TLDR: 83/100 (probably going up after patches similarly to The Witcher 3)
Preface:
Cyberpunk 2077 was among the most highly anticipated games in history. Its brought to us by the same developers of the Witcher games which, in addition to the casting of Keanu "Breathtaking" Reeves, is probably what made this game as hyped as it was. With all this hype this game was destined to be a failure for some, for me however it was probably the best gaming experience I have had all year. Despite the amazing writing it is just average in some of its "RPG" parts, this did not hinder my enjoyment much, but it might lower yours significantly.
Story and Characters:
Main Story:
Cyberpunk's Main story (around 25 hours) is relatively short, especially when looking at the Witcher 3 with its around 50 hours. The biggest weak point of the story is the first act. It mostly just serves as setup for the main story and introduction to the world, this is also where your chosen live path only ever plays a major role, which is somewhat disappointing. After this pretty generic 3-4 hour long introduction the story jumps to its high point and stays there for its entire run, it's an incredible story where you as V get to decide how it plays out. Once starting the second act you will stay at the edge of your seat throughout the entire journey. The ending is an emotional banger, and it does not really matter what ending you get, V's fate is always a punch in the gut, always fitting with the classic themes of the Cyberpunk Genre and the World of Night City. Another detail i find fascinating is that the name of every quest is the name of a song and said song matches the tone of the quest pretty well. Chopin for the final was such a fitting choice.
Side Stories:
The side quests are where Cyberpunk truly manages to outdo most games I have played prior. If you read this right now and have yet to play/finish this game, go play through the side missions even if they seem meaningless at first most develop into mind-boggling stories that show what kind of bleak future for the human race is prophesied here. The side quests always end with though moral choices, they also further the understanding of Night City and how AI "lives" in it (Delemain quest line or "Coin Operated Boy") to a disturbing look at Night City's politics in "Dream on". Not to even mention the more personal quest that are equally as amazing, especially the four main ones with one romance option in each (depending on the gender of your charatcer).
Those often surprising developments lead me to always do every side quest. You never know if the basic "kill x" side quest you just started develops into the best quest of the game. There is also some foreshadowing in some side quests, adding greatly to the replayability of the game.
The Side quests also majorly influence the endings you can achieve, doing some side quests will open up 5 more possible endings. You are free to rush, only playing the main story, but also can experience the game in its entirety and get something totally different as a ending.
Characters:
The Characters are the heart of the game. The story is great and raises interesting points regarding AI, our possible future and body modification, but the characters in this grim world are what makes the ending so emotional especially with what happens while the credits roll.
However, V, is the in my opinion worst written one. The 3 live paths did introduce you to him but never really gave huge insights to any bits of his past. Every other character is believable, and you get to know them greatly, from goals, past to personal struggles you get to know everything about the people living in and around Night City.
The Characters of Cyberpunk 2077 are more than you might expect at first glance, the most prominent example here is clearly the man, the myth, the legend Johnny Silverhand. He is also the character most prominent throughout the story and the one that undergoes the most surprising but amazing development. The others are not much different though, they all are so well fleshed out and developed that once that ending hits, it really it's hard.
Gameplay and Sound
Combat with balancing issues Its all up to you how to approach a mission, you can just run and gun, hack the enemy into killing himself or bring out your blades from inside your arms. Across the board everything here is pretty average and not groundbreaking in any way, the game is clearly not about the combat and more about the story, the amount of variety however does make up for it. A huge problem for the combat is that the different aspects are not that well-balanced in my opinion. Melee and Hacking/Stealth feels way too strong. Another problem is that missions turn from hard to very easy in no time at all and even turning the difficulty to the highest level does not make them more challenging.
Leveling up:
They handled the role-playing features very well in my opinion. There are attributes and perks. Attributes are here more major while perks are more specific. The Attribute points are sparse, and you can't get all maxed out. That further increases the replay value since you can't get your Attribute points back. Always trying different builds will be one of the main reasons to replay this game.
Sound:
The pretty average gunplay gets compensated here. The Gun sounds are what makes the combat fun pair that with the banger that is this games soundtrack, and you will have fun just shooting up some cyberpsychos. The Voice acting is also top-notch.
The AI Its just bad. Nothing more to say, it surely is a downgrade from games that came out a couple of years ago.
The World: Night City
Open World: Atmospheric but not the next GTA CDPR's worlds were always about stories and not about you interacting a lot with it. What you experience in this game you experience in the quests, not in any side activities. There is not much interaction with the world. Its mostly a stage for the characters to play on. You have an apartment, but it does not feel like "home" because you just can't do anything with it. Just don't go in it expecting it to be a Rockstar game, because it is not. However, the atmosphere in Night City is amazing, driving through the rain as never been better in any game i have ever played. Its also very detailed, you know by looking around in which district you are, what people live here and how they live.
Visuals Its stunningly beautiful. My old GPU really surprised me with how good games can still look with it. The Photo mode also is a great addition to really capture the beauty of Night City. Its not well optimized though, it does run relatively smooth but dips below 40 fps at times. Even on moderate settings.
Technical Problems
It seems the ones i had were relatively mild but still decreasing the enjoyment to some little extend.Especially when i had to reload just because i got stuck with a quest which happened at least 3-4 times. Technically speaking its clearly a mess but the same was Witcher 3 and look how that turned out!
Wrapping it up Despite all the flaws that this game indeed has. The miserable AI, the lack of interaction with the world (even The Witcher 3 had Gwent) and the balancing issues, just to name the biggest ones. It has Groundbreaking characters, themes and stories to carry the game. Pair that with the beautiful world that is Night City you get a Breathtaking game that is worth every penny i paid for it.
The games foundation is superb, it just needs some more work and neat extra features and its a contender for my personal top games of all time.
Preface:
Cyberpunk 2077 was among the most highly anticipated games in history. Its brought to us by the same developers of the Witcher games which, in addition to the casting of Keanu "Breathtaking" Reeves, is probably what made this game as hyped as it was. With all this hype this game was destined to be a failure for some, for me however it was probably the best gaming experience I have had all year. Despite the amazing writing it is just average in some of its "RPG" parts, this did not hinder my enjoyment much, but it might lower yours significantly.
Story and Characters:
Main Story:
Cyberpunk's Main story (around 25 hours) is relatively short, especially when looking at the Witcher 3 with its around 50 hours. The biggest weak point of the story is the first act. It mostly just serves as setup for the main story and introduction to the world, this is also where your chosen live path only ever plays a major role, which is somewhat disappointing. After this pretty generic 3-4 hour long introduction the story jumps to its high point and stays there for its entire run, it's an incredible story where you as V get to decide how it plays out. Once starting the second act you will stay at the edge of your seat throughout the entire journey. The ending is an emotional banger, and it does not really matter what ending you get, V's fate is always a punch in the gut, always fitting with the classic themes of the Cyberpunk Genre and the World of Night City. Another detail i find fascinating is that the name of every quest is the name of a song and said song matches the tone of the quest pretty well. Chopin for the final was such a fitting choice.
Side Stories:
The side quests are where Cyberpunk truly manages to outdo most games I have played prior. If you read this right now and have yet to play/finish this game, go play through the side missions even if they seem meaningless at first most develop into mind-boggling stories that show what kind of bleak future for the human race is prophesied here. The side quests always end with though moral choices, they also further the understanding of Night City and how AI "lives" in it (Delemain quest line or "Coin Operated Boy") to a disturbing look at Night City's politics in "Dream on". Not to even mention the more personal quest that are equally as amazing, especially the four main ones with one romance option in each (depending on the gender of your charatcer).
Those often surprising developments lead me to always do every side quest. You never know if the basic "kill x" side quest you just started develops into the best quest of the game. There is also some foreshadowing in some side quests, adding greatly to the replayability of the game.
The Side quests also majorly influence the endings you can achieve, doing some side quests will open up 5 more possible endings. You are free to rush, only playing the main story, but also can experience the game in its entirety and get something totally different as a ending.
Characters:
The Characters are the heart of the game. The story is great and raises interesting points regarding AI, our possible future and body modification, but the characters in this grim world are what makes the ending so emotional especially with what happens while the credits roll.
However, V, is the in my opinion worst written one. The 3 live paths did introduce you to him but never really gave huge insights to any bits of his past. Every other character is believable, and you get to know them greatly, from goals, past to personal struggles you get to know everything about the people living in and around Night City.
The Characters of Cyberpunk 2077 are more than you might expect at first glance, the most prominent example here is clearly the man, the myth, the legend Johnny Silverhand. He is also the character most prominent throughout the story and the one that undergoes the most surprising but amazing development. The others are not much different though, they all are so well fleshed out and developed that once that ending hits, it really it's hard.
Gameplay and Sound
Combat with balancing issues Its all up to you how to approach a mission, you can just run and gun, hack the enemy into killing himself or bring out your blades from inside your arms. Across the board everything here is pretty average and not groundbreaking in any way, the game is clearly not about the combat and more about the story, the amount of variety however does make up for it. A huge problem for the combat is that the different aspects are not that well-balanced in my opinion. Melee and Hacking/Stealth feels way too strong. Another problem is that missions turn from hard to very easy in no time at all and even turning the difficulty to the highest level does not make them more challenging.
Leveling up:
They handled the role-playing features very well in my opinion. There are attributes and perks. Attributes are here more major while perks are more specific. The Attribute points are sparse, and you can't get all maxed out. That further increases the replay value since you can't get your Attribute points back. Always trying different builds will be one of the main reasons to replay this game.
Sound:
The pretty average gunplay gets compensated here. The Gun sounds are what makes the combat fun pair that with the banger that is this games soundtrack, and you will have fun just shooting up some cyberpsychos. The Voice acting is also top-notch.
The AI Its just bad. Nothing more to say, it surely is a downgrade from games that came out a couple of years ago.
The World: Night City
Open World: Atmospheric but not the next GTA CDPR's worlds were always about stories and not about you interacting a lot with it. What you experience in this game you experience in the quests, not in any side activities. There is not much interaction with the world. Its mostly a stage for the characters to play on. You have an apartment, but it does not feel like "home" because you just can't do anything with it. Just don't go in it expecting it to be a Rockstar game, because it is not. However, the atmosphere in Night City is amazing, driving through the rain as never been better in any game i have ever played. Its also very detailed, you know by looking around in which district you are, what people live here and how they live.
Visuals Its stunningly beautiful. My old GPU really surprised me with how good games can still look with it. The Photo mode also is a great addition to really capture the beauty of Night City. Its not well optimized though, it does run relatively smooth but dips below 40 fps at times. Even on moderate settings.
Technical Problems
It seems the ones i had were relatively mild but still decreasing the enjoyment to some little extend.Especially when i had to reload just because i got stuck with a quest which happened at least 3-4 times. Technically speaking its clearly a mess but the same was Witcher 3 and look how that turned out!
Wrapping it up Despite all the flaws that this game indeed has. The miserable AI, the lack of interaction with the world (even The Witcher 3 had Gwent) and the balancing issues, just to name the biggest ones. It has Groundbreaking characters, themes and stories to carry the game. Pair that with the beautiful world that is Night City you get a Breathtaking game that is worth every penny i paid for it.
The games foundation is superb, it just needs some more work and neat extra features and its a contender for my personal top games of all time.