Cyberpunk 2077 first impressions several hours in

Few games have been as hyped as Cyberpunk 2077 and I confess, I have added to that hype on several occasions.

It’s now out and so I thought I would share my first impressions as the release has proved somewhat divisive. If you haven’t bought it yet, here are some things you probably want to know. Let’s start at the beginning.

Character creation

You start off, as is common in an RPG, with character creation. My wife helped create a decent combo between badass but still pretty cool and good looking. It’s a type she likes – and ultimately married.

Surprisingly, so early in the game as to technically have not even begun, we have full-frontal nudity. I wanted to play as a guy so was forced to pick details such as what type of penis I wanted. Which I haven’t encountered since Conan Exiles. This is to give you an idea as to how detailed things can get.

After further selections about eyebrows and mouth type and so on, you are good to go. You then have a choice of three opening stories: Nomad, Corporate and Street Kid. Your choice doesn’t change too much of the game but it does give you a unique introduction sequence and gameplay and also some different dialogue options throughout.

I picked Street Kid because it seemed like you will be dealing with gangs a lot. Nomad sounds cooler but apparently you start in the outskirts of the city in a kind of Scorched Earth ( as in 2000AD) meets Mad Max meets shit suburbs type of place. I wanted to be deep in the city from the off. Corporate was tempting but I wanted to go more punk. I’m not a suit.

Then the game begins. If you play any games at all the Cyberpunk 2077 control system will be fairly familiar. There is quite a lot to take in at first but if you are awesome and play a lot of games, it isn’t too bad. At least, I found it pretty clear what is going on except for a few bits relating to things in my inventory and crafting. Nothing major and I understand them now.

What is the Cyberpunk 2077 like to play?

The game is essentially an FPS RPG. If you have made it this far, you obviously like games and know what I am talking about. Compared to something like Destiny 2, it is waaaay more RPG than FPS. There is a shitload of dialogue and a really in-depth skill tree and stats and so forth. At least so far – I am about six hours in.

If people weren’t expecting this, they must have missed the years and years of the dev mentioning that the game is based on a tabletop, pen and paper RPG. While I played a LOT of D&D, quite a lot of Call of Cthulu, and a bit of Top Secret back in the day, I somehow missed Cyberpunk 2077.

It seems, based on the missions I have done so far, that Cyberpunk 2077 is very story-based with multiple endings depending on choices made throughout the game. I adore this type of thing. You will chat, explore, plan heists and have adventures. Then you will shoot the shit of people and things or sneak about and hack gadgets. It is too early for me to say what type of character I am going to ultimately pick but my gameplay, if given a choice, is usually an ‘all guns blazing’ style. Although I do like to sometime hack things like gun turrets to add to the chaos.

What I like so far is how story-based this game is. It is like an interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ movie with guns.

If that isn’t what you are looking for, then it might not be for you. Probably won’t be, in fact. I love story-based, single-player games, so Cyberpunk 2077 is perfect for me. As an added bonus, and partly why I was so excited about the game to begin with, it’s Cyberpunk. I fucking love all Cyberpunk. Anything from Mega City 1 to Blade Runner to William Gibson. It is partly why I have spent over half my life in futuristic Hong Kong and the neon chaos of Bangkok. The rest was in gritty old London.

What is bad and what everyone is bitching about

Glitches and bugs. I suspect after nearly a decade in development, CD Project Red were until a lot of pressure to just get the game done. It seems they were a tad premature as it isn’t quite finished. Although it does seem to play better on the PS5 and PC.

On the plus side, their beta testing pool has now expanded to several million people, so they should have a pretty decent idea of what the main issues are. A mate of mine got the game day one and said it was pretty much unplayable on a PS4 base version. Which is what I have. By the time I downloaded it and had a chance to play, we were already on version 1.4. I managed to play for three hours before there was a crash.

In fact, in the six hours I have played, it has crashed twice. Which is bad but not as bad as other games on day one that I’ve played and consequently grown to love. I’m looking at you Fallout 4.

There have been other minor graphic glitches which really sucks you out of the immersion. One was helpful – a big armoured dude got stuck in a lift and couldn’t get out to kill me, so I just chucked a couple of grenades in. Fun, but still a bit annoying.

One bit of advice if playing on the base PS4 – go to the graphics settings and turn everything off. I think it looks slightly better.

The good people at CD Project Red are aware of this and a couple of days ago announced on their website:

First of all, we would like to start by apologizing to you for not showing the game on base last-gen consoles before it premiered and, in consequence, not allowing you to make a more informed decision about your purchase. We should have paid more attention to making it play better on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Second, we will fix bugs and crashes, and improve the overall experience. The first round of updates has just been released and the next one is coming within the next 7 days. Expect more, as we will update frequently whenever new improvements are ready. After the holidays, we’ll continue working — we’ll release two large patches starting with Patch #1 in January. This will be followed by Patch #2 in February. Together these should fix the most prominent problems gamers are facing on last-gen consoles. 

https://en.cdprojektred.com/news/important-update/

Conclusion

I really, really love Cyberpunk 2077 despite its glitches. It is something of a tightrope though. If the glitches and crashes were slightly worse, it would start to ruin things a bit. Which is a shame because the city, the story and the characters are brilliant. There are moments when it is as exciting and tense as any film or novel. Then there will be a glitch that ruins it slightly.

My main decision now is to wait for the next patch in January (or even the other in February) and hope that clears up the problems. Or wait until PS5s come to Bangkok. Or whether I should just plough on.

This is a pretty tough one because I am really loving the story and want to know what happens, but any glitch consequently makes things all the more painful. CD Project Red are great developers and as quoted above, there should be a smooth version of the game on the horizon. Should I do a No Man’s Sky and just wait a bit?

I’m acting like it is a dilemma but in reality, it isn’t. I’m going to play the damn thing and just bitch about it occasionally. Game on.