8 YEARS in development and came out ridden with bugs, performance issues and cut content/missing features ? How ?! It feels as if it was made in the last 2-3 years and yet, even that amount of time seems long enough for most games to be developed properly without certain systems being broken upon release.

Now, if you want to look it up, CDPR is not as big as... Ubisoft, for example, nor does it have the same amount of employees nor studios across the globe. I know it's a dumb comparison, but the point I'm trying to make is that CDPR has three studios at the moment, THE WROCŁAW STUDIO joining in 2018, as their third branch. Therefore, those 8 years of development, can be easily cut to about 4, maybe 5. More exactly since 2016, after CDPR released The Witcher's last expansion Blood and Wine, on the 31st of May. And so, I doubt that they could've made much while The Witcher 3 was developed (2012-2016), besides the story and an early build. Thus, the summer of 2016 could be when CDPR started to fully commit all their attention towards Cyberpunk 2077.

Rockstar, during their 8 years developing Red Dead Redemption 2, is the most accurate example with which one could compare CDPR's Cyberpunk 2077 developing team. Yet, the former managed to release a game that to this day, I consider to be one of the best looking games I've ever played on a console.

If this would be compared with any other game, that released in the last 2 years, it would come out as second best, in most departments. I've seen better looking games, with more vibrant and detailed open-worlds perform way better on both consoles and Lower-End PC's than this game does.

Thus far it seems, CDPR bit more then they could chew. And above all, they made the mistake to announce a release date, while unsure of the game's state. They should've kept to their word, '>COMING: WHEN IT'S READY'. And do something similar to what Bethesda has done in the past. And just pop in to say: 'Hey ! Guess what ? IT'S READY !'. Then release the game two months later.

Unfortunately, that didn't happened...


I didn't expect the game to run on 60 FPS, because of my CPU, which is an FX-8350. Yeah. However I did expect or rather hoped, for a stable experience, around 40-50 FPS on Medium-High. The trick is, I was partly right. It does run, on High even (obviously, with Cascaded Shadows Range & Cascaded Shadows Resolution on Low), however the occasional FPS drops, range from 20-30, dropping the overall FPS sometimes into the mid 20s, and that, I did not expect. Yet, after some tinkering within NVIDIA Control Panel, I managed to solve the issue, and reduced the drops from 50 to 30 by about 10-15, whilst still keeping the game on High. Then, updated my graphics card driver (GTX 1070) to 460.89 (released on 15/12/2020), which surprisingly further reduced the drops in certain areas. So by now I manage around 32-35 FPS in the middle of the city, and around 40-50 FPS on the outskirts, and 55+ outside of Night City. Which is very good for an outdated system alike mine.

Also, I played my first 20 hours on Ultra, and the only downside of that was about 7 FPS, while the drops without NVIDIA Control Panel remained the same, so 20-30. Haven't tried to see how the game performs with them though. And as for Lower Presets, not much improvement, actually the game runs smoother on High, because on the Low or Medium Presets I experienced stuttering.

After patch 1.05, the game works even better without the NVIDIA Control Panel settings, and as far as I've noticed, it never drops below 30 FPS.

P.S : It makes no damn difference whatsoever, if you install the game on an SSD or an HDD. I for one haven't seen any improvement. The load times are the same in both cases.


The stealth: It's decent, can be done with ease, and if one's creative enough it can be quite fun. When bug free...

'Cause, through my 100 hours of playtime, I've experienced NPC's that see you sometimes through walls. Detect bodies when they clearly detected squat, because I hid them all in containers (Hitman style), and at times were alerted by the wind, while I wasn't in their line of sight, nor was I detected by cameras.

The hacking: useful when attempting to be stealthy, and effective in combat. Blind one enemy, by rebooting optics, then chuck a grenade at his feet. There are plenty of ways to help yourself gain the upper hand during any kind of encounter.

The Weapons/Guns, or none at all, but your bare fists (perhaps, cybernetically enhanced):

There are many weapons, from Knives, Machete, Khukuri, Katanas to Pistols, Revolvers, Rifles, Shotguns and Sniper Rifles. And you're going to go through them much alike a tornado through a town. You're going to pick 'em up, so you can throw 'em out later. Because Crafting or Upgrading your stuff, is either expensive or just useless, at least early in the game.

Driving: It's decent. Some cars feel heavy, others light and nimble. I don't know what people complain about. A piece of advice, even if it's the distant future, try using the break before turning...


It is as if, CDPR, wanted to cram everything under the sun in their new game. Which I welcome every developer out there to try, the more complex and dynamic your game the more it adds to it's value, I think. BUT, if you fail to implement those systems well enough, and somehow don't manage to smooth out the rough edges, so that they pull on the player's attention, then that is not good.

They tried to blend a Deus Ex game, with a GTA world, The Witcher 3's RPG mechanics, and Destiny's loot. Does it work ? Yes it does. Really ? No...

But, the world ? Oh, man. The world, the iconic, dystopian, neon light drenched, Night City, is just amazing. There are few settings in gaming that look as good as Night City does. With tall skyscrapers, dark back alleys illuminated by neon lights and a buzzing flickering lamppost. Steam emerging out a gutter, trash bins to one side, next to a pile of empty, broken bottles scattered around. As further down that same alley, amidst the hustle and bustle of the city,
laughter and chatter become clearer. About six neighborhood kids, gangster wanna be, two breaking bottles, as the rest break the skull of some corpo.

Just alike The Witcher, CDPR crafted a very well designed, atmospheric world. That often reminds me, aesthetically, of Neo Tokyo from Akira and Los Angeles from Blade Runner. And all of the above, along with the masterfully crafted soundtrack, offer a great escape into the dark future.

At times...

'Cause the NPC/AI are buggy and poorly done. A huge step down from what we've seen in The Witcher, for example. While their wanted system and the cops, are among the worst I've ever seen...


Sadly, it's nowhere near as intricate as CDPR let it out to be, nor the masterpiece most praise it to be. Yet, it can be really good, and other times it's noticeable how it was cut then put back together in haste to make out something coherent, which leaves no lasting impression, nor does it have many memorable moments. As it's two acts, of almost 20+ hours, are the consequence of major content cuts, in order to squeeze the game into a wanted release timetable.

For example, if the intro alone would've been about 5-10 hours long, instead of a mere hour. The player could've been properly introduced to Jackie, and other characters within Night City. But no, instead, we get a cheap montage. After which, no matter what Life Path you choose, the story plays out pretty much the same way.

Just look up the cut content, because CDPR, butchered this game prior to release...

I hope they add the missing features/content in future patches, because the whole game would really benefit from it, not just the story. If they don't, well it's pretty clear why, since the Multiplayer is coming in 2022...