Unless you’re completely out of the know when it comes to gaming, you have probably heard some inkling about Cyberpunk 2077. If you haven’t it is not too big of a deal, It’s just one of the most hyped games of our generation. Announced in 2012, the game had been in production for 8 years before it was released and had several delays. At the release, the question on everybody’s minds was whether the game deserved its pre-release praise. After a few days, the mass decision was that it didn’t. With all that in mind, the question today is whether Cyberpunk 2077 is worth buying in its current state.
While it was absolutely trashed for all its bugs and individual issues, the game on a broad scale isn’t bad. The story is very well written, and most of the main characters have enough depth to get behind. The combat is repetitive, but entertaining for a while and the major side quests add interesting options to break up the more monotonous missions and the story-progressing ones. While the stat allocation may seem confusing, it makes sense after some use and review. And you manage to play the game on PC, PS5 or the Xbox series X, you’re going to have a great time simply marveling at the scenery. However, there’s much to go over supporting the hate train.
There are an excess of simple missions where the only work you do is kill all the guys, stealth kill all the guys, or run in and steal something (applying the last two options liberally on the way). After initial character customization you can do nothing to change what you have. Not even a haircut! Driving is awful. Like, close to inoperable. Of course, It isn’t helped by the minimap being bare-bones and hard to use for streetway navigation. The versions on the PS4 and Xbox one are extremely unpolished, feeling like shells of the game they were meant to be. Every version of Cyberpunk has some quantity of bugs, and with all the bug fixes CD Projekt Red have done it’s no wonder that people were upset at release. Honestly, this game should have had at least another year of work. However, all of this is relatively unimportant as long as the game is still enjoyable for the player.
To get an idea of the average Cyberpunk player’s experience, we interviewed San Marcos student Jaran Depew. He had learned of Cyberpunk from the first teaser trailer, but quickly lost interest as the years without content passed. He found the newer trailers, released in 2018 and 2019, to be beautiful but lacking in substance past showcasing the game’s graphics. With his hands finally on the game, he had plenty to say about its quality: “The biggest pro this game [has] got going is it’s immersion. …It’s honestly the best I’ve seen in this regard, and considering the amount of RPG and story based games I’ve played, that’s saying a lot,” Jaran stated. And while the driving and stealth aspects of gameplay were both unappealing, he praised the combat for feeling “like a borderlands” and loves to collect the various weapons and slowly increase the damage output. When asked to rate his experience, he responded by saying, “7/10. There are definitely better games, the only thing that really makes this stand out is the story and animation. I’d say a 6 is the average score for rating so it’s above average. Nothing about it is bad, just mediocre in most areas.”
While the game is in no way perfect, CD Projekt Red is constantly releasing patches to fix what they can. Maybe, like No Man’s Sky, the game will steadily improve as it ages. It would certainly make it into a game deserving of the praise it was given— albeit with a heavy rough patch in release. For now, the best choice you could make is to wait for a sale or something. Cyberpunk 2077 hasn’t quite earned its price tag yet.
