Cyberpunk 2077: Positive Early Reviews Fuel Anticipation

CD Projekt Red’s latest project ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ has been the talk of the town since its release date was announced last year. Although, constant delays have annoyed the fans. However, with the massive success of ‘Witcher 3’ and how detailed CDPR made it, most are more than happy to wait a bit longer. The studio clearly wants their game to be ground-breaking and the fans expect nothing less.

Cyberpunk 2077 Night City Wire

The world did get a glimpse of the gameplay when Cyberpunk’s Night City Wire event on June 25 2020. The 25 minutes of livestream was the first episode of the Night City Wire. Here, CDPR unveiled a brand new trailer for the game which uncovered characters, the main storyline, and introduced us to Night City.

CDPR also announced its collaboration with Netflix to create a Cyberpunk anime. You can read more about it here.

CDPR also mentioned that the reviews for the game by certain journalists and media houses would be out after the stream. To make life easier for you, we have summarized 4 such reviews that perfectly describe the game’s experience.

Cyberpunk 2077 Reviews

Gamesradar’s Sam Loveridge hails CDPR’s world-building capabilities.

“From this very first hands-on with Cyberpunk, which saw me play through the opening four or so hours of the game, it’s clear that CD Projekt Red isn’t shying away from building a living world once again, but this time it’s doing it on a bigger scale than ever before with Night City.”

 This isn’t the first time we have seen CDPR’s world-building capabilities. The detailed and unpredictable world that Witcher 3 offers is the primary reason behind its success.

She also speaks about how like any open-world game, this game also has choices that affect your gameplay.

The game’s ‘braindance’ feature is one of the key highlights. To sum it up, Sam mentions, “It’s clear that this is exactly what the game was built for. CD Projekt Red has merely given us the tools with Cyberpunk 2077 to create our own stories in amongst that of their own.”

“Cyberpunk struggles with it as well”

Kotaku’s Ian Walker describes the game to be ‘Complex & Overwhelming.’

“Cyberpunk, like most wide-reaching genre descriptors, is hard to explain and even more difficult to nail down as a creator. Everyone has their own understanding of the term depending on the cyberpunk entertainment they’ve interacted with.”

It was hard to understand with so much happening at the same time. It was definitely a bit overwhelming. He further says that

“Cyberpunk is a first-person roleplaying game that’s a little bit Deus Ex and a little bit System Shock, with the conversation systems of Fallout and the open-world randomness of Grand Theft Auto thrown in for good measure.”

From the looks of it, the game does feel like a combination of the aforementioned titles. It also gives off a very ‘Total Recall” or “Dredd” movie vibe minus the flying cars (Or we may even be in for a surprise).

He also mentions some issues with the game’s combat mode being first-person.

“I’ve always found stealth rather awkward in first-person games, and Cyberpunk struggles with it as well. I never knew if I was hiding properly thanks to the limits of my perspective, which led to several instances of alerting off-screen enemy guards despite thinking I was safe behind a box or automobile.”

To sum up his verdict, Ian says, “Even after four hours, I still don’t feel as if I got a good handle on everything Night City has to offer.”

Beginning of the game and progression

PC Gamer’s Andy Kelly writes,

“Cyberpunk features three distinct life paths, which determine your starting area and your relationship with the world. I’m given the choice to play as a street kid, a corporate agent, or a wandering nomad.“

This plays a huge role in determining how a person will experience the game. Based on your choices, each person will find themselves having different dialogues with NPCs and a whole lot more.

Talking about the attention to detail and the character depth, he writes

“The variety of NPCs is extraordinary, and I keep stopping to check out Night City’s wild futuristic fashions. I see transparent vinyl raincoats, fluorescent track pants, elaborate high-top sneakers, visors, Hawaiian shirts, shiny metallic leggings, and all manner of customized, colored mechanical limbs.”

This proves CDPR’s prowess in terms of developing NPCs, each one with its own unique dialogues and features.

As he explains his journey through the preview, he goes on to explain every single detail that he is exposed to. To sum it up, he writes

“If the rest of the city is as dense, layered, and brimming with distractions as this, Cyberpunk2077 is going to devour a large chunk of my life.”

The game has 7 different districts with every single one of them being this extensive. Prepare to lose track of time while you play this game and explore Night City.

“Impressive to behold”

Gamespot’s Tamoor Hussain feels that the smaller stories in Cyberpunk potentially have a much bigger impact. He also mentions how impressive the setting was.

“Night City was impressive to behold. It has a raw, grimy kind of majesty, and the sensory overload hits the moment you walk out into its bustling streets. It’s a cacophony of chattering citizens, a barrage of lights, a constant hum of music, invasive advertising, distant sounds of gunfire, strange cars whizzing by, unsavory characters just looking for a reason to start trouble, and helpless people calling out for aid. It’s a place that makes you feel completely out of sorts and instills an odd sense of discomfort, but also beckons you to unlock the potential it holds”

Everyone expected this from CDPR considering how good Witcher turned out to be. Their attention to detail is one of the biggest advantages they have in terms of world-building. He also appreciates the ‘Braindance’ feature the game offers and ponders as to what it could hold in store for us in the coming future. This indicates a possible DLC expansion after the game is fully released.

Reviews mentioned the different combat features, interesting NPCs, the extensive Night City, and an impressive storyline. This is just a peek into the world of Cyberpunk 2077 and we can’t wait to see what the entire game has in store for us.