Game Review: Cyberpunk 2077

Failure is never a definitive end to one’s journey.  We all strive to succeed in our lives, whether it’s with our jobs, our relationships or our personal goals; there’s always a drive to meet our challenges head on and overcome them with adversity.  That’s not to say succeeding in those challenges is always a guarantee, failure is as much a certainty as success. It’s what we do with those failures though that matters most.  It’s easy to lay down and accept the failure but it is a reflection of true perseverance when we take those failures as opportunities to regroup, try again and succeed once more. You can probably tell where I’m going with this opening section.  Despite all of its hype and good will, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 released to a notably disappointed reception from critics and general audiences. With a large collection of issues magnetized around the title, no one would have blamed the developer for throwing in the towel and moving on. Like I noted prior though, it’s a testament to CD Projekt Red’s determination to fix their mistakes that makes Cyberpunk 2077 a game well worth playing in 2023. 

Originally announced all the way back in May 2012, Cyberpunk 2077 was revealed to be the next big title from CD Projekt Red following the conclusion of the 3rd installment in the Witcher series; The Wild Hunt. After an initial release and two full fledged expansions, CD Projekt Red moved the entire studio onto full development of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2016. Fast forward to E3 2018 and CD Projekt Red took the opportunity to re-reveal Cyberpunk 2077 with a swanky CGI trailer which revealed a lot more about the game and it’s setting.  Despite the momentum that was picking up in terms of marketing though, the development process for the title was going anything but smoothly. Various reports noted that during the course of the game’s development, upper management at CD Projekt Red were noted to have set unrealistic deadlines based on a sense of overconfidence from prior successes.  Add the complicated management along with crunch and COVID work restrictions and you can probably guess Cyberpunk 2077 was having a tough time traversing towards release.  This struggle was reflected upon release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC back on December 10th 2020, when the console ports of the titles received a large amount of backlash for their poor optimization and performance.  Add that on top of CD Projekt’s Red obvious attempts to mis-lead consumers and shareholders on the known issues during marketing and you can understand why this title was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.  Despite all the controversy through, if we reflect on Cyberpunk 2077 within 2023, we can actually see CD Projekt Red owned their mistakes in the end and worked to improve the title and make it into an incredibly immersive experience.

The narrative of Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in the futuristic city of Night City.  On the surface the city looks like a pinnacle of the future, with bright neon lights and a varied infrastructure of districts all presenting a promise of opportunity.  Behind the façade however, the real Night City shows its true colors.  The reality of this place is it’s a seedy and corrupt hellscape ran predominately by the big corporations who only seek to serve themselves.  With the city well within their pockets, political and police corruption are rife across the city.  This has also given lead to various notorious gangs to rise up and lay claim to territory within city that the corporations couldn’t care about.  Adding fuel to the already brewing fire is the modern-day technology of the era. Cybernetic enhancement is a way of life in Night City, with nearly everyone augmenting themselves in some way to make themselves stronger or more agile all at a cost of a little bit more of their humanity.  With a large amount of the local gangs and military all packing their own weaponry and enhancements, the city is anything but safe to live in and it’s likely to eat you up and you chew you out if you’re not careful.  That’s where your character comes into the mix.  V is a mercenary for hire who is looking to make a name for themselves in Night City. After a botched heist job on one of the bigger corporations they end up with a corrupted biochip in their head that has uploaded an engram of a famous rockstar and terrorist known as Johnny Silverhand.  All too quickly, V and Johnny come to learn the engram is killing V by slowly taking over his brain and they must work together to find a way a stop the engram before V’s entire body is taken over by Johnny permanently. 

From a quality perspective, I have nothing but good things to say about the narrative potion of this game.  The game’s main premise is intriguing in its setup and compelling in its delivery.  V as a character has a lot of flexibility in how you want to develop them though their dialogue and choices.  The decisions you make and the resulting actions ripple the course of the narrative in some really interesting ways. A lot of what makes V so interesting as a character too is down to their voice work.  Both Gavin Drea and Cherami Leigh voice the male and female versions of the character respectively and they do a brilliant job in getting across a lot of the emotional struggle they are progressing through as they realize they are slowly dying and running out of time.  The prologue to Cyberpunk 2077 sticks out as my favourite element, I like how it goes from small stakes to large really quickly and helps reinforce the nature of Night City in how easily V falls prey to it’s vices.  Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand is an excellent addition to the story which gives the main plot even more substance I feel. Silverhand is played as an unwilling passenger on your journey and as time goes by you and him can either come to blows and find yourself agreeing and opening up to one another.  The choice is obviously yours, but I love how dynamically V and Silverhand’s relationship can shift depending on your choices and you can clearly tell Keanu Reeves is committed here and his performance really stands out because of it. 

The main plot isn’t the only portion of the game’s narrative with notable quality behind it though.  As is their tradition, CD Projekt Red has filled the world of Cyberpunk 2077 with a notable selection of supporting characters you interact with along your journey.  These side characters are all fleshed out to an incredible extent just in terms of dialogue and mannerisms alone.  Some of these side characters also have their own dedicated quest lines which you will be able to assist on throughout the course of the game.  Characters like Panam Palmer for example, who is a member of a group of Nomad travelers called the Aldercaldos. You come to meet Panam relatively early in the game and by assisting her on a selection of escalating side missions you can come to develop a personal relationship with her and come to join her and her travelling family.  River Ward is another notable character to talk about.  A no-nonsense detective with a heart of gold, V and River cross paths on a mutual investigation. As time goes by you learn River struggles with the corruption at the heart of the city as well a personal case he simply can’t let go off.   These are just a few examples of the brilliantly written characters you will interact with throughout your journey in Night City and they serve as one of the games best highlights as they help define the world and its narrative on a very personal level. 

The narrative portion of the game only serves as one side of the coin though, what defines a good chunk of Cyberpunk 2077 is its gameplay.  There are numerous layers to the gameplay component of this game too, so let’s dive into the layers one by one.  Presented in a first-person perspective, the main portion of the gameplay utilizes first-person shooter mechanics.  V will have a large array of weaponry to utilize on their missions, whether it’s pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, assault rifles or melee weapons like swords, bats or knifes.  One thing that sticks out about the combat in this game is how responsive it feels. The gunplay feedback feels incredibly solid and every shot or swing you take has real weight behind it.  I’ve not felt weapon feedback this fun since my days of playing Destiny. Weaponry is not the only way you can dispatch the games plethora of enemies either, as the game utilizes it cyber enhancement mechanics to give players alternative means of hacking and neutralizing an enemy. The depth behind the cyberhack mechanics is incredible too.  You can build a playstyle which allows you to essentially negate the need to use weaponry in any combat encounter and simply deploy a variety of hacks on your enemies with a range of effects that can turn your enemies against one another or even get them to eliminate themselves.  That sense of optionality is what makes this game so fun in my opinion, there’s just so many different ways to build your character to take on the challenges the city has in store. 

The RPG portion of the game compliments the combat mechanics as well.  With Update 2.0, CD Projekt Red has re-worked the levelling system and skill trees to offer plays a huge range of ways to govern your play style.  As with most RPG titles, you will have a standard skill/attribute system which you put points into and those points can assist you with practical situations like guns, melee weapons hacking or forcing entry.  The added detail too is the skill points you have allotted can come into play in your dialogue choices, giving you unique options that may actually help you overcome certain situations the game puts you in. Everything about the RPG portion of the game, whether it’s levelling up or the impactful choices you make help give each playthrough of the title a really unique impression.  It offers a great selection of options for any general player to enjoy and dip into, but it also benefits those who like to role play and devote themselves to any particular build or character. 

Night City is also not without it’s fair share of activities to get lost in.  The overall design of the city is impeccable, with great detail given to define its varying districts. Streets are bustling with traffic and civilians and there’s a plethora of side missions and points of interest which offer compelling distractions and ample rewards to justify your time within them. Navigating the city is also made easy with a great selection of vehicles to choose from, though I must admit the controls for most of the vehicles fails to feel nearly as responsive as many of the other components that build up the game.  I also take a small grievance with the lack of any meaningful way to preview the vehicles you can purchase either. 

While I have listed out a lot of what makes this game so good in many respects, I would also feel remiss if I didn’t mention my grievances with the game either. My primary issue with the game is its technical quality. Don’t get me wrong the game in its current form, isn’t nearly as bad as what it used to be and I benefitted from the current-gen PS5 version too.  Despite the improvements though, it’s hard not to feel some of the technical jank and limitations that stem from this being a game tied to pre-generation consoles on a fundamental level.  I ran into numerous technical and visual glitches during my time in Night City and a lot of it required soft resets to get the game to work as intended.  It wasn’t enough to ruin my entire experience, but it felt noteworthy in any case. 

I also want to recognize the game’s paid expansion; Phantom Liberty too.  Released solely on current-gen versions of the game, Phantom Liberty served a brand-new excursion in the world of Cyberpunk 2077. Taking place in Night City’s Dogtown district, V gets entangled in a government conspiracy that puts him in league with some of the top spies in the country as they attempt to rescue a highly important asset from the district’s private military organization.  The narrative of this expansion does a great job in presenting a different side of this world and is accompanied by some stellar performances from the likes of Idris Elba. 

Cyberpunk 2077 may have failed to deliver on all of the hype back in 2020 but after spending so much time with it in 2023, I can’t deny CD Projekt Red owned and fixed their mistakes whole heartedly.  Despite some minor blemishes, Cyberpunk 2077 is an experience well worth getting invested in. It’s worldbuilding defines a setting with rich detail and it allows the narrative to flourish within it in all the best ways. Its gameplay is robust and layered in some truly smart ways that justifies every skill point or play style you wish to choose. Its presentation pushes its game engine to the utmost measure and while it slips up technically it’s hard not to admire the scale and magnificence behind it all.  In a lot of ways Cyberpunk 2077 is a clear lesson in failure and redemption and one we can only hope CD Projekt Red will prove they have learned from in the future.