It's unfair to say that Cyberpunk 2077 didn't meet expectations because, even if it's true, the expectations were so ridiculously high that nobody could have hit them. And while some genuinely problematic elements are more than a little disappointing, there are other incredible facets of the game that exceeded even the loftiest of goals.
It's worth looking at these successes and failures with a critical eye, analyzing what worked, what didn't, and talking it out so we can establish exactly what went right and what went wrong. This helps the gaming community unite over what we want more of and what needs more innovation. Cyberpunk 2077 delivers plenty of both.
10 Loved: The Music
There are many guesses about what the sixth blank attribute space will do, and if they decide to make it based on musical ability, even if it was only for flavor, gamers would be excited. The music is just that well done.
The soundtrack is absolutely banging, but the awesome music goes way beyond that. It's on the radio, it's in the car, it's on street corners, it's performed in music halls, it's everywhere, and it is just plain amazing. The musical selection is as diverse and well done as any game on the market.
9 Didn't Love: The Bugs And Glitches
To say that the game is buggy is being very charitable. The bugs range from the hilarious T-Poses and NPCs stuck following you around to the annoying game-breaking escorts that don't follow and quest-specific items that fall through the surface and out of reach. There is a good reason "Cyberbug 2077" is trending on Twitter.
To those playing on the last generation of consoles, you deserve a full refund. It is still full of glitches on the latest hardware with the best settings, but on the PS4 and Xbox One, it's unplayable in its current state. This game needed to be delayed for another year to iron this out.
8 Love: The Lighting
The development team hyped up how they took advantage of the new ray tracing graphic capability and they have delivered on even the most sensationalized of reports. The lighting is beautiful, realistic, and reflective.
The weaponry has a feel of its own as the metallic exteriors shines in ambient light and during muzzle fire. Whether it's the guns, the ground, or the sky, the lights are brilliant and create a perfect atmosphere for Night City.
7 Didn't Love: Driving
To be clear, nobody is complaining about the cars in this game. They are really iconic and all players should learn how to buy one. But being in the car? Most players have agreed that walking is better.
Keyboard players have obvious problems when driving without the necessary joysticks, but even the controller doesn't feel quite right. The cars don't have enough traction and they make it hard to see what's around. Plus, the guide doesn't tell players when to turn until they've pretty much gone past their destination.
6 Loved: The Assignments
The "grind" of doing missions and assignments feels unique every time with the dialogue and shards giving context to each one. The main story is great with its tough choices like siding with Dex or Evelyn, but the side quests are just as memorable.
This is nowhere close to The Witcher 3 in terms of depth of side quests, but it's certainly better than what other FPS games have been doing when leveling up. Gamers will be doing the same things a lot, but the dispatchers and fixers provide enough flavor to make each task feel important and new.
5 Didn't Love: Inventory Management
Players love to customize their characters with loot and items that they've found. It's fun to hunt down the best mod in the game, but when V picks up a thousand crappy mods along the way, it crosses a line where managing this system is not fun.
Cyberpunk 2077 has sadly passed this point. If players aren't selling down after every assignment, they are going to become overburdened in-game. The selections are 99% meaningless items that do nothing but take up space. Trashing them takes several minutes and throws off the pacing and there is no transmog system like in World of WarCraft either.
4 Loved: The Lore
It's easy to think of the game as a silly and sexy journey through a colorful world. Maybe it's finding out that pineapple pizza is illegal or the over-the-top personalities that make it seem goofy, but these bits of humor only add to the core world here.
Lore is a term usually reserved for medieval fantasy games, but it fits perfectly here. Between reading business e-mails, learning about the lives of gangsters, and discovering the history that has influenced the core plot, those who take the time to read will have no problem getting totally immersed in the environment.
3 Didn't Love: Duplicate Character Models
There are a commendable number of characters in the game, each with their own lives. Unfortunately, their models are often recycled. It's very common to drive down the street and see identical characters standing only a few feet apart from each other.
It's too bad because they did so much work with the names of each NPC. But you will never be able to see an NPC and remember them from earlier, you have to scan to see if it was the same one from the kabob stand yesterday or just another personality wrapped up in the same body and clothing.
2 Loved: Night City
Every bit of this city is designed with love. There's no grid with small adjustments, no predictable bridges or exits or sidewalks. If you look up, you might see a desert horizon or a collection of individually crafted skyscrapers. It's hauntingly realistic and organic.
The game has immense amounts of replayability because, every time, players will feel like they understand the city just a little bit better. It's truly like growing up in a hometown as a kid (if that hometown was a dangerous futuristic metropolis).
1 Didn't Love: Stereotypes
It's hard to expect creators to try and predict what social life will look like fifty-seven years into the future. Assuming they tried, the development team predicted that everyone pretty much falls back into their racial, sexual, and gender stereotypes.
Gamers of all walks of life and history deserve to be represented in all ways. This is not to say that every character has to be heroic or even good, but there should be some diversity there. Sadly, Cyberpunk 2077 not only doesn't push the envelope forward, it sets things back in an industry that desperately needs better examples of representation.