Cyberpunk 2077 must be the most hyped up game of the year. With the game now officially released, talk about the game is as loud as ever. For a lot of people, Cyberpunk 2077 is their most-awaited game since forever. As such, discussions about the game have been at a fever pitch, with a lot of the noise surrounding the game right now being too emotionally-driven to be taken as an objective take on the game. For those who are still on the fence about getting the game at launch, it might be difficult to find a reliable voice to help you decide.

We know that a lot of people have already pre-ordered the game. Still, this article will help you know what to expect when the game unlocks later. Buckle up, Samurai. We'll take you on a ride around Night City before its release. We rounded up the critical reviews, reports of issues at launch, and other things that you have to know before you buy Cyberpunk 2077.

GAMESPOT GAVE CYBERPUNK 2077 A 7/10

In a somewhat controversial, negatively-received review of Cyberpunk 2077, Gamespot's Kallie Plagge gave a lukewarm response to 2020's most-awaited game. The good news for story-loving fans, Plagge praised Cyberpunk's side quests as the “most interesting and human moments in the game.” She also praised Keanu Reeves' performance as the charismatic rockerboy Johnny Silverhand who “added dimension to nearly every quest, forcing you to rethink your decision-making instincts.”

Plagge criticized the game's role-playing aspect, saying that she felt like she “was role-playing two different characters: one V for the side quests and one more limited V for the main story.” V, of course, is the game's protagonist, who you play as for the whole game. She also said that the game's RPG mechanics, while flexible and allows for a variety of playstyles, started off slow, forcing her to play against her chosen playstyle at the start of the game. She specifically praised the game's Quickhacking style of combat, which she says turned “combat scenarios into elaborate puzzles.”

Plagge says that the game's setting, Night City, is both beautiful and vile. Cyberpunk 2077's aesthetic is true to its namesake but felt like it was being “edgy” or provocative for absolutely no reason. Plagge criticized how Night City's street advertisements, street art, and general aesthetic pushed forward an oversexualized and exploited culture without making such culture apparent in any of the quests she played in.

To top everything off, bugs are still prevalent in the game. And these bugs aren't just minor, visual bugs. Plagge claims that her playthrough of the game was consistently interrupted by game-breaking bugs. The game also crashed too much, which killed her immersion in CD Projekt Red's open-world game.

CYBERPUNK 2077 SCORES 9/10 ON IGN

IGN's Tom Marks gave Cyberpunk 2077 one of its highest pre-release review grades so far. The site's review summary reads,

“Cyberpunk 2077 throws you into a beautiful, dense cityscape and offers a staggering amount of flexibility in how you choose to take it from there.”

Marks focused more on the game's open-world RPG gameplay. “Great open-world RPGs,” says Marks, are defined by “the side missions around it. With Cyberpunk 2077, developer CD Projekt Red has taken that philosophy and built an entire game out of it.”

Marks' description of Night City paints it as a dense setting chock-full of diverse things to do and explore. While the game has a gradually unlocking Fast Travel mechanic, using it will only make you miss most of what the game has to offer. Its side quests are numerous and interconnected.

“Cyberpunk 2077 is more like a large bush: you don’t have to travel down its main quest very far at all to have dozens of tangled branches already within your reach, all competing for your attention.”

Quests are also very diverse, ranging from the hilarious to the intensely dark. Marks also noted how sex and depravity are mundane in Night City but didn't dwell so much about how this affects the game's world-building.

Even with its top marks, IGN still noted how game-breaking the bugs and technical issues the game has. However, they didn't seem to affect his playthrough so much. “none of this stopped me from completing any significant quest,” says Marks.

PC GAMER GIVES CD PROJEKT RED'S NEWEST GAME A 7.8/10

PC Gamer's James Davenport also praised the game's density and scale but noted that a closer look will easily unravel the illusion. This is especially true for the game's non-essential NPCs. Most NPCs have randomized models, complete with their own look, but their movements and routines are often recycled.

“I made the mistake of stopping to inspect a roadside rave in the Badlands, only to realize there were three sets of triplets in attendance.”

Nevertheless, the game's sights are striking and immersive, giving players a lot of things to explore and enjoy in Night City. Davenport expresses how CD Projekt Red's handling of Cyberpunk makes it a very unique experience. “There won't be another open-world like this for a long, long time.”

But just like the two earlier reviewers, Davenport concluded his review by discussing the slew of bugs he encountered while playing. All the reviewers who made pre-release reviews for the game received a “Day 0” patch that fixes some of the issues. It turns out that the pre-release review copy with the applied Day 0 patch is the base game players will receive with their own copies of the game at launch.

“The Day 0 patch is what people will be experiencing on launch day. It is the Day 1 patch, only different in name. More fixes will be rolled into the Day 0 (Day 1) patch, but we cannot specify exactly what.”

Even with the Day 0 patch, Davenport lamented that “Night City still feels like it's barely holding together at times.” He was optimistic with the game's future, however, noting that Fallout: New Vegas was a mess at launch, too. Davenport says,

“The good news is that all this stuff can be fixed, but it also means the ideal Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed again, in spirit.”

GAMES RADAR THROWS OUT A PERFECT 5/5

Our final reviewer Sam Loveridge gives Cyberpunk 2077 a perfect 5/5. Night City completely enamored Loveridge. He cites the game's many positives in his review, saying that Cyberpunk 2077 is the “most immersive game world to date.”  His only qualm (which, interestingly, didn't take anything away from his perfect score) is how short the main campaign was.

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Unlike all of the other reviewers above, Games Radar's review was made with possibly the best platform available. Loveridge reviewed the game with a heavyweight rig: Nvidia RTX 3080 with Intel i9-9900k and 32GB RAM. Still, he wasn't safe from the occasional visual bugs. It's not really reassuring to know that Cyberpunk 2077 can't run perfectly smoothly even with the most powerful gaming rigs in existence today. Hopefully, future patches will help make the game run better. The sooner, the better.

CONCLUSION

CD Projekt Red

In conclusion, it feels like the game will have to take its time to mature. CD Projekt Red still has a lot of mess to clean up before the game achieves its full potential. Currently, only the most powerful machines can run the game on a PC. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much attention given to the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game. A “proper, full-blown next-gen version” for the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S is coming later. How far away in the future is anyone's guess.

The game delivers on its promise. Cyberpunk 2077 features a lush, dense world with a lot of flavor and personality. Its aesthetic is a hit or miss, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But the graphics is undeniably good-looking. The gameplay truly shines in its RPG mechanics, and the sooner you can experience combat outside its passable gunplay, the better. The game is more of an RPG than an FPS, after all.

But the bugs and technical issues cannot be ignored. If you're trying the game out at launch, then it's best for you to dive in with dampened expectations. Expect the bugs and the technical issues and just focus on the good stuff, and you should be fine.

If you can wait for the patches to roll in, then that's the best way to go. Give CD Projekt Red more time to turn Cyberpunk 2077 into the masterpiece that they promised it to be. Fortunately for us, all of the game's issues can still be fixed. Nothing fundamental about the game is flawed. The game has already laid the foundations for the perfect gaming experience. CD Projekt Red will just have to make sure they clean up the rough edges.

CYBERPUNK 2077 IS OUT NOW, AND MANY FANS ARE EXPERIENCING DOWNLOAD ISSUES

Cyberpunk 2077 is a hotly-anticipated game, and it's no surprise that many fans are already trying to download it as soon as it got unlocked on Steam. However, many fans have complained about their download being stuck at 57GB. If you're one of them, then check out our article explaining a fix to this issue.