Cyberpunk 2077 | Xbox One Review

I’ve been chomping at the bit to play Cyberpunk 2077 since it was officially announced in 2012. Not because of developer CD Projekt Red‘s previous endeavors (I’ve never played The Witcher titles), but because I’m a sci-fi geek. The idea of an open-world action/shooter with a cyberpunk aesthetic sounded amazing. This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a big-budget Blade Runner game.

We Got a City to Burn

Based on the underground tabletop roleplaying game, Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person action-RPG set in the fictional Night City. Think of it as a futuristic California metropolis in the year 2077. You play as V, a fully customizable mercenary who is betrayed by a local fixer and crime boss and is left for dead after a botched heist. V is then reawakened, thanks to a cybernetic implant chip containing the digital ghost of Johnny Silverhand. This unhinged rockstar tried to take down a powerful corporation decades prior and is breathtakingly played by the internet’s favorite good guy Keanu Reeves.

While I enjoyed the plot to a certain extent, to me it isn’t the game’s greatest strength. I found the world-building, the characters who inhabit them, the futuristic technology, and the concepts to be best and the most fascinating. It’s a future where cybernetic enhancements and implants blur the lines between flesh & blood and circuits & microchips.

With Friends Like These

The writing is also something I feel deserves a mention. I’ll admit I’m slightly disappointed with how Johnny Silverhand gets involved in the story. But it’s the other supporting characters with their story arcs and goals I found myself enjoying the most. This makes me, as V, want to get to know them more. Plus, the romance option for some of these characters is a nice bonus. The two standouts I found myself liking the most were Panam Palmer, a nomad living in the desert badlands along with her clan; and Judy Alvarez, a virtual braindance technician you meet early on in the main story. Each of these characters has their own goals and side quests. Completing these can be quite integral to the game’s overall narrative.

Speaking of overall narrative, the main campaign felt too short. Perhaps this is my bad, but I reached the point of no return in what felt like no time at all. But my skill levels and character stats seemed far too low. I was quite surprised and confused on how I could reach the final act so soon. Pro tip: play as many side quests and side stories as possible before passing the point of no return. Your character will be at a more appropriate level, and you’ll have plenty of money for cyberware and weapons.

High-tech, Low-life

A lot of attention and detail went into the character customization. To begin, you’ll pick your character’s backstory, choosing one of three lifepaths: nomad, streetkid, or corpo. Each life path will start the game in different ways. As for your character’s appearance, there are plenty of options to choose from. This includes V’s gender, hairstyle, skin tone, body type, and more; even V’s nether regions are fully customizable. For those who don’t like to get fully into the nitty-gritty of character customization, there’s a randomizer and a few presets available to you. I went with a female V.

Cyberpunk 2077 at its very core is an RPG. This means you can expect all the standard mechanics for the genre. Skill trees, perk points, attribute points, crafting & upgrading, inventory management, and a buy/trade economy are all present. However, it’s all too familiar and cookie cutter and doesn’t try anything new. I don’t play too many role-playing games, especially turn-based RPGs (sorry Final Fantasy fans). But even I’ve seen these tropes in other action-adventures with mild RPG mechanics, mostly with the recent Assassin’s Creed titles.

But that’s by no means a bad thing. As familiar as the mechanics might be, they’re implemented well enough that an inexperienced RPG player can feel at home. But for experienced gamers, you may be disappointed by how it doesn’t try anything new. The good news is the skill tree isn’t an arbitrary affair like most modern games tend to be. It’s set up in a way that lets you choose the skills you want that fits your play style.

No Such Thing as Too Much Iron

As for combat, there’s both melee and ranged options with perks and upgrades for both. I didn’t get too involved with the brawling. I’ve always found first person hand-to-hand combat to be a bit awkward and jarring. But it’s still done well enough and makes sense for the few times I did get into fistfights. You can block, parry, and do both light and heavy attacks. Or if you have the Mantis Blades cyber ability unlocked, you can slice n’ dice and filet your enemies. 

The real fun is in the vast variety of guns. There are three different classes: power, tech, and smart. Power guns are the more common, traditional guns. Tech guns can penetrate solid objects after a charged shot, and smart guns have homing bullets. These will seek out your target as long they’re in your general line of sight.

The Future is Blurry

This is where I must address the problems that were grabbing headlines for the wrong reasons upon launch. I must point out that I played Cyberpunk 2077 on a base model Xbox One. The technical issues brought up in the dozens of articles about this subject are indeed true. I encountered a few of them myself, but they’re not game-breaking and occured few and far between.

The articles written on this subject, as valid as they may be, are blown out of proportion in my opinion. Most of the problems I experienced were more on the performance side of things rather than graphics or gameplay. I’ve experienced several dips in framerate, none of which ruined my enjoyment playing this game. It’s disappointing, but not rage inducing.

Night City looks gorgeous. It’s a dream come true to be driving and exploring in the playground of a futuristic metropolis. Each of the city’s districts have distinctive characteristics and unique architectural styles. The downtown City Center is the most “Blade Runner-esque,” with sleek buildings full of holographic billboards and lights. Then there’s the Pacifica district, my favorite area. It was meant to be Night City’s vacation destination, but was left abandoned only to be overtaken by gangs.

The soundtrack is another highlight, with plenty of music in a variety of genres through the in-game radio stations. The sound effects are on point as well. You can even hear the sound of bullets hitting flesh in some moments.

Nobody Ever Leaves Night City

Underneath the bugs and technical issues, there truly is a great game to be enjoyed here. Of course I would want to play this on more powerful hardware. I can’t wait to upgrade to a next-gen console to really take in the game’s beauty. But for now I’m stuck with a base console, and that’s okay. Overall it’s fun, but not groundbreaking. It’s not perfect by any means, and it was definitely overhyped. But the people at CD Projekt Red do have an awesome IP on their hands, despite stumbling out the gate on launch.

There’s an awesome universe created here that’s rife with opportunities for expansion, either in a game sequel, or in other mediums. In fact, I understand there’s an anime series in development for Netflix due for release sometime in 2022. I hope the people behind this game know the potential gold mine they’re sitting on, as the franchise possibilities are abundant.

To hear more about Cyberpunk 2077, be sure to listen to Episode 325 of The Gaming Outsider Podcast. You can hear Chris Behrensmeyer’s discussion around the 36:17 time stamp.

This review is based on a purchased copy of Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One and played on a base model console. As of this writing, it is currently delisted on PlayStation, but available on Xbox Series S/X, and Microsoft Windows.