Did Cyberpunk 2077 deserve the amount of abuse it took on PC?

So apparently it wasn't even functional on last gen consoles. I get that. They deserved all the criticism they received for launching that way. But what about on PC?

I don't really have an opinion on this because I only played the game about 13 hours. Shooters just aren't my thing. But during my 13 hours, I didn't really notice an unusual amount of bugs, tbh. I thought the world was amazing, and the few stories I was a part of were very well done. I think some players were irritated that maybe some things had been promised that weren't in the game, like subways, but I didn't follow the hype train, so I don't know what was and what wasn't promised.

To me it was a shooter version of The Witcher 3 in a Cyberpunk world, and probably a very good game if you like shooters, but that's not a popular opinion, and I really didn't play long enough to have confidence that I would keep that opinion if I finished the game.

But what do you all think? CDPR has become the target of the worst side of gamers now. The toxic hoard will never forget this supposed disaster. Do they deserve it, or was it blown out of proportion? PCG ran multiple stories daily on how horrible it was. Was it really worth that?
 
In my opinion? No. Now, CDPR definitely deserved the heat they got, but unfortunately the whole process created an out-of-control hate train related to Cyberpunk 2077. Opinions are skewed incredibly negative, and to a ridiculous degree.

I just want to say that, despite its problems, are we legitimately just going to forget that they made one of the most impressive video game cities ever? The idea that Cyberpunk 2077 is a bad video game is absurd to me. Of course, it is not a perfect game and there are legitimate criticisms, but it has gotten completely out of hand.

I find this to be a rather interesting topic because the hype was so massive for this game that it genuinely created* an insane over-correction when the game had problems. Instead of just being a good video with problems, now it is considered terrible. Of course, the console fiasco is a whole different side of this discussion. But purely on PC? Yea there are some bugs but by and large it is a very good game in my opinion. The insane hype and expectations play a major role in what happened, I think.
 
the hype was so massive for this game that it genuinely created* an insane over-correction when the game had problems
You hit the nail on the head there. Best business practice is often to under-promise and over-deliver, which engenders delight. CDPR did the opposite, which engenders revulsion.

They need something good next to recover the goodwill which GOG and The Witcher generated. I hope they manage it, and have learned humility.
 
You hit the nail on the head there. Best business practice is often to under-promise and over-deliver, which engenders delight. CDPR did the opposite, which engenders revulsion.

They need something good next to recover the goodwill which GOG and The Witcher generated. I hope they manage it, and have learned humility.

How much of this hype did they really bring on themselves versus how much of this hype just built over time since they announced the game so long ago? I don't actually remember CDPR doing any more marketing than is normally done for a AAA game. I could be wrong about that because I tend to ignore marketing, anyway.
 
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I haven't played CP2077 yet, though I did purchase it as a preorder. I spent hours downloading 60gb+ to install it, peaked at a couple early reviews (stupid on my part), which I normally wouldn't do; then ended up uninstalling it (in seconds), and so now it sit's in my backlog. My main problem with getting to it, is that I do feel it's more of a shooter than a rpg, which is really not how it was advertised. But I'll get there. I ended up loving Fallout 4, which tended to be more of a shooter than rpg, so I think I can adapt.

But is all the heavy criticism and negativity we see in the press and some forums deserved? Absolutely not. CD Projekt released the game way too early. Pressured by the public, gamers, press, and no doubt the investors, to meet specific release dates; and after those dates got bumped again and again; they just caved in and released it, knowing full well it wasn't ready. CDPR's marketing department pumped this game up so high, that people were in a frenzy to actually play it. They should have toned that down a few notches, and should never have started giving out release dates; just stick with: "when it's done it's done, it will be released when it's ready".

It's not like it's the first game to be released with bugs on the PC, and while the last-gen console issue criticism was accurate, the overly heavy, and often derogatory remarks about CP2077 weren't justifiable in my opinion. Over promotion, inaccurate marketing statements, and giving release dates when they really shouldn't have, greatly hurt their reputation and the reception of CP2077.
 
how much of this hype just built
I don't know, but what they didn't do was take control of it and dampen it down—a serious strategic error. I'll bet hubris was in play, after the phenomenal success of The Witcher 3, and the nice development of GOG—never having experienced any real setback, they probably thought they had the Midas touch.
 

Zloth

Community Contributor
No recent setback, anyway. The port that CDProjekt Black did of Saints Row 2 was pretty hideous.

It still isn't even a year old yet, so I haven't bought it but I still expect to do so. I don't enjoy shooters as much as RPGs but I still enjoy them and bugs don't bother me too much. I expect some DLC will be showing up, though, so I'll wait for that to get out the door (and fixed) before wading in.
 
Oct 31, 2021
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CD ProjectRed kinda just backed themselves in a corner and set themselves up for failure. Then when it failed, they tried to act like the 'Good guys' but that didn't really work out for them did it. At the end of the day I hope they have learned something from this whole experience.
 

Sarafan

Community Contributor
I would like to remind you about one particular game that was bugged as hell on the release date and didn't receive such an amount of criticism. In fact it was praised despite that: Fallout New Vegas.

No, CDPR didn't deserve to receive such criticism. Almost every game on its release date is heavily bugged these days. I played CP2077 just after it was released and experienced one, single gamebreaking bug, which was fixed after I loaded the game. There were some glitches here and there of course, but nothing serious. I have a feeling that CDPR has become a scapegoat of the whole industry. All of the frustration has for some reasons focused on this company.

Still CDPR policy is not without any flaws. CP2077 was a little overhyped and the bad console versions of the game didn't help in the whole situation. I see nothing that disqualifies the company in my eyes however. Everyone makes mistakes and I'm certain that the people who run CDPR drew the proper conclusions from the release of the game.
 
CDPR basically did a No Man Sky. Overhyped the game and promised TONS of features that never got implemented in the final release. What I got instead was an ok experience on PC, but also quite shallow. A lot of the world felt empty like NPC's just walking everywhere, not really doing anything at all, at least not in the same sense you find in most RPG games. The main story, cars, police/trauma, character customization/clothing, and crafting also felt lackluster. Some parts of the skill system, the City itself, companions, music/sound effects, and some of the side stories were excellent. Overall they did an oopsie, and while they have been transparent about that, it does not help when they try to plaster the wound with in-game cars/jackets as DLC. I'm 100% sure the developers are working hard to improve upon things (as some of the patches have shown) but man they need to work on their communication with the public.
 
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they need to work on their communication with the public.

This is completely true, and they are being ridiculously slow on patching the game. The idea that it takes forever to squash bugs because the game is complex is just nonsense overall. Sure, some things might be hard to fix, but there are still plenty of just everyday bugs people are reporting.

On the other hand, some people still have unreasonable expectations. Riding the subways, for instance, almost certainly will never be in the game unless they had built out the systems during production and just never finished them. If they aren't there at all, which I believe to be true, then they won't be added at this point. The cost and development time for adding something like that from scratch to a completed game would be staggering.

And the NPC's are always going to be like the Witcher 3 NPC's. This actually doesn't bother me at all. I don't care if an NPC stands in the same spot almost all of the time instead of living out some "The Sims" type life. I know that drives other people crazy, though.
 
@ZedClampet The Witcher 3 NPC's at least felt more normal. I mean, it is not Skyrim by any means, but the characters belonged in the world. In Cyberpunk the majority of them just seems so off., like they have no clue where they are going or what the hell they are doing. A sweet spot for me would be something like in GTA V where NPC's walk around in designated areas, like a square or something like that, but they eat, drink, talk or do stuff that makes them look and act more natural. In CP2077 they often despawn, like when you shoot with your pistol, and I believe one of the reasons is because they actually don't have anywhere to go particularly. They just....walk and then some disappear, like how the cars disappear if you drive too far away, and when you try to catch up again, they are all gone.

Interestingly enough there will also not be any new patches/updates for CP2077 in 2021 as CDPR has just recently changed its roadmap. To be honest, I'm sure the developers need some time off as they are unfortunately the ones who have to fix the whole mess that MOST likely happened when the higher-ups wanted to release an unfinished product so they could get some nice Christmas sale figures.

I don't know, but what they didn't do was take control of it and dampen it down—a serious strategic error. I'll bet hubris was in play, after the phenomenal success of The Witcher 3, and the nice development of GOG—never having experienced any real setback, they probably thought they had the Midas touch.

Who knew having Keanu Reeves as part of the game would have led to consumer hype🤷‍♂️
 
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Name a fallout game that wasn't a buggy piece of ... on launch and if its not 1 & 2 I won't believe you. F:NV was best of them still in my mind. It wasn't just skyrim with guns.

Over promise and not correcting misconceptions about game is same problem No Man Sky had. 4 years after launch its what they promised. And porbably worth playing now, No one knew what that game even was until launch, he let peoples imaginations go wild and they all came crashing down. NMS only missed features, it at least worked on launch. Cyberpunk? It was still buggy on PC, just not to point of Console. I didn't buy it as I don't believe hype anymore. I wait for games to actually exist and I can watch other people play them.

Diablo 2 non interactable NPC just walk backwards and forwards all day and since I turned music off on some players, as it got annoying, I can hear endless footsteps and thats almost as bad.
 

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