Cyberpunk 2077 (PS4) - Video Game Review

Since the days of when I first saw Blade Runner, the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction has been my favorite theme of all time. When I first saw this game's teaser trailer and discovered it was based off of an old pen-and-paper role-playing game (RPG) system, I immediately dug into the antiquated Cyberpunk 2020 and immersed myself in its dystopian future. I've been a player in two of the RPG system's campaigns, as well as managed two more. To say that my excitement for this game's release was intense would be an understatement. Despite that, I did my best to keep my expectations low and avoided all of the trailers, hype, and coverage of the game that came out in the following years of the initial teaser trailer. 

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Where You Can Find It: I played this on my PS4 Pro, however it is also available on Xbox One and PC with PS5/XBSX versions coming in the second half of 2021. As of 17 December 2020 the digital version of this game is unavailable on PS4, but can still be played via disk.

General Information
Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person action role-playing game that was developed by CD Projekt Red with its parent company, CD Projekt, publishing. It was based off of Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG series, which was most known for its Cyberpunk 2020 edition, prior to the game's release. Cyberpunk 2077 was first released on 10 December 2020 and it has sold over 13 million copies within the first ten days of its launch! Prior to the game's release, it won over ten major awards with the most notable arguably being the 2020 Gamescom Award for Best PC Game and Best Sony PlayStation Game. Beyond the awards, its first week of release saw over one million concurrent players on Steam. Within less than a single month of its formal launch, the game has already recouped all of its expenses (that includes marketing as well).

Not everything is so rosy however. Both Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt have been plagued with controversies both before and after the game's release. Although it was lavished with high praise during its first few days on the market, it was quickly brought low by the discovery of massive amounts of glitches/bugs, as well as the poor state of its console editions. The technical issues became so bad that it caused Sony to pull the digital version off of the PlayStation Store, while CD Projekt's leadership have been widely criticized for their decision to release the game too early. CD Projekt's stocks have plummeted since the release as they've seen over a 40% drop in their portfolio since Cyberpunk 2077 launched. On 13 January 2021, CD Projekt's co-founder, Marcin Iwinski, formally acknowledged the game's failings and apologized for its poor launch. On 15 January 2021, video game investigative journalist, Jason Schreier, wrote an article detailing Cyberpunk 2077's stumbling development, which revealed that the developers at CD Projekt Red believed the game had launched two years earlier than they had recommended.

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So many bugs...

As I played the PS4 version, I understand these technical issues all too well. Over the 40-70 hours of time I spent playing, I experienced over twenty crashes, as well as countless other issues. These bugs permeate throughout the entire game and constantly ruin what immersion Cyberpunk 2077 has to offer. NPCs will fail to load; side-quests became unable to be completed; vehicles and people randomly appear/disappear; and some weapons refuse to work (this applied mainly to charge weapons). As unfortunate as these bugs are, I'm disappointed that both CD Projekt and much of the gaming community appear to view it as the only problem Cyberpunk 2077 has. I have no doubt that these bugs will be patched out over the course of 2021, however the more intrinsic issues will not only be allowed to stay, but seemingly welcomed with open arms.

The Story
The player takes on the role of the fully customizable mercenary, V, who inhabits the overpopulated and ultra-violent Night City. Players can choose one of three separate backgrounds that each provide different starting experiences: Corporate; Nomad, or Street Kid. When the prologue ends, V meets their best friend, Jackie Welles, and the story jumps forward by six months. Together, V and Jackie will navigate the deadly neon-infused streets of Night City to pull off a heist against the powerful Arasaka Corporation.

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Jackie may be a special kind of stupid, but you'll need all the help you can get in Night City

Although the prologue attempts to add some color, one of my biggest gripes is that V is essentially a blank slate throughout the game. It's understandable that he wouldn't have much of a personality as he/she is essentially a vessel for the player, however even the player has little to do to establish V as any type of character beyond RPG mechanics. Once I customized V's physical appearance, I never saw him again, with the exception of when I looked in mirrors. Having tried two of the three prologues, I can conclude that V's style of talking and overall behavior is unchanged regardless of the prologue picked. Even as a sophisticated corporate, V still sounds like a street punk.

Most custom-character depth found in games like Mass Effect and Alpha Protocol are typically shown through differing paths a player can take. Although Cyberpunk 2077 does have some choices/consequences, they're frequently shallow (although there are multiple endings). With the exception of where I allocated skill points, my V doesn't feel unique and I found myself wistfully dreaming of the possibility of playing as one of the more interesting NPCs like Jackie, Takemura, or Johnny Silverhand.

Despite the boring protagonist, the narrative has some great NPCs and some genuinely great moments. Some of the best parts of this game is when the shooting stops and V simply sits around with an NPC and talks to them. I specifically recall eating pizza with Takemura or sitting by a fire with Panam. These moments reveal that Cyberpunk 2077 has the potential to be something really special, however much of this is bogged down in repetitive side-gigs for fixers who are mostly strangers that I never meet in-person unless by accident. After a while, these side missions not only felt unnecessary, but actively conflicted with the main storyline as V is presented with a high sense of urgency that essentially advises against doing anything that isn't necessary to continue the main plot.

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It's always nice to share a cold one with a friend between all the murder and mayhem

The Gameplay
When it works, Cyberpunk 2077's combat is a blast to play. The gunplay is pretty solid, and there's a ton of variety in how V can dispatch their foes and overcome obstacles. V can specialize in melee combat that uses everything from katanas and baseball bats to cybernetically implanted blades and even a personal massager (oh my...). Like the classic street samurai, I typically carried a silenced handgun (for stealth), an assault rifle (for when things get real), and a katana (for fun). Beyond the guns and sharp sticks, players can hack their enemies' cybernetics; sneak through openings when the bad guys aren't looking; or even use the environment to their advantage.

The combat of Cyberpunk 2077 works so well, but this may be due to the fact that it is clearly the driving force behind the game. There are very few diplomatic options that players can make in the game, and the overall dialogue options are fairly linear. There are yellow choices that move a conversation along, and then there are blue ones that are optional, which add context (and generally nothing of significance to the conversation). Players can forget about engaging most NPCs in conversation too unless its scripted. They have next to nothing to say at even the best of times. The player's background choice and V's skills can open up the occasional dialogue option, however these also rarely feel meaningful.

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The blue dialogue choices are usually entirely optional

One would think that since Cyberpunk 2077 is based off of an RPG, that it would feature a great deal of Pondsmith's Cyberpunk mechanics. Strangely enough, CD Projekt Red decided to swap much of Cyberpunk 2020's realistic trappings for that of the color-coded loot chasing of Destiny or World of Warcraft. Players must level up as certain neighborhoods have higher level enemies, while guns and clothes must also be either upgraded or replaced. Let me put it out on the record, folks: nothing is more immersion breaking than shooting someone in the head with a hand-cannon only for them to not even flinch all because I crossed the wrong street. Not only this, but the excellent variety of gear and weapons actually hurts the playing experience later as players need to find the best armor and weapons, but such items generally look more suitable for clowns. My V wore tropical shirts and loafers, but the game demanded that I trade out my style for neon bicycle shorts and a white trench coat. Naturally, I resisted such inclinations, however this resulted in me dying from a single bullet as the enemies I encountered later leveled up. For a game that's all about style, there's seemingly no benefit to dressing well (no one acknowledges how you dress anyway).

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Not only will this straw hat and jean shorts keep you low-profile, but they can also stop bullets

Audio/Visual
Despite all my whining about clothing options, Night City and its denizens are truly something to behold. The NPCs all look incredibly unique as I never noticed any of the NPCs (beyond the booster gangers) looking the same. The buildings, in-game commercials, and vehicles all add to the overall immersion of this dystopian future. I was impressed by the number of radio stations available, while many of the neighborhoods have their own distinctive feel. One can even travel out to the badlands and swim in the polluted ocean if they're so inclined!

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Night City really is breathtaking

There's some incredible voice-acting in this that I think really needs to be recognized. Most of the media has latched onto the fact that Keanu Reeves is in this, and he does a great job, but the other voice actors are just as good (if not better). There are a ton of languages used in this, which are all thankfully translated via subtitles in your ocular implants. There's plenty of east Asian influences with Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese featured, but there's also Creole, Spanish, and Russian too. I thought it was great seeing all of that featured so prominently, and would love to see more stuff like this in other games.

Multiplayer

I have heard that a multiplayer add-on is coming to Cyberpunk 2077, however there's no set date for when that's going to be added or how it will work. I'm assuming it will be somewhat akin to Grand Theft Auto V's online multiplayer mode, however that's only a guess. 

Micro-Transactions/Downloadable Content
Due to the sheer level of bugs that plagued its launch, most of the future downloadable content has been pushed to the right so developers can focus on fixing the game. Blissfully, there are no micro-transactions planned, and it seems most of the downloadable content will be additional story content (although this isn't confirmed).

Replayability
Considering the light level of choice/consequences and V's overall blandness, there doesn't seem to be much to offer in regards to replayability. Players can pick different prologue backgrounds, but it doesn't seem to effect much of the story (if at all). There are multiple endings though, so I would be interested to see how things differ.

The Best of the Best: Taking in the sights and sounds of Night City as you plot your heist against the corporations.

The Worst of the Worst: The immersion-breaking lack of depth to much of anything.

Calhooey Score: 7/10 - Good

Would I Recommend?

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Not bad, but not perfect, screw-head

Cyberpunk 2077 is a good game, but it's not great. It tries to be both Deus Ex and Grand Theft Auto, but doesn't really succeed at either. When one looks past the bugs, they'll see that this is essentially a cyberpunk version of Far Cry or Fallout 4, which are both fun games, but they're not all that very deep. Essentially, if you want fun combat and mind-numbing side-quests that only require shooting things then you'll have a good time with this one. If you want an actual RPG experience in a cyberpunk world, I'd recommend Deus Ex: Human Revolution or Shadowrun: Hong Kong (if you can look past the orcs and elves).

Recommended Let's Play Channel:

Although it's not much of a channel, as I suck at recording things, I did post a video of my initial experience in Cyberpunk. Enjoy!

----------------------------------------------------Spoiler Comments--------------------------------------------------

• Apparently, some of the trailers revealed that Jackie dies and V is betrayed by Dexter DeShawn. Although I'm glad I avoided such spoilers, it was pretty clear that both were going to happen.
• I will admit that I thought Jackie was going to live just a little bit longer.
• The flashbacks as Johnny Silverhand were awesome. I remember reading the Never Fade Away storyline in my copy of Cyberpunk 2020, and I never believed that I would get to actually experience it in video game form! That was really impressive!
• I'm not sure how I feel about the romance in this. The "love scene" with Meredith Stout was incredibly jarring and gave me a very bad impression for how Cyberpunk 2077 would approach anything involving sex. It won me over with Panam as I felt that the relationship there was much more organic and genuine.
• Having sex in a giant super tank sounds both awesome and uncomfortable.
• I totally forgot to call Jackie's mom about his death until nearly a month in-game had passed. Let's just say that things got awkward...
• It got even more awkard when I attended his funeral as the Valentinos were in attendance and I had just finished massacring most of them in Heywood. They're going to have a lot more funerals to attend in the near future...
• Cyber-psychos are really intimidating until you realize the "System Reset" hack works on them. I almost felt bad for them after that.
• I totally went back for Takemura when we got raided in the apartment building. He's the real hero of the story.

----------------------------------------------------References--------------------------------------------------

*Singh Arora, K. (2020, November 26). Cyberpunk 2077 game cover image. The Indian Express. Retrieved from: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/gaming/everything-we-know-about-cyberpunk-2077-7069286/.

**Kudos. (2020, December 12). 10 Minutes of Cyberpunk 2077 Bugs...[video]. YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXLohSvTKpg.

***Galstian, A. (2020, July 23). Jackie Welles image. GameRant. Retrieved from: https://gamerant.com/cyberpunk-2077-who-jackie-welles/.

****Maher, C. (2020, December 10). Drinks with Panam image. The Gamer. Retrieved from: https://www.thegamer.com/cyberpunk-2077-polish-game-dev-reference-ww2/.

*****Chopping, B. (2020, December 13). Viktor dialogue image. Outsider Gaming. Retrieved from: https://outsidergaming.com/cyberpunk-2077-dialogue-icons-guide-everything-you-need-to-know/.

******Harvey, A. (2020, December 14). Cyberpunk 2077 style image. IGN. Retrieved from: https://www.ign.com/wikis/cyberpunk-2077/How_to_Change_Clothes.

*******Jon-Umber. (2020, December 21). Parade image. Reddit. Retrieved from: https://www.reddit.com/r/GamerPorn/comments/khtxjb/the_parade_cyberpunk_2077_pc_2560x1440_oc/.

********Cyberzeye. (2019, June 18). Johnny Silverhand gif. Tumblr. Retrieved from: https://cyberzeye.tumblr.com/post/185690382557/cyberpunk-2077-johnny-silverhand.