#as someone familiar with CP2020 it was a great adaptation of that material

[sappho114]

what's your thoughts on cyberpunk 2077? I'll fully admit i didn't like the final product and felt like there was tons of missed opportunities, wasted characters and plot lines, and a bunch of stuff that were just not handled well. But i'm not here to just bash on the game, i want to hear your opinion on it

I know that it's popular to hate on for the reasons of "it was popular" and "it marketed by a transphobic social media team" (of which, the latter makes sense but it is NOT reflective of the product.) I tend to ignore people who are hyperbolic about that kinda stuff because a lot of them just ran out and bought Red Dead Redemption 2 or engage in media made by abusers and actual transphobes. The moral high ground politicking by those who hated CP2077 is actually hilariously ridiculous. Anyway, that's less about the game and more about how dumb some folks were being. More below about the game itself.

It is a janky game, it required at least two to three major patches for what's in game to be functional fully, and having to beat back their game to fit into the shitbox that is the PS4 and other consoles was not a task I envy. CDPR's higher leadership also are silly cunts and the crunch they faced up to release is not so good. Although in hindsight, with the Naughty Dog and Act-Blizz shit, at least the women weren't abused and they actually got paid and benefits for their overtime thanks to Polish labor law. God, America needs to unfuck itself so much.

That being said: I loved it. I felt it was a good representation of Pondsmith's Cyberpunk universe. I enjoyed almost all of the characters, loved the vibe, had fun just driving around Night City with the crowds, the ads, the radio. I've beaten it once and I have about 3 different save files half-way or more through completion.

I'm not one of those people who saw "wallrunning" in a trailer from 2018 and expected it to be in the game (and angry that it wasn't, even if they said it wasn't gonna be in it for literal years.) I think in the end its about as janky as Witcher 2 was, and considering it's a new IP that's not all that bad for eastern european developers. We've gotten a dozen or so jankier, shittier games from eastern europe since CP2077 released but because they didn't have a marketing budget, people don't really care. That's a whole thing we could spend a while on.

As someone who is chronically ill, poor, and wants more out of life I connected with V's story. I also hated Johnny at first because I know of that little shitbag from the TTRPG but over time he actually grew on me. I love the idea of the flashbacks to Arasaka tower being so different because it's how Johnny saw what he did, not necessarily the truthful representation. I dunno if that's like, canon, or whatnot, but it fits that blowhard so much that I choose to believe it fully. I hate that guy but he became a good friend.

I felt that all the performances were solid. T-Bug deserved more time on screen, though. Other than that I loved all the character side missions and felt they wrapped things nicely for almost all of them. At least until we get ourselves those expansion packs.

Oh, I lied. Judy Alvarez is perfect, and she needs 2000% more dialogue and stuff to do. I'd go visit my Night City Wife after every mission and she seldom had too much to say. More of that downtime conversation would've been awesome. I don't necessarily mean downtime activities - I actually hate Grand Theft Auto and Ubisoft time-wasting bullshit. It's why I liked CP2077's side content being tactical blast some baddies time for the most part. If I want to fucking play poker, I'd play fucking poker.

Any major issues I have with the game tend to stem from my issues with Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk RED as a whole. The narrative nihilism of the Cyberpunk universe is lame as hell. I'm a Shadowrun girl. There's always hope - even if the Horrors are making Lofwyr piss his dragaloons (that's dragon pantaloons) there's still space for a group of ne'er-do-wells to do some violence well. I also think that if you choose certain endings, you end up with a horribly optimistic turn on things! That left a good taste in my mouth. I wanna find this cure for neurological death that V's going through and I'm glad they explicitly said that it's a possibility.

tl;dr: not perfect but I love it and am waiting for more. Adored the story, characters, all that jazz.