by SymphonieIt’s been four years since this masterpiece was released as one of the most anticipated video games this decade. But back then, it was a major disappointment as the game was unfinished to say the least. Seems like AAA studios do that a lot these days. Let’s cut a bunch of content out, push the release date and spend more on marketing than developing the damned game.
Gamers won’t notice the disaster right, right? At the very least CD Projekt Red decided to clean up their mess after the backlash, while the vast majority of studios never bother to do even that much. Recently, the 2.11 patch has been delivered and got to say choombas, it’s looking good. Of course, there are still bugs and functionalities that ain’t working right, but all things considered, gotta give credit where credit is due, wouldn’t you agree? That said, let’s see if Cyberpunk 2077 is where it should be.
The fate of V
It’s no secret that many of you guys feel like the game follows a predetermined path no matter what you do, which kinda ruins the roleplay. However, this is a dystopian future where very few people live to se another day, let alone live long enough to retire and see their happily ever after.
But with five major endings and seven variations more, you got plenty of choices to determine how the fate of our main protagonist V plays out till the end. Remember that some endings require a buildup throughout the game like romancing certain people or playing the Phantom Liberty DLC in order to unlock. Therefore, recent patches polished all that quite well and thus allow you to play how you see fit.
Nova, right? Well, not exactly since lots of players do not like where things are heading. And since this is a no spoiler zone, you’ll just have to see for yourself. Be that as it may, the choices do give you power over how the game ends, which is essential in RPG games. This is vital as it contributes to world, story and character-building, which are all extremely important factors in roleplaying games.
Exploring Night City
Including Badlands, Night City is a massive open-world setting where everything happens. As such, the setting is more than a fertile soil for bugs, glitches and all sorts of things that can infuriate players, both those who are interested in gameplay only and those who prefer to take a closer look at the esthetics and graphics. Not happy to say that those are still present but not nearly as many as there were when the game originally launched.
That being said, you are free to explore, do side gigs, main jobs, NCPD missions and discover hidden gems without the game crashing or your graphics going haywire all the time. Interestingly enough, for a city raveled in sex, gambling, corruption, violence and drugs, your choices are quite limited. Guess the devs wanted more PG regarding this matter than they realized.
For example, the casino in Dog Town that resembles much of modern establishments, such as Betway Zambia, for example, isn’t accessible to you for gambling purposes, which is kinda weird. You can play quasar on the Citadel in Mass Effect ’till your heart’s content but you can’t gamble in NC? Okay, sure. Not that it’s necessary though but it kinda takes away the feel of that dystopian vibe given out by NC, to begin with. And if you want to avoid the anxiety of missing out on some of the Cyberpunk 2077 content, because the game is huge and full of secrets, you should follow a 100% Completion Guide to make sure you grab everything Cyberpunk has to offer.
The mechanics
Now we get to the core of gameplay, the mechanics. Safe to say that most of the game’s issues with mechanics have been dealt with and not to shabby at that. Assuming most of you have played the game at least a bit in the past, you know that combat is very diverse in Cyberpunk 2077. You can jump, take cover, dash, mount over cover, shoot while running and dashing, reload weapon ammo mid-air, shoot form vehicles, throw different grenades and use cyberware and hacking to make things much more interesting.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What’s interesting the most is that you get to be tactical about it and the game rewards you for it. So if you hack a car to detonate taking two enemies out in the process, shoot a ganggoon in the eye with a sniper rifle and blow a bunch more with a frag grenade, your netrunning, headhunter and engineer skills will all level up respectively. Each skill gives its own benefits. However, your enemies will play it smart as well. In other words, they will use the same types of tactics on you so depending on the difficulty you play on, things can take a turn for the worst if you’re not careful enough.
As for the bugs and glitches in combat, most of them have been properly fixed so combat feels smooth and quite realistic for that setting. If you get smashed by a hammer or hit by a car, you will be knocked on your behind. As the events unfold, your enemies will take the opportunity to beat, shoot and stab you senseless while you try to get up. To be quite honest, you don’t see such mechanics often in games these days so it’s refreshing, though be it, very frustrating to have such features in a game.
The buggers
Bugs, every game has them, very few studios fixes them before the release. Cyberpunk was no different but as mentioned before, at least they had the decency to try and deliver a quality game a few years after the screw up. As for the bugs, you can’t really get rid of them. Visual bugs and NPCs falling through floors and walls are still there but not as commonly present as you may imagine.
The game rarely crashes after 2.11 patch and sometimes you have to load a save file to reset the mission, gig or a job as they sometimes get stuck. Overall, the game runs smooth and it will provide your with quality gameplay you can truly enjoy. So is Cyberpunk 2077 where it should be? Absolutely not. Over eight years in the making and the game gets delivered unfinished.
The entire situation has bad executive decisions all over it. If you gonna make an AAA title, do it right for god’s sake and don’t rush it. Is the game good enough for you to enjoy and create fond memories of? Absolutely yes. But all things considered, the game could’ve been so much better if CD Projekt Red actually finished it the right way, at least the game hasn’t flatlined completely.
