Game reviewed after Patch 1.5


Spoiler-free.
This will be my LONGEST review yet.. have to talk about this one properly.

Cyberpunk 2077 – the most anticipated game in the history of gaming... happened to be the most unfinished game in the gaming history, prior to the patch 1.5. In all seriousness, Cyberpunk 2077 is as one man said „breathtaking", when you´re not listening to the mainstream of people that hate on it because it was cool to do.

To filter out all the drama with this game, I have to say that what CD Projekt RED did with the release was NOT a good choice. A game of this size, with this much anticipation, should have been in the development for much, much longer. This is where patch 1.5 comes into play, which actually makes the game feel like a release. I, who has played it in the first week it came out, and now, after patch 1.5 – the game has gone a loooong way. I couldn´t finish the game at release, because it wasn't that enjoyable with the bugs and the horrible performance with a mid-range PC. To people that bought it at release, I ab-so-lu-te-ly advise you to play it NOW. You'll have a great time.

In the quickest way, Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world first-person shooter with RPG elements. Story of Cyberpunk is set in a „dystopian metropolis" named Night City, located in the New United States of America (NUSA). You play as V (short name for Vincent/Valerie), a 27-year-old hired gun – where V's background depends on the life path you take in the start – Nomad, Street kid, and Corpo.

Nomad – V leaves his/her nomad family, searching for work in Night City.
Street kid – V comes back from out of town Atlanta, to work out some old favours.
Corpo – V is an Arasaka counterintel agent, trying to get to the top.

Picking your lifepath sadly only affects the game tutorial you have and bonus dialogue options while talking. It's pretty underwhelming when it feels like such a big choice in the character creation, although I do recommend picking your lifepath's dialogue options once in a while because it adds to the roleplay and you learn about V's background A LOT more. In my playthrough, I picked Nomad, which felt like the way you're supposed to play the game. or I'm just a sucker for family stuff lol

The Story:
Since this is a spoiler-free review (which is not how I usually write, but here it was a must) I can't say too much – though there are some things I can say: if you are a sensitive person, grab some tissues, 'cause I bet you're gonna cry.
The story is beautifully written, with somewhat- not somewhat predictable twists, some cliché dialogues, and everything in between. It sure is a hell of a ride. One thing I recommend before playing, is to find a tutorial on how to get a romance with certain characters... This mechanic just makes this game THAT much better (You'll thank me later when you meet Panam :p).

Character creation:
The character creation is amazing... and kind of disappointing at the same time. In my opinion, it revolutionized the boundaries of every other character creator ever: by adding so many more things, like cyberware to your face, body tattoos, customizable n*des lmao and so on. Things like cyberware really add to the neo-futuristic atmosphere of the game. Now, the disappointing thing is, that it's preset-based – meaning no sliders. Even the colors are presets, so there aren't even all the basic colors. Also, before patch 1.5, it was impossible to change your appearance. The only thing you could do was to install a mod to add this missing feature... Fortunately, that's not the case anymore, since you can now change your appearance by going to the mirror.

Gameplay:
The Gameplay has an RPG emphasis that works decently enough. Loot is located everywhere. Some things, like healing items, are spawning a lot more than you actually need and use. Unfortunately, the food system is just obsolete – I have never had a moment where I needed to eat food to gain a „special buff", because there are pretty much no special buffs, plus the gameplay doesn´t ever give you a reason to do so.

Shooting feels good, with gunfights that can get very intense without planning it beforehand. Guns drop from every enemy (that had a gun on him duh). Gun variety is by no means, weak. Even with these new updates that are making all guns viable, I used the same 3 to 4 guns throughout the whole game. Attachments are pretty lackluster because there are just two things you can change: the scope and muzzle. Mods are also something you can put on your gun, such as removing horizontal recoil completely, stronger leg damage, higher critical chances etc. Coming from games like Call of Duty and such, the attachment system is dated but it works. Small note: I recommend finding some recoil mods since the recoil can sometimes be overwhelming.

Hacking is something I adored in this game since there was something hackable nearly everywhere. You can hack pretty much anything – vending machines, people, computers, you name it. Quick hacks are great fun, even though some are much stronger than others. You could say, it has a big Watch_Dogs vibe while its hacking is completely and utterly different than in Cyberpunk.

Skills and perks are a huge thing that determines your play style. There are so many skills and perks that it will look overwhelming at the start until you learn the menu and what each thing does. You can make yourself a Chad that has huge amounts of HP, or you can be a ninja that has maxed out melee damage. Even a hacking playstyle can be achieved with a bit of knowledge.

The driving model is very simple yet it works acceptably enough (as of patch 1.5 since it wasn't very good before). However, you can NOT do anything to your car except drive it. CDPR promised that it would be car heaven and you could be able to customise it any way you want... aaand that didn't happen. So if you're a car enthusiast, I'm sorry.

Cyberpunk's biggest design flaws:
Absence of a real cutscene (with a few exceptions)
No third-person mode except for vehicles
Clothing system (which is getting an update later that fixes this flaw)
Poor DLC content at the time of writing this review
Minimap too zoomed-in (fixable with a mod)
Visible scripts and clunky animations this one is a bugger for me ahhhhhhh
No gang activities

My opinion: In the end, Cyberpunk 2077 delivered on so many levels and downgraded badly in some terms. Technical problems and drama aside, the mature, powerful story, the characters, the open world and the sheer distinction from other games – Cyberpunk is a must-play. I highly, highly advise you to play this game in 2022. The story will have a place in my heart for being written so perfectly.

9/10