Cyberpunk 2077

Threadfin · 12-19-20, 10:24 AM

This was the one game of 2020 I had been looking forward to. It nearly didn't make it out in 2020, but it did. I pre-purchased the game, and playing on PC.

It's an interesting case, this game. I can look at it from the viewpoint of what I thought it would be, or what it is. And I must admit my expectations were very high, maybe unreasonably so. Cyberpunk is not the game I thought it was going to be.

I expected a revolutionary game. That the level of interactivity between systems and with the world would surpass everything that came before. That the depth of customization and characters would blow me away. But it does not. CDPR had a lot of credit in the bank for me after the phenomenal Witcher 3. I rate W3 as the best video game ever, when all aspects of game design are considered. And because of this I expected Cyberpunk to shift the paradigm beyond what W3 is. And in the end, it really does not.

But is it a good game?

I went in to Cyberpunk with high expectations, tempered by the early reports of disaster. Broken. A scam. Ripped off. Lied to. Bug ridden. Before I had a chance to fire it up, the internet was awash with tales of terror. So before I even created my V, my expectations had been lowered to a degree.

But the worst of it rarely seems to affect me, I must lead a charmed life. And so it was with Cyberpunk. I've dropped 30+ hours in to the game so far, and I like it. It's fun. I actually like the combat well enough, despite all the noise from the player base. The AI isn't cutting edge. But they use cover, dodge about, throw grenades, attempt to hack you and generally put up a good fight. It's an RPG after all and I wasn't expecting combat like the best shooters. It's good enough to keep me engaged, and that's, well, good enough.

One way I think Cyberpunk shines though is in the characters. They are very well realized. The dialog, the voice acting, the way their facial expressions convey emotion. It's all very well done and the characters are convincing in a way that most games are not.

The missions and quests are also a a big strength. Well-written, engaging and diverse. I've yet to be bored by anything I've done in game. never felt like 'oh great, another fetch quest'. But while this is a clear strength of the game, it also reveals a limitation. Cyberpunk may be open world, but it's not sandbox, at least not in the way I expected. In a sense, all you do was prepared in some way by the devs. It's not emergent in the way I hoped, it lacks the flexible design needed to truly shine as a story generator. The story in essence has already been written for you to experience. There is some latitude here, it's not on rails. But it isn't quite free-form either.

And you know what? That's OK. I tend to make it a rule to judge games by what they are, not what they aren't. And with that in mind, I think Cyberpunk is a good game.

Techincally it's been much better for me than reports would lead one to believe. I have a modest box, a home built Ryzen 2600, 1660Ti and 16 gigs O'RAM. It runs fine. There are bugs, but nothing game breaking. I've encountered none I would classify as major. But minor ones do exist, mostly graphics glitches and that sort of thing. Like a NPC pedestrian simply vanishes in front of my eyes. I have full faith that CDPR will patch these out in short order. Even a game as great as RDR 2 had issues at launch, most games do, especially ones on this sort of scale. It's been stable with zero crashes or lock ups. Performance is good, smooth at 1080p.

But consoles are another matter entirely. It's a 2020 game being run on 2013 hardware and sooner or later this was going to catch up. I feel bad for those players. But on PC it is much better, at least for me.

And the last point is that Night City is amazing. The world design is excellent. The setting and vibe are very cool. Again, it's not interactive in the way I had hoped, a lot of what you see is window dressing or like stage props. But having accepted that it isn't quite what I thought it would be, the city itself is still amazing. I've played for 30+ hours and have yet to see half of it. There's plenty to do and to soak in.

In all, I think that Cyberpunk is a good game, and I think my decision to pre-purchase was a good one. I like the game, I am having a good time with it. I can't escape that it is not the game I hoped it would be, or maybe even the game CDPR said it would be. But it's well worth my time and my experience has been trouble free, far better than you might expect from all the shouting. YMMV

12-19-20, 10:24 AM	#1
Threadfin Ace of the Deep Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 1,078 Downloads: 38 Uploads: 0	Cyberpunk 2077 This was the one game of 2020 I had been looking forward to. It nearly didn't make it out in 2020, but it did. I pre-purchased the game, and playing on PC. It's an interesting case, this game. I can look at it from the viewpoint of what I thought it would be, or what it is. And I must admit my expectations were very high, maybe unreasonably so. Cyberpunk is not the game I thought it was going to be. I expected a revolutionary game. That the level of interactivity between systems and with the world would surpass everything that came before. That the depth of customization and characters would blow me away. But it does not. CDPR had a lot of credit in the bank for me after the phenomenal Witcher 3. I rate W3 as the best video game ever, when all aspects of game design are considered. And because of this I expected Cyberpunk to shift the paradigm beyond what W3 is. And in the end, it really does not. But is it a good game? I went in to Cyberpunk with high expectations, tempered by the early reports of disaster. Broken. A scam. Ripped off. Lied to. Bug ridden. Before I had a chance to fire it up, the internet was awash with tales of terror. So before I even created my V, my expectations had been lowered to a degree. But the worst of it rarely seems to affect me, I must lead a charmed life. And so it was with Cyberpunk. I've dropped 30+ hours in to the game so far, and I like it. It's fun. I actually like the combat well enough, despite all the noise from the player base. The AI isn't cutting edge. But they use cover, dodge about, throw grenades, attempt to hack you and generally put up a good fight. It's an RPG after all and I wasn't expecting combat like the best shooters. It's good enough to keep me engaged, and that's, well, good enough. One way I think Cyberpunk shines though is in the characters. They are very well realized. The dialog, the voice acting, the way their facial expressions convey emotion. It's all very well done and the characters are convincing in a way that most games are not. The missions and quests are also a a big strength. Well-written, engaging and diverse. I've yet to be bored by anything I've done in game. never felt like 'oh great, another fetch quest'. But while this is a clear strength of the game, it also reveals a limitation. Cyberpunk may be open world, but it's not sandbox, at least not in the way I expected. In a sense, all you do was prepared in some way by the devs. It's not emergent in the way I hoped, it lacks the flexible design needed to truly shine as a story generator. The story in essence has already been written for you to experience. There is some latitude here, it's not on rails. But it isn't quite free-form either. And you know what? That's OK. I tend to make it a rule to judge games by what they are, not what they aren't. And with that in mind, I think Cyberpunk is a good game. Techincally it's been much better for me than reports would lead one to believe. I have a modest box, a home built Ryzen 2600, 1660Ti and 16 gigs O'RAM. It runs fine. There are bugs, but nothing game breaking. I've encountered none I would classify as major. But minor ones do exist, mostly graphics glitches and that sort of thing. Like a NPC pedestrian simply vanishes in front of my eyes. I have full faith that CDPR will patch these out in short order. Even a game as great as RDR 2 had issues at launch, most games do, especially ones on this sort of scale. It's been stable with zero crashes or lock ups. Performance is good, smooth at 1080p. But consoles are another matter entirely. It's a 2020 game being run on 2013 hardware and sooner or later this was going to catch up. I feel bad for those players. But on PC it is much better, at least for me. And the last point is that Night City is amazing. The world design is excellent. The setting and vibe are very cool. Again, it's not interactive in the way I had hoped, a lot of what you see is window dressing or like stage props. But having accepted that it isn't quite what I thought it would be, the city itself is still amazing. I've played for 30+ hours and have yet to see half of it. There's plenty to do and to soak in. In all, I think that Cyberpunk is a good game, and I think my decision to pre-purchase was a good one. I like the game, I am having a good time with it. I can't escape that it is not the game I hoped it would be, or maybe even the game CDPR said it would be. But it's well worth my time and my experience has been trouble free, far better than you might expect from all the shouting. YMMV __________________ What? Behind the rabbit?