Cyberpunk 2077: First Impressions

With nearly 40 hours clocked, I figured it was time to drag myself away from Cyberpunk 2077 and share my initial impressions. I guess the question is: does it live up to the hype? To the 8 years of anticipation and excitement? The answer to that question will really depend upon your own expectations. What game did you want Cyberpunk 2077 to be? 

It’s not GTA: Cyberpunk. The open world isn’t a chaotic sandbox and you can’t go bowling with your cousin. It’s not Yakuza, with 101 mini-games. It’s not like The Elder Scrolls, in which you play as an entirely blank slate. Cyberpunk 2077 is, at its heart, an open world Deus Ex game with a dash of Mass Effect and (believe it or not) the original Watch_Dogs. It is, for the most part, exactly what I wanted it to be. So yes, for me, it does live up to the hype.

But does that mean it’s perfect? Hell no! I’m already compiling a list of all the things I feel the game could improve upon. Cyberpunk has plenty of rough edges – and I’m not just talking about the bugs and performance issues. In some ways, I wish Cyberpunk was a little more GTA-like, at least in the open world sandbox aspect.

The civilian npcs only seem to exist in three states – walking, fleeing or cowering in terror. And they all share the same ‘cower’ animation, so it’s pretty funny watching large groups of them all crouch and cover their heads in perfect unison. The npc car AI is also pretty terrible to the point that I wonder if it exists at all. They don’t react if you crash into them or even park your car in the middle of the road – they just stop and stare at you. They don’t try to drive around, honk their horns, yell or swear. 

And then we have the police who, if you happen to catch their attention, randomly spawn into the road and take pot shots at you until you leave their field of view at which point they forget you exist entirely. Cyberpunk 2077 could also do with some Yakuza style mini-games of its own. Some fun little activities in the world you can enjoy between missions – gambling, old-school arcade games, shooting ranges etc.

I wish I could preview clothes before I buy them. I wish I could have more than 3 active weapon slots. I wish I could customise my ride and my apartment, or change my hair style. I wish I could have more than one grenade / consumable type active at a time. I wish some characters had more to do, more missions and interactions. I wish the ‘life path’ choice actually had more of an impact on mission / dialogue choices.

 

So yes, there’s a lot of areas Cyberpunk 2077 can improve upon beyond just fixing the bugs and performance. The good news is that the core of the game – the really important stuff – the general gameplay, the story, the characters and the quests are all fantastic. The foundation is solid. It’s now just a question of how they build upon it going forward. 

I can’t say the bugs have really impacted my enjoyment of the game (at least so far) – of those I’ve encountered, only one caused an issue with a side quest in which I was unable to interact with an npc. Fortunately, it was an optional objective so I was still able to complete it. Aside from that, every other bug I’ve encountered has been visual / animation related – npcs popping into existence, characters walking through the floor, cars floating in the air, animations failing to trigger so characters appear to ‘slide’ their way to their objective and, most amusingly of all, T-Pose enemies.

Performance has been . . . okay. I’m playing at 1080p with a 1080 on High settings and getting between 45-60 FPS depending upon the environment / situation. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfectly playable and I’m pleased to say I’ve not had a single crash. That said, a friend of mine who also picked up the game couldn’t even launch it without it crashing, so your mileage may vary depending upon your hardware and your settings.

Despite all the open world issues, Night City is, without a doubt, one of the most incredible open worlds you’ll ever experience. It’s vast. It actually feels like a city. 40 hours in, and I’ve barely scratched its surface. It’s visually stunning, vibrant and the attention to detail is fantastic. And the city is absolutely full of content – so much that it’s almost overwhelming. 

And none of this content feels like the typical open world ‘filler’ that you might expect. Every side job has a story attached. Every one feels unique. Yes, they do mostly follow a similar set of core objectives revolving around killing someone, rescuing someone or stealing something, but every location and challenge is unique in how they’re set up. Some are short, but others are longer, more elaborate affairs that later lead onto more missions.

And even the ‘crime’ side content in which you must take out various gang members across the city serve a fun purpose – they give you the perfect opportunity to try out new weapons, cyberware and abilities. 40 hours clocked, and I’ve still not even cleared a single district of the city of side content. And I want to do all of it, because everything I’ve done so far feels worth doing. None of it feels like filler. None of it feels tacked on to artificially extend the experience.

I think one aspect of the game everyone was concerned about prior to release was the combat. But, funnily enough, that’s now the least of everyone’s concerns. The combat is really good. You have a great range of options available to you with regard to weapon types and abilities allowing you to build your character to fight in a way that feels fun and satisfying for you. I’ve been focusing on pistols and revolvers and having a real blast. 

The ‘hacking’ aspect feels very Watch_Dogs as you can ‘quick hack’ not only enemies but various environmental objects. You can take control of cameras, mark enemies, distract patrolling guards, trigger overloads, disable enemy weapons or even blind their optical implants. Sometimes, enemies try to hack you and do the same – although, sadly, not very often.

V, who you play as, isn’t a blank slate but more like Shepard from Mass Effect. They have their own personality, but it’s a personality you can shape through your choices. Make no mistake, V is very much a character in Cyberpunk 2077. They’re not like an Elder Scrolls / Fallout mute weirdo.

Oh hell, what else? There’s so much to talk about in Cyberpunk that I’m not sure what else I should cover here or save for my review. Maybe I should just wrap this up. I could talk about this game all day – all the things it does well, all the things it doesn’t and all the things it can improve upon. Yeah, I think I’ll leave this here. It’s a little scattershot, I know, but I’m sure I’ll be able to put together a more coherent review when I’m ready.