A very long wait, many postponements, many controversies and a lot of hype, here we are finally talking about Cyberpunk 2077 in our review
"Congruence with an assumed commitment or behavior, as it matters and implies the acceptance of every consequence". This sentence, with which we decided to open ours Cyberpunk 2077 review is the definition of what will be the word that will act as a glue, with all the concepts that we will try to express: responsibility. Being talking about a work like Cyberpunk 2077 implies a certain responsibility, as well as, of responsibility (and perhaps even a bit of tension) CD Projekt has warned in recent months.
Our task will be to accompany you in the imagination that the famous Polish team wanted to create and make available to the player, trying to dissect all the pros, cons and above all the potential. All this, however, accompanied by a first fundamental concept: consistency.
Consistency? Yes, consistency!
What do we mean when we talk about consistency? The consistency we are talking about concerns the relationship between the work done by the software house and the basic idea that prompted it, the software house itself, to set out on this journey in the creation of one of the most mammoth videogame works of recent years.
Cyberpunk 2077 is, in reality, an adaptation of an RPG of the 1990 titled: Cyberpunk 2020. Separate jokes about the year so complex and in some ways alienating, therefore in line with the original role-playing game, CD Projekt's job was to take the foundations offered by this RPG and build around it additional structures suitable for the videogame medium. The work and the idea behind it are far from trivial and it is precisely for this reason that, regardless of everything, the team must be applauded and the importance of the aforementioned coherence should be further emphasized.
Obviously, having two different mediums available, it is precisely those mentioned above (forgive the repetition) structures that substantially diversify the work and the work, while trying to maintain what we can define: basic philosophy. Our Cyberpunk 2077 review will focus precisely on these aspects, trying to make a long lap, having a presbyopic look, analyzing all the components of the title and then conclude our tour, trying to sum it up in a way as clear as possible.
Let me introduce myself: I am V! - Cyberpunk 2077 Review
Just as you will find yourself crossing the videogame door of the "Cyberpunk 2077" door, we will let you through the door of our review talking about the first element you will have to deal with: the editor. Let's start by saying that the character editor is one of the most interesting in recent years, and we are not referring only to the many customization possibilities that you will have, but also (and we would like to say: above all) to simplicity and intuitiveness of the system itself. These last two components, simplicity and intuitiveness, should not be underestimated at all.
All too often we are dealing with unnecessarily complex and tedious character creation systems. Cyberpunk 2077 offers you the possibility to create your own character, which will be called V, regardless of all the choices you make at this early stage, in a short time, but without neglecting the level of detail. In addition to the physical aspect, you will also find yourself choosing between 3 different backgrounds: Nomad, Street Life and Corporate. Depending on the choice you make at this stage you will have a different opening.
Vmoreover, he will not be a mere human being. Inside there will be a cyberware, which can be changed. Cyberware could be easily summarized in: cybernetic elements present within your body, which you can modify and / or enhance, offering further possibilities for customization in terms of skills and development.
When we say: “Knowing how to write” - Cyberpunk 2077 Review
Anyone who has found himself, at least once in his life writing, for pleasure, work, passion or necessity, has always managed to have a strong focus on the texts and products of others. Whether you are talking about novels, essays, screenplays or even simply letters, it makes no difference, the difference is that slight sense of envy which makes us say: "Wow, I wanted to write it myself!". Read Cyberpunk 2077, and we are not just talking about reading the dialogues, but we mean the ability to grasp all those nuances that the developers have included within the title, it causes that slight sense of envy.
Cyberpunk 2077's writing is brilliant in all respects. We are not going to give you any spoilers regarding the plot, we can only tell you that it will be able to capture you for all the hours of gameplay that it engages you. Just as it will be able to capture every single dialogue, or monologue, of the most varied secondary quests that you will have available.
In this, however, we know that CD Projekt is hardly wrong, just bring to mind the depth of the writing of the team's latest masterpiece: The Witcher 3. Also in this case the work is of the highest quality and of the highest prestige. If we were to identify a small negative note (which is not that bad, and we will understand why), the possibilities of dialogue are limited only to some characters.
This means that we will not have the opportunity to speak, in a more or less thorough way, with all the NPCs or with all the people who populate Night City. We cannot, however, consider this a real flaw, as physiologically impossible to achieve. This little worm, however, jumped into our minds after having experienced the excellent quality of the dialogues (many, not quantifiable) available.
RPG or Shooter? Both of them! - Cyberpunk 2077 Review
Maybe too late we start talking about the gameplay structure by Cyberpunk 2077. You will forgive us but some clarifications on the components we have just talked about had to be made. Cyberpunk 2077 looks like a action-RPG in first person, but let's go step by step.
The RPG component is very present within the game as it should be, and as it should be, it it is not too invasive and this can be seen, for example, by the various options in the dialogues which will not always involve some net and irrevocable consequences, precisely because, in our opinion, the idea was not to create a pure, naked and raw RPG. The dialogues will often offer interesting opportunities for deepening the various characters (also written in an exceptional way) and situations, as well as, of course, the actual decisions.
The character progression system has positive and negative elements. Starting from what good it is able to offer, one cannot fail to mention the speed of progression. Of course, you will not be OP after a few hours of play, but you will be able to confront yourself with quite complex missions, enemies and situations, which will progress with you. The negative element, in our opinion, appears to be the complexity of the various growth opportunities that you will have available. Let's try to explain ourselves better. Cyberpunk 2077 is not a game that takes you by the hand and that accompanies you in every single element that constitutes it, much will be up to you.
It will be up to you to delete that sense of confusion that you will have (browsing the menus, for example) through perseverance and habit. Yours, or yours, V, will have at its disposal a series of characteristics to advance to your choice, each of which will feature multiple skill trees. The characteristics are: Intelligence, Physical, Reflexes, Technical ability and Coldness. Each of them, as already mentioned, has different skill trees and will allow you to modify and customize the way you play and approach the game to the maximum.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an FPS and as such it had aroused in us more than a few simple concerns. As lovers of the genre, the idea that CD Projekt could appear for the first time in the world of first-person shooters with a work like this, scared us, and not a little. As important as it is to delve into the GDR component, it is equally important to offer a good level shooting and hand-to-hand combat system. With pleasant surprise we can say that the Polish team has done an (almost) excellent job in this field as well.
Let's be clear, we are not facing the shooting of a Call of Duty or a Rainbow Six Siege, but a view the hybrid nature we can be satisfied with the title. Just as we are satisfied with regards to the fight mind: fast, smooth and well thought out. Improved, of course, but well thought out and consistent with the nature of the game. Expecting a classic RPG is wrong, just as it is wrong to expect an equally classic and fast-paced shooter at levels of an FPS Arena.
Welcome to Night City! - Cyberpunk 2077 Review
Many entertainment works, starting from literature, passing through cinema and ending with the videogame medium, are strongly characterized by the environment and, in the case of urban contexts, from the cities in which they are set. It goes without saying that Cyberpunk 2077 is one of those works in which the importance and value of the city are absolutely cumbersome (in the most positive sense of the term). Night City is one of the most beautiful cities ever seen in a video game and emerges, charismatic and impactful, as a real character in its own right.
Busy streets and skies, luminous signs, holograms, people of all kinds, genders and ethnic groups, bourgeois areas, rich and in which you can breathe an aristocratic air and, at the same time, suburbs, disreputable areas and narrow alleys, dark and populated by disreputable people. Night City thrives on contradictions, vices, corruption, but also on loyalty, brotherhood and progress.
Virtually all corners of the city can be explored and the possibilities, from the point of view of activities, are many. There will be places marked with exclamation marks on your map, and each of them will correspond to a different activity which will also suggest the level of danger (and challenge) of the same. Night City is divided into different zones and neighborhoods and gods work in each of them To stare, comparable to local gangsters. One element that we particularly appreciated is the connection between the various activities available and the very areas in which you will find yourself.
Crossing a certain street, of a certain neighborhood, you will be contacted by telephone by one of these Fixers who will propose you a mission nearby that you can carry out immediately or when you simply feel like it. The missions are never trivial or repetitive, thanks, above all, extreme care for the environments both external and internal obtained by CD Projekt et al possibility of hacking and approach: stealth or, more "direct" (let's put it this way) that you can have, and to the introduction of the mechanics of braindance, in which you will find yourself reliving and reconstructing actions that took place in the past and experienced by other characters.
Another small side note concerns the guidance system, slightly oily as far as we are concerned, but which still manages to offer variety according to the medium you are using.
Technically speaking… - Cyberpunk 2077 Review
Here we are at one of the points most important and delicate of our Cyberpunk 2077 review: the technical sector. In the last few days on the web we have really read and seen any. We will try to clarify too, underlining that our test took place on one PlayStation 5, but we also had the opportunity to test on PlayStation 4 base. Let's start on a positive note, that is style. Undoubtedly the style of Cyberpunk 2077 is captivating and well studied, clearly visible in everything, design of weapons, characters, cars and obviously visible in Night City. CD Projekt, however, did not invent anything again but maybe, has managed to deliver better than others the feeling of a truly Cyberpunk world.
Speaking of pure graphics we are faced with a title on line with the previous generation (PS4 and Xbox One to be clear) but, in our opinion, not one of the best. On PS5 the game runs well, the frame rate is stable and all the graphic components do their job without, however, provoking that "wow" effect that you might expect (we await the next gen version for that, coming in the course of 2021).
It should be emphasized that on the new Sony home console the title it does not allow you to choose between having greater graphic detail or greater performance in terms of FPS. On PS4, however, e excuses published on social networks by the team in the past few hours testify to it, we are not there. The title is too castrated and graphically weakened and with not insignificant performative problems, almost on the verge of playable.
The game visually it amazes (and not too much) only on impact, thanks also to the excellent management of the depth of field, but once you get used to the beauty of the city, the rural areas and the surrounding area they are unfortunately evident some faults. Starting from character models, slightly rough in the main NPCs, very rough in everything else. Passing through facial animations, practically absent and of low level in most cases. Ending ai numerous bugs which unfortunately we have to deal with. In a similar title, so large and full, the presence of bugs is, in our opinion, quite normal.
The problem arises when these bugs go from being cars that pass through some character as if they were incorporeal (which can even tear a smile), preventing you from completing a mission or alienating you too much from the game, making you realize that you are actually playing the game; thus limiting immersion on which the software house has worked so much.
The heavy patch of the past few days has partially solved the problem of crash, which have also happened to us in large numbers, but have not disappeared definitively. The audio turns out to be very very positive, both as regards the sounds produced by the weapons, explosions and engines, and as regards the soundtrack. The Spanish dubbing was absolutely positive, with a special mention for Luca Ward in the role of Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves).
Responsibility, consistency, judgment.
Responsibility is the word with which we opened ours Cyberpunk 2077 review and it is the same word with which we want to close it. Our long ride has been done and now we feel the responsibility, as CD Projekt heard it during the making, to express an opinion. We would like to express a very last concept, short, but very full of meaning: our judgment will be the result of all the reflections we had in the game and during the writing of this (very long and you will forgive us again this time) article. We will cast a final vote, even if, in our opinion, a single vote may not be able to mend all the points of the various very very broad concepts that we have treated.
Is Cyberpunk 2077 a masterpiece? No. Is Cyberpunk 2077 the definitive video game? No. Cyberpunk 2077 is, however, one of the videogame experiences most interesting of the last generations, in which we note the push towards progress that has moved the software house during its implementation. An enjoyable title from almost all points of view, extremely long-lived, rhythmic and excellently written, not exempt, however, from defects. It will be possible to love it, just as it will be possible to hate it, each of the two reactions is absolutely legitimate.
We hope you enjoyed this review and invite you to let us know your opinion with a comment. For more news from the gaming world, stay tuned to techigames.
Cyberpunk 2077 D1 Edition - Day-One - Playstation 4 - Become a cyberpunk, an urban mercenary with cybernetic upgrades, and create your own legend on the streets of Night City.
Points in favor
- Detailed and intuitive editor
- Brilliant and never boring writing
- Well thought-out character progression and customization
- Good level shooting
- Variety in the missions
- Night City is a show
Points against
- Many, too many bugs
- Facial templates and animations for review
- On "old generation" consoles it is on the verge of playable
- A little difficult menu
