Cyberpunk 2077 goes by way of one thing of a redemption arc in the mean time, helped final yr by the truthfully fairly good Edgerunners from Studio Trigger, much more so now because of its 2.0 replace and soon-to-be launched growth, Phantom Liberty. There’s been a lot of “it was at all times good” sort of feedback cropping up lately, which to be trustworthy I’m not totally assured about. Yes, the two.0 replace actually has improved the sport in a lot of methods, however personally I believe a few of the adjustments 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 a lot of causes when it launched, and paired with that, effectively, notorious (to place it mildly) launch, I did not precisely wish to fork over the complete price of a recreation that was extremely damaged, and never even one thing I needed to play all that a lot. Fast ahead to a few months in the past, and a lot of updates later, I discovered myself considering “why not! Let’s lastly give Cyberpunk a go.”
Very shortly, I discovered that I actually did not like how the sport performed. I’m not one of the best at shooters on this planet, however I’m not terrible at them both, and after they do not feel good to me I’d fairly flip one thing like purpose help on simply so I can expertise the world and story, on the very least. Except that did not work very effectively, both. Outside of that, the ability tree was an unreadable mess that by no means felt price investing in, and sure – even with all these patches – the sport might typically undergo from such extreme body charge points it was a slideshow.
But I do need to admit, the two.0 replace has fastened numerous the smaller issues that would not be terrible on their very own however did construct as much as a much bigger, irritating image. The ability tree has been massively simplified (with every ability quite a bit clearer, too), and purpose help appears to work quite a bit higher now too. Another drawback I had is that enemies did not scale to your stage, so random encounters had been too typically a danger – 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. But, to be clear, I’m solely feeling that from a gameplay perspective. The points 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.
Sure, I can select completely different sorts of expertise, however I do not actually really feel like V is my character – they by no means ship dialogue within the sort of tone I’m 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 truly like, together with each V and Johnny, which weakens the driving drive of all the narrative: saving V’s life.
It is not simply concerning the recreation not being a very good RPG, although, and even having a flawed story – I do not suppose Night City is a very attention-grabbing 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 individuals, autos, and buildings in comparison with one thing like a fantasy recreation. Still, nowhere feels notably distinct to me.
There are pockets of areas that really feel like have numerous love and intention put into their design, however for essentially the most half, the town simply appears like a backdrop between these locations which are far and few between. Possibly specializing in a smaller part of the town would have labored higher, one thing I do suppose CD Projekt has pulled off with Phantom Liberty’s Dogtown (however extra on that tomorrow).
I do not suppose Cyberpunk is an terrible recreation. It’s fairly competent now – even good, often – and sure, swinging a katana round is enjoyable as hell (even whether it is extremely weeby). I simply suppose that it is OK that we’re trustworthy about this being an extremely formidable recreation that did not fairly meet these ambitions. Even although the two.0 redemption arc will get the sport nearer than ever to realising its lofty objectives.
