Cyberpunk 2077 Review

What up residents of Night City? It’s your favorite Beast coming at you with this review of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 5. After 3 delays we finally get to visit this booming city of sex, corruption, excitement, and adventure. At least that’s what was promised, but it seems that Cyberpunk 2077 is going through some serious issues and not just in terms of technical issues. Let’s see if it was all worth the wait.

Night City Stories:

So, to keep the story simple, have you’ve seen Johnny Mnemonic? Well if you have not the concept is almost similar. You are a merc named V starting things off with a bar fight and then an unlikely friendship with a street thug named Jackie Wells. Things go from bad to a hilarious montage of fun. Then things get hectic on a job where you witness a high dignitary murdered and you having to have to put an experimental chip in your head.

How is this tied to Johnny Mnemonic? Well, that chip you put in is slowly eating away at your brain since it is another person. This personality in this corrupted chip is eating away at V’s brain to eventually kill him. Johnny Silverhand is the other personality, a ghost in a shell to be clear. See, that’s another reference. Pretty much Johnny has unfinished business which he has decided against your will to help him with it.

Of course, you have many other jobs to attend to along the way as you go through a literal mind f**k! But the rest of the story remains spoiler-free.

Gameplay:

This is your run of the mill open-world RPG with all the bells and whistles. You have your different districts for lower, middle, and high class. Your NPC’s roaming around with minor dialogue and interaction. You have your side quest and sub-quest that regenerate. Then, of course, your shops galore in clothing, ripper shops, weapons, and food.

I am playing on the PS5 so using the touchpad opens up your menu to see maps, characters stats, mission journal, inventory, and crafting. As you level up you get upgrade points and perk points. There are 5 in total with 2 to 3 perk menus in each. I mostly focused on Body, Intelligence, Tech Abilities, and Reflexes. The cool is for stealth, and since I hardly use stealth in any situation it stays empty. So, pick the way you want to play and concentrate on that.

You will also get Street Cred as you level up which more jobs and offers come to you as you progress. It is a nice feature and the side missions keep getting crazier each time. As for the map as a whole, it is littered with cit events in blue that respawn. So if you want to do some decent farming that is your best bet. However, make sure you are high enough to deal with it.

Missions have a rank system from very low to Very High. You could try to tackle very high missions to level up faster, but you will be two shots into submission. The spoils of war in an RPG is the fastest way to earn Eddies which is the currency in the game. Pick up what you see and find drop boxes that only hold 20k each. If you want to craft materials you can also break down items and upgrade the gear you favor the most. This includes weapons as well and that is pretty much your run of the mill farm, breakdown, and upgrade formula.

The violence of night city is quite interesting. Are you a gun person or a melee person? The choice is yours. As you go through events and missions you will find out what works best for you. Personally, I find the gunplay to be boring. I use mostly LMG’s and shotguns. There is smart weaponry with bullets that will home in on your target, but you need the smart link upgrade. I have my gorilla fist augments, optics with cyberware functions to attack or disable enemies. As well as augmented legs for double jumps.

I had more fun in Cyberpunk 2077 using melee weaponry instead of guns. You can get upgrades to make each weaponry better in your skill tree. But nothing like using a bladed weapon to take off limbs and lop off heads. Even better with my Gorilla Fist upgrades that I pummel enemies into pound town.

However, the way you approach a situation is up to you. You can go to non-violent, stealth, or full-on Rambo. Depending on your actions will lead the story a certain way, but I like that there is no wrong answer. It might make things difficult later on in the world, but your choice will not be wrong. Things are costly so spend wisely because even if you want to respec your perks, that will cost you 100K and will respec immediately once purchased.

Visuals:

Night City is gorgeous in the day time and at night, especially going out to the nomad lands. It looks gorgeous on the PS5. All the visuals and the lights and at times I drive all the way to the mountains and just look at the city at night to enjoy the view.

Even the music is on point giving us some unique tunes that you as a streamer or review will not have to worry about copyright strikes.

Here comes the bad:

Oh boy, hold on to your butts for this one and no it is not all about the corruption in the game. Cyberpunk 2077 as a whole falls under the “Over-Hyped” category in games. There is a lot of showing off when it comes to celebrity backing. Oh, Kojima is in the game, the special bike you get is inspired by Akira, Elon Musk Wife Grimes is in the game, and of course, the main man Keanu Reeves playing a key character in the game. It is all good and all but the developers didn’t focus on things that are important in my opinion.

For one, the customization is limited and yet detailed in the wrong areas. My main pet peeve with a game that offers a custom character option is its limitations. When creating a character I expect the likes of Skyrim or Saints Row where you have options to make a big person, little person, muscular or fat. But in Cyberpunk it’s all about the basics. in Hair, eyes, lips, nose, skin color, makeup, tattoos, and genitals! Yes, the huge focus on your genitals is funny to me. You can be a male with female parts or female with male parts, that’s not the issue but it felt like they focused too much on that versus actually giving us a character that can truly be us.

You see a diverse cast of characters in the gaming world of Cyberpunk so it gets quite vexing to not be able to have that freedom. Moving on from that is the vehicles in the game that drive horribly. I highly recommend just using the motorcycles you acquire and at least you can switch to 3rd person mode while driving. They need to add that to the main game too, even though someone did do a PC Mod and the animation is horrible.

When it comes to the combat portion the gunplay is not the greatest that I’ve experienced. Even when you build up the states, I find it kind of dull so I switch to melee only to make things interesting. Shotguns are still fun and I mostly rely on hacking anyway to deal with enemies.

The city as a whole is dull and feels like I am only a soulless date leaving me yearning for cuddles. I thought I was going to get lost in the story, but personally, I don’t find it that engaging or interesting or have that true sense of dread since you are slowly dying. I was expecting more of a danger from different gangs as I have killed many Tyger claws in the game, so I was under the impression that I might have to watch my back. But sadly, nope, I passed by many gangs that I have killed and they pay me no mind. One would think that my Street Cred would mean something after taking down both Maelstrom and Tyger Claws, but no. That is disappointing.

And yes the many crashes that I have experienced through my playthrough, but as I am working on this review there has been a new HotFix. So I might check that out to see if I get any more crashes.

Final diagnostics:

There were lots of promises and expectations when it came to Cyberpunk 2077.  All the number of delays and I felt bad for the developers. They wanted to produce a fun experience and I understand the pressure they were getting from publishers and shareholders. We are at a time where too many gamers are too comfortable with games coming out half-finished or not done at all. Where we have to wait for patches and updates for a full experience. However, there are other developers that show that is not the case and a game can come out as intended. Completed, what saves CD Projekt Red is that they were upfront with the issues and are trying their best to aid the customers.

Instead of opting in for a refund, I decided to give CD Projekt Red a chance. However, even with the patches my score still stands as I give Cyberpunk 2077 3 paws out of 5. I would suggest either the google Stadia option or Xbox Series X where I am hearing there are minimum issues or none at all. Hopefully, when the true PS5 and Xbox Series X versions come out it will be finally finished. – Beast Out –

Final Verdict: