Cyberpunk
Phew... after about 75 hours put into Cyberpunk 2077 in the last half year, I've finally completed the storyline mission and had time to think and reflect on the epic journey that was CD Projekt RED's somewhat flawed masterpiece. So, first things first... I'm a huge fan of the Cyberpunk setting, and I've a HUGEHUGE HUGE Witcher fan. In fact, I loved the very first Witcher game even though it stressed the poor old game engine so hard... and the second one even though it was quite a different game from the first. And of course, the 3rd Witcher game has a permanent place on my gaming rig. So, needless to say, I've been a huge fan of cyberpunk and the studio that was going to create this epic futuristic game.
However, something held me back from buying it at launch... by all respects, it should have been a game that I would have aped into on launch day... but perhaps it was the shame of having such a long Steam backlog (... haha, that's never stopped me before!)... or perhaps the crazy hype around the game had me feeling a touch wary. Anyway, I never bought it launch, and oh boy... was that a troubled launch. But I did pick it up on one of the later sales when it was marked down quite severely.
... and I've just finished it earlier in the week. At least 75 hours sunk into the game... it has been quite a while since I've stuck it out with a game for that long. I think that the only thing that almost approaches that is XCOM2... and that is a superb game (speaking of which, I need to get back to my Phoenix Point game!).
So, after such a long time spent in game (and dallying around with other games as well)... what do I feel. I feel like I can finally reclaim that hefty 50-60 GB of precious SSD space on my gaming laptop. That's not really a great thing to feel after such an epic journey...
But I'm afraid that the entire game (even after all the bugs were ironed out... mostly...), was just too try hard. It is that equivalent of a fresh first year university student, just out of high school... thinking that they are both deep and philosophical, whilst still being entertained by boobies and dick jokes. When in fact, it is all just a bit cringe and embarrassing for everyone else...
So, lets get to the dick and boob joke part of the critique... well, Cyberpunk is set in the dystopian future... where the corporations are in charge, and corruption and power games are everywhere... but for some reason, everyone is fixated on cheap sex and titillation in their advertisements. Plus, everyone has to be tough by throwing the "naughty" words at every opportunity. Perhaps that is what the future will look like, but to me... it just comes across like a toddler that has just learnt that people will react when they say... "poo"! At least when the toddler does it, it is adorable and sort of cute... but when grown people do it, it is just sad. Sure swear for effect, but the effect is a little bit lost when it is every second word...
... and then to the deep and philosophical part of the critique. It tries so hard to make a comment on consciousness and corruption and all of that sort of thing.... but again, it comes across as the ramblings of a stoned teenager. Its neither deep nor insightful... woah man.... plus, the addition of Keanu Reeves as the tragic philosopher/terrorist just doesn't really make it better. Plus, your character (I had the female voice...) sounds more constipated than philosophical.
Now, gameplay is a bit meh... at some point, you get so powerful that you can pretty much doddle into any firefight and accidentally kill everyone. Shooting is overpowered, and so are the quick-hacks that let you fry the enemies brains... and this is without bothering to do any of that good old RPG min-maxing.
The voice acting is stilted and there are crazy long pauses... maybe for suspense... or just really really bad timing? Who knows... its not suspenseful, as it is the sort of timing that leads you to think that the actors have forgotten their lines and everyone is frozen waiting for them to get that little jolt of memory!
... and finally, the missions... both side and main. Well, they are all pretty uninspiring on the side quest side of things. And the main storyline is... well, it just didn't really manage to tie into a coherent sequence for me. It was a sort of on-rails experience, where you take revenge and try to free yourself from the Johnny construct... but there was really little feeling of real branching choices and consequences.
So, if you haven't realised already... I've felt like that I should finish this game... it is a sort of cultural phenomenon and once started, I was wondering if it would get better (it didn't...)... the start was sort of pretty cool on the main storyline... but it quickly petered out into being a bit bland and uninspiring.
... so, my final thoughts... I really hope that this doesn't screw up a potential Witcher 4... I'm not really sure what they did wrong here, perhaps it was the over the top po-faced seriousness combined with a ludicrously inane crassness that jarred so much. I think that the Witcher managed a better balance between the light-hearted and the grayness of morality. Cyberpunk just tried too hard to make a comment on... something.... and I'm afraid that for me at least, it failed heavily.
Now... what should I install next. I have Old World... and Red Dead Redemption 2. Both of these seem to be pretty damn interesting... and I have that stupidly long Steam backlog, but perhaps this new incoming Steam Deck might help with that!
Review Specs
Played at 1080p (144Hz) on:
XMG Fusion 15
CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD (SATA/Nvme)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 2070 Max-Q
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