Feature Cyberpunk 2077 Review Roundup

[JSimenhoff]

The reviews are in and 2020's most anticipated game is something of a mixed bag. Despite the many delays and developer crunch, Cyberpunk 2077 is not a critical success across the board. Our very own James Davenport gave Cyberpunk 2077 a 78/100, finding it "moving and life-affirming in the final moments, even in the face of near certain death and a relentless onslaught of bugs," and ultimately recommended gamers to "play it in a few months".

Now that the reviews are out, you can be certain that content and spoilers will start trickling in as well. Maybe someone spoiled the game for you already, or maybe you want to compare our review to some other trusted voices in the industry. Whatever the case, we decided to make things easier for you and round up some of our favorite reviews from across the internet.

Check out our review, check out the other reviews, and then let us know what you think. Should critics overlook the bugs as some in the community suggested, or should a reviewer take into account the totality of their experience when scoring a game? Sound off below, we'd love to hear from you!

And without further ado, here are the reviews and their scores:

PC Gamer 78
GamesRadar+ 5/5
Windows Central 5/5
The Gamer 10
PCGamesN 9
VG247 10
IGN 9
VGC 5/5
Game Informer 9
GameSpot 7
Opencritic 92
Metacritic 91

Cyberpunk 2077 officially launches December 10th. If you haven't already you can preorder the game from the following vendors:

CD KEY $55.29
AMAZON $59.99
CD KEY £40.99

 

[Zloth]

...ultimately recommending for gamers to "play it in a few months".

JAMES told you so! Not me! Nonononono, it was James! And Kallie over at GameSpot.

Check out our review, check out the other reviews, and then let us know what you think. Should critics overlook the bugs as some in the community suggested, or should a reviewer take into account the totality of their experience when scoring a game?

Come on, really? Of course you need to do so.

 

[JSimenhoff]

Come on, really? Of course you need to do so.

I may have been leading a bit there with my questioning

 

[SBan83]

Has anyone read the Polygon review? Holy ****, talk about mixing up your woke political views and professional responsibilities as a GAME reviewer.

 

[Frindis]

The most important thing for me is that the reviewer touches on the majority of the aspects in the game, whether it is the story/lore/quests, characters, soundtrack/ambiance, talent tree, physics, bugs, you name it. I basically want the review to be like a Pollock painting, drizzled with tiny, tiny drops of the soul of the game. If some reviewers do not mention bugs at all, I would see that as quite strange, especially if the game were riddled with game-breaking bugs, like how shitty Red Dead Redemption 2 was at release in this regard. This is the time when the reviewer should stop painting the happy little trees and beat the devil out of the brush.

 

[Johnway]

I think its perfectly valid criticism to point out how much of a technical mess a game is upon release and tell people accordingly. No company should get away with releasing a product in an iffy state. It would be like selling a top line sports car that has dodgy brakes or glitched out software to be fixed for free at a later date.

That said, if you review game before it comes out and they're still patching it should we forgive them? On the one hand, its CDPR fault. This was supposed to be the release product that everyone was expected to get and if that's a broken mess? Well that first impression isn't going to be good.

There was that Day 0 patch and all. Who knows? maybe it will fix all the issues upon release and all the issues with the game disappear. I heard that the witcher 3 was a bit buggy but when i got round to playing it years later and enjoyed it. Maybe by friday or a couple months down the line it will be awesome. So maybe (because its cyberpunk), a review down the line might be a consideration. Maybe a comment at the end of the review saying if the bugs had been ironed out, add another 20-25% or something. If a number means that much to some people .

But that said 94% for dragons age 2? outrageous!

My rule of thumb? Read the reviews, understand the criticisms people make out, find correlations and whats opinion and decide for yourself how much of a problem it is. I've bought, played and enjoyed games that reviewed/performed badly (dead rising 3 being the most recent example).

 

[DXCHASE]

The thing with Cyberpunk is the hype is different than usual hype for a game. This was hyped up and has been praised to be this like cataclysmic release into the video game world, where paradigms would shift and gaming would never be the same. With that kind of hype this game is not going to live anywhere up to that. Yes it looks amazing, im sure its fun and im sure ill play it, but a year from now its just going to be a game out in the wild for people to play, not on this whole other pedestal, i honestly dont think its going to be like the Witcher for CDPR in the fact that a show will be made.

Also, if its myriad with bugs or does poorly, what was the crunch needed for?? I really hope that the game does sell well so those that those that had to sacrifice like that will at least get their bonuses.

 

[mainer]

One of the things I hope CDPR learned from all of this, is not to set a specific release date. How many times was that date bumped (4?)? And truthfully, after reading a few reviews, and the types of bugs in the game, this game should have been bumped again. But had they done that, the world would have exploded, I'm sure.

 

[Sarafan]

I'm prepared for bugs, but I hope that most of them will be addressed in the Day One Patch. The current metacritic score is 91. That's a very high score for any game. If it wasn't for the bugs the game would be close to 100. That would give it the position of one of the best games in history. I can't imagine waiting a few more months to dive into Night City. I won't be staying late until 1 A.M. to play the game right after it's released, but tomorrow it'll be a gaming fest for me.

As for the reviews themselves, IMHO if a game will receive a Day One Patch it should be taken into account by the reviewers (especially when it comes to final rating). The release version of the game will be a little different than the one which was played by the reviewers. But there's a limit to everything. If a game is a bug fest, the review must include that in the text. I haven't play the game yet of course, but 78 seems a little too harsh for me. I'll check it by myself in the upcoming days.

 

[Johnway]

Despite all the reviews, Cyberpunk looks like is going to make a mint. So congrats CDPR we'll see what the future has to offer. Will the patches fix everything? Will the DLC be meaningful content? has the 8 years wait been worth it?

Honestly, i was hoping Cyberpunk was going to have the same reception as HL2 with valve in that they would cement as the new Royalty of PC gaming and be the darlings for the PCGamers everywhere. I personally kept a hands off approach and didn't read any of the preview articles and videos as its all hype and subject to change. Oh and not to spoil anything. So yeah i remain quietly optimistic for now my attention is turned to other things atm.

 

[SBan83]

Despite all the reviews, Cyberpunk looks like is going to make a mint.

All the reviews have been pretty good, haven't they? Except Polygon and Gamespot, whose reviews were bizarre to say the least, focusing more on how offended the reviewer was about the game not being woke enough more than the gameplay. Otherwise, consensus seems to be it's a HoF game with more than a few bugs but people know those will be patched out.

 

[Johnway]

All the reviews have been pretty good, haven't they? Except Polygon and Gamespot, whose reviews were bizarre to say the least, focusing more on how offended the reviewer was about the game not being woke enough more than the gameplay. Otherwise, consensus seems to be it's a HoF game with more than a few bugs but people know those will be patched out.

To be fair it is sitting on 91% on metacritic, so i guess its a winner. What i meant was despite the criticisms (especially performance related), CDPR was onto a winner but i was kinda expecting nothing but overwhelming positivity. You could probably blame hype for that, but its early days so maybe that will grow. I haven't read into much of the bugs but hopefully it will be all ironed out. Who knows? maybe the world is so well developed that its just one massive sandbox for the devs to continuously add stories and features to the world. Like full game/expansion packs.

As someone commented, the bugs were probably from the scope of the game and i suspect it wasn't helped that not only current gen but also next gen consoles had to be accommodated as well. Then again, i'm talking out of my arse as i have no idea how real dev works.

 

[SBan83]

To be fair it is sitting on 91% on metacritic, so i guess its a winner. What i meant was despite the criticisms (especially performance related), CDPR was onto a winner but i was kinda expecting nothing but overwhelming positivity. You could probably blame hype for that, but its early days so maybe that will grow. I haven't read into much of the bugs but hopefully it will be all ironed out. Who knows? maybe the world is so well developed that its just one massive sandbox for the devs to continuously add stories and features to the world. Like full game/expansion packs.

As someone commented, the bugs were probably from the scope of the game and i suspect it wasn't helped that not only current gen but also next gen consoles had to be accommodated as well. Then again, i'm talking out of my arse as i have no idea how real dev works.

Yea, the performance issues are a sticking point at the moment, and a lot of last-gen console owners are angry. Personally, I think they run remarkably well on them given they're basically 2014 mid-range PCs running a game that even makes 2020 hardware struggle at times.

 

[ajimundi]

I got Witcher 3 after the GOTY version came out. I think I will do the same with this game.

 

[SBan83]

Yea, the performance issues are a sticking point at the moment, and a lot of last-gen console owners are angry. Personally, I think they run remarkably well on them given they're basically 2014 mid-range PCs running a game that even makes 2020 hardware struggle at times.

Just want to clarify that I was going off what I thought was PS4 footage but was actually the PS4 build running on a PS5. I had no idea of the true base PS4 performance with this game till recently.

 

[largeGAMER]

Is anyone playing this on Stadia?

I saw a tweet from someone saying they are playing this game at 60 fps 4k with no lag. I am finding it hard to believe it.

 

[SBan83]

Is anyone playing this on Stadia?

I saw a tweet from someone saying they are playing this game at 60 fps 4k with no lag. I am finding it hard to believe it.

IGN released this footage of Stadia gameplay. IDK...looks smooth obviously and seems like most of the bells and whistles are attached. However, not sure if it's due to the capture or what, but looks awfully fuzzy, like a low bitrate video file. Have a look...

But I imagine anyone with a base PS4/Xbox who hasn't yet bought it on those platforms will gladly opt for Stadia in this case.

 

[Zloth]

Playstation Store's "review" is in. They yanked the game from the store and are issuing refunds.

 

[Ryzengang]

Playstation Store's "review" is in. They yanked the game from the store and are issuing refunds.

Seems for the best. Honestly it probably just shouldn't have been released on the old consoles at all. It probably would have been unpopular but the hardware is just so dated at this point.

 

[SBan83]

Yea, I can't understand how those base console versions even got the green light, not just from CDPR but Sony/Microsoft too. Don't they have quality checks?

Ideally, this game should've been released on PC and next-gen consoles back in November itself when it was ready by their own admission and delayed on last-gen base consoles till first quarter next year at least.

 

[Zloth]

Yea, I can't understand how those base console versions even got the green light, not just from CDPR but Sony/Microsoft too. Don't they have quality checks?

Good point! I think their QA is beyond the "it installs correctly and doesn't just crash on startup" level. Or maybe that changed?

It's CDPR that needs to do some really serious soul searching, though. It's very clear they never should have released that game as it was for the older consoles. They aren't going to make much money from them now that they have to refund so many copies. Some of those players will come back later but, without a hype storm, I bet most of them won't come back or will buy the game used. There's also the fact that they tried making it for older consoles when the game is beyond their capability. How were the requirements for the game put beyond what old gen can do!? I would think they would pick up on the fact that their game couldn't run on current hardware years before release!

 

[SBan83]

Good point! I think their QA is beyond the "it installs correctly and doesn't just crash on startup" level. Or maybe that changed?

It's CDPR that needs to do some really serious soul searching, though. It's very clear they never should have released that game as it was for the older consoles. They aren't going to make much money from them now that they have to refund so many copies. Some of those players will come back later but, without a hype storm, I bet most of them won't come back or will buy the game used. There's also the fact that they tried making it for older consoles when the game is beyond their capability. How were the requirements for the game put beyond what old gen can do!? I would think they would pick up on the fact that their game couldn't run on current hardware years before release!

Haha, sounds about right (Sony/Xbox QA). Install, starts, ok, good to go. Ship it boys!

But as far as releasing it on those platforms, more and more it seems like a shareholder-driven move more than the devs, who were probably afraid of even suggesting not releasing the game on one of the biggest markets (those owning base versions of last-gen consoles) after soo many delays already.

Still, since this studio releases a game every five years or so, they're probably hoping it'll blow over while they work on it the meanwhile. Witcher 3 also had a torrid launch with many of the same bugs.

However, this all just shows how much consoles hold back gaming advances. Secretly, I'm almost glad they stuck to their guns and didn't hold back the tech. But at the same time, I can't support the fact that they basically duped base ps4/xbox owners by not releasing footage of those consoles to the media before releasing. Just another lesson in never preordering a game...

 

[Zloth]

Witcher 3 had bugs but definitely not on this scale. No stores were pulling it off the shelves!

I should point out that this happens to smaller game publishers, too. Instead of being the stock holders, though, its the banks pointing out that their company is going to go bankrupt if they don't get some income NOW. Either way, a game shows up that really had no business being put in early access, never mind production.

 

[largeGAMER]

Is this running ok on the PS5 now?