Cyberpunk 2077 was released to great fanfare and then bitter disappointment way back in December of 2020. Riddled with bugs, the game was frustratingly unplayable and reviews cascaded in damning the product and seemingly condemning it to a life of failure. Now, almost three years later, CD Project Red has turned it around. Determined to win back their fans, the developers patched and tinkered and patched and tinkered until Cyberpunk 2077 finally became the game they wanted, and boy what a game it is.
Set in the dystopian future metropolis of NightCity, the game introduces us to mercenary for hire V, freshly returned to the city after a long period away. Initially, doing what they have to, to survive, V is a complex hero with just enough personality to become endearing and not enough that you can’t weave your own hopes and desires into them. Despite being limited to a specific character, the game allows a lot of characterisation of V, giving you all the features and RPG elements you need to play the kind of character you want.
Do you want to be male, female, non-binary or transexual? Do you want to be a sword-carrying netrunner, a gun-toting corporate shill or a brusing cybered-up beast? Do you want a stylish midtown apartment or live in the slummier parts of town? And importantly, do you want to be a cold-blooded killer or a sneaky pacifist? It’s all included and the talent tree opens up the world for you in a rich and immersive way.
It isn’t ruining the storyline too much to tell you that V is very quickly caught up in things way bigger than their status should allow when the personality of a former revolutionary and rock star Johnny Silverhand becomes fused with their own mind. Much of the game will be carefully balancing the relationship with Silverhand, whose radical philosophies and take-no-prisoners attitude can often clash with V’s own desires to be rid of unnecessary person living in their brain. The decision to have Keanu Reeves play Silverhand is, for me, the only weak point of the game. Reeve’s performance is the only stilted one of the lot, and having a recognisable A-list face staring back was immersion-breaking in a way that felt entirely unnecessary. That said, the distraction is only minor as the central storyline is only a small fraction of what the game has to offer.
Right from the start the entirety of NightCity is unlocked and open to you. You can explore this incredibly beautiful and rich environment however you wish. Travel is quick and easy with a range of vehicles as well as the metro quick travel system open to you, and going from gorgeous viewpoint to viewpoint takes only a matter of minutes. This ease of use is also translated to getting jobs for V. It’s the future, so naturally everyone is connected via a phone through which the jobs come searching for V. There are also hundreds of other jobs you can seek out, given to you by believable, well-scripted, rich and diverse characters.
While the gunplay, sword-fighting and cyber enhancement use is absolutely seamless enough for an action game, Cyberpunk 2077 is first and foremost an RPG. The characters you meet and work with can take a variety of opinions on you, and in the end you will befriend some, and lose others. With a multitude of possible endings, the decisions you take do make a difference, and the friendships you build along the way will play a big difference on the ending you get to see.
While there are still a few bugs left in the game, these are generally few and far between and easily ignored, and given the work that CD Project Red has put in so far, there is little doubt it will all be patched. The best part is that as its now three years since release, and because of the bugs, you can periodically pick up Cyberpunk 2077 on a Steam sale for around R350, a fraction of the price of a normal Triple-A title.
We played it on PC, and enjoyed every minute of our journey into NightCity, the only difficulty now will be trying to wait till the upcoming expansion, Phantom Liberty goes on sale too. Highly Recommended.
