I’ve Only Ever Preordered Two Games: No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077
My history of digital game preorders is 100% disastrous launch followed by massive game redemption. I don’t know if that makes me lucky or unlucky.
My impeccable preordering record
Back in the dim and distant days of PlayStation 1, 2, and 3, I preordered a lot of physical discs – some on release day – with mixed success in terms of whether the games were any good. But at least the games had been released in a finished state. To the modern gamer, that might almost sound odd.
Then when I got a PS4, I entered the world of digital downloads. Mostly because I am lazy, got better WiFi, and couldn’t be arsed walking to the shops. Why bother, when a game can just magically appear on your console? Even so, I tended to wait until I had read the reviews.
There were two exceptions – No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077. They are the only two games I have ever bought before release or the reviews.
If you were into science fiction and gaming at the time, you may remember the hype surrounding these two. The first to come out was No Man’s Sky, and my god, it did not live up to publisher Hello Games’s promises.
The game worked, but it was a bit dull, and the majority of the features were missing. It was supposed to have dinosaurs, multiplayer, and much more. The backlash was legendary.
Thinking I had been unlucky – Hello Games were a small studio after all – I again fell for the hype surrounding Cyberpunk 2077. This felt like a safer bet as it was from CD Projekt Red. They were the team behind The Witcher 3, one of my all-time favourite games. How could it go wrong?
When I started playing it, it seemed to have all the features the devs had promised. I say ‘seemed’ because it didn’t really work. Its bugs were legendary, even on the PS5. Again, there was a backlash. It was so severe that people actually got refunds.
At that point, I assumed I was cursed and vowed never to preorder a game again.
What the games promised versus what we got
I remember when No Man’s Sky was being promoted, and we saw a seamless spaceship flight across an alien planet full of magnificent creatures and things like dinosaurs. Every planet was different, and you could take off and fly seamlessly into space, then navigate among the stars. You would be able to meet other players, have space battles, and explore vastly different planets.
What we got was a similar landscape on each planet, with fairly similar monsters. Then you spent a lot of time gathering resources in a pretty dull landscape. To be fair, taking off and flying seamlessly into space was pretty cool, but the multiplayer thing turned out not to be true (at the time), and it all felt a bit empty.
Meanwhile, Cyberpunk promised cool cyber adventures and great characters, with role-playing choices that mattered and changed how your story went. What we got was probably that, but after experiencing massive bugs every couple of minutes, I gave up on it for a couple of years. To be fair, some of the bugs were pretty funny.
Both went through massive game redemption arcs
I started to think I was a jinx, but then the patches, updates and expansions began. I read a lot of game review sites and spend way too much time on YouTube, and I kept hearing about how both games were getting better and redeeming themselves.
Any YouTube videos where they talk about games going from awful to great will always feature the game redemption arcs of these two.
No Man’s Sky released a ludicrous amount of content where everything they promised originally became a reality. And then they kept adding more. It was a ridiculous amount of content, and they did it all for free. Now, 10 years after the initial release, it is an astounding game and they still release stuff.
Cyberpunk 2077 also patched itself slowly but surely, until it became playable. We finally got to see if the game was actually any good. Which, in my humble opinion, it massively is. Night City felt lived in and was just incredible to look at and wander around in. Like The Witcher 3, it was full of genuinely amazing stories and adventures and was generally as cool as hell.
Then came the Phantom Liberty expansion, and it slotted nicely into the first game and made a great game even better. I am replaying it now, which made me think of this post.
Ironically, No Man’s Sky and Cyberpunk 2077 are now two of my favourite games
As I said before, games used to come out finished. You put the disc into your console and played them. It was a simpler and more innocent time.
Now they just seem to get near enough and release. Reviews sometimes even comment on big releases that come out in a good state, like that is an amazing feat. It doesn’t really make sense to play on day one, when you can wait for a few patches and the price to come down.
My two choices were both epically lucky and unlucky. Unlucky because they were top-ten-list rubbish at launch. But lucky because the devs behind them actually cared and not only fixed them, but turned them into two of the best games ever.
I have since made it a rule to wait a bit. It’s a rule I fully plan to break with Grand Theft Auto 6. Will the curse be broken?
If you don’t have them already and like games (which if you have read this far you probably do) you should check both of them out. Trust me, they’re awesome.
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