Three years ago, the developers of my second favorite game of all time launched what was hyped up to be the studio’s magnum opus. Unfortunately, when Cyberpunk 2077 released on December 10th, 2020, it would see developer CD Projekt RED have its name dragged through the mud by media and fans alike, and rightfully so. From atrocious, game-breaking bugs, a cavalcade of performance issues across all platforms, lackluster RPG mechanics, and a world that felt far less immersive than what was promised, Cyberpunk 2077 was a far cry from the game that the industry was expecting from the illustrious studio that had brought us a generational title in The Witcher 3. Add to that the myriad of reports published soon-after the game’s launch that outlined the terrible amount of crunch the developers had undergone to meet unrealistic deadlines, and the picture was far from pretty.
In the decades that I’ve been following this industry, I’d never quite seen something like the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. A game that had garnered so much hype and anticipation, from a studio that had established themselves as one of the industry’s best, for it to all come crashing down in such a messy fashion was truly a bewildering and unfortunate thing to witness. In situations like these, we’ve all come to expect studios to simply wash their hands of the mess, take the losses on the chin, and move on to the next project. This is doubly true for single-player experiences. CD Projekt RED didn’t even suffer all that much financially as Cyberpunk 2077 was a commercial success even after the terrible reviews were published. Much of this can be attributed to the amount of good will the studio had garnered from The Witcher 3, leading waves of fans willing to put the blinders up on any negative reception. As such, the Polish studio could have simply done some bare-bone patchwork to fix the glaring issues, and moved on. Thankfully, that isn’t what transpired.
CD Projekt RED have spent the past three years updating their game, to the point where their most recent re-release, titled Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, may very well be (as far as I’m considered) the “official” release of the game. The studio’s continued support in fixing, retooling, and expanding Cyberpunk, all the while actively listening to fans, has been a pleasant surprise and a rarity unseen from developers their size. This Herculean effort to turn such a disastrous game into the one that was initially promised has brought the studio back into the good graces of the industry. The Phantom Liberty expansion (which is included in the Ultimate Edition), coupled with the recently released patch 2.1, has finally turned Cyberpunk 2077 into the game it was supposed to be—prompting me to at last jump into the neon lights of Night City. A little over twenty five hours in, and I have a few thoughts.
Damn You, Alan Wake
As I mentioned in a piece from last month, I entered this new generation through the Xbox Series S. Though the little guy has been a great Game Pass machine, I was tired of compromising my experience each time I went into a AAA game, never knowing what corners developers had to cut to get their game onto Microsoft’s most affordable console. So I’d been tinkering with NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW for the past couple months, having played through both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Alan Wake II thus far. The experience has been impressive, and being able to play both titles on settings you wouldn’t be able to achieve even on the Series X and PS5 has been quite eye-opening. Particularly when it comes to Alan Wake II, a game whose visuals made me pause to gawk in awe at my screen more than once. Even with path tracing put on low (the most my Priority Tier cloud rig could handle) and every other setting set to medium, Remedy’s psychological survival horror is without question one of, if not the, most incredible looking game I’ve ever played. The way the game implements ray and path tracing to bolster its already beautiful lighting effects is nothing short of mind-boggling; to the point where I had to sit back and ask aloud, “how are they doing this?”
I was sold on the wonders of path tracing, DLSS, ray reconstruction, and all the other graphical wizardry NVIDIA have concocted up in their labs. So, with a newfound giddiness in wanting to see more of what these cutting-edge technologies can do on other high-profile games, I went off to finally purchase a game who was used as the initial showcase for said technologies. Unfortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 hasn’t been the most seamless experience. Where the visual wonders of path tracing are instantly obvious in Alan Wake II, things are a little more divisive in Night City. Though the path-traced lighting brought a beautiful and grounded realism to the game, it came with jarring “ghosting” effects that littered throughout every moving object. To fix that, you have to turn on ray reconstruction, which helps alleviate ghosting for the most part but brings with it an odd effect of its own wherein every character’s face now looked as if they’d smothered themselves with a tub of Vaseline. Not to mention the game axes more than half of your frames as soon as you turn on path tracing, making one wonder if its visual quirks are worth the heavy cost to performance. Though this cost was also apparent in Alan Wake II, it was far less severe, and didn’t come with the slew of other visual annoyances I’m seeing in Cyberpunk 2077. Not sure how Remedy were able to implement path-tracing so seamlessly while keeping their visual aesthetic, but they’ve frankly spoiled me.
Gorgeous Chaos
It’s a shame that I have to choose between sharp textures and realistic lighting effects, because having both would make Night City shine more than it already does. And shine it absolutely does, with a frenzied chaos that seems it’s about to burst at the seams. This city is…a lot. It’s a constant barrage of visual stimulus that at times feels like optical overload. Yet nothing feels out of place. There’s a frenetic cohesion to Night City, where every neon lit advertisement merges with a brutalist structure, which merges with another neon lit commercial building, which is siphoned by a cramped alleyway that’s crowded with questionable food carts. While walking through this neon jungle, you come across the hustle and bustle of the city’s residents. A hodgepodge of eccentric individuals all wearing a myriad of kooky outfits that are standard for the cyberpunk genre. Residents who often find themselves encountering violence from and with police, gang members, and corporate mercenaries. All of this makes Night City a place that never feels dull, and a game world that I haven’t felt this entranced by with how “alive” it feels since Red Dead Redemption 2.
The Stories Of Night City
Just as chaotic as its world is Cyberpunk 2077’s narrative. Its story revolves around a number of characters, each of whom play a part in the messy politics of the game’s world, and has you thrust into the middle of it. However, for as much as I welcomed the chaos of Night City, the chaos of its narrative is one that I initially felt lost by. There are a lot of characters in this game, each of whom play a part in the over-arching narrative, though at what capacity isn’t always obvious—at least at first. You’ll get a call from a random character while en route to a mission, who comes off as possibly an important pawn in the grand scheme of things, but turns out to be nothing more than a giver of fetch quests. This makes for a Rolodex of names that I often felt drowned by during my first dozen or so hours. Eventually, however, you figure out the “who’s who” of things, and all the names, locations, events, and references begin sorting themselves out in your Night City mind palace.
It just doesn’t happen as quickly or as smoothly as you’d hope, because Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t do a great job in pacing itself during those first handful of hours. It shoves you into the deep end from the get-go with not only a flurry of characters, but a barrage of high-octane events, one after the other. Though this may be apt for the genre, it isn’t a great way to conjure suspense and intrigue; both of which require time for the player to get acclimated. Nevertheless, even if things moved at slightly too brisk a pace in the beginning, the more I “took in” Night City, the more attached I felt myself becoming to it, its people, and all of its rich (and absurd) cultures and politics. Cultures and politics that are propelled by characters, from Keanu’s Johnny Silverhand all the way down to those that exist within the easily missed side stories.
Speaking of which, it’s impressive how every seemingly inconsequential side quest never fails to provide some interesting narrative quirk. Instead of being some banal fetch quest I’ve seen from the myriad of other open-worlds in recent years, side quests—even those that are listed as “gigs”—actually have some narrative heft. Even if it’s a minor character moment, a simple line of dialogue, a text exchange from the quest giver, or a journal entry that adds some intriguing context, they all do something of consequence that makes me take a moment to go, “hmm,” in appreciation. It’s this careful consideration to story and lore in every aspect of CD Projekt RED’s world that gives Night City all the more life, and something that makes me realize how much I’ve missed this approach to storytelling in open-world games. Attention to these smaller stories provide history, context, and an emotion that all add to a city’s identity. Speaking of emotion, I now only hope that its main story can hit not only those highs in terms of their grandeur and spectacle (which its already done, in Phantom Liberty especially), but in their quieter, character-driven moments as well. I’ve gotten a couple heartfelt scenes with characters like Judy and Panam, which excites me for what the remainder of my play-through will hold.
A Few Final Words
Cyberpunk 2077 has thoroughly taken over my life. I’m struggling to put the controller down, and finding myself doing things that I haven’t done in an open-world game since Rockstar’s second cowboy game and my aforementioned second favorite game of all time. Things like forgoing the fast travel mechanic all-together simply because I want to take in the scenery as I make my way to a mission objective. A scenery that is still chaotic, but one that my eyes have slowly but surely gotten accustomed to, and are loving all the more they do.
The one major gripe I had with The Witcher 3 was its combat. I was afraid that things would be the same after the first few hours of Cyberpunk, as the gunplay and hacking abilities simply weren’t “clicking” for me. However, having found somewhat of a meditative flow with a katana, alongside a few upgrades to my quick-hack abilities, and I’m now slicing and hacking my way through rows upon rows of corpo scum, and having a blast doing so. Whereas I often found myself groaning with every combat encounter as Geralt, enduring each fight to get to the next narrative beat, I’m finding myself giddily savoring each encounter as V; a welcomed surprise for someone who didn’t expect such a thing from CD Projekt RED.
Suffice it to say, I’m very glad I waited three years to play this game. For as much as CD Projekt RED deserved the criticisms for how they handled this game’s launch and the working conditions their developers had to endure, flowers must also be given for their continued work to do right by not only their fans, but to their game. Because Cyberpunk 2077 is proving to be a triumph in more ways than one, and imagining a scenario where the studio decided against fixing it is an alternate timeline I’m glad I do not exist in, because 2023’s Night City is where I would much rather be.
