Cyberpunk 2077 Review

A neon-lit Night City tower block at night, covered in billboards and signs including Roasted Noodles, Softsys and Kendachi. Night City at night. Screenshot by Ian, PC, update 2.5.

The pitch

Cyberpunk 2077 is CD Projekt Red’s open-world action RPG set in Night City. I played the base game on PC at update 2.5. I haven’t touched Phantom Liberty yet, so this review doesn’t cover it.

Story

Sat on the Cyberpunk story overnight. I like it. A lot. I think it’s very interesting because V/Johnny’s story is definitely front and center, but Night City and its residents tell a very different story, and both are pivotal to your decisions and your perception of the game. Johnny and V’s stories are both about redemption and second chances, but in very different ways, and in the end you realize they’re two sides of the same coin with intertwined fate.

Johnny gets his second chance by getting a new life via the chip in V’s head, with the opportunity to grow as a person that he never gave himself when he was alive. You get to see him legitimately grow a conscience and put others before himself. And at the end he completely course corrects by storming the tower, but in a way that makes sense and serves others, as opposed to true maniacal terrorism.

On V’s side you get redemption because he’s been given a second chance at life too. He has the opportunity to live and grow not only as a merc but as a friend. While he doesn’t really grow as a character, he gets to foster bonds and help the others around him grow as people. He used his second chance in a way that’s inverse to Johnny’s, yet in the end they both come out with a second life in a different form. Truly magnificent storytelling.

I really enjoy a good character who grows a bit but mostly helps others grow and has a really profound effect on them. Something like Goku. He still grows a lot as a person, but it’s a lot more subtle and spread out. Johnny is a lot more like Vegeta in that regard, with a story centered on himself for most of the narrative. He grows, but in the end he ends up serving others.

And to be honest, I appreciate the game not going for some life-changing profound idea towards the end. It wouldn’t fit with the rest of the game. A good, solid ending that ties it all up works much better.

Night City

Night City is one of the best open worlds I’ve played, and I mean it. It’s almost its own character. Visually it’s stunning. How often do you see a game this bright and vibrant, with animated billboards, bustling traffic and bizarre NPC interactions on the street?

A glowing holographic koi fish floating between skyscrapers in Night City at night, with Kang Tao signage on a nearby tower. A holographic koi floating over Night City. Screenshot by Ian, PC, update 2.5.

The side quests are just as bizarre and unique. The Beat on the Brat questline was so much fun. You travel all over the city, meet crazy people, win fights and chase glory, and you also see how the sport corrupts people.

The city tells its own story, too. It has such a crazy effect on people that most residents end up on one of two paths, dead or out of the city, and either way they’ve been corrupted, damaged, broken or changed.

Don’t get me started on the atmosphere. Nothing hits quite like driving through Night City at night with the radio on, in an awesome car that does not handle well, LOL. I was so immersed that at one point I forgot I was playing a game. It happened during The Ballad of Buck Ravers, one of Johnny’s side missions, when he was talking about his bootleg tapes of his Samurai band. The music was playing, Johnny was monologing, and it felt real.

A Porsche seen from behind, driving down a wet Night City street at night with a glowing blue koi hologram in the background. The awesome car that does not handle well. Screenshot by Ian, PC, update 2.5.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is excellent. It’s got everything from heavy metal to EDM, somber tracks to vibe to, bizarre noises and sounds, trap and club music, and more. There’s something for everyone, and I’ve put a lot of the songs on my Spotify gaming playlist. My personal favorite is “Never Fade Away” by SAMURAI.

Side quests and characters

River Ward’s questline was my favorite part of the side content. It plays like a detective thriller: you’re hunting a serial killer, it has a bittersweet resolution, and then it turns into a wholesome look at River’s personal life. It was intense, personable and bizarre. Helping River, and having him confide in V like a real friend, worked for me. The dinner at the end, where you play the game with River and the two kids, was so sweet. I let the kids win, thank you.

The Peralez quests were just OK. You look into the mayor’s death and find out they’re being spied on and having their entire minds rewritten. It’s not bad by any stretch, but I never got invested in Elizabeth and Jefferson or their plotline.

Gameplay

I ran a gunslinger build: revolvers and snipers for the main damage, rockets firing out of my arm for the big moments, and cyberware focused on defense buffs, time slowing and stamina regen.

The cyberware screen showing a full build, with implants filling the frontal cortex, operating system, arms, face, skeleton, hands, nervous system, circulatory system, integumentary system and legs slots. My final cyberware build. Screenshot by Ian, PC, update 2.5.

The build was super duper fun. I loved having to be precise with my shots. It got properly stressful in the mid to late game, when enemies could dash around and headshots got a lot harder. That’s also why it felt so good when I landed one. My two favorites were the Overwatch, the sniper Panam gives you, and Johnny’s Malorian Arms 3516. They also proved to me how bad my aim is in FPS games, haha. I usually play Nintendo games and turn-based RPGs.

Performance and glitches

It ran great on my PC, which surprised no one. I’m on a 5070 Ti and a Ryzen 7 9800X3D, playing at 1440p with DLSS and path tracing on. With 2x frame gen I sat around 120-150 fps.

A Porsche with bright headlights driving head-on down a wet Night City road at night. Headlights on wet pavement. Screenshot by Ian, PC, update 2.5.

I hit two glitches. The funny one happened during a race gig. My car and I fell through the map, respawned at the top of the world, fell back down, and exploded.

The frustrating one was in the last cyberpsycho hunt. I couldn’t collect the evidence off the computer, so I couldn’t finish the questline.

Who it’s for

As long as you’re okay with a lot of graphic violence, nudity and strong language, I’d recommend this game to most players. The story is fascinating, and the sandbox is incredible. You can ditch the story completely and go explore, do races, fight psychos and do side quests. The gunplay and customization are stellar too. If you like any of those things, you’ll find something to love.

Verdict: 9.0/10. A stunning, bizarre open world with stellar gunplay. Base game only, played on PC at update 2.5.