Cyberpunk 2077 goes by one thing of a redemption arc in the mean time, helped final yr by the actually fairly good Edgerunners from Studio Set off, much more so now due to its 2.0 replace and soon-to-be launched growth, Phantom Liberty. There's been various “it was at all times good” kind of feedback cropping up just lately, which to be trustworthy I am not solely assured about. Sure, the two.0 replace actually has improved the sport in various methods, however personally I believe a number of the modifications the sport wanted ought to have taken place lengthy earlier than the sport was completed.
I got here fairly late to the Cyberpunk 2077 occasion. It did not curiosity me for various causes when it launched, and paired with that, properly, notorious (to place it mildly) launch, I did not precisely need to fork over the total price of a recreation that was extremely damaged, and never even one thing I wished to play all that a lot. Quick ahead to a few months in the past, and various updates later, I discovered myself considering “why not! Let's lastly give Cyberpunk a go.”
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In a short time, I discovered that I actually did not like how the sport performed. I am not the very best at shooters on this planet, however I am not terrible at them both, and once they do not feel good to me I would fairly flip one thing like purpose help on simply so I can expertise the world and story, on the very least. Besides that did not work very properly, both. Exterior of that, the talent tree was an unreadable mess that by no means felt price investing in, and sure – even with all these patches – the sport might generally endure from such extreme body price points it was a slideshow.
However I do need to admit, the two.0 replace has mounted quite a lot of the smaller issues that would not be terrible on their very own however did construct as much as a much bigger, irritating image. The talent tree has been massively simplified (with every talent so much clearer, too), and purpose help appears to work so much higher now too. One other drawback I had is that enemies did not scale to your degree, so random encounters had been too typically a threat – now, I haven't got to fret about that.
This huge, fabled replace has made the sport click on for me in a approach it did not earlier than. However, to be clear, I am solely feeling that from a gameplay perspective. The problems I discussed above that want fixing are much more inherent to the sport's design. For one, I believe Cyberpunk is not an excellent RPG.
The lights are fairly although. | Picture credit score: CD Projekt Pink
Certain, I can select completely different sorts of abilities, however I do not actually really feel like V is my character – they by no means ship dialogue within the sort of tone I am aiming for, and the dialogue itself has that basic drawback of by no means seeming to match the choices introduced to you. In flip, that hurts the sport's story. There are only a few characters I really like, together with each V and Johnny, which weakens the driving power of all the narrative: saving V's life.
It is not simply in regards to the recreation not being RPG, although, and even having a flawed story – I do not assume Night time Metropolis is a very attention-grabbing place to discover. Cities are extremely arduous to get proper in video video games as a result of they're a lot extra densely populated with folks, autos, and buildings in comparison with one thing like a fantasy recreation. Nonetheless, nowhere feels notably distinct to me.
There are pockets of areas that really feel like have quite a lot of love and intention put into their design, however for essentially the most half, the town simply seems like a backdrop between these locations which can be far and few between. Probably specializing in a smaller part of the town would have labored higher, one thing I do assume CD Projekt has pulled off with Phantom Liberty's Dogtown (however extra on that tomorrow).
I do not assume Cyberpunk is an terrible recreation. It is fairly competent now – even good, often – and sure, swinging a katana round is enjoyable as hell (even whether it is extremely weeby). I simply assume that it is OK that we're trustworthy about this being an extremely bold recreation that did not fairly meet these ambitions. Despite the fact that the two.0 redemption arc will get the sport nearer than ever to realising its lofty objectives.
