Ever since Cyberpunk 2077's disastrous launch in 2020, media and reviews have been oversaturated with the negatives. When the game is searched, questions come up which span from "Is Cyberpunk 2077 a failed game?" to "Is Cyberpunk 2077 good yet?" Many take this as a bad sign, but today in 2022, there is a lot to actually love about the game, especially if played on the latest consoles or on a very powerful PC.
The story and characters are a strong driving force with fan-favorites like Johnny Silverhand, Jackie Welles, and the four possible characters that can be romanced. The visual style of fashion, characters, and the city itself are lovely due to the neon colors, skyscrapers, and plenty of cyberware. There is also great gameplay, with a lot of room for different builds and side quests/gigs that are not just recycled fetch quests.
Cyberpunk 2077's Atmosphere And Story
Night City sets itself up well as a city of sin, with the streets filled with gangs, prostitutes, and plenty of crime. The fun twist of it all is the sci-fi world-building and cyberpunk setting. There is a lot of literature that can be read in the game about the history, various cultures, technology, and prominent characters of Night City. There is a good deal of visual storytelling as well, with electronic sakura trees filling the streets, few to no animals to see, and the slums being publicly crime infested while corpo properties keep their crimes behind closed doors.
The blend of cultures in Night City is also quite fascinating and easy to see in both the characters and locations, from the Haitian Voodoo Boys to the Japanese Tyger Claws and Latine Valentinos. These cultures and others are all mixed into Night City, and their symbols can be seen in tattoos, they speak their native languages, and the restaurants reflect the different cultural foods. Night city is a melting pot and the game shows its players this in every way.
Then there is the story, which is a rollercoaster ride that takes the player to very interesting characters and locations. Johnny Silverhand is an especially well-written character, having players feel sorry for him one moment and then distrust him the next due to this toxic, manipulative, but oddly authentic behavior. The story, like any good cyberpunk story, deals a lot with questions about identity and life's meaning in the face of so much technology. V grapples with this, especially due to their relationship with Silverhand.
Cyberpunk 2077's Gameplay
Cyberpunk 2077 allows a lot of freedom in terms of how players approach combat and build their V. In a hostile environment, players can sneak, dive into combat, or take over from the shadows by overloading networks. Combat also has a range between blunt weapons, guns, swords, and knives. Additionally, players can make V a killer or create mods and use special weapons to just knock enemies unconscious (which is desired for certain quests and gigs). Some weapons can even be built into V, making them more cyborg-like with swords and grenade launchers built into their arms (which can be incredibly useful in places that don't allow weapons).
Combat is not all there is to the gameplay. There are a ton of side quests and gigs that can take up many hours of gameplay. The best part is that these quests and gigs are all unique as opposed to being recycled like in other open-world titles like Skyrim and Fallout 4. They introduce new characters, locations, and lore every time.
The character creator is also not to be forgotten. While players do not get to see their created character often (unless they use motorcycles and use a different camera view), the character creator is very fun and accessible at different mirrors in Night City. There are many hairstyles, hair dye, eye contacts, cyberware implants, piercings, tattoos, and even teeth to choose from. Players can also choose a masculine or feminine voice that is not assigned to the male or female body.
The RPG choices are also fun, with some decisions being pretty hard to make. Choosing V's origin at the beginning is pretty cool and takes a similar approach to Dragon Age: Origins, with different beginnings that all end with the protagonist meeting Jackie. These backgrounds play a big role in dialogue choices. Dialogue choices are also added depending on V's stats, which is very fun for role play.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now for Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.