR set them at. I expected a lot more and I'm pretty sure you and everyone else did too.

Nah, you're totally misunderstanding what I'm saying. I'm not responding to some wider argument, I was specifically replying to his statement that he expected Cyberpunk to be the end-all be-all of RPGs, a truly genre defining and immortal game. Your criticisms are legitimate, but I know for a fact that a lot of people are just upset and disappointed that the game either isn't perfect, or didn't conform to their fantasy headcanon of what it was supposed to be. Which... I get it sucks, but really, I don't think anyone should put any game so high on a pedestal before they know what it's actually like; it leads to some pretty negative, angry and disappointed side effects when things don't quite work out.

Which is actually what you're accusing me of experiencing, but I actually [didn't] have incredibly strong expectations of the game, or some strong desire for it to be incredible. I didn't have any expectations, didn't watch any of the demos or the trailers, and just kinda picked it up because I love Cyberpunk as a genre; GitS, Bladerunner, Altered Carbon, etc. Fortunately, I did end up liking it, but based on my own perspective which I also think is pretty objective, but only for people with a similar view to mine. So: subjectively objective.

Basically, in response to your 'rational assessment of the reality' argument, I say: everyone has a different level of import and significance that they place on certain things. For example, to me, the bugs I experienced were minor. To others, they were game and immersion-breaking, even though we mostly experienced the same bugs in the same places.

So, simply put, me liking the game is not because I'm a delusional weirdo who can't assess reality. Please don't place your subjective opinion on such a footing; it's not productive.

 

[zacko13]

After spending almost 100h in the game so far, here's some of the feedback that I can leave here.

I was never really part of the hype. I decided to buy the game based on the premise of cyberpunk, open world & RPG a long time ago, although I didn't preorder until a couple of days before the actual release, when I was sure it was actually coming out.

I haven't watched a lot of trailers, never really read forums etc. I'm a very patient person and didn't really care for any spoilers so I do not know what all was "promised" or "advertised", I'm just going by my experience in the game so far.

This is my OPINION:

--- SPOILERS AHEAD ---

The Good:
Main Story, Side Jobs, Soundtrack, voice acting all excellent.
I've really enjoyed the story, kept me interested the whole way. Johnny was awesome, conversations were well written. I'd often hear exactly what I thought I might say in a given situation. Monologues were great.
Most of the side characters were excellent, Judy (my favorite), Claire, Panam, Delamain, Jackie, River and others.
Conversations with Johnny often made me laugh or bummed, inspired emotion. Keanu Reeves was excellent, as was the male V voice actor.

A lot of animations (when not bugged) were excellent, facial expressions, body movement etc, it felt like the characters were really there.

Story is one of the most important parts of any game for me, this one did not disappoint at all and it leaves me wanting for more.

Performance. I play on a decent (but dated) rig:
i7 - 8700 3.2GHz
16GB ram
GTX 1070 8GB
SSD

Pretty much every setting is on Ultra or High, 1080p, 60fps cap.
Turned off Film Grain (personal preference)
No access to Ray Tracing or DLSS so that's naturally off.

I was quite surprised at the performance. I generally play for quite a few hours at a time and I have not experienced any performance drops.

Game runs really smooth, even in action heavy parts. I have not had any crashes yet.


The Bad:
Character creation lacks quite a bit in my opinion. Pick a preset, change the face a little bit, pick a di** size and you're good to go.
I can understand that for 1st person game where we only really see our character in the inventory menu or when riding a bike in 3rd person, but still, feels a bit lacking.

Customization in the game is something that frustrates me at times. There's so much cool looking clothes and weapons but it's being replaced in minutes.
After almost 100h I'm still trying to find certain clothes that I want to wear that I can actually craft and customise with mods.
I often find myself wearing epic or legendary gear that makes me puke but stats are just too good.
(more on this under suggestions)

Night City is beautiful to look at, especially at night. Certain alleys really give me that Blade Runner vibe...however, it seems quite shallow.
Most of the doors are locked (what's the point of investing in tech/hacking when you can only open some select doors for alternative route?)
I went on an exploration spree and I'm sad to say there was not that much to explore. Huge buildings where only a couple of floors are available via elevator and some only during certain missions.
I found a couple of spots where I was able to explore quite a bit inside the building, however it was completely dark and there was nothing in there.
Most of the the little shops are cool but but that's about it, there's no real depth to the city (more on that under suggestions).

Crafting is tedious, especially components.
I invested in tech tree and I can upgrade components, but I have to do it one by one...when I need hundreds of components I have to sit there and click for 30min-1h to get something done. (more on this under suggestions).

NO DIRT BIKES?!?!
I love dirt bikes and seeing the desert area, I was really excited to get my hands on one...sadly nothing

Lots of bugs...although not quite on the Bethesda level, but still a lot. I'll mention just a few here:
Frozen tooltips (save/load fixes)
Naked T shape when driving cars/bikes (fixes automatically)
Unresponsive commands after some events (cannot call car, equip weapon, open map etc.) after some cutscenes (save/load fixes)
Upon every load, game defaults to weapon that's in my inventory but I don't even have it equipped?! (pressing 1, 2 or 3 fixes that)
Every time I exit the game I have to restart GoG galaxy to play again because it can't sync (heavy load).

The Ugly:
Traffic, driving, AI (both pedestrians and combat), lack of features.

Traffic is horrible, literally worst I've probably ever seen lol
AI cars stuck in the middle of intersections, disappearing cars, traffic lights are like disco lights (green, yellow, green, red, green, yellow....wtf no pattern at all), sometimes change so fast that not a single car can get through.
Car physics is terrible, they hit a pole and flip over at 30mph (or kph w/e) causing panic all over the place lol
I can't pass a car without being honked at...
Spin the camera around...poof, different cars around you
There's a lot of driving around in this game and I'm actually quite shocked at how bad the driving and generally traffic AI is.
Vehicle controls are terrible, especially on pc. I had to hook up my controller to be able to drive somewhat OK.

No way to change your look after you start the game (come on, it's the future!).
No barber, implants make minimum impact on your character visually.

I could go on, there's plenty :/

Suggestions/Features:
Naturally, fixing bugs should come first so I won't mention that anymore and I'll focus on the features that I feel are missing.

Definitely rework traffic AI and driving, this right now is just laughable lol

Improve crafting. Let us upgrade multiple components at once and max upgrade item with available components.

Car shop! - Claire had a nice storyline and she already has a shop...why not let us steal cars (or buy basic models), strike a deal with Claire or have our own car shop where we can hack the cars (so they're ours) and customise them with all kinds of stuff! Start the car business, steal for other shops etc.
Same with bikes...and please add dirt bikes, I feel like they're missing in this Cyberpunk world.

Cosmetic shop! - Let us change hairstyle, face etc after we start the game. We could unlock tattoos, new hairs, nails, beards etc.

Outfit/Vanity shop! - Yes I'm aware that we can buy outfits now, but I'm thinking more in line of cosmetic outfits. Wanna look like an Agent from Matrix, Mad Max, Blade Runner?? Let us buy clothes that will define look of our individual parts of the body but keep the stats of the equipped gear.
I'm tired of looking like a mix of a samurai, hobo and little old lady all at once lol
I don't want to wear a bra just because it's a legendary with crazy stats xD

Open up the city! Give us more things to do.
There are casinos that we visit but we can't do anything in there. There are already Pachinko games but we can't play them. Add some slots, blackjack, roulette, poker etc, let us gamble our money or maybe rob the casino or take it over with some people and run it!
Imagine robbing a casino and have a gang and cops on your neck for a while, hunting you down.

Let us explore more, add details to the city, build up and down (inside the buildings, underneath etc).
Let us find some hidden stuff so we can blackmail a politician or a cop, gang leader.
Overhear something from pedestrian talking on their phone and use it.

More actual heists (not just in, explore a couple of rooms and out), drug deals, smuggling...all kinds of "biz"!

Open up the underworld for us! This right now is kinda shallow.

But also, we could work for the NCPD, bounty hunting is very underwhelming right now, that could be a huge thing in the game. Find info on someone and feed it to NCPD or sell to rival gang, blackmail the person...a lot of these "little things" are kinda missing.

I could go on and on, but I'm getting tired of writing this now

I'm still enjoying the game as it is, however, there's potential for so much more. Makes me think why it was in development for so long.

Hopefully you can keep at it and make the game much better than it currently is.

Thanks.

 

[Failupward]

Playing on xbox 1 and since the first patch was released a few days ago a lot of the goofy glitches are ironed out.
I'm not experiencing any problems with framerate or blurry characters at all. I've spent a lot of time exploring not just this city but the outskirts as well and it's seriously a lot of fun stealing military vehicles and running over enemies.
It'll be interesting to see the improvements when they release the next set of patches.

 

[krkac1]

great story, terrible performance

 

[Puncake8690]

I was lucky with witcher 3 since I played it on ps4 after all the patches. But this launch is far more unstable than Witcher's by a long shot. I have faith that the team will fix most if not all the technical issues within a few months to a year. I love the gameplay and story, but is all ruined by the bugs and glitches.

 

[NevaEilhart]

I guess AngryJoe is a CDPR fanboy no more

Cyberpunk 2077 is a Glitchy Buggy Mess - Angry Rant! - YouTube

Youtubers this famous just follow the trend and the buzz. They're not influencers anymore for most. They're just making easy money out of whatever opinion will make their videos upvoted. Most of them, who praised the game when they got their hands on the PC version and even made several videos about how bad it was for the game to be delayed over and over (because at that time that's what the "popular opinion" wanted to hear), now did a whole 180° to trash it (because that's what the "popular opinion" is now). No middle grounds on those "reviews", just clickbait mechanics. You either love or don't. And if you don't, they'll lose money. So it's easy to understand how they write their reviews and make their videos.
Same thing happened with TLOU2 by the way.

At least on this forum we can have some decent conversations over what's good and what's bad. The game has some very well executed areas, especially given what they had to face design-wise and that's it's their first First Person game in such a setting. There are some things lacking and cut though, and some performance issues mostly on low end pcs or consoles. Its overall potential though, if you add back cut content and increase performance and interactivity, is just stunning.

 

[Bloodartist]

"Less than the sum of its parts" is a perfect way to summarize CP2077 currently.
Some of these parts are amazing in their own right, but they don't synch together well, and there are big gaps between.

ps. I loathe to take youtuber/streamer opinions and videos seriously.... They ride whatever the trend is. They jump on every bandwagon rather than have their own opinions (or at least very few do)

If the trend is to hype CP2077, they will hype it. If the trend is to bash CP2077, they will do it. All for a handful of clicks.