Welcome to Cyberpunk 2077, a game set in a chaotic city where crime almost feel legal and you can walk ten paces without being blinded by neon signs. Cyberpunk may be having its hiccups, but I have been enjoying it, nevertheless.
Chippin' into the storyline
During Cyberpunk you play as V a mercenary in the bloodthirsty city known as Night City where only the bold make it big. This is you and your friend Jackie’s goal in this corporal controlled city. A once in a lifetime heist that promised to make the two of you big goes wrong leaving V to have the conscious of Johnny Silverhand, a badmouthed rocker boy terrorist who once attempted to blow up a whole corporation.
Now you must race against the clock to find a way to get rid of Johnny from your mind before his mind takes over yours and there is nothing left.
So many abilities
Cyberpunk plays into its Roleplaying game genre with a variety of attributes and perks you can focus on to define the playstyle you want, with plenty of skill trees that focus on skills such as Blades, Engineering, Athletics, handguns, Street Brawler etc. I felt that I could comfortably replay the game countless times over.
These skills can be put to the test countless ways with each mission having a variety of paths and choices to define how you wish to play your V. For example, in my first playthrough I ‘befriended’ the chrome-covered Maelstrom gang helping them fight against Millitech; a corporation which was attempting to destroy them. For my second playthrough, I decided to go into the warehouse guns blazing without even considering an alliance with them and instead helped Millitech.
This is only one example of how the game can play out differently and as I have only completed one out of the six endings, I plan on creating several different V’s to explore each ending through a completely new playstyle and push myself out of my comfort zone.
The Night City aesthetic
I could talk about the environment of Cyberpunk for days however this is a quick review and I want you to be able to experience it and enjoy it just as much as I did. If you take away the story, the guns, even the fact that you have Keanu Reeves himself stuck inside your head the environment of Night City was amazing to be a part of.
Driving across this large city never felt like a chore as there were so many events and landscapes to stare across. I never even touched a fast travel point during my playthrough as I just enjoyed driving my motorbike with the radio on singing along to the countless songs created just for Cyberpunk, I may have crashed a few times but looking up at the towering skyscrapers and the wacky advertisements made Night City feel so lively.
Even though I was running this stunning game on my PlayStation 4 which did make my console sound like a jet engine, the game still looked far better than I possibly thought it could be and even though I agree that this game is far more optimal for PC and hopefully in the future the next-gen consoles I still enjoyed playing it on my old console.
However, you can have a city but without the people inside it, you only have a husk of what it could be. Luckily for CD Projekt Red, they have made plenty of characters which I found myself attached to both loving them and hating them.
The best way they achieved this was through the dynamic between V and Johnny who you can imagine at first could not stand each other. Although I loved Johnny from the beginning probably due to him being portrayed was Keanu I witnessed the two of them slowly start to work better together as Johnny opened up to V and you find out a lot more about this usually sarcastic rocker boy.
There were many times I found myself laughing, crying, or just grinning from the interactions I and V had with the people around Night City and I’m a sucker for a good romance, so I was finding someone to pair my mercenary up with and this in itself was formed through side quests.
I only wish that these romances could have been a bit more than just confirming that they liked each other due to Night City being filled with bars, nightclubs and restaurants I would have loved to have maybe spent more time with river one of the possible characters to romance in these underused locations.
A story worth playing
How could I write a review about a roleplaying game without mentioning the storyline and side-quests? Firstly, this game is filled with little side stories to complete some I would even argue you could miss if you are rushing to do the main story.
A lot of the missions are quite repetitive such as stealing something from a gang or wiping out the Cyberpsychos which are people who have gone insane due to the implants they have. However, nestled between these are some in-depth side quests that left me thinking about what had happened and the message they were trying to spread.
Of course, Cyberpunk is quite a satirical humorous game but beneath parts of it, there is a stronger message which is something you can certainly expect from a game where big military corporations control everyday life and cybernetics are fashion accessories.
Finally, without spoiling the story of the game I must admit I got very emotional throughout the main storyline, the story of this game is incredibly detailed and by the end, I was so invested in it that I didn’t want it to ever end. I also found myself getting very emotional so expect Cyberpunk to pull at your heartstrings.
Glitches and crashes in the matrix
Unfortunately, the main story although detailed was very short. It’s split into two chapters where the first is before you have Johnny, and the second chapter is trying to remove Johnny. I understand that the game wishes for this to appear as a race against the clock before it is too late however I still wish I could have spent even more time looking into the story behind the biochip which was created or getting to know Johnny even more.
Secondly, as I mentioned I completed the game on my PlayStation 4. When the game was firstly released on the console I was met by constant crashes while exploring Night City, this did at times become quite irritating.
I did also face some glitches such as my character losing her hair or at one point she suddenly had four arms and it, unfortunately, did ruin a cutscene though it was quite funny.
Luckily since the most recent update, these glitches and crashes have become less frequent though there have been some replacement issues one which I have been recently struggling with is that the game feels like it may lag more. CD Projekt Red is still working on updates however they have been hindered due to recent events where they were hacked.
These are only minor issues I have had however and therefore I have enjoyed my experience while playing.
Final thoughts
In the 100 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 I have played I haven’t regretted a single minute of the experience, even with the issues and controversy CD Projekt Red have faced during the release of this amazing game I am glad to have pre-ordered and played it when I did. I know that the company will continue to improve the experience of this game in due time and I will be there to play it still once those fixes have been made. Cyberpunk has a bright future, and I can’t wait to start the DLC’s hopefully later this year.
I am going to rate Cyberpunk 2077 a breath-taking nine out of ten. Thank you so much for the opportunity to enjoy this game which I am still playing even after my first playthrough. I am looking forward to what the DLC’s will add to this cyberpunk experience.
Cyberpunk 2077
Rated: 18
Price: £47.99 (At Game)
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X (and S) PC and Google Stadia.