Its not too often to play a game and after that first playthrough you call it your game of the decade, but thats what happened with me and Cyberpunk 2077. I, perhaps like many of you, was very excited when I first started hearing about this game. Then, when the game released, I was also among those that felt a little let down by the initial product we got. So needless to say, I did not get too far into my first playthrough before I had given up and moved on thinking that this is the first time that CD Projekt Red has let us down. Then to much my surprise, update 2.0 came out, and everything changed.

Initial Release: December 10th 2020

Developer: CD Projekt Red

I re-found this game when I was going through a rough patch around the time the 1st DLC for Cyberpunk, Phantom Liberty, came out. I had seen a few people on the internet play bits and pieces of it before, but still hadn’t checked it out for myself yet. It wasn’t till a close friend of mine literally said “Dude, you should totally check out Cyberpunk I 100% think you love it.” I was in this weird depressive state for a bit so I kinda shrugged it off at first, until I started to really think about it.

An insanely beautiful and detailed living world, deep character profiles, fun game mechanics, engaging combat, and a TON of quality of life fixes had me thinking “How in the world have I slept on this game for so long???” Before long I was pushing 200 hours into my playthrough and loving every moment of it, thinking to myself “Wow, its amazing how any of this is possible.” While the incredible story and characters got me out of my funk the more I played the game the more almost inspired I found myself. Combine that with the “Independent Study” that I started at work that has allowed me to work on programming and game design at my own pace. So the further I got into the game the more I started looking at the design of the environments, how meticulously put together the world is, and how immersive the game is.

The world of Night City is something out of childhood me’s head. I have always adored the dystopian-retro-futuristic sort of styles seen in Terminator 2 and Blade Runner, so to see a game essentially set in that type of world blew my mind. Night City itself is on the larger side of game cities, Skyrim for example is about one third of the size. This is also partially due to the Badlands of Night City on the outskirts of the metropolis. Night City itself consists of several regions: the City Centre, Watson, Westbrook, Heywood, Pacifica, and Santa Domingo. Each region has its own style, gigs, fixers, cyberpsychos and sidequests so players are never short of something to do or new interesting people to meet. Doing gigs for fixers increases the players rep in the city and nets them more cash. If players complete all the gigs for a fixer they are rewarded with some sort of special reward. In some cases this was a weapon, a cybernetic upgrade, or even a vehicle. Additionally, players can buy and own quite a large vareity of in-game vehicles, which can be bought from in-game terminals (which help push the immersion). The game also features a day and night system which is awesome for the immersion that Night City is a living and breathing world, however, sometimes quests and sidequests had to be done at specifics times or took place after a certain amount of in-game days had passed. This led to awkward points later on where I had cleared the map of things to do, then as I would be heading towards one of the final story missions both in the main game and Phantom Liberty then I would get a call from someone that would unlock this whole line of sidequests. There were plenty of times I found myself thinking “Man I thought I was done, what else can there really be?” Cyberpunk even had its multiple noteriety systems. One for your total reputation level across the city and another for when you get into trouble and you can see the level of police noteriety (much like how it works in most GTA games). With each increasing level more advanced version of NCPD and Militech (Pretty much the military) arrive to take out the player.

Players at the start can choose from one of three character backgrounds: a corpo elite, a hustler from the streets (which is what I chose on my playthrough), or a Nomad from the Badlands. Players also have the ability to fully customize their “V” which is Cyberpunks protagonist. Im also one of those people that take a WHILE do make their characters, especially when the editor for making characters is super in-depth. Cyberpunk also offers ENDLESS clothing options in-game as well so players can change their style as much as they want. Sadly, you cannot customize the clothings colors but some clothing items do have special abilites attached to them. Throughout the adventures in Night City players can level up their character through expansive skill trees. This allows players even more customization as players can make character builds focussing on the in-game Netrunner, Techie, and Solo play styles. Players can also visit in-game ‘Ripperdocs’ to have more cybernetic upgrades added to their character, allowing them various abilities and buffs.Throughout there entire time in Night City players find themselves making choices that have real impact and caring about the in-game relationships they have been carrying out. Whether it be in-game actions or dialouge choices theres a way to play this game for everyone. Speaking of in-game relationships players can essentially romance a few of the characters in-game depening on the sex the player chose at the begining and depending on the players status with the character. A recent update allowed for players to actually invite one of the companions over to have a date. Nothing happens, just some talking then players can engage in ‘Cuddles’ then swiftly kiss them and leave the date. Quite sweet acutally. Throughout the game, the player will be contacted both through text messages and through a sort of video call style. I think CD Projekt Red pulled off the differences between these two perfectly. Where text was used for quick messaging / reference like dossier style. Then the video calling allowed for more important topics and the facial movements thats go with them to be conveyed. Sprinkling these commuication styles throughout also helped push that immersion for me. All of this, and I havent even mentioned one of the biggest cameos yet, which was obviously Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand. Who plays a dead terrorist from 50 years earlier whose memory is put onto a shard and then jammed into your players head. In my opinion, this is one of the best roles I have seen Reeves in and thats even comparing it to his movie works. Just how he is and how we playe Johnny are chefs kiss.

There were soooo many different game mechanics that went into this game that made it special. Some worked and some didnt. For the most part in my opinion they did work. The one mechanics I did have an issue with was with the brain dances. Which is something that totally aligns with what would occur in that world but I found it quite cumbersome to use. With that being said, I dont think theres much of a different way that they could have done it. Splitting the dances into different navigatable sections made it easier to find specifics clues and items that the player was suppose to find, which is why I can imagine they didnt combine those into one. Even though, that may have cut down on some of the time I think players would have missed stuff so ultimate they made the right call here just weird when the rest of the game works so well. I really like the idea of having to go to ripperdocs to be able to add upgrades to your character and being strapped into the chair. Old mechanics like double jump can be found mixed in with new mechanics like the mantis blades which are metal combat blades that come out of the forearms of the player. The ability to scan and hack was also awesome idea. Nothing like being mid-mission and being able to hack the cyberware of your enemies. All of these mechanics allow for players to play the game in endless ways. Additionally, I think the move to include a photo mode was also an incredibly good move. I mean for myself, I spent countless hours taking screenshots and marveling in he beauty of the city.

Cyberpunk was just too good of a game for me to pass up and I am glad that I did. I mention before that this game has re-lit my inspiration and passion for video games. Enough so that I have been much more serious about learning programming and design and thinking more analytically about the games that I am playing. I have even been playing through older iconic series like Metal Gear Solid to get an understanding of what makes them great and what decisions made them iconic for the time.

None of that would have happened if I didnt start up Cyberpunk one day and just completely full send it into the world.

Thank you CD Projekt Red