CyberPunk 2077 Review Roundup

 

The wait is finally over, CyberPunk is almost here. Was the wait worth it? lets take a look what other early-access reviewers say about the game so far to see if we can answer some of your eager questions.

Story

To start off with lets take a look at what others have to say about the story and the writing in the game, and whether it lives up to the par-standard of The Witcher 3, CD Projekt‘s last major IP. Owen Gough of the entertainment and technology based news site “Digital Spy”, who were one of the first to get access and complete their review, stated when talking about the games story:

Cyberpunk 2077 is an immensely well-built, massive game, with a twisting narrative, deep lore and a gorgeous open-world that drags you into this dystopian future full of dangerous gangs, villainous corpos and freedom fighters.

In addition to this Louis Chilton of “The Independent” news website and newspaper said:

Cyberpunk hurls characters and quests at you like a berserk dodgeball player; for the first 15 hours or so of its long, multi-act story, this is overwhelming.

So what we can take away from these two quotes above is that the campaign is around 15 hours, though depending on your play-style it could be potentially longer. The developers at CD Projekt stated in the past that they wanted a shorter campaign due to players getting bored of The Witchers approximately 50 hour storyline. The two reviews also mention a perplexing world that can be difficult to navigate potentially, with a lot of dialogue options and branching game-play paths,like in their last titles.

Combat

This is the one I had my questions about, how the combat would feel, based upon the trailers not having much gun-play or real combat scenarios. According to James Davenport, Journalist for PC Gamer magazine:

The action holds together well enough, an FPS charcuterie board featuring some familiar Deus Ex stealth and hacking systems alongside the snappy ADS gunplay Call of Duty made standard. Weapons and armor have unique stats, though it’s all pretty easily reduced to how much damage you can do and withstand

For a second opinion we went over to see what Infamous gaming news site “IGN”,with reviewer Tom Marks, had to say about the combat:

despite how it looks in action, this is truly an RPG and not a first-person shooter. While I initially wasn’t in love with the gunplay because of its unexpectedly bullet spongy enemies and surprisingly quick damage drop-off at distance, it only got better the deeper I went.

In summary, players should expect standard FPS mechanics like in any other game, but don’t expect anything revolutionary on the combat side of the game.

The graphics and aesthetics

For many of us, the promise of a vast and beautiful open world was what got us intrigued to play the game in the first place, ever since its early reveal trailer back in 2018. Let’s take a look at whether reviewers think, and whether it delivers on this promise. Digital Spy:

The game is drop-dead gorgeous, and is easily one of the best-looking games of the next generation.

IGN Stated in their review:

Night City is so dense, diverse, and consistently beautiful that there are opportunities to stumble upon unexpected sights all the time within it.

It does appear, based on the majority of reviews, that the heart and soul of the city and the surrounding areas truly flourish and make CyberPunks world immersive, though there are reports of bugs with pop-ins and weather condition issues, though the developers are working on a fix. This isn’t to say the world will look this dazzling on all consoles, due to there being no footage of the Xbox One or PS4 editions of the game. The Bugs This one has been a big issue for the launch of the game. There have been reports of numerous bugs and glitches throughout the game and this has been rubbing reviewers and consumers the wrong way, due to the game being released in such a poor state, after over half a year of delays. Jordan Oloman, journalist for technology based news site “TechRadar“:

There are plenty of glitches to contend with. From quests we can’t complete to overlays not going away, there’s a lot going on. We’ve had memorable moments scuppered by unruly animations and missing dialogue and textures.

Unfortunately, the trend of bugs continues in IGN‘s review:

I’ve had important or emotional conversations undermined by the characters I was talking to glitching between incorrect poses, or the objects they were holding and referencing not load in at all. I’d frequently get phone calls in the middle of other conversations, causing two simultaneous discussions to overlap.

There is rumored to be a day 1 patch for the game, consuming a whopping 47 GB of space, which will hopefully iron out these bugs.

Overall Scores

To finish up, here is a compiled list of scores of each review source, and a short sentence as to why their verdict is what it is. 

IGN: – 9/10 “Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility” 

TechRadar: N/A “There are half-baked mechanics, glitches, and narrative missteps to contend with that you may or may not struggle to ignore. Still, the overall package is well worth a look” 

The Independent: 4/5 “CD Projekt Red’s blockbuster sci-fi game is a deep, content-filled triumph of design” 

Digital Spy: 5/5 “Cyberpunk 2077 is a fantastic game that we have never experienced before; a window into the future of next-gen gaming and what it’s capable of.” 

PC Gamer: 78/100 “CD Projekt Red returns with an incredible setting undermined by an onslaught of bugs.” 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *