Cyberpunk 2077

[Velorath]

That's kinda cherry picking also.

Look, even the positive reviews like the ones on metacritic with the glowingly positive perfect scores acknowledge the severe amount of bugs:


From TheGamer (5 out of 5 stars)

There’s another reason for those delays though. Like with most games that are this complex, Cyberpunk 2077 has its fair share of bugs. None of them ruined my enjoyment, but they pull you out of the fantasy like someone sticking their bare arse in your face while you’re wearing a virtual reality headset.

Sometimes, when I look in a mirror in my apartment, it removes my clothes from the waist down and deletes my dick so I look like a creepy Ken doll. When driving in third-person, my character sometimes T-poses out of the top of my car - again, with no clothes on. Things float in the air and are held in hands at impossible angles. Sometimes NPCs refuse to move and you have to abandon a quest and come back to it later. I also hate how the skip dialogue button is also crouch, which means you sometimes try to engage stealth during a phone call and skip a line of dialogue. You’ll occasionally walk down the street admiring the artistry and you’ll see a car somersaulting through the sky in the distance.

Translated quote from Play Zine (translated)

It’s buggy and flawed on many technical (but very fixable) levels

The Digital Fix gave the game a perfect score and then sectioned off comments about bugs and why they didn't affect the score in a separate article.


From the 9 out of 10 review from Game Watcher

The biggest problem the game has at the moment, however, are the bugs. My comparison to Fallout 4 earlier extends beyond the general “story action RPG” direction Cyberpunk takes, but it’s also a reference to the internet joke that Bethesda games are very buggy (even though personally, I never had that many issues with them). Cyberpunk 2077 is riddled with bugs:

Enemies see you and bodies through walls and cover
Characters taken out by sneak attacks don’t register as dead when they die and trigger combat states on the whole area if you walk in front of their dead corpse
Level geometry traps the player character and stops you from moving, with only a reload fixing it
Some objects are not climbable while others are
The same NPC plays two different conversations at once and gives you conflicting dialog choices
Mission progress is derailed due to the doors that don’t open when they should (yet NPCs can phase and clip right through them)
Weapons show their damage in the inventory as “0.00”
Clothing items equipped show up as invisible
Invisible walls stop your car or bike from going into alleyways
Lootable guns float in the air instead of staying the ground
Those are actually not all the bugs I encountered – all those bugs above happened at least 3 times, and I haven’t mentioned any bug that only happened once or twice. Luckily, bugs can be fixed with patches, but we can clearly see now why the game was delayed so much.

GOOD VS BAD
+Gorgeous city
+Classic worldbuilding, full of lore bits to read about
+Punchy combat
+Fantastic graphics
+Great voice acting, and 5.1 is beautifully implemented
-Stealth is binary and infuriating
-UI was clearly designed for consoles, and some of the keybindings are nonsensical
-Enemies are more bullet-spongy than The Division and Borderlands combined
-Performance is quite bad on anything that isn't a 30XX card, even under 4K with ray tracing off
-More bugs than Klendathu in Starship Troopers

I'm just saying let's be real here. "Reviews" like Kotaku or Polygon aren't even scored (and thus aren't affecting the Metacritic average). I'd say most of the "glowing" review scores aren't reflecting the text of the actual review. Regardless of how awesome one thinks the city is, or the story, or even the gameplay is if everything worked right, I'm baffled at people who can say that a game has dozens of technical issues but is a 9 or 10 out of 10 game. There's plenty of games/movies/books whatever that I love despite their flaws but I'm also honest enough with myself that I wouldn't score them that high were I to review them.

[Cyrrex]

I mean....if a game is amazing and full of bugs at the same time, I don't think that compares with a game that actually kinda sucks but is perfectly constructed.  Both of those games should not be a 7 out of 10.  I want to play the former, not the latter.

[Velorath]

Obviously the other issue is that while games can improve over time with patches, review score rarely change to reflect that. Which makes sense to a large extent of course. I mean how much sense does it make to have writers who are presumably getting paid go back and put substantial time into playing a game again and updating reviews whenever a major patch comes out?

With Day 1 patches being the exception rather than the rule these days, I don't envy reviewers who have to try to take into account that the game they're playing isn't necessarily the one the game the public is going to be at launch. I know this has been a consideration for many years now with reviewers having to decide just how much leeway to give a game when it comes to pre-release bugs.

Despite how long the game has been in development, maybe the last couple weeks was somehow enough time for CDPR to fix a sizable percent of the biggest bugs and glitches in which case, great! Kinda sucks they didn't just delay the game a few more weeks then. Or maybe the day 1 patch fixes a few things, breaks a few other things, and there's a much longer road ahead to get this game in good shape. Right now I fall more on the skeptical side. CDPR not giving out console review copies, or allowing reviewers to show any video other than b-roll footage provided by CDPR doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

[Tebonas]

Everybody who buys a CDPR game on a console can blame nobody but themself anyway, though.

[Cyrrex]

This game in particular has a "best played on a 3k dollar gaming machine" written all over it.  I can already imagine the crying over console performance is going to be big.  Like....duh?

[Hoax]

imagine ever going to kotaku

i'm not sure what to do with this title. wait for patches. wait for dlc. wait for new pc. buy it full price to show support but don't install it?

mega hype SP games at launch seem so pointless. its single player. i can't miss out on anything.

[Teleku]

Yep, pretty much.  I never buy any AAA single player titles at release these days, since they almost all need some patches, and I can wait for a steam sale.  For that matter, I don't really play multiplayer games anymore.  So I guess the only games I tend to buy release day or janky indie games on steam?

I think I'll enjoy this game, but in no hurry to purchase.  Almost 5 years later, I am right now playing through Witcher 3 for the first time (ironically), so happy to wait till they patch this into it's final best form, then enjoying it.

[HaemishM]

Even as someone who ran a PNP Cyberpunk 2020 campaign for years, I am in no hurry to get this game. I'll likely grab it at 50% off next year when the giant, game-breaking or plain annoying bugs are patched the fuck out of it.

[Sky]

imagine ever going to kotaku

i'm not sure what to do with this title. wait for patches. wait for dlc. wait for new pc. buy it full price to show support but don't install it?

mega hype SP games at launch seem so pointless. its single player. i can't miss out on anything.

Same boat. I was hoping for at least a couple pre-order bonuses to lure me in, but I didn't see anything other than soundtracks, posters and shit.

I would've bought it if humans could buy 3080 cards or even a PS5. I can wait to experience it in better quality, though probably not defer it long enough for the GOTY version or w/e.

Reading Kotaku for games reviews is like reading f13 for Star Wars reviews. Nobody hates games more than a game reviewer! So much meta, so little childlike joy left in the rotted, angry husks.

[Trippy]

Watching fans rage at Gamespot for giving it 7/10 (buggy, full of superfluous content, has some good side quests, characters and RPG mechanics, but otherwise disappointing).

PC Gamer is like "it's coming apart at the seams with bugs... play it in a few months" ... review score 78%.

Kotaku's write-up is basically "I played it for 40 hours and still don't know whether it's good or bad, but it sure is big and I'm tired."

Way to cherry pick.  It's got a 91% on metacritic. Most reviews are glowing even when they mention bugs. Kotaku has had a massive hate-on for the game for months now. I mean the entire first paragraph of the review is nothing but a summary of how bad CDPR is and how racist and sexist they are but "I guess I'll review this game now." I mean, even as a liberal it made me roll my eyes.

It's not going to stay that high. There's a lot of 100 reviews from smaller outlets up right now currently. The score will likely fall down to the low 80s after more reviews are out from the bigger outlets.

[eldaec]

I imagine I'll buy this specifically because I have a 3080. But I don't expect to be able to play it properly for a month or three. That would be madness.

[Falconeer]

Well, I'm in it and all ready to go at 1am (Centraul Europe Time) so you'll have my worthless first impressions in a few hours. Luckily I am not paid to write reviews, but I am for the most part never bothered by bugs so unless they are game-breaking they won't factor in my take. Also, my PC was about $1400 18 months ago (I have an RTX 2070), and yet I am pretty confident that it'll handle the game well. I'll report about that too.

[Rasix]

I'll be playing it. I'm super bored. If it ends up being a Witcher 2 situation, I'll just put it down for a while and check on it after some serious patching.

[Rendakor]

I'm holding off to see how the Day 1 patch looks; if I hear good things over the weekend I'll buy it on Monday, if only to test out my 3070.

[Hawkbit]

My old-ass PC is below spec for this game. I'm wondering how GeForce Now would handle it. An extra $5 for a month or two might tide me over while we get through the gpu glut.

[Velorath]

PC and PS4 version $10 off on Amazon right now. Believe PC is a GOG key.

Edit: sounds like they ship the key physically for some reason.

[Trippy]

PC "Day 1" patch via GOG is 10 GB and the download rate is pretty slow currently so plan ahead if you want to play at unlock time (in ~3h 30m).

[Falconeer]

Not much to do about it on Steam, as it doesn't look like we would be able to patch until "Unlock time".

[Trippy]

Not unlocked on GOG yet (10 minutes past announced time)

Edit: needed to restart GOG launcher to get the 3rd (4th?) "Day 1" patch for it to launch

[Falconeer]

1 hour in, I'm liking it. It feels like a Bethesda Fallout in Cyberpunk skin, but that's not a terrible thing for me as I liked Fallout 3 and 4 a lot. I also like the driving so far, but that's also not news as I am a driver both for work and for fun IRL.

Performance wise, it's clearly a heavy game, but there are so many switches that can be turned on and off that it didn't take me long to find a sweet spot between fps and quality.

It doesn't take a genius to see that this game will polarise opinions like crazy.

[Samprimary]

These punks aren't going to cyber themselves

[Trippy]

The jank is strong with this one.

[Ashamanchill]

I'm ashamed to admit that I got FOMO bad for this one. Absent the hype, I would let this one fallow for six months. But everyone is playing it, and that includes all my friends who will be talking about it non stop.

[Khaldun]

I'm gonna wait at least four or five days to get a real sense of how consequential some of those bugs are. I still have some ground to cover in AC Valhalla anyway.

[Rasix]

I've had a few bugs. Jackie bugged out in a conversation and ended up having two pairs of chopsticks. I got stuck crouching in a story area. AI got a little wonky in a fight. Some kids really didn't like me accidentally bumping into a cop and were terrified of me. Right now it's all little things, but there's a lot of it. So if that annoys you, I might lay off until some of the easy stuff is handled.

It's kind of a Eurojank Deus Ex, but way more interesting. I am going to play this shit out of this. There's just so much here and it's all very interesting at the moment.

[Ashamanchill]

Gotta say, this is the most immersed I have been in a world in a long time. i just sat and listened to some of the radio reports because of how interesting they were.

[Riggswolfe]

Ok. So I set my Xbox to NZ time and played it at 7am local time and lost track of time and stopped playing at 5am.

The gameplay is sort of a slow build. I found combat, stealth and hacking to be annoying at first because it was all hard. But a few hours in and my skill points started adding up. I don't have much cyberware yet but I did upgrade my deck so I could hack more easily and it's made a huge difference in the hacking game as well. I've noticed my skill with pistols is really starting to turn around and I recently stealthed through a whole area and only got into a massive gun fight towards the end after I'd wiped out most of the level with hacking after being able to see them through cameras.

The good:

Story
Characters
Customization options
Just options in general. I've had missions I was like "I can't do this" then I'd poke around and find a new way to approach it and pull it off with ease. It's like Deus Ex turned to 11 in that regard. Sometimes I'll get into a huge firefight then poke around looking for loot and find a backdoor I could've used if I just looked around more.
The city. OMG the city. I've played 22 hours now and still feel like I've barely touched the city.
Immersiveness

The bad:

Bugs. I've had a few crashes. I had a time where my cyberdeck wouldn't swap out programs but a full restart of the game fixed it. I had a visual glitch during a very emotional cutscene. I have pauses where the game stops responding for a few seconds. I think that one is the game streaming in new areas of the city and the Xbox barely being able to keep up to be honest. It almost always happens when I'm driving. Considering what the reviews said I expected much worse. I think the day 1 patch really did nail a lot of them. For example, I haven't seen T posed NPCs yet or anything.

The AI won't win any awards but it's not nearly as bad as the reviewers made it seem. It's worst about stealth. It tends to forget you fairly quickly if you play right.


Overall. For me it's easily GOTY. And the best RPG I've played since the Witcher 3. Sadly, there's not a lot of competition in that area anymore. I know Schild will poke his head out and say "DISCO ELYSIUM" but that game I played a single time and found mostly extremely pretentious if fun and this one I already know I'll play more than once to try out different character builds and stuff.

[01101010]

Anyone running this on an original PS4 or am I to be the sacrificial lamb? I have the game installed but haven't cracked it open because work meetings all day today. But I am looking forward to seeing just how loud the fans get in the PS4 later tonight. Was flirting with the idea of just putting the PS4 outside on the balcony and running the HDMI back thru the window... to keep it cooler and not have to listen to it wailing.

[Trippy]

Base PS4 is going to be rough. Here's the Digital Foundry comparison of PS4 vs PS4 Pro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5pHpQqhmR4. Skip to 8m:00s for the start of frame rates. Also, spoilers.

[Sky]

Gotta say, this is the most immersed I have been in a world in a long time. i just sat and listened to some of the radio reports because of how interesting they were.

Since I'm holding off for "NEXT GEN" hardware, I broke my usual spoiler embargo to watch a youtuber play the first bit of the game. He went over the systems and options, which was nice, and watching him run through the tutorial was helpful to get the gist of the game mechanics...but holy shit the dude just constantly ran past interesting stuff, conversations, npcs, side quests, just nattering on about how excited he was to be playing and wow the graphics...and he's one of the lesser annoyances in the tubeworld.

Aaanyway, in a way I was happy he skipped it all, because I was impressed by the world and how much longer his 1h vid would've taken me to play through, heh.

I'm also perversely entertained (my favorite kind!) by playing janky ol' Empyrion while most are enjoying this feast :D

[Trippy]

Mmmm....there’s definitely stuff that’s interesting to stop and look / listen to but much of world I’ve seen so far (which is very limited) is extremely superficial and if you stop and observe it closely you’ll notice it’s just a poorly done facade and the immersion will break. To give a basic example there’s a background event that takes place when you first leave your apartment with some cops checking on one of your neighbors with dialog and animations and stuff. But if you explore the apartment complex for a bit and then return to your apartment the cops are still there just standing there, mute. Another simple example — most of the food stall / cart vendors I’ve seen you can’t actually talk to or buy food from. They are just there as non-interactive decoration which destroys the illusion that Night City is a living city.

[Falconeer]

I just reached the part with the BrainDance and let me say that now I am officially grabbed. I was slowly getting into it, liking it, but this whole section, the characters, the gameplay-technology of the BrainDance and how you are guided through it all of a sudden got me on the game AND story parts at the same time.

[Falconeer]

About consoles, now THIS is weird: https://kotaku.com/cyberpunk-2077-is-surprisingly-fine-on-stadia-1845853147

Apparently the game is better on Stadia than old-gen consoles. Worth considering buying it there if PS4 version sucks so bad. I mean, the price is the same.

[luckton]

I'm sure this game is fantastic and I look forward to playing it...


...around this time next year after I build a new system, they've patched out the bugs, and it hits a Steam sale. 

I enjoyed SkillUp's review of it: https://youtu.be/HJKeBbk-9YA

[Surlyboi]

Playing it on a PS5, even though it doesn’t fully take advantage of the hardware and the updated version won’t drop for a few months, I’m digging the shit out of it so far from a story perspective. It did crash to desktop once in the first hour but it’s been solid since. I think I spent a good 45 minutes customizing my character. No random nakedness yet.