Cyberpunk 2077 makes me angry

The Cyberpunk genre is one of my favorites. The themes of corporate dominance, trans-humanism, and technological advancements all fascinate me. And the mega-cities that are drowned in neon that this genre’s stories often take place in scratch a particular itch in my brain just right. An itch, I first learned I had when I played cyberpunk 2077 for the first time.

I had bought the game on sale for my kinda-crappy xbox one s, and inspite of the numerous bugs that still existed in 2077, it has left a lasting impression on me. And to pull a bit of a bait-n-switch, by saying that the impression it left was positive. Cyberpunk 2077 made me laugh. It made me cry. However, even after the game’s 2.0+ updates, the game has many deep, deep flaws.

Before diving into the game itself, I want to give a brief overview of the history of the game. Originating a table top role playing game(ttrpg) created by Mike Pondsmith, Cyberpunk has undergone three iterations before the video game released. The first, released back in the 80s, is now colloquially referred to as Cyberpunk: 2013, followed by Cyberpunk: 2020, which released back in 1990, and then the latest edition, Cyberpunk: RED, which released in november of 2020. Enter CD Project Red. CDPR for short, is a polish game development company that is known for their work on The Witcher video games, which are often lauded as some of the greatest video games of all time. Development began on Cyberpunk 2077 in 2011, and ended up taking 9 years to complete. And on release, in december of 2020, the game was a broken mess. something that is sadly too common in the AAA gaming sphere. After a few months of patches, the game was playable, but unfortunately its launch was devastating to the long term success of the game. And then Cyberpunk Edgerunners dropped on Netflix. Edgerunners is a 10 episode anime from Studio Trigger, one of the most incredible studios in Japanese animation. It was so well like that sales for 2077 skyrocketed past even its initial launch sales, something that hardly ever happens. Following the massive boost in popularity, the devs unveiled the 2.0 update, which overhauled the progression of the player, the behaviors of the enemies, and so much more. Only a month after 2.0 dropped, the Phantom Liberty DLC released and added even more content to the game. Now, with all that said, let’s dive into the actual game itself.

2077’s strongest aspects are firstly, its story, and secondly, its style. Firstly that story. Set in the fictional megacity of Night City, Cyberpunk 2077 follows the player character of V(who can be either male or female) and the cyber-ghost of Johnny Silverhand who is stuck in V’s head. The narrative is interesting, funny, and heartbreaking. There is a quest that is available early in the game’s second act called Heroes. The quest is actually simple; V is invited to attend and participate in an offrenda for a character who died at the end of the game’s first act. Now, I don’t usually show much emotion when I’m consuming media. I’ve cried because of a fictional story only five times, one of which was this quest. And while this quest isn’t even a microcosm of the game, it’s representative of how wonderful the writing is. Some quests are just about a dude who’s got a grenade implanted in place of his nose who never really shows up again. Others are exciting races against the clock to rescue a former cop’s nephew from a serial kidnapper and child predator. And others still are exploration of tribe of nomads and what family really is.

Second only to the story of the game is its style. The visual design of each area is mostly unique and discernible from one another. When I’m wandering around the stacks in the Kabuki area of the map, I never think I’m lost in Corpo Plaza, or Arroyo. The seas of neon that the player must swim through is just etheral at times. Many areas like Jig-Jig street are bursting with character. The beauty of the neon lights contrasted heavily with the hyper-sexual ads and adult stores as well as the dirt and grime that lies around every corner. Now, while I could rave for hours about the design of the guns, the clothing items, and the various cyberware, these are also where the issues with the game begin.

2077’s incredible style and magnificent story do some incredible heavy lifting to make up for the game’s many, many, many issues. For example the actual gameplay of this video game. The game’s exploration is not the absolute worse thing in the world, but in a world where Skyrim, Elden Ring, and even the Witcher 3(which CDPR also made), it pales in comparison. The actual combat is uninteresting and hard to track, and while 2.0+ updates have helped make this better, it still can’t fully rectify the core issue of how dull it is. Combine this with enemies that aren’t fun or interesting to fight, and the game’s idea of difficulty scaling(the idea that as the player gets stronger, the game adapts its difficulty accordingly) being to just make the enemies into faster, harder hitting damage sponges, and all of the game’s combat is at best adequate, and at worst boring and frustrating.

And the vehicles of the game are somehow even worse than that. Driving around NC really breaks the player’s suspension of disbelief. The game is set in a fictional city in California, but the way the player’s vehicles handle on the road, one must think that the roads are all covered in black ice. And not the cool cyberpunk type either.

Which leads well into the game’s issue with player customization. The vanilla game is exclusively in first person pov, which completely invalidates the character creator and the clothing system. Both of which, are some of the most extensive in gaming. The crafting system is also basically pointless aside from crafting the iconic weapons whose blueprints can be found throughout the game. The map is filled with uninteresting, bland, copy-pasted enemy encounters that are only there to fill the player’s time and xp. There is a myriad of gangs and evil corporations but there is no faction system for the player to assist or join any of them. The players choices largely feel like they don’t actually matter. And yet I keep coming back to this game. I keep playing cyberpunk 2077. I’ve beaten the game three times, and yet I keep re-downloading it. I keep playing this game that frustrates me to no end. This game that is so deeply flawed in its construction that I felt compelled to rant about it here. This game that gave me a feeling that I haven’t been given by another game since. My first play through of 2077 was so incredibly special in a way I can’t fully articulate. I was enthralled in every aspect of the game. The flaws didn’t matter to me then, not as much anyway. And so each time I feel compelled to, I re-download Cyberpunk 2077. Spending multiple days installing new mods to try and recreate that feeling. Each fresh start, reaching for that same experience I had the first time around. Each time, a little part of me knowing that won’t happen.

Cyberpunk 2077 is deeply flawed, in ways I’ve mentioned and in ways I haven’t. It’s bloated, filled with useless, dead systems and scrapped content that’ll never get any official support. And all that makes me angry. Because I love this game. I love it to bits. I want to tell everyone that this game is one of the bests there’s ever been. But I can’t. Not honestly, anyway. Its story is great, but it doesn’t challenge anything. It doesn’t defy the genre, or push the medium in a new direction. It doesn’t tell a story that only a game could tell. And the rest of the game is not nearly revolutionary enough to make up for it.