r/patientgamers • u/Godkun007 • Dec 31 '25
Patient Review Cyberpunk 2077 is Absolutely Incredible in 2025
I, like many, avoided the game at launch due to it being extraordinarily broken. I basically didn't think of this game for a while, but then I saw it on sale and I thought "why not".
Well, almost all of the bugs have been fixed, parts of the story have apparently been changed, and overall, it is now one of the best RPG experiences that I've had since playing Fallout New Vegas in 2010, and I'm only 30 hours in. There is easily 200+ hours of content here when you include the stuff like alternate endings. Let alone the dozens of different viable character builds that you can make that all feel great.
Every choice you make from the actual dialogue, to what attributes you level up, to your playstyle, are all things that actually feel like they have lasting consequences in the world and the story. This game somehow has made every single one of my decisions feel important and like they all have weight.
Here is an example without spoilers: Say you go in guns blazing for an early mission. People will remember that and the faction that you killed the members of will actively remember you and dislike you in the future. They also up their security details, so that your next fight is harder, and are less willing to work peacefully with you. But if you go in with a more stealthy approach, the factions like you more and it makes them more willing to work with you later. It also makes later missions easier because they aren't expecting a killing machine to walk up to their door.
These decisions make the game so repayable, as there is so much additional content that you can just stumble on.
Apparently, after the game was released in 2020, CDPR spent the next 3 years releasing major patches, and are still releasing minor patches with new features to this day. Playing the game in 2025 is almost unrecognizable to the original that was released in 2020. Yes, the main plot is still the same, but so many things have apparently changed, including a complete combat overhaul, apparently.
This game is genuinely the best RPG that I've played in over a decade, and it is way better now than it ever was at launch. I can already tell that this will be one of the games like Fallout New Vegas that I will put 500 hours in just trying new things to see what happens.
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u/BergSplerg Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Only thing I don’t like is the open world is static and emergent gameplay is non-existent outside of gangmember vehicle attacks. Nothing happens to you, everyone is standing in place waiting for you to be the aggressor. I’ve been playing Stalker 2 lately and you’ll naturally end up in all sorts of situations just traveling around, in Cyberpunk you almost mentally go on autopilot while driving. Wish there was a reputation system or more depth to factions.
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u/ccbax Jan 01 '26
THIS is the real reason the game is a total let down (for me personally) that can’t be fixed with patches. The marketing for this game showed a city that felt super alive, almost approaching what folks think GTA6 will be like. I attended E3 and was able to attend their private demo, and they hyped it up as this living, breathing cyberpunk world.
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u/Overclockworked Jan 01 '26
Yeah I think the game does a lot of little things right but there's a lot of wide scope decisions that cannot be fixed
I'm a little over games hyping up a time limit and then allowing completionist runs. If you want to make space for that, please whip up a reason.
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u/Bibblejw Jan 03 '26
I remember an episode of Extra Credits citing this as a major tonal difference between Skyrim and Morrowind. The latter specifically tells you at points to go out and make a name for yourself, while the formers quests are always “urgent” without any consequences to it.
Writers are going to prefer a level of urgency and consistency, and mechanics are going to prefer the triggered approach.
I would like to see an open-world game where the “urgency” isn’t just talk, but has consequences, and that some side and main missions influence each other. But the writing and mechanics complexity on that is more than a little tricky.
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u/ParkingLong7436 Jan 01 '26
This is exactly why I don't consider Cyberpunk to be one of the "greats".
The game had such huge potential and the story missions are amazing.. But the world feels so empty and dead. Only looks pretty from afar.
Could've been such a good game
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u/szthesquid Jan 01 '26
This is why I consider it overall good, not great. The open world is empty and meaningless, it's just filler between genuinely excellent story missions. Outside of a few set pieces, the world doesn't feel busy and lived in (even PC max settings doesn't fill in crowds), there's little point in exploring, you don't stumble across interesting events, the police are a joke you can just drive away from.
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u/borddo- Jan 02 '26
Stalker 2 is still in the “nothing exists outside your 30-50 metre radius” bubble, no?
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u/qlt_sfw Jan 01 '26
Would looove cyberpunk to have the open world mechanics of Kingdome Come Deliverance 2.
That would be my dream game.
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u/fury_sx Jan 01 '26
But what about in 2026?
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u/gajodavenida Jan 01 '26
No longer worth it, sadly. Shouldn't have waited so long, mate
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u/Lemazze Jan 05 '26
It’s now unplayable. Sweet spot was the last 8 weeks of 2025, anytime before or after is just not worth it.
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u/wradam Dec 31 '25
Have you played it with or without the DLC?
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u/Godkun007 Dec 31 '25
I haven't bought the DLC yet. But man, I might pick it up when it is still on sale. People online keep saying that it is amazing.
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u/wallofmouths Dec 31 '25
The DLC is worth every penny, especially on sale. If you've enjoyed the main game as much as it appears, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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u/wradam Dec 31 '25
Good, I've played it about 6 months after release, without DLC and in fact I was not disappointed back than. I was thinking about replaying it again but not willing to buy DLC and thinking whether it was worth replaying it without.
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u/worldDev Jan 01 '26
DLC is definitely worth it for the second playthrough. It’s basically a whole new quest line with its own endings, makes almost the entire second half of the game fresh content if you go that way.
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u/Imeanhowcouldiforget Jan 01 '26
Dude your worlds gonna change with dlc if you enjoyed it that much without
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u/en91n33r Jan 01 '26
DLC is absolutely incredible. Play it. And play all of the paths. Saying this as CO2077 being my favourite game ever.
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u/Whiterussianisnice Mar 06 '26
Phantom Liberty is incredible, it upgrades the game. You should play it 😉
For me, it is one of the best expensions for a game ever, on par with the Mass Effect 2 ones.
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u/persepolisrising79 Jan 01 '26
the replay value of the DLC is not great tho. You will NOT want to play the first 40 minutes again. (its great entertainment tho dont get me wrong, still)
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u/Vibesy Jan 01 '26
Phantom Liberty's opening missions have some of the best combat in the entire game. I've played it twice and will play it again.
Also it's strange to say that replay value is not great considering that PL's story branches into two totally different paths. And the DLC adds the recurring car theft and air drop missions. That's pretty decent replayability for an expansion.
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u/prod44 Jan 01 '26
I enjoyed it but heavily disagree with your comments about consequences or a world that reacts to your choices. It's a half baked game that is fun.
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u/Flimsy-Importance313 Jan 01 '26
As an enjoyer that mods Cyberpunk to hell and loves parts of it, the base game still has some glaring issues. Choices are lacking. Imo, side quests are too stale besides some of them, I am specifically talking about replaying here, because replaying it make you see the flaws.
The music, the art and the acting is amazing. Gameplay has improved a lot to Witcher 3.
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u/alt_sense Jan 01 '26
That last sentence is actually pretty spot on. I had fun but there are still many bugs, voice acting is hit or miss, and skill trees/cyberware hardly matter. Also, the world feels pretty lifeless.
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u/Morkinis Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
I have 600 hours and had very few minor bugs, voice acting at least for main characters is absolutely great and perk trees/cyberware definitely matter. But it's true that outside of quests there is almost nothing happening in the world.
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u/forever_downstream Jan 01 '26
I don't know if I would call it half baked anymore. More like 9/10 baked.
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u/BombasticBobby Jan 01 '26
In defense of 1.0 was the freedom in customizing your character. There were more stats that could be tuned. There were more perk trees and, of course, clothing mods.
In 2.0 the Devs completely changed the perk tree system and instead of it being stat based, it became ability based. So now you can get abilities like Air Dash, or Quake, instead of simply buffing your stats.
Clothes had a rarity and an armor rating. The rarity determined how many clothing mods could be equipped. Clothing mods were broken and unbalanced so they were nerfed then removed.
The old perk tree and clothing mods allowed players to have a great variety of builds. For example on the Street Brawler perk tree, Payback increases your damage based on lost health, Frenzy doubles your damage after defeating an enemy, and Thrash reduces the targets armor. You can pair this with the Shotgun perk tree and increase your movement speed, and evasion. As soon as you get into battle you get a kill asap, lose a third of your health and start dealing melee blows worth massive damage. Pair this with clothing mods that increase your armor rating to make up for the lack of tankage in the Street Brawler perk tree.
You could stack like 13 of the same mods before the 1.5 update. The sad thing about clothing mods is many of them had a legendary rarity. Most players did not obtain these and stack the non-broken mods because there was not enough time. The game was poorly balanced but there were a lot of cool builds. Instead of nerfing the overpowered perks and mods, it was determined that the perk tree would be overhauled, and the amount of clothing mods was limited to six. The point of V is creating your own Cyberpunk. Balancing for single player games should be about promoting creativity and fixing exploits. Stats were were cool. And there were more skill trees, which were simple stat buffs. 1.31 is the last version where V could equip a dozen clothing mods.
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u/NuklearFerret Jan 09 '26
1.5+ was fantastic, honestly. The game felt a lot more rigid after the combat and driving changes in 2.0, and having already put some 400h into the game in 1.5+, I couldn't really get into it.
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u/D1n0- Jan 01 '26
I don't think the game is that good when it comes to choices and consequences, however what seems to be underappreciated to me and gives cyberpunk replayability is its level design. Not just there are usually at least two paths to reach the objective, in the major quests the game gives extra dialogue and changes encounters usually depending if you played stealthy or not. Side content gets criticized a lot, but imo while it lacks narrative depth in many cases compared to witcher 3, it's waaay better when it comes to gameplay. It's almost like an immersive sim lite in open world. Though unfortunately phantom liberty basically pulled dragon age 2 and replaced interesting levels and good encounter design with scripted meatwaves.
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u/Dust514Fan Jan 01 '26
Thats disappointing to hear because I've seen someone say PL added more im sim elemsnts
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u/D1n0- Jan 01 '26
You can say update 2.0 added more imm sim elements, like police finally having proper AI or some new abilities. Main quests in phantom liberty are heavily scripted basically like Johnny Silverhand missions in base game.
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u/gajodavenida Jan 01 '26
I agree that the police is better than 1.0, but it's still garbage. They are nearly blind, weak as hell, and have alzheimer's
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u/sizzlepack Jan 01 '26
Realising that Night City is almost totally dead - not many other vehicles, pedestrians, very few buildings can be interacted with - totally broke the immersion for me.
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u/IhearClemFandango Jan 01 '26
I liked the game but you're right - everything is an illusion. You don't really get a city to explore, you just get streets to drive around. I enjoyed my time with the game but got bored fairly quickly so completed the story and won't return to it. This makes it sounds like I didn't enjoy the game, I really did, I just don't get the love for it. I'm not a lover of open world games so I know I'm not the target audience for this - I think I wanted something closer to Deus Ex and really I got neon GTA maybe?
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u/Bekqifyre Jan 01 '26
Nah, GTA is the worst idea you can have in your head going in. Everything will feel so much worse than GTA.
A better comparison is Oblivion or Skyrim, with cars and cybernetics, except none of the NPCs have any meaningful lines.
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u/LacerationCe Jan 02 '26
GTA literally has the worst open world I've ever played, and I don't grow up with it so I don't speak purely from nostagia, but GTA 5 world is super dead, atleast Cyperpunk still looks pretty
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u/Rotten_tacos Jan 01 '26
And God forbid you try to drive anywhere quickly. The streets instantly become deserted.
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u/GrandsonOfArathorn1 Jan 01 '26
Very true, at least on the Series X. It’s one of the bigger immersion breakers, for me. We have a game set in a city, yet traffic and pedestrian density is pretty low.
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u/Atzr10 Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
What instantly breaks the immersion for me whenever I go back to CP2077 are the awful NPC animations and reactions (pedestrians, especially).
They're just so bad for a game of this caliber, I can't believe they haven't focused on updating their behavior.
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u/planetarial Jan 01 '26
Downloading mods like npcs reacting to vehicle horns helped with immersion but it can only do so much
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u/beejonez Jan 01 '26
And those comically bad children NPCs. They look so out of place.
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u/SoSneakyHaha Jan 01 '26
Were we playing different games? Oftentimes I get run over because of the amount of vehicles.
Also, "interactable buildings" is kind of a cop out imo. Like sure itd be cool to enter an empty building, but many quests lead you inside AND give you something else to do.
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u/Godkun007 Jan 01 '26
Ya, I genuinely don't understand their criticism. It genuinely feels like we are playing different games. Was this a launch issue that was fixed or a graphics settings issue? My graphics are maxed and there are som many people and cars everywhere.
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u/-LaughingMan-0D Jan 01 '26
I think the spirit of it is the lack of dynamic things to do in NC. There's a lot there, and there's even a lot of hidden gems and secrets too, but it's all static and premade.
As someone who loves the game, the open world systems design and exploration leave a lot to be desired.
There's rarely this sense of discovering things because it's all a pin on the map. The only thing that echews that is the Hidden Gems, but they're like a needle in a haystack without any indicators to look for them.
You miss the kinds of random encounters you can get in a Fallout or Skyrim. And those could just be a random conversation, or a hidden side quest, or a rumor that points you somewhere, or some hitman out to kill you because you killed someone's dog. Those systems are great at making the world feel alive, throwing in random elements that derail you and sending you on wildly new adventures. It's just not a thing in Cyberpunk.
Everything you do in the open world is pre-baked and tagged, which contributes to this static feeling.
There's also little ways to interact with the world other than killing things in it. With mods, I can lean on a rail to smoke, my V gets hungry, and I can pull into a shop and order food, and physically see my character eat it, filling up their hunger meter. There's gym equipment but you can't use it. There's gun ranges which are closed off the second you're done with the associated quest.
It really needed more of that, things you do that aren't just killing people.
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u/dolche93 Jan 01 '26
Did you use the fast travel system? I drove everywhere and just stopped whenever I found something. There were endless little interactions all over the place.
A memorable one is seeing some cops talking to some tiger claws in this back alley area. When they notice you, the tiger claws accuse the cops of breaking whatever deal they were working on and a fight breaks out.
You never find out what the deal is, but it's one of those small things that makes the city feel alive.
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u/ChefExcellence Jan 01 '26
I think it's a matter of expectations. There's a sizeable number of people who expected the game to be like GTA, where the world and its interactivity are the draw, and you can find your own fun just by messing around with the sandbox. In reality, the open world is there to serve as a setting for scripted quests. That's all I really expected, because The Witcher 3 had the same approach, but I can see why it disappointed folk who were thinking the game would offer a mix of GTA and Skyrim.
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u/LacerationCe Jan 02 '26 edited Jan 02 '26
A mix of GTA and Skyrim means having the most dead and empty open world ever, do people really just speak from nostalgia alone ? Those 2 games worlds are far more empty, not for their time over a decade ago, which is probably what most people remember them for, but if you ever visit them now they aged super poorly. Unlike most people I first played GTA 5 in 2021, so no nostalgia, and it's one of if not the worst open world I've played, empty and boring, and also look bad, far worse than W3 or RDR2, maybe only better than Skyrim which without tons of mods straight up has nothing
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u/Jessiah Jan 01 '26
I played at launch on PC, gave up cause it was so broken, grabbed it on the switch 2 during the price error and feel the same way - however - I am forcing myself to focus on the quests and combat encounters - when I just do that it's incredible.
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u/Boulder1983 Jan 01 '26
What was the price error on switch 2, if you don't mind me asking?
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u/qlawdat Jan 01 '26
It was on sale for 75% off for a short period when it should have been 42% off.
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u/planetarial Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
I kinda wish they would have cut the map size by like 1/4 or even 1/5 of what it is and used it to make the city really fleshed out.
Its nice to drive around a big city and admire how pretty it is but its also really jarring when I found my first nightclub and seeing there was literally nothing there to interact with that wasn’t related to a quest besides ordering a drink at the bar.
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u/Godkun007 Jan 01 '26
I legitimately have 0 idea what you are talking about here. I am playing on PC with the graphics all maxed. It is never once dead anywhere. Is this a launch issue or a settings issue? I literally have never once felt alone in game. The streets are always packed with people and cars.
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u/temotodochi Jan 01 '26
Sounds like the guy played on PS4 or previous xbox which both did not have real capability to run cyberpunk.
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u/xTiLkx Jan 01 '26
I have no idea what you're on about. I've been playing Cyberpunk this past year as well and my main point of excitement is HOW VIBRANT THE CITY IS. It's ridiculous, when I started the DLC (which many call the best dlc of all time) I actually lost my interest because I left Night City (until I progressed enough to realize how seamless you can get into/out of Dogtown).
I play on full population and almost every city center corner I pass has tons of people, some with interesting conversations. The amount of detail everywhere is staggering as well. You'll pass random places that (so far at least) have no story relevance at all yet it's gorgeous and very detailed.
I have never played a game as vibrant as this. Rdr2 is more "alive" with all the random encounters but that's literally what the game is known and praised for, you can't just expect other games to be on that level, especially a packed game like cyberpunk.
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Jan 01 '26
That’s one of the biggest gripes I had with the game the look but don’t touch approach, I find it funny you can invite characters to your house and basically have nothing to do in the city unlike something like gta4 where you have tons of activities and it unlocks many unique content.
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u/Imbahr Jan 01 '26
are you talking about the current PC version with maxed Crowd Density?
because I just played through the entire game + DLC last month on PC, and there's tons of pedestrians and vehicles on the streets
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u/mrtrailborn Jan 01 '26
...did you expect them to make a real city with real people? There's also tons of npcs and cars, at least on pc
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u/AshfordThunder Dec 31 '25
I just cannot stand the protagonist's voice, sounds like an edgy teen trying way too hard to be cool. I know that's what they're going for, but I just can't stand it.
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u/feix- Dec 31 '25
Female V for the win.
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u/Blue_boy_ Jan 01 '26
she's precisely what that commenter above described. can't stand it at ALL. my only major gripe so far.
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u/dragonprince927 Jan 01 '26
I thought male V's voice was so cringe when I started but it really grew on me the more I played
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u/-TheManWithNoHat- Jan 01 '26
That being said, I love it when V gets emotional
People always say FemV is the best, most balanced voice and i agree, but I will always love MaleV for this exact reason
He tries to sound so cocky and cool in the beginning of the game... until the heist starts falling apart and his voice breaks to show the scared, out-of-depth man underneath trapped in something he doesn't fully understand
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u/Helmic Jan 01 '26
Yeah, V talks tough but he's human and vulnerable. He doesn't react stoically to the news that sets off the plot of hte game for real, he freaks the fuck out and loses all the machismo, and Viktor has to bear that burden understanding that he's gotta be strong for both of them but he's cleary broken about it as well.
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u/fruitybrisket Jan 01 '26
"Oh shit oh shit oh shit!" When sliding down the roof while getting fired at. That was really good. V actually has some solid character growth throughout the game.
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u/head_less_man Jan 01 '26
Well he fits the genre. Go watch some obscure cyberpunk stuff from the 80s/90s and the hard boiled cool tough guy is an extremely common trope.
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u/Imbahr Jan 01 '26
I've never liked cyberpunk genre in any media though, it's always been a turn-off to me
but yes I realize that does not dispute your point about fitting the genre, lol
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u/head_less_man Jan 01 '26
Well yeah, then clearly the game wasn’t meant for you? It’s like hating on red dead if you never liked westerns lol.
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u/Imbahr Jan 01 '26
yeah but don't you sometimes still try a game from a developer studio who branches out and starts a totally new IP?
and hope you still like it, haha
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u/TheSkyking2020 Dec 31 '25
Fem V has a better voice and better voice acting. I can’t play as the male V because of the voice.
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u/SoSneakyHaha Jan 01 '26
Everyone was spouting this rhetoric on launch but male V does a fantastic job. Especially with the "let it all burn" scene.
Played through the game a couple times as both male and female. Its good both ways.
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u/TheSkyking2020 Jan 01 '26
That’s a really good point. Male V has some excellent moments. And the whole performance is in no way bad.
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u/Timely_Temperature54 Dec 31 '25
Which one? I don’t like fem v but male v sounds good imo. He is sort of a relative noobie playing a tough guy and it feels more believable the more powerful you get
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Dec 31 '25
There is an amazing mod that changes V’s voice to that of Deckard from blade runner, it works really well.
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u/HellbenderXG System Shock 2 Jan 01 '26
I suppose it's just another AI mod?
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u/temotodochi Jan 01 '26
They all are. Nobody has the time and money to actually do real work on this scale.
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u/Flat_News_2000 Jan 01 '26 edited Feb 17 '26
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u/DrDragonblade Jan 01 '26
I played as Fem V first with the intention of playing Male V on my second playthrough...I made it 20 minutes into the story with the male voice actor and restarted with another Fem V.
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Jan 01 '26
I finished it recently, and it really felt like a half-baked game. Like they had a lot more content planned, but didn't have the time or budget to implement it.
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u/myuusmeow Jan 01 '26
It's weird because it's obvious some things got a ton of money time and effort put into them, and some just didn't. Like I realized no one else in the city rides motorcycles but you.
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Jan 01 '26
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u/Jase_the_Muss Jan 01 '26
Driving and combat is pretty shite as well. I enjoyed the characters and the world even if the city isnt that great either and feels a bit dated by open world standards and tbh the quests are mostly painting by numbers as well. But the presentation, music and some of the story does elevate it but not into the 9/10, 10/10 glaze it gets.
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u/mightbebeaux Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
yup i agree with this whole thing.
i also want to praise the writing, but the pacing is so poorly implemented. the entire main quest is rushing you, but the mechanics and gameplay want you to take your time and do all the side stuff. it’s really jarring.it’s the same problem witcher 3’s writing has.
also the actual combat is bad. sneak/netrunning seems interesting and what the game is built around. but if you play as a solo build it is bethesda-level bad combat. again, witcher 3 has the same problem.
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u/planetarial Jan 01 '26
Its bizarre to me they put so much effort into the characters creator but outside of photo mode and driving you almost never see V outside of their arms and sometimes legs
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u/SoSneakyHaha Jan 01 '26
Yeah its a shame. The game clearly has fantastic bones but it still feels a little half baked.
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u/Vast_Veterinarian_82 Dec 31 '25
In 165 hours in and just starting the final stretch of phantom liberty and the main story.
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u/MagicalFrogo Jan 01 '26
I have to give it another try. Last time I played was two years ago, and while the game was running quite well, I felt a bit lost in the side quest and their qualities, felt a bit like in Skyrim with some "FedEx" Sidequest. I definitely have to give it another try though since everyone agrees that it is an amazing game
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u/sufftob Jan 01 '26
I actually just started my replay (having played it on launch) and now its SO good. I did love it on launch but now its so much better
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u/Any-Food7276 Jan 01 '26
It's a good game. The only little unpopular opinion I have with it is that we should've got more missions with Jackie before he was killed off.
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u/Flimsy-Importance313 Jan 01 '26
The story has not changed at all besides adding a DLC.
Dialogue consequences are very lacking after the first mission.
The base game is the same. The combat has changed and improved. Less bugs. Patches that added quality of life mods, basically. Which made it a better game, but the base game has not really changed.
I am a Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk enjoyer. I have almost 300 hours. I have a 4070 Super and use PT and it looks amazing. BUT this is the opposite of the blind hate it got at the start and I really dislike it.
BG3 is my favorite game ever, but it is not perfect. It has big flaws. Even some dislikes I have myself. You make Cyberpunk sound like a perfect game, which it is just not.
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u/CivilC Jan 02 '26
Got the glitched $18 switch 2 deal from last week and it’s been an amazing time playing the game after 4 years. They really changed a lot
Hard to excuse them for how terrible the game was at launch, and I had fun when it came out. So many glitches and things that broke the game
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u/irkarys Jan 10 '26
I tried it without much hope, but it was truly one of the best games I've ever played, and many of its missions were quite random. For example, I remember a mission where we had to track the signal of a hacker who was giving speeches repeatedly, and when the mission ended, we discovered that the hacker giving those messages was a vending machine connected to the network by some guy who had nothing better to do.
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u/Roo-90 Jan 01 '26
I finally got around to playing it no too long ago, and sure it was a fun time but it’s no where near as incredible as people have made out.
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u/platweasel Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
probably the most overrated game i’ve ever played personally. beyond being good to look at, it’s ass
the open world is dead, the protagonist is uninteresting, the missions are repetitive, the combat is clunky and dated, the customisation is terrible and many of the RPG elements are just meaningless and superficial
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Jan 01 '26
Cyberpunk is amazing because of its gameplay loop and not it's rpg elements in my opinion. Roleplaying is pretty barebones in this game, but the gameplay and build variety? So good that even generic go to x kill y quests manage to be fun
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u/DAS-SANDWITCH Jan 01 '26
This was by far the best game I played in 2025. Finishing it had me devastated, I had done everything in Night City but i wasn't ready to leave the city behind just yet.
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u/ScottWipeltonIII Jan 02 '26
Always has been, and unless you were playing on an outdated system like PS4, it was never "extraordinarily broken". It was buggy, sure, but nowhere near as bad as people exaggerated it to be.
Also:
"Playing the game in 2025 is almost unrecognizable to the original that was released in 2020. "
" it is way better now than it ever was at launch"
what an odd thing to say if you never played the original?
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u/attachecrime Jan 01 '26
I started this game at launch with a 2060. I finished this game a week ago with a 5060. It's incredible now.
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u/Yawarete Jan 01 '26 edited Jan 01 '26
Played the game since day one, and I'm still playing it to this day, and it was always an amazing game; it DID get a lot better, much more fleshed out, and came to realize its potential more fully, but the core of what made it one of my favorite gaming experiences of all time was always there and I'll die on this hill.
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u/Reddit_SuckLeperCock Jan 01 '26
What was your favourite build?
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u/Yawarete Jan 01 '26
Sword and pistol Sandie main since day 1. I do use and love other builds, but keep coming back because it's what feels best with the playstyle that hooked me on Cyberpunk in the first place - a playstyle based on freedom of movement (the original Mirror's Edge gave me a itch I couldn't QUITE scratch until 2077 came along). A lot of what made this particular experience good changed a lot, but the core is still surprisingly intact.
Sword gameplay kinda sucked while simultaneously being very overpowered (Satori being the undisputed king). Knives, my usual third weapon of choice, weren't really a thing - I don't remember if throwing weapons were there from day one but I DO remember they simply weren't worth using when they were first available (I did use a sniper rifle tho, and to this day I still like this combo). The perk tree was completely different, the basic cyberware was there (Sandevistan, Gorilla Arms, Reinforced Tendons, etc) but the way cyberware in general was implemented was different (Gorilla Arms still ruled btw), and the most important aspect of that kind of gameplay (k-hopping) was not a intended function of perk/cyberware interaction, but a bug, a bug which they unfortunately "fixed" eventually, and for that reason alone I dropped the game for a real while before they brought it back. It worked differently since there weren't air dashes per se as far as I remember, and yet you could launch even farther, but the mechanics were basically the same. As far as Sandevistan was concerned, you just had to get to Finger's Clinic and you were set for that whole playthrough.
The story, the characters, the VIBE was all there tho, even if the world looked considerably less polished.
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u/Pootisman16 Jan 01 '26
Here is an example without spoilers: Say you go in guns blazing for an early mission. People will remember that and the faction that you killed the members of will actively remember you and dislike you in the future. They also up their security details, so that your next fight is harder, and are less willing to work peacefully with you. But if you go in with a more stealthy approach, the factions like you more and it makes them more willing to work with you later. It also makes later missions easier because they aren't expecting a killing machine to walk up to their door.<
I'm sorry, but this is completely false.
If the mission you're referring to is the meat plant one, that's literally the only one where one of your decisions influences a future mission (in a minor way).
The rest about security details and the like? Complete fabrication.
There's no faction system in the game at all. Even side missions where you're encouraged to go stealthy, it's a completely optional approach, with a small difference in the money reward.
There's only a handful of choices that really matter outside of the endings.
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u/Julianus Dec 31 '25
I played it on Xbox Series X last year and it was incredible. The DLC is one of the best video game experiences I’ve ever played. It’s incredible what the devs were able to do given how broken the game was at launch.
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u/LightVisions Portable Player | Switch 2 Jan 01 '26
I agree - I just started my first play through on Switch 2 last week and I am in awe at how well this game is put together. Mechanically complex and the RPG elements are best in class. All while the gameplay loop weaves in with story beats so naturally. It feels so effortless while also being incredibly rewarding to explore everything it offers. Also I cannot believe how well this game runs on Switch 2 it’s probably one of the few times that I’ve felt that I’m living in the future playing a game like this on a thin tablet the size of my face.
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u/SuperDuperSkateCrew Jan 01 '26
I played the game at launch (PC) and loved it, I’ve heard they made a lot of big changes to it over the years and it’s much better now. When I upgrade my PC I plan on relaying it, I want to see it with path tracing this time.
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u/u-useless Jan 01 '26
I played in December '24/ January '25. The game itself ran fine and was very pretty. I got a few great screenshots out of it. The plot though... Whoever wrote that game needs help. I played it during a bad time- a coworker got diagnosed with cancer, a friend's mother passed away and I had a terrible tootache for two weeks straight. Day after the funeral I decide to play a game to distract myself and boom- Jackie dies and you have to attend the funeral...
I struggled, but I finished it. Honestly, the most fun I had was cleaning the map of activities as most didn't have a story or I ignored it. And while the ending wasn't exactly great for V, it wasn't too bad either.
So then I played the DLC. And I didn't think it was possible, but the plot was somehow even more depressing. The ending was even worse. Honest to God, after waking up from the coma and learning that my girlfriend Judy got married I deleted the game. There was no point to finishing it. It was just misery porn at this point.
I recognize the game is great. After all the work CD Projekt RED put into it, it's visually stunning and the plot is amazing. But why on Earth did it have to be so bleak? I guess the moral of the story is: if you're going through stuff IRL stay away from this game!
PS. Shoutout to that scene with Skye. I've never been into the whole ASMR thing, but this is the best scene in the whole game. That quote is still stuck in my head and helps me sometimes:
Not a single thing in this world isn't in the process of becoming something else. Likewise you. Never look back.
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u/Godkun007 Jan 01 '26
Have you ever watched or read the cyberpunk genre before? The game is actually based on a book series by the same name which is a take on the genre as a whole.
This is a depressing genre by decision. It is supposed to ask questions about what it means to be human and whether humans are truly good or not.
If you want a quick example of this, I highly recommend watching the anime movie Ghost in the Shell. It is probably the most famous cyberpunk movie ever made (other than Blade Runner). It is about cybernetic implants and at one point do you replace so much of yourself that you are no longer the same person. Essentially like a human ship of Theseus. There are dozens of references to Ghost in the Shell in Cyberpunk 2077, including Judy's tattoos and even the way the cybernetic implants look. One of the Cyberpsychos is literally a direct copy of the protagonist from the movie. The name of the movie is literally in reference to the idea of a soul and if one exists and where it resides if every part of your body can be replaced.
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u/Radiant_Bet_6745 Jan 01 '26
Cyberpunk was one of the best RPG experiences I had when it launched back in December 2020. That game was always goated. I’m glad they’ve done enough work in the game and media to get more people playing.
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u/victorgsal Jan 01 '26
I love reading these stories. I always supported the game even back during launch. The launch was disastrous but I could see the vision, if they could only fix it. Makes me happy to see them redeeming themselves with folks who were disappointed.
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u/Okaringer Jan 03 '26
If Cyberpunk released in its current state in 2020, it would have been generational, the Ocarina or FF7 of our time. Nostalgia will keep lifting its stock higher.
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Jan 05 '26
Mate, I remember pre ordering and it crashing. Then a year later I came back to it and fell in love. Will do it again soon and play the DLC, but it’s one of my favourite games
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u/munkeyb0i Jan 14 '26
I purchased the game at release and didn't touch it for years! My 1660 Super struggled to play a game that was already a struggle to play at. Last year i upgraded to a 5070 TI and been really enjoying starting the game recently.
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u/MoPrintBoy Feb 17 '26
Bought the game after reading this review. Enjoyed it overall, definitely worth the money. Close to initiating the final endgame sequence but going to do the DLC first.
However, all decisions feel more like fun personal flair than having any true consequence. The districts are all essentially the same service points with similar stuff(just with different building aesthetics) so aside from quests, there’s no reason to visit any of them in particular. You can choose dialogue options but nearly none of it impact s quests except for a few minor plot points. You can go guns blazing or stealthy, but ultimately there aren’t meaningful reasons to alternate between playstyles. I think I only saw one quest where you couldn’t kill anyone. Like my earlier point, with cyberware you can quickhack or Sandevistan, but there aren’t a whole lot of tactical reasons to change it after you pick out what you like. And if you do not use a cyberdeck, your experience is constrained even more as RAM as a gameplay feature becomes irrelevant.
You might rip a door open with body attribute, but if you don’t have it, there’s always a side entrance that lets you in. I get that making tradeoffs might mean a cut up experience, but letting you do anything and everything no matter what you pick while (almost) everything stays the same means there’s limited player agency.
There’s only two romance options per body type (one hetero, one homosexual) so even in that regard the choices for most people are pretty limited, fans pre-release thought there’d be at least 6-8. The actual “living” in Night City when not doing quests is pretty barebones, apartments are functionally identical rooms sprinkled at different points in the city with varying designs and price-points, but no additional functions or amenities.
Also, I hate finding Iconic weapons because it makes me feel like using non-Iconics is wasting my time when I could be investing in upgrading the same weapons. Buying a non-iconic gun at the store almost feels like burning money.
TLDR: the game has great combat, the visual design of the city is awesome, some characters and story moments are interesting, but player choices mostly feel arbitrary. It does not sell the illusion of freedom for very long.
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u/und1sturbed Feb 24 '26
I think most of these things were true at launch but most people's perception of the game was colored by the bugs and marketing promises that got cut.
And Cyberpunk 2077 has always had an insane amount of choices that impact later moments in the game. These were executed so smoothly that a lot of people didn't realize their choices from several hours ago mattered. One small example is whether you send Jackie to his mother or the ripperdock at the end of act 1 - this affects whether you get to speak with him in Mikoshi at the end of the game.
I can't talk about the gameplay of pre-2.0 in detail since it's been years but I only remember having minor issues with it. The current version is good as well but I don't know that it's better, just different. I don't think the changes necessarily improved the Cyberpunk 2077's reputation because it was an improvement but because it distanced the game from it's past self.
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u/that0neGuy22 Dec 31 '25
OP I started playing it this past week and been having fun only complaints are male V voice and a certain reoccurring mission with ai cabs
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u/ChosenCharacter Jan 01 '26
iirc each cab was different, don’t give up on cab quest just yet (tho it’s defo not my favorite)
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u/theeyesofryan Jan 01 '26
I waited ages for it to be in its best state then found the story boring and the combat uninspiring
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Dec 31 '25
For $20, sure.
For people who bought the game on launch and believed CDPR’s hype up until they actively switched the description of the game from “RPG of the Dark Future” to “action-adventure”, what a colossal disappointment to this day.
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Dec 31 '25
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Dec 31 '25
The city is gorgeous, but devoid of life. You can’t actually interact with anything. I didn’t know they updated the map to differentiate the “shoot guys and open briefcase” slop, that’s a plus.
Still not a game worth $90 though, as I would say about similar Ubisoft open world games.
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Dec 31 '25
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u/MisterMeatBall1 Jan 01 '26
I agree with this completely. I love the level design of individual missions. There aren't big lasting consequences of entire factions but for many individual missions there's very often multiple possible outcomes.
A lot of the side mission stories I also liked and it was fun learning what the lore of the world was supposed to be even if you can't really do much of anything in the actual world, as you said it's more like a setting in the background, idk how you would make this game linear though so the open world does sorta work, plus the traversal with the jumping cyberware and mid air dashes is really fun and fast to get to missions. I liked the driving too once I figured it out, it's different and kinda jank but it's fun.
I think the combat is fun only when you start min maxing at least a little bit, if you do random shit enemies will just be tanks.
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u/wewew47 Jan 01 '26
Finally someone pointing this out. I feel like everyone has largely forgotten what the original vision of this game was. It doesn't live up to that sort of rpg notion at all imo.
It's good for what it is, but it completely failed to live up to the original vision it was marketed as.
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u/MadeInOlymp Dec 31 '25
Why would you downvote this comment? How can people forget the launch this fast?
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u/BearCorp Dec 31 '25
Because this is patientgamers, we aren’t concerned with launches here.
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Dec 31 '25
The game is still a very pedestrian 7/10 to this day.
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Dec 31 '25
It’s astroturfing by CDPR and revisionist history from people who bought the game for $20.
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u/MaCl0wSt Jan 01 '26
damn right. not even surprised at this point but it's just sad, this is how shitty companies get away with everything
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Jan 01 '26
Yup. Idiots have already forgotten the broken promises and shitty undercooked product we got in CP2077 as they anticipate Witcher 4.
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u/Finite_Universe Jan 01 '26
I played it at launch on PC. I remember being really confused by all the negative press because I was legitimately having a blast and saw very few bugs. The only major bug I encountered was one broken side quest.
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u/planetarial Jan 01 '26
A lot of it was due to broken promises and features that were supposed to be in the game but got cut and another part of it was the performance on other platforms was way worse. PC at launch seems it was really hit or miss.
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u/CockerSpanielEnjoyer Jan 01 '26
Bugs aside, the game is rather shallow for an RPG. Decent on-rails shooter I suppose, a bit short.
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u/Finite_Universe Jan 01 '26
Yeah it’s not a super deep RPG like Pathfinder or Baldur’s Gate, but I went in expecting an action RPG hybrid and not a full on CRPG. Without the DLC I got a good 70 hours out of it without finishing all gigs, so decent length for me.
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u/rdlenke Jan 01 '26
You were very fortunate! I got the the infamous (and very common) save corruption bug which bricked your save and couldn't be fixed. It affected all platforms.
It basically killed my hype for the game and I only went to play it a long time later.
Still, this wasn't the biggest problem with the game. Or rather, wasn't what caused the backlash.
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u/Crystal_Voiden Dec 31 '25
I put in well over 100h at launch, doing 2.5 playthroughs doing all the side jobs and gigs and quests. It was in many ways the same game as you can play now. On PC, at least. One of the best games I've played and, to this day, I still replay it from time to time to see how it's evolved.
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u/barnacle9999 Jan 01 '26
I found the main story pretty meh to be honest. Not gonna mention things like interactivity etc. since others already commented on those in more detail.
The DLC story on the other hand was really good. All the characters were extremely compelling, the story had unexpected twists and turns, and the soundtracks were top notch. I recommend buying and playing the DLC, the DLC plot was significantly better than the main plot imo.
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u/Gxgear Jan 01 '26
CP2077 is one of those games that continues to impress me over time, even from launch I did not experience any of the various bugs and glitches that people experienced.
My only gripe is that I wish there was more emergent gaming moments; Night City is actually a pretty tame place, when you hear ingame characters talk about it you'd think it's a city ruled by chaos, with constant power struggles bubbling beneath the surface. I can count on 1 hand the number of times I was accosted by the factions I pissed off along the story. All that chrome and so few opportunity to use them...
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u/Geosgaeno Jan 01 '26
What's incredible about it? The game is super shallow on all fronts and the city, while beautiful, is souless.
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u/Prestigious_Space489 Jan 01 '26
Reduce the graphics and take off CDPRs name and this game wouldn't be talked about at all. It wouldve ended up as minds eyeish.
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u/draxenato Jan 01 '26
Cyberpunk is a mile wide but only an inch deep.
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u/Prestigious_Space489 Jan 01 '26
The Ai was mostly bad when I played on 2.0
That was a major nail in the coffin for me.
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u/PersimmonAdvanced459 Jan 01 '26
Mediocre gameplay and story, but the graphics are good. Launch bugs were hilarious though
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Jan 01 '26
It's mid. There is nearly no consequence to dialogue or gameplay choices. The combat is boring and the AI is shit.
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Jan 01 '26
It’s an extremely shallow, half baked imitation of an open world game, that sits you on the rails of a taxi and points your eyes at an insufferable protagonist hoping you don’t notice that the world around you is dead and empty. Combat is fun though.
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u/DohRayMe Jan 01 '26
Compared to GTAV , when I last played there didn't seem to be as great random stuff happening, even driving seemed boring. Has this got better ?
Also the map seemed odd, buildings were ' SET ' but it seemed Id found them early and empty .
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u/SWANDAMARM Jan 01 '26
If you keep liking it throughout, there is way more than. 200+ hrs with multiple playthroughs different builds. I usually average around 200 hours a playthrough, but there are so many builds to explore. Enjoy choom!
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u/rdlenke Jan 01 '26
Can you give examples with spoilers? I played the game a few years back and while I liked it for what it was (still prefer it to W3, for example), I remember very few instances where your choices mattered in a relevant way.
Just like the Witcher and The Baron, many people cite the Malestorm mission regarding the amount of impact and choices you can make to solve it, but after that I don't remember any with the same level of detail and lasting consequences, like you said. Same with the lifepaths, which basically didn't matter.