Cyberpunk 2077 - Game Infinite Impressions Review

Very little hasn’t already been said about Cyberpunk 2077. By now, if you haven’t heard of the debacle surrounding CD Project Red’s most recent title than you have been living under a rock. However, there is an angle that I haven’t actually seen yet from all the reviews and media coverage. There is a topic that I don’t think has been pointed out yet.

The game clearly is unfinished, buggy, and we have all seen the screenshots and clips of how poorly it runs on last gen consoles. We have read the behind the scenes development hell from Jason already. We already know the game has bugs and performance issues.

What we haven't really seen much of anyone ask is the question, “how good is the actual game?”

You see, so much of the media narrative is focused on how buggy and unexpectedly poor performing the game is; no one is “actually” reviewing the game itself. By the game, I mean the story, the characters, the gameplay, the world. If it was finished, would it be good? If you are playing this game on PC like me, some of you might be getting a much more finished version. I honeslty haven’t seen the massive game breaking bugs, the failed loading, or anything close to what I’ve seen others have. Now this is not because I have some massively powerful rig; I know multiple reviewers with more powerful machines that are having a worse time. No, I’m just lucky. My version runs “ok”. Sometimes its ugly, especially the V character model. Yes my Ray Tracing is completely broken. Sometimes there’s bugs, but it’s nothing compared to what I’ve seen in bigger reviewers youtube channels. I knew right away the game was buggy by my low res V and poor frame rate but both those were improved in early updates.

At this point, my game runs ok. I’m here to point out what none of the Media have apparently noticed yet. Bugs and funny clips and pictures make for better click baity articles and videos. However, if you are incredibly lucky like me, or even if we just fast forward to 6 months from now when the game’s bugs and issues will hopefully be improved, what will your experience look like? Some of you have run into progression glitches, game breaking bugs, corrupted save data, and you may not be able to progress. Some of you refunded. Some of you are waiting because of the reviews or because a friend said it played like garbage.

I’m here to say that beneath the bugs, behind the glitches, push through the 10 fps sections, what are you left with?

How IS Cyberpunk 2077?

Well, I’m sorry to say, it’s just not very good. My review purposely does not take into account the bugs or performance issues. My game runs...”ok” not great, but ok. The problem few are tackling is even if CDPR fixes this game, the game beneath are the bugs just isn’t fun.

The story is boring. The characters are flat, shallow, and forgettable. The dialogue is awkward. The missions are all the same. There is a word I don’t use very often, and that is “chore”. It is a chore to play. Instead of wanting to play one more hour before bed, I find myself saying “uhg try to play one more hour”.

The vast media narrative is that this is an “amazing game that is plagued by bugs, and IF ONLY just got a few more months”. No. I’m sorry to say but even if CDPR had given the game 6 more months and it launched bug free, and actually ran on PS4 and Xbox One, you’d be incredibly disappointed. I’m one of the lucky few with access to a version that works fine and all this focus on the media rhetoric on “bad performance” I think is misleading patient gamers into thinking they are waiting on a gem that simply needed polishing.

Eventually, the media will start talking about how Cyberpunk is “fixed”. Eventually Sony will relist Cyberpunk on the Playstation store. Eventually the rhetoric will shift to the game being “fixed”. At that point I think gamers will flock to the game thinking they “finally” have access to this amazing game.

The huge problem no one is talking about is that in my humble opinion, the game is still bad absent any bugs!

I’m labling this a “impressions review” because I’m only 15 hours in. I couln’t wait to say what I wanted to say until I finished because honstly it needs to be said now to all those gamers who are waiting or stuck. Your wait is not worth it. I have reached the finished the product you are being promised and I’m here to tell you it’s not worth the wait.

These past 15 hours have been boring, forgettable, and just not fun. Now things like bad narrative, characters, and fun things to do, are all symptomatic of the development trouble we now know the game had, but those are things that aren’t really fixable post launch.

It’s hard to explain just how flat and boring these characters are. I mean somehow CDPR managed to make the internet’s beloved Keanu Reeves unlikable and cringey. The awkward dialogue in this game just feels so ...unnatural and weird. No one talks like this. There was a moment where Johnny Silverhand is bragging about his “big cock” and it’s just so unnaturally cringey.

The game is just so beautiful in theory (and when it wants to be) that it distracts us from the fact that everything else is low effort. CDPR has placed us in this world and populated it with nothing. CDPR promised us this amazing adventure, and I’m 15 hours in and nothing has happened. Some of these side characters have such incredibly detailed character models, that it distracts us from the fact they have no soul. Judy and Panam are two of the most quality and detail characters in the game, in fact in most games, characters I’ve spent hours working alongside and they just feel lifeless.

The only thing left to review is gameplay, and this also just fails. It becomes clear right away that shift during development to full first person mode was clearly a mistake. This game should always have been third person. The lack of third person cutscenes makes the game feel low effort. The gun play is just awful. It feels clunky and slow, with poor integration for hacking. A game that is supposedly “all about hacking” makes hacking feel like a chore. Whether is is poorly played out hard to see UI, or boring mini-game puzzles, overly simplistic quick time events, the hacking is just bland. It didn’t help that I had just come off playing Watchdogs Legion, and while that game had it’s faults too, hacking was done much better. It was simple when it needed to be but felt fun to do. The game has so much potential for hacking, but we never get to control machines or even other players.

I am just massively disappointed in everyday for this game, and I don’t want anyone who is waiting thinking they are waiting for something this isn’t. After all the bugs are fixed, the game will remain what is is and that is a boring game that will be a chore to finish.

I will say one positive thing about this game, (again, when it wants to be) it can be very beautiful on PC. This game is like that person you dated in college who was very attractive but had no personality. The character models in this game, and the vehicles, are all very very detailed and high quality. This game is better as a photo mode simulator than anything else. Below, are some of our screenshots from the game. If my opinion of the game changes after finishing the campaign, I might change the final score; but for now, I give Cyberpunk 2077 a 5/10 as painfully average in everything except aesthetics. Even on PC, even once the game breaking performance issues on console are fixed, I can't in good conscience recommend this game until it hits the bargain bin.