OVERVIEW
WARNING: A foul mouth approaching. This review at times contains some words some readers may not find suitable. Words may include various symbols for you to figure out.
CD Projekt Red is back after a long layover from The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt. They've spent a very long time with several delays to the point where they might have well just said f*** it and finally released it even though it probably could have used another couple months of tuning up. If you thought we were complaining, well that's some bullocks (talk to your European friend, they will understand). We are more than happy to be bug testers, that's the state of a lot of games these days. Heck, Bethesda can't live without us as testers. Did that stop Skyrim from winning any awards or from people loving that game? No, snarky one, it didn't. We love that game too, no shots fired, promise. That's why we aren't going to give a chum bucket about it in our review. We'd rather play it in early access beta testing it than wait another year. Move along, nothing unusual to see here, these bugs are not the ones you are looking for, it's the fantastic game your clouded eyes will see.
STORY & GAMEPLAY
(spoilers, beware!)
If the title of this game doesn't smack you in the face enough for a set up, then we're concerned about you. This is Blade Runner the video game, or Akira as well depending on your taste in movies, Deus Ex in video games but on a larger scale and budget. The genre cyberpunk in a futuristic year filled with science fiction and a well worn and degraded world. These are all the keys to cyberpunk soup.
To really quickly surmise the story (early spoilers for this paragraph), you begin as one of three factions (Street, Corpo(ration), Nomad). These all sound really different, to some extent that being true, but the main story beats will roughly still align. You (name is V) and your bud Jackie take on a bit more than you can chew in a heist that may or may not go as intended. *(spoilers again!) The heist ends up poorly to the point where this very unique chip is inserted into yourself and what do ya know, it's going to be the death of you unless you get good ol' Keanu Reeves outta' your head in time, and if not, he's going to slowly take over until you get squeezed out of that plump little melon of yours. To make it even better, Keanu (Johnny Silverhand), isn't such a great guy, he is a deceased Rocker gone terrorist that nuked the city to wipe out corruption 50 years ago. And that fun is stuck in your head, which sounds negative, but then he still looks and sounds like Keanu ,and we really can't hate on Keanu, so get ready to have conflicting feelings about such a nice guy saying un-Keanu-like things to you a lot. #endspoilers
You're breathtaking(ly) an a-hole! It's weird isn't it?
Video is copyright of CD Projekt Red
Gameplay is all in first person. This is interesting as they toyed with having both a first and third person view for this game, and don't see why that wasn't viable. Driving is still either or, and if you need to have cutscenes and dialogue be in first-person then so be it. This game does start to feel like that of a well done mod for the Grand Theft Auto franchise. I say that on a base foundation of large city to explore at your leisure, main story and side quests galore, also combat that is pretty customary to every game at this point in the genre. CD Projekt Red knows how to do all of these to the best of them as seen on The Witcher III, but it didn't take much to push the genre in new ways either. If someone did a mod theming GTA in cyberpunk skin, would it be that different? Does that matter though? No. Due to the fact that GTA can be an amazing game, and if in a different skin, that game can still be just as amazing. Is it unique? No, not really, but if we can set that aside, and the game is great in every way, no one cares then.
Hacking people or items scattered throughout the world seemed unique until you realize that Bioshock (insert your hip adjustment game here) did it many moons ago. It simply isn't fun enough of a mini game process to select numbers in rows and columns over and over a million times. If the process evolved as your skill set did, becoming more of a auto hack process may have helped. This is an issue with any game that has these, do it enough times and it becomes an annoyance.
Same can be applied to the detective mode bit. There will be a handful of times in the game where within a quest or sidequest asks you to perform a movie clip mystery egg hunt for clues on how to solve it. You will view a roughly one minute movie and search for details to figure out that quest. Using audio isolating and thermal detection layers to slowly peel away the clues to solving your mystery. This seemed pretty interesting but after doing it a couple times I realized the gimmick had faded. It comes across as an attempt to mix things up, and props for that, but I think if V was able to just go to that location and look around scanning blood traces, corpses, etc. on my own it would have been better.
Let's talk romance for a hot minute. CDPR made The Witcher III. I know, what, surprise!? Specifically within that game, the main character Geralt can fall in love (or not) with either Yennifer or Triss. It's up to you the player to pick your option, or leave them hanging if neither fits your fancy. For some insane reason CDPR found it logical to make a handful of characters that can only be fancied by a certain gender at start. If you only ever play games as a male protagonist, sorry, but Judy, is not ever going to be into you V. Why do we have to live real world bullsh** through a video game too? It adds nothing of value to do it that way. They even let you try to flirt with her throughout the game and have her deny you! It hinders the experience, not making it more grand. Geralt wasn't denied by Yennifer in the end because the spell that binded their love ended, she still loved him, it was your choice to pursue her or not. CDPR just dropped the ball on this. If you're playing a character as a heterosexual male, you're only option is Panam or bust. The game severely limits options whereas in their previous game gave you great option, well an option at least, kind of Keira but not really.
I wish I had a bit more to sell you on, sadly it feels like I need to as this game has gotten a lot of negative publicity (a small bit of it fair) but most of it unjust. The gameplay isn't new and overly unique but it has everything any FPS has ever done basically (minus anything porticular/gravular, my made up words for games using portals or affecting gravity). And that's great because it's all there and we love those things if you love FPS single player games. By now I'm sure you've noticed this isn't the strength but routine methodology. Not a deficit, but blame the genre, not the game.
CONTROLS & PERFORMANCE
Did I hear you laugh? I feel like I did. The game had some, cough, performance issues, to say the least. Wasn't a spry chicken when it came out. You got that? Ok, cool, lets move on. Lots of games, especially ones that undertake such a large open world scale have issues at release. CD Projekt Red doesn't have every computer set up ever in existence to test on, nor does any company. Why Nintendo-made games are so great and bug free is because they only build for one system or two, max. CDPR did the opposite, let's put it on everything. Not surprising there's issues. A lot of which has been resolved after a couple weeks post release. I understand the PS4 and Xbox One versions are butt, they are also butt old. As this is primarily a PC review, we don't really care either about the sorrows of old hardware not being able to run a game designed for much better hardware. Why they bothered is a fault of their own, but not what this is. I'm not running this on a 3080 graphics card with the best of the best. Guess what, don't need to, as it still looks and plays amazing. It was smooth sailing from day one! I didn't say bug free, but as for having a smooth frame per second experience right out of the gate I was impressed.
There are a litany of various issues such as unfinished/quickly animated sections for random characters and cutscenes. Had a bundle of audio issues, tackle those in the next section, but beyond those there hasn't been much issue. If you've had crashes, that can be a crap-shoot based on a huge range of issues varying from how crammed your PC is of other games and software that may conflict, to old drivers, etc. I'm not going to fault a game for a rare instance of a crash. This isn't the horror of Borderlands 3 which probably is still not fully fixed.
As to acknowledge the new family members, the Series Xs and PS5s, you have the hardware to run the game more than adequately. You'll be fine, which is more than I can probably ever say to a PS4 or Xbox One. Don't buy Cyberpunk if your hardware is so ancient, it's guaranteed to be a ruined experience. I know you want it now, patience will be your best friend on this one.
If you have the latest and greatest of hardware this game will look like one of the best and prettiest out there. The degree of high quality in shadowing and reflections when Raytracing is enabled can be an awe inducing moment. We definitely look forward to the newest generation as games will be figuring out how to use this to continue to push to near realism in games.
AUDIO
Let's separate this a bit as there's quite a bit to divulge here. As there's a grand scale to this game, there's a lot of elements of audio utilized in here. We have the game world audio and situational music, there's a bunch of radio stations filled with every type of music you could basically ask for, then we still have to cover Keanu's lovely voice acting, along with all other audio.
Cyberpunk 2077 definitely knocks it out of the park making this feel like a futuristic dystopian city filled with all encompassing audios and sounds. The music within the districts of the city all fit seamlessly whether you're in a Japanese themed area filled with J-pop Tokyo inspired ads or slumming through the streets in graffiti filled allies with stereos blasting rap music. It's all there, a thoroughly crafted audio experience where ever you travel. When it begins to rain and the synth music kicks in, you really can feel those Blade Runner vibes and truly appreciate the details this world has. The love and care to make this stand out amongst other games lay largely here.
What you're reading for is any and all info on Keanu, we know. So how does he do? It's breathtaking. Pure and simple greatness. You feel like you're in a higher class of video game when Keanu takes center stage. Whatever that means, but most of the game can range from standard open world FPS to AAA excellence. Keanu brings that excellence. The main voice interaction between him and V carries this game from slumping at times to a truly magnificent experience. Keanu even when talking sh** to you, still soothes the soul. The bickering between you and him are savory moments, and a very fun ride. The fact that Keanu plays pretty coy and cool throughout really makes you wonder where his allegiances are. That mystery throughout the game, should I trust him, nah he's totally going to f*** me over, or is he my buddy now? It's an experience that delights. This is the reason as to why this game stands out. No it's not because Keanu voices a character, it's because of how well him and V drive the story into a witty fun filled experience that you won't forget. I haven't even mentioned Judy or Panam yet. Both of which really delivered exceptional performances that made me feel more in tune with the world. Characters who show all sides. The only thing is I wanted more, as both of them seemed to be cut short, but maybe that's just a testament to how much I enjoyed what they brought.
When it comes to the environment, at times it could feel heavy and at others empty. The design choice to kill off all birds within a certain distance of the city so none would be present made it hollow. Birds chirping, bugs buzzing, trees shuffling, these are a lot of typical sounds present, even in cities. Removing such just made it feel void of habitat. If radios are silenced, there can be no audio. I even thought crowd noise at times was sparse. To some degree I believe some choices left to more misses than hits there, even if they shot for a more industrial palette, omitting all of these audio cues feels a bit unbelievable.
SUMMARY
Quite honestly this game has it all. If you're a snarky one, bugs too. Thing is, these are continuously being addressed, and there's free DLC incoming within a month or so, so mind your business. This is still a great game that is solid in every aspect. It excels particularly in voice acting and sound. The story is unique enough that Johnny Silverhand and V elevate it. Supporting cast is great, albeit most of them just aren't around long enough. What do you want? It's got a ton of content to do. It's fun. I feel like I need to shake you to wake you up from this PR nightmare that is CD Projekt Red right now. It's a great game. Yes, it has some things it could improve so it's not the perfect best game of 2020, but it's right up there. If they had delayed it again it could have potentially been 2021's, I think CDPR will see you again when The Witcher 4 releases.
BONUS CONTENT
Why does Ciri not cameo when specifically in The Witcher III she mentions this world? Come on! How shocking and cool would it have been if she was a character that popped up somehow in the storyline or a side story? Missed opportunity, that right there would have gotten everyone talking good things.
SCORE
8.5 out of 10.0
▣▣▣▣▣▣▣▣◪▢
+ Great assortment of characters, dialogue, character development, story, sidequests
+ Sound, Music
+ Captures that cyberpunk genre vibe swimmingly
○ Does everything well (i.e. gameplay, feel of weapons, art style)
- Some bugs to work out
- Side characters could have stuck around (much) longer
- Romance-able characters are stupidly limited, yeah there's some hate here
- Ciri, where art thou?
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