Great RPG After 1.5 Patch
User Rating: 8 | Cyberpunk 2077 XBSX
I was somehow outside of all the hype for this game when it was in development. While I was interested in it, I never jumped on the hype train. After the disaster of a launch I had decided I wanted to wait until it was fixed. Then when they launched the current gen version, I was lucky enough to have an Xbox Series X. After watching some footage, I decided to check it out. I started up the game and was sucked in by the world and art style. The weapons in the game are quite unique and very cool, such as smart weapons that can lock on and track an enemy. The vehicles are also quite awesome, with some high tech looks combined with an old school sense of high horsepower (love that Quadra Type 66). Visually, the game was quite satisfying with the cyberpunk art style. Inanimate objects aren’t the only thing high tech, cyberware also allows you to upgrade your character. I had decided early on I wanted to be a hacker, so I invested heavily in quickhacks and breach protocol, which made it so I could take out enemies without them ever knowing I was there. I took out whole buildings during a mission without ever going inside because I could hack a camera and eliminate all the enemies. I also invested in pistol abilities so that I had a reliable weapon when I needed it. The game’s story is pretty good, but the side missions really shine. Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves) is exceptionally well portrayed by Keanu Reeves. While Silverhand is antagonistic, he is hard to dislike and is always an interesting conversation when they appear. Along the way, you find side missions as you meet new characters and these characters can have an impact on the story. Some of the side missions are insane good fun, including one where you help a rockstar destroy the boat of his record label’s agent. You get to make some fun choices along the way, many times I was able to choose between a passive solution or a violent one, leading to some crazy outcomes. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, it wasn’t all perfect. My favorite vehicle had a unique visual bug where at nighttime, light would become blocky on the dashboard while driving in first person. It wasn’t that bad, but it was hard to ignore. I also had situations where the game seemed to forget how to properly render light and the world would jump between light and dark on glass and surfaces. This issues was definitely the game and not the console as it’s the only game it happened in and was always fixed by a reload. As the game progressed, it seemed like some visual bugs, such as an aiming reticle or an enemy upload of a quickhack’s progress would get stuck on screen, seemed to become more common. Finally the worst bug I encountered only happened one time. I got stuck in a phone call with an NPC and couldn’t hang up. It made it so I couldn’t do anything at all. Fortunately, every single bug I mentioned above (outside of the visual bug while driving) was resolved by reloading a save. So save often! Performance and visuals were also quite good. I played exclusively in performance mode and the frame rate was overall solid at 60 frames per second. I did have some hitches while driving fast through town with lots of traffic, but when walking down the street or in the thick of heavy combat, I had no issues. Main character models look very good, but some of the side characters and NPCs walking down the street are passable. Having said that, the game looks quite good and has a great resolution. When it was all said and done, I’d spent 95 hours in the game and completed most of the side quests. I explored seemingly every nook and cranny of the game and had a blast doing so. The art style and RPG elements of the game are strong and fun. I recommend the game despite some of the still present bugs.
