[Spoilers] Completed Cyberpunk 2077 after 124 hours - An experience/review from a casual PC gamer on an entry level gaming laptop.

Dec 3, 2020
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#Spoiler Alert: This review/experience contains spoilers. If you haven't finished Cyberpunk 2077 yet, I suggest you not to read further.

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So 124 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 and I finished the main story line in all ending paths except the secret one. Also played the sub endings of each path.

Regarding secondary tasks, there were no side quests pending, but I left some gigs and ncpd hustles from 2 districts because I want something new for my second play through. I will be taking a break and will only play again after the February patch is live. I have never played so much of a single game in such a short time. Even Witcher 3, my favorite game I took a lot more time to play these many hours.

First about bugs and issues I faced: I faced a few serious bugs and several minor issues. I will try to list as much as I remember.

  1. During my first ending path with rogue, during the mission named 'Knockin on the heavens door', I faced issue of unable to kill Adam smasher. He won’t die even when his health is 0. In fact in the same quest in previous areas, some enemies won’t die if I tried hacking on them. But if no hacking was used, they die without any issue. With Adam smasher, even without hacking he just won’t die. A little research on internet + trial & error helped me identify and work around. The bug is related to legendary cripple movement Cyberhack I have equipped. When I unequipped it, I could kill Adam smasher within 1-2 minutes. This bug almost made me quit the game as there was no way forward.
  2. During the Second Conflict quest, there was no ‘Dum dum’ when I was supposed to talk to him. I used a work around to finish the quest. This issue seems to be resolved in 1.06, but I played this while on 1.05.
  3. I can’t start a gig named Getting warmer in Westbrook. The call never comes or can’t enter the building despite multiple attempts. Patch notes for 1.05 says this issue is resolved, but it didn’t for me.
Now some of the minor issues I faced:
  1. Textures loading a bit slow occasionally – NPCs & vehicles.
  2. V being bald on mirror & for a second or so while riding. Mirror one got solved in 1.05.
  3. NPCs, dead bodies hanging in air.
  4. Some interaction options disappear before we can react.
  5. Unequipped gear still visible on V in inventory. Even overlapping currently equipped gear.
  6. Female V’s breasts popping out of jacket. This issue was supposed to be resolved in 1.05, but I got this issue only after 1.06.
  7. Motorcycles not moving. Need to go to another location and call it again to make it rideable.
  8. Loots sometimes not able to pickup from dead enemies.
And a few more. But most of these are negligible and never mattered in enjoying the game.

Graphics: Absolutely loved it. Great looking city, characters, vehicles, landscapes, buildings, NPCs and literally everything.

Gameplay: I loved the gameplay. How differently we can play every time you play same mission is astonishing for me. I have used all kinds of strategy during my gigs / quests. Stealth, sniper, assault, melee, hacking. Each one is really good. My favorite method was hacking+sniping, but enjoyed other modes equally well.

Crafting seems like needing a bit more work, but do just fine. I have crafted a few legendary weapons.

Vehicles – Overall I liked vehicles in the game, but driving is not the best. It’s good, but could be better. First person driving was nightmare for me, so I always drive on third person.

Side jobs: I loved the side quests and activities in Cyberpunk. For me the quality of side quests and gigs made this game more enjoyable. Cyber psycho hunts were really cool. Races were good. Some of my favorite single side quests / gigs include:

  • Dream On by Peralez
  • Don’t lose your mind by Delamain
  • Big in Japan
Panam’s quest line is the best side quest line in the game for me. It felt like a mini – main story line for me.

Characters :

Johnny Silverhand – He kind of grows on you. At first, he seemed like an arrogant character. But then how he developed his relationship with V was great. By the ending he became one of the best character in the game.

Judy – Romantic interest of my female V. Very sweet and interesting character and so beautiful. Her face should be one of the most beautiful faces in the game.

Panam – Awesome character. Felt like a really good friend. More side quests from her would have been great. Will definitely romance her on my male ‘V’ play through.

River – Good character, but way less content when compared with Judy or Panam. He deserved more. If more of River was there in side quests and main quests, would have considered for a romantic relationship with my female V. Right now just a good friend.

Jacky – Great character with a little less content. The friendship between Jacky and V is awesome, but if that montage was replaced by gameplay on how their relation grow along with how V grow as a character in night city, it would have been amazing.

Claire - She felt like a small, irrelevant afterlife bartender at start. But once you finish her side quest, you realize how strong, beautiful character she is. Should have given some more quests for her.

Viktor, Rogue, Hanako, Evelyn Parker, Kerry, Saul, Mitch, Takemura all were really good and likeable characters. Even the negative characters – Arasakas, Adam Smasher, Dexter Deshawn impressed me.

Main Story : Too bad it’s too short, but happy it’s very well written. May not be as good as Witcher 3 or it’s expansions, but still a really enjoyable story.

Endings: I liked the endings overall. Haven’t played the secret ending yet, but here is how I rank the endings I played so far from best to worst.
  1. Panam’s path – V goes with Aldecados. For me the best & fairytale like ending. To be with the people who respect V the most and her special one away from all the problems of NC. Loved it.
  2. Panams’ path & Johnny Silverhands path – Silverhand survives. This seems like a bit of sad, non-fairy tale ending. But felt very realistic and mature ending. Loved how Johnny played here.
  3. Handle things your own – This might be an unpopular opinion, but this sad and depressing ending isn’t that bad considering the options V had. Kind of realistic too. Epilogue made it heartbreaking too. Glad and option like this was included. Not every developer may dare to do it.
  4. Johnny Silverhands path – V, the queen of Afterlife. It’s an ok kind of ending. But not my favourite, especially when looking at how things with Judy ended, plus rogue, johnny.. Nothing that made me cheerful or enjoyable with this ending. Story wise, really good though. This was my first ending path.
  5. Arasakas ending – both of them. I hate these endings, but I like it how the game made you feel for choosing to side with the corpos. Ultra realistic ending, but I just hate both of them. Very depressing too.

So that’s my experience/review for Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. This is the first time I am writing a game review. So please pardon the mistakes. I will correct any mistakes as I notice.

I understand that the game was filled issues for a lot of people. But for me, the issues were minimal enough to play for so many hours. My settings were low-medium. So that may have helped.

My rating for the game is still 8/10. 2 points deducted for bugs. Full marks for everything else.

Please share your thoughts on the game, points I shared and anything else related to the game.

Regards.

Nikhil
 
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Sarafan

Community Contributor
I also loved the game. I'd rate it somewhere around 90/100. The day one patch fixed a lot of things, so I presume the reviews would be better if the reviewers received the patched version of the game. Yes, there are still glitches and bugs, but the game is so great that it's worth such a high rating despite them. It'll really shine when it's fully patched. I can't wait to experience the DLCs.
 
Dec 3, 2020
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Nice review Nikhil, appreciate the effort :)
I'm curious re what are your CPU & GPU. I won't be getting the game anytime soon, but am wondering if it would be playable on my i7-7700 & GTX1060, or my other i5 & GTX970—both desktops.
Thank you.. I have an i7 10th gen laptop with gtx 1650 and 16gb ram.. It's slightly lower than the recommended specs. But if you adjust the settings, the game is definitely playable although wont get 60 fps... i might have got 40-45fps which was good enough for me. In fact I never checked fps, the game was smooth and good looking for me. I think on a desktop you may get even better experience.

Well done nikku , with the amount of problems reported on here and on steam forums i am suprised you even managed to use it !
Thanks. On my laptop, game wasn't anywhere nearly as unplayable as a lot of guys over internet mentioned. I definitely got some bugs including some serious ones, but nothing bad enough making it unplayable. For the more serious ones I was able to find quick workarounds. Also patches may have fixed a lot. I can't say for consoles though.
 
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