My journey with the game started during Covid, with too much time in my hands I had tried another single player story driven game called the Outer worlds. I was really impressed by how it was written and consider it still a rare example of how good writing can exist on any medium. I get to experience new the best game ever very soon after finishing Outerworlds from Xbox Gamepass. I got Cyberpunk 2077 disc as early Christmas present from my sister who knows about my appreciation towards the cyberpunk genre.
I started playing on day one, on my Xbox One X. That version crashed every 5 to 6 hours, but I didn't care. More patches came and late December I had finished "literally unplayable" story my V returning to his roots and leaving the Night City with Panam and Aldecaldos. It was the best game I had played ever, and I started on Commodore 64. It was also the most important work in cyberpunk genre in decades, that just happened to be a video game. I came to read the Neuromancer by William Gibson and other works in genre very late 80's and Neuromancer particularly changed my file. It was important bridge to start learning about the real world, economics, social sciences, even some philosophy.
I didn't originally intend to get 2.0 and expansion as I was on older generation console, but when I was looking for a new laptop during summer managed to get a good deal of 6 core Intel CPU, nVidia 3050 GPU and 16 Gigs of ram, I played the game through twice, first on 1.63 version and second time with 2.0 and Phantom Liberty DLC.
To be clear, people whom gaming, especially PC gaming, is a hobby has a ton of things to tinker with to try best framerate, resolution, effects combos, with whatever top line hardware is today but top of the line hardware isn't needed to run this game. I run game in 1080p mode, used my smart tv as a display, used Xbox controller as input, and for someone whom story is the most important aspect of story, I could read all the adverts and things relevant to environmental storytelling without issues. Everything that mattered to me worked out just fine. In Phantom Liberty content, driving cars from 3rd person perspective view did tank framerate. I don't recall issues when using first person view, though that Dog Town isn't for high speed driving due it's small and packed map might also be a factor in that.
Game has went trough quite a few changes in almost all areas through patches even before 2.0. I haven't always liked all the features added, but most I think has been good additions. Some features like in-game apartments and virtual pet grown from Iguana egg, I have tried things, never grown fond of these and I'm happy that they are optional features. Rather there's perhaps one oversight in SMS from one major Dog Town NPC where she refers that she sent something to V's Japantown apartment. I hadn't intended to buy any of those but purchased Japantown one to see what SMS was about but didn't find anything. Iguana egg didn't hatch during my playthrough with 2.0 and Phantom Liberty and I just can't care. Greatest aspect of these things and similar content like interactive arcade cabinets is that they are all optional content. Players can interact with them, but don't need to.
What comes to our character 2.0 reduces grind and removes all together issues with some Attribute related skills (Body / Athletics being a good example) as their progression really didn't scale with the rest. Overall streamlining skills appears to have made story content easier to focus, same goes for level scaling as more content can be accessed regardless of character level, but at them same time that Attribute checks also now scale work against that creates strange situation I hope isn't final.
New story content then. It has same qualities main storylines in base game. This is a bit complicated as each of these branches has multiple aspects.
King of Pentacles probably is most comprehensive way to experience it for players who plan to make just one run.
So what is achieves, on top level it covers area that is not often covered in depth in cyberpunk (genre) even when it's one of the most integral elements. It's simple, what's the situation inside governments in scenario where corporations has more and more power? Phantom Liberty's take on that is very good, logical one. This something quite notable.
Second aspect is about ideals. Unconditional Love doesn't conquer all in Rogue and Johnny ending. In Phantom Liberty, how well that unconditional devotion to (what remains of) nation works for Reed?
There's very interesting non-fiction book published fairly recently by Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. I haven't read that yet but here's a review from professor Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post: Book review of The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf - The Washington Post
There is this window of opportunity with good cyberpunk, journey doesn't necessarily need to end where fiction ends.
Some other highlights.
All of these things build the world, many of them also build characters we interact with and are relevant in a way, like William Gibson put it in a foreword in new edition for a story that inspired him. City Come a-Walkin' by John Shirley, cyberpunks patient Zero. 'Story set in a "near future" that felt oddly like the present'.
With 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 still remains the best game I have played and the most relevant cyberpunk work for decades.
'
The whole premise about the US president it didn't looked good. It's premise for bad American action movie. We got something else, but it's not easy sell globally, unless one happens to be in bad action movie business.
Pacing or rather how to pace a playthrough, that has been and remains a problem. That said, for people who replay games, open design is the best option there is. Otherwise it would be just repeating the same thing over and over.
I started playing on day one, on my Xbox One X. That version crashed every 5 to 6 hours, but I didn't care. More patches came and late December I had finished "literally unplayable" story my V returning to his roots and leaving the Night City with Panam and Aldecaldos. It was the best game I had played ever, and I started on Commodore 64. It was also the most important work in cyberpunk genre in decades, that just happened to be a video game. I came to read the Neuromancer by William Gibson and other works in genre very late 80's and Neuromancer particularly changed my file. It was important bridge to start learning about the real world, economics, social sciences, even some philosophy.
I didn't originally intend to get 2.0 and expansion as I was on older generation console, but when I was looking for a new laptop during summer managed to get a good deal of 6 core Intel CPU, nVidia 3050 GPU and 16 Gigs of ram, I played the game through twice, first on 1.63 version and second time with 2.0 and Phantom Liberty DLC.
To be clear, people whom gaming, especially PC gaming, is a hobby has a ton of things to tinker with to try best framerate, resolution, effects combos, with whatever top line hardware is today but top of the line hardware isn't needed to run this game. I run game in 1080p mode, used my smart tv as a display, used Xbox controller as input, and for someone whom story is the most important aspect of story, I could read all the adverts and things relevant to environmental storytelling without issues. Everything that mattered to me worked out just fine. In Phantom Liberty content, driving cars from 3rd person perspective view did tank framerate. I don't recall issues when using first person view, though that Dog Town isn't for high speed driving due it's small and packed map might also be a factor in that.
Game has went trough quite a few changes in almost all areas through patches even before 2.0. I haven't always liked all the features added, but most I think has been good additions. Some features like in-game apartments and virtual pet grown from Iguana egg, I have tried things, never grown fond of these and I'm happy that they are optional features. Rather there's perhaps one oversight in SMS from one major Dog Town NPC where she refers that she sent something to V's Japantown apartment. I hadn't intended to buy any of those but purchased Japantown one to see what SMS was about but didn't find anything. Iguana egg didn't hatch during my playthrough with 2.0 and Phantom Liberty and I just can't care. Greatest aspect of these things and similar content like interactive arcade cabinets is that they are all optional content. Players can interact with them, but don't need to.
What comes to our character 2.0 reduces grind and removes all together issues with some Attribute related skills (Body / Athletics being a good example) as their progression really didn't scale with the rest. Overall streamlining skills appears to have made story content easier to focus, same goes for level scaling as more content can be accessed regardless of character level, but at them same time that Attribute checks also now scale work against that creates strange situation I hope isn't final.
New story content then. It has same qualities main storylines in base game. This is a bit complicated as each of these branches has multiple aspects.
King of Pentacles probably is most comprehensive way to experience it for players who plan to make just one run.
So what is achieves, on top level it covers area that is not often covered in depth in cyberpunk (genre) even when it's one of the most integral elements. It's simple, what's the situation inside governments in scenario where corporations has more and more power? Phantom Liberty's take on that is very good, logical one. This something quite notable.
Second aspect is about ideals. Unconditional Love doesn't conquer all in Rogue and Johnny ending. In Phantom Liberty, how well that unconditional devotion to (what remains of) nation works for Reed?
There's very interesting non-fiction book published fairly recently by Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times. I haven't read that yet but here's a review from professor Steven Pearlstein at the Washington Post: Book review of The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism by Martin Wolf - The Washington Post
There is this window of opportunity with good cyberpunk, journey doesn't necessarily need to end where fiction ends.
Some other highlights.
- Reed operating with 6th. Street, could make pretty good episode something like Amazon's show, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, but darker.
- Terminals at Cynosure there's message titled "We lost Africa?" It's about company losing a mineral deposits in there, which they depend of. What follows is what is realistically to be expected, but there's one more thing. Going onward there's a message about poisonous substances in certain area of facility and we can find a hazmaz suit. There's nothing that it was ever recovered. Corp just left all that there under the Pacifica and left.
- Something bit similar is going on with El Capitan. I wasn't that interested about all the new vehicles, but we learn how Arasaka poisoned some area in there (in base game there's NCPD mission related to this) and what's it causing and what El Capitan intends to do about it.
All of these things build the world, many of them also build characters we interact with and are relevant in a way, like William Gibson put it in a foreword in new edition for a story that inspired him. City Come a-Walkin' by John Shirley, cyberpunks patient Zero. 'Story set in a "near future" that felt oddly like the present'.
With 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 still remains the best game I have played and the most relevant cyberpunk work for decades.
'
The whole premise about the US president it didn't looked good. It's premise for bad American action movie. We got something else, but it's not easy sell globally, unless one happens to be in bad action movie business.
Pacing or rather how to pace a playthrough, that has been and remains a problem. That said, for people who replay games, open design is the best option there is. Otherwise it would be just repeating the same thing over and over.
Just brought this game. I am glad I didn't buy it when it was full price!! Why are there so many errors for the Ps4 version?? Just waited about a hour to install update! Plus another hour with the data disc. Will it be worth it?? We shall see I guess! Must drive big gamers crazy!! Have the company/makers apologised??
I came back after a year for the DLC and I really liked it.
But PLEASE, don't let this relatively small DLC be everything, we will get for the game. The whole Cyberpunk-Universe is the coolest dystopia I can imagine, hopefully I will experience implants like these by myself...
You created such a great baseline, now please make it Skyrim 2.0 and add more content than we could ever imagine. No problems paying for everything, just give us much much more.
But PLEASE, don't let this relatively small DLC be everything, we will get for the game. The whole Cyberpunk-Universe is the coolest dystopia I can imagine, hopefully I will experience implants like these by myself...
You created such a great baseline, now please make it Skyrim 2.0 and add more content than we could ever imagine. No problems paying for everything, just give us much much more.
The new perk tree is terrible. I don't know who thought that was a good idea. Not only do you force people to take perks they don't want in order to get to perks they do want, but there is also very little flexibility. The perks force very specific playstyles onto the player. The perk trees should be adding more flexibility in builds so that there is more replayability. Instead, you have changed it to pigeonhole players into playing in very specific ways, restricting variety in how you build and play your character. I do not get this change, at all. Less flexibility means less replayability, which is BAD. The perks should be less restrictive, so that there can be creativity in building your character. That is pretty much gone with perks forcing you to play a certain way in order to benefit from them.
Yeah, I noticed the Cyberpunk “build” guide videos have basically evaporated. There is little point with such restrictive trees.
I get every time the same Finisher animation after patch 2.1, someone has the same problem?
Constant nerfs of my favorite ways of playing in a singleplayer game. I was clearly enjoying the game to much and CDPR did not like that. 2.1 ruined it for me. Nerfed davids sandevistan? Id give it a score of 0 alone.
Looking at everything. How 2.1 is also bugged and how everything you invest time into might just be a waste of time after the next update/nerf? A 6? And yes i am pissed for spending all that time trying to upgrade stuff just for them to get nerfed. I wasted all that time just to have less fun now.
Looking at everything. How 2.1 is also bugged and how everything you invest time into might just be a waste of time after the next update/nerf? A 6? And yes i am pissed for spending all that time trying to upgrade stuff just for them to get nerfed. I wasted all that time just to have less fun now.
You really think they did things to mess with you personally?
I really like what the game has become in update 2.0. I'm really interested in playing now in terms of variety of game experience. Thank you!
But here's the trouble, now the attribute reset button is made one per game, I have one question why?! Why not make it possible to have it - maybe it's some kind of additional customization in the game or something. Understand, I'm not of the age to spend a lot of time on the game, I just want a varied gaming experience - for example, I started out playing as a hacker, hacking into other people's imposters, frying brains. Then I rebooted, tried to become a cyber samurai, smashing everyone with a katana. And then I ran into this stupid limitation.
There is an opinion that having the ability to infinitely pump is unrealistic and hurts the emergent game experience - so I'll tell you, you don't want to use this game feature, so don't use it, your business, and I'm sorry for my time. Now seriously, this game has a very interesting story in terms of drama and plot. But, unfortunately or fortunately, the game build does not relate to it in any way - the ability to sometimes insert certain lines does not count - it does not affect the story. So the game is essentially about enjoying the story and enjoying the gameplay mechanics. And one has essentially nothing to do with the other. So don't deny me the opportunity to enjoy the richness of the second, why?
But here's the trouble, now the attribute reset button is made one per game, I have one question why?! Why not make it possible to have it - maybe it's some kind of additional customization in the game or something. Understand, I'm not of the age to spend a lot of time on the game, I just want a varied gaming experience - for example, I started out playing as a hacker, hacking into other people's imposters, frying brains. Then I rebooted, tried to become a cyber samurai, smashing everyone with a katana. And then I ran into this stupid limitation.
There is an opinion that having the ability to infinitely pump is unrealistic and hurts the emergent game experience - so I'll tell you, you don't want to use this game feature, so don't use it, your business, and I'm sorry for my time. Now seriously, this game has a very interesting story in terms of drama and plot. But, unfortunately or fortunately, the game build does not relate to it in any way - the ability to sometimes insert certain lines does not count - it does not affect the story. So the game is essentially about enjoying the story and enjoying the gameplay mechanics. And one has essentially nothing to do with the other. So don't deny me the opportunity to enjoy the richness of the second, why?
Well I was wrong. It's not over. Given the continued changes and additions; I'll be appending my review once more in the coming weeks I think, because the stuff added with 2.1 matters. It has it's share of problems and I hope they dial in some of the finer points, but it's good. I like what they're doing.
Best game I've played since Red Dead 2. Cdpr are rockstars rivals now. Massive pressure but they're in that elite level now
Hey there, CDPR!
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the game, but it obviously had its incarnations. Which is not so good for returning gamers. If you have some saves left for the future... naah, that's not what the kittens like. Also, I appreciate fight with the troubles the game had and the effort to make it better. And I'm not talking about the promisses given at first, but it's somehow related. I'm talking about changes the game went trough, applying to the gameplay's changes. And I'm awared of drastically dynamic world nowadays, but the effect is I can't get back to the game I started some time ago, because it's completely another game! I don't even know what features each version has and which one has lost it! It's really hard trying to play the game, if you don't run it more often.
The clothes case and skills tree are most representative. First, the clothes were not fit to the armor they were given to the player, specifically their image didn't correspond to the level of armor, you could have iconic/legendary underpants, that had more armor than a jacket or even a bulletproof vest, which was absurd! You wanted to solve that problem via transmogrification (yuck!), which helped making it less weird for that case and explained the new technology used in CP2077. And then, the fashion factor was questioned: "why should I even gather those fancy clothes - besides the armor - if the look is the same?". And lastly, you completely erased the earlier idea, giving only few clothes significant value to the armor, but they still have their weight - so why bother and not go naked instead, throwing away all your clothes, that don't have any buffs?!
Please, CDPR, maybe it's too much to insist for the fixed builds of the game, but let the previous versions be chosen from the gog menu at least (more then it is now). For me, I have only few bugs in recent, old patches (like 1.something) and got used to previous versions' solutions. Is it too risky?
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the game, but it obviously had its incarnations. Which is not so good for returning gamers. If you have some saves left for the future... naah, that's not what the kittens like. Also, I appreciate fight with the troubles the game had and the effort to make it better. And I'm not talking about the promisses given at first, but it's somehow related. I'm talking about changes the game went trough, applying to the gameplay's changes. And I'm awared of drastically dynamic world nowadays, but the effect is I can't get back to the game I started some time ago, because it's completely another game! I don't even know what features each version has and which one has lost it! It's really hard trying to play the game, if you don't run it more often.
The clothes case and skills tree are most representative. First, the clothes were not fit to the armor they were given to the player, specifically their image didn't correspond to the level of armor, you could have iconic/legendary underpants, that had more armor than a jacket or even a bulletproof vest, which was absurd! You wanted to solve that problem via transmogrification (yuck!), which helped making it less weird for that case and explained the new technology used in CP2077. And then, the fashion factor was questioned: "why should I even gather those fancy clothes - besides the armor - if the look is the same?". And lastly, you completely erased the earlier idea, giving only few clothes significant value to the armor, but they still have their weight - so why bother and not go naked instead, throwing away all your clothes, that don't have any buffs?!
Please, CDPR, maybe it's too much to insist for the fixed builds of the game, but let the previous versions be chosen from the gog menu at least (more then it is now). For me, I have only few bugs in recent, old patches (like 1.something) and got used to previous versions' solutions. Is it too risky?
Actually, tbh, there is a legacy patch in bonuses on GOG, so many thanks! It would be even better to hotfix the first skill-tree version, but I appreciate
While all art is subjective, I feel that, objectively, Cyberpunk 2077 is a masterpiece, bordering on perfect, if they would just add a few important features.
The world design is the most detailed and immersive I've ever experienced, and I've been gaming for over 30 years. It's so incredibly engaging and atmospheric, with such amazing design, it begs for so much more to do in order to give players more reason to keep exploring Night City, and so many people desire to do so, myself included.
Just a few more activities, such as being able to actually go out with your love interest to bars, to play pool etc, such as between Niko and Roman in GTA, and far more repeatable missions, courier, combat, anything at all, in all the nooks-and-crannies of the city.
The story is fantastic, as is the acting, especially female V, and many of the side quests are even far more impressive, deeper and incredibly well-acted.
The combat and weapons are excellent.
I've completely the game four times and have almost 600hrs built up, even from just roaming around and taking it all in, finding enemies to fight and just wanting to always soak in the aesthetic and atmopshere.
They just need to add some more activities, think GTA Online, to keep people playing, and the game goes from masterpiece to perfection.
The world design is the most detailed and immersive I've ever experienced, and I've been gaming for over 30 years. It's so incredibly engaging and atmospheric, with such amazing design, it begs for so much more to do in order to give players more reason to keep exploring Night City, and so many people desire to do so, myself included.
Just a few more activities, such as being able to actually go out with your love interest to bars, to play pool etc, such as between Niko and Roman in GTA, and far more repeatable missions, courier, combat, anything at all, in all the nooks-and-crannies of the city.
The story is fantastic, as is the acting, especially female V, and many of the side quests are even far more impressive, deeper and incredibly well-acted.
The combat and weapons are excellent.
I've completely the game four times and have almost 600hrs built up, even from just roaming around and taking it all in, finding enemies to fight and just wanting to always soak in the aesthetic and atmopshere.
They just need to add some more activities, think GTA Online, to keep people playing, and the game goes from masterpiece to perfection.
I finally finished the game. With Phantom Liberty done prior to doing the end game mission.
All the endings are very badly done. They all make you, the player, feel like you've just been screwed over... by the people who made the game.
I've had this feeling from pretty early on that but with these endings it's confirmed. The people who made it hold players in contempt. They don't want to make a game to be enjoyed, they want to make a game to feed their egos.
I'm normally very supportive of creative endeavours, being a writer myself, but this... this is just literally spitting in the face of players and then saying, "Hah! you paid for this shit!"
I never played Witcher so I never had any positive or negative investment in CDPR. But after this egregious let down, feeling like I was just kicked in the teeth after putting my faith, time and energy into playing to the end, in all seriousness, I will never buy or play a CDPR game again and regret spending the money on this one.
Goodbye, cruel creators.
All the endings are very badly done. They all make you, the player, feel like you've just been screwed over... by the people who made the game.
I've had this feeling from pretty early on that but with these endings it's confirmed. The people who made it hold players in contempt. They don't want to make a game to be enjoyed, they want to make a game to feed their egos.
I'm normally very supportive of creative endeavours, being a writer myself, but this... this is just literally spitting in the face of players and then saying, "Hah! you paid for this shit!"
I never played Witcher so I never had any positive or negative investment in CDPR. But after this egregious let down, feeling like I was just kicked in the teeth after putting my faith, time and energy into playing to the end, in all seriousness, I will never buy or play a CDPR game again and regret spending the money on this one.
Goodbye, cruel creators.
I liked the part where you said you were a writer, but provided zero actual feedback as to why the writing was bad. (I also like the part where you have 0 substantiating evidence that you're even a good writer yourself)
Personally, I have qualms with the game and especially its story. But I've actually outlined what those qualms actually are when I bothered to make a post regarding feedback.
Personally, I have qualms with the game and especially its story. But I've actually outlined what those qualms actually are when I bothered to make a post regarding feedback.
I guess matter of taste, so rather "you don't like it" than "it's bad". Beside, you managed to finish the game, so I assume that overall, you enjoyed it and have fun, at least until reaching the endings.
Maybe if you would have played The Witcher, you should be aware that it have nothing to do with CDPR's way of doing endings, but rather "ending tone" they chose for this game in agreement with Mike Pondsmith, the very creator of the source material.
Strangely, there is a lot of writers/devs out of there when it come to reviews/criticism about games