Cyberpunk 2077 goes via one thing of a redemption arc for the time being, helped final 12 months by the actually fairly good Edgerunners from Studio Set off, much more so now because of its 2.0 replace and soon-to-be launched growth, Phantom Liberty. There’s been quite a lot of “it was all the time good” sort of feedback cropping up lately, which to be sincere I am not completely assured about. Sure, the two.0 replace definitely has improved the sport in quite a lot of methods, however personally I feel among 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 social gathering. It did not curiosity me for quite a lot of causes when it launched, and paired with that, effectively, notorious (to place it mildly) launch, I did not precisely need to fork over the total value of a sport that was extremely damaged, and never even one thing I needed to play all that a lot. Quick ahead to a few months in the past, and quite a lot of updates later, I discovered myself considering “why not! Let’s lastly give Cyberpunk a go.”
In a short time, I discovered that I actually did not like how the sport performed. I am not one of the best at shooters on the earth, however I am not terrible at them both, and after they do not feel good to me I might quite flip one thing like intention help on simply so I can expertise the world and story, on the very least. Besides that did not work very effectively, 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 undergo from such extreme body price points it become a slideshow.
However I do need to admit, the two.0 replace has mounted loads of the smaller issues that would not be terrible on their very own however did construct as much as an even bigger, irritating image. The talent tree has been massively simplified (with every talent loads clearer, too), and intention help appears to work loads higher now too. One other drawback I had is that enemies did not scale to your degree, so random encounters have been too typically a threat – now, I haven’t got to fret about that.
This large, 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 feel Cyberpunk is not an excellent RPG.
Positive, I can select totally different sorts of abilities, however I do not actually really feel like V is my character – they by no means ship dialogue within the type of tone I am aiming for, and the dialogue itself has that traditional drawback of by no means seeming to match the choices offered 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 the whole narrative: saving V’s life.
It is not simply concerning the sport not being a superb RPG, although, and even having a flawed story – I do not assume Evening Metropolis is a very fascinating place to discover. Cities are extremely exhausting 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 sport. Nonetheless, nowhere feels notably distinct to me.
There are pockets of areas that really feel like have loads of love and intention put into their design, however for essentially the most half, town simply looks like a backdrop between these locations which are far and few between. Probably specializing in a smaller part of 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 sport. It is fairly competent now – even good, sometimes – 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 sincere about this being an extremely bold sport that did not fairly meet these ambitions. Though the two.0 redemption arc will get the sport nearer than ever to realising its lofty targets.