That Cyberpunk 2077 Review is a Lie

xboxinfinity:

After reading the title, many people will be reading these words thinking I’m talking about a certain review that scored Cyberpunk 2077, 7 out of 10.
I’m not, I’m talking about every Cyberpunk 2077 review I’ve seen so far and the reason why I won’t be reviewing the game.

[ArchangelMike]

That 90 Metacritic rating though? Oh wait... it's now sitting at 89.

Good to see some retribution.

[nommers]

Opencritic has it at 84 including all the versions. All things considered looking at metacritics current 49 (ouch) of the console versions I'd say they're getting off easy with that 84.

[SullysCigar]

Well right here on N4G it's sitting at 79 from 44 reviews...

They did this to themselves - a delay would have had far less impact and I doubt they'd have made a significant loss financially. They wanted money NOW and they wanted the holiday spending, so they lied. Then they lied again about refunds. Then they lied again about not knowing it was so bad on base consoles.

The initial influx of reviews were fishy as hell - even on the best PC this game has problems that should prevent it objectively from attaining a 10/10 until they are resolved.

[Michiel1989]

@sully i agree, as a consumer i dont really care what the reason is they brought it out now. bad managment, investors pressure or what have you. It just doesnt justify what they put out as the final product. I judge the game as it comes out, not with the promise of what it can be in 6 months or so when they actually finished the game. Combine that with their deceit and shadyness with review copies and that they couldnt only show footage CDPR gave them and not their own gameplay, its shamefull really.

I dont mind reviews giving scores without taking account for bugs in a game as long as there is just a couple bugs in a game, its basically impossible to make big open world games without having some bugs/glitches here and there. However when the game is as buggy as CP2077, that just cant be overlooked in any review and should be reflected in the score. Especially since some of them are outright gamebreaking.

[VenomUK]

Do Metacritic and Opencritic allow updates to review scores? The stability problems will obviously have damaged the Cyberpunk 2077 scores, though in a year I’m sure the game will better match CDPR’s original vision - but is that fair?

What happened with No Man’s Sky that underdelivered (but worked) at launch and after years from major improvements has just won a Game Award.

[Pretentious]

I'm just glad I finally secured a PS5 so I can play this with little issue in less than a month.

[solideagle]

now I look at all the 10/10 even on PC version sounds fishy, as there are so many bugs even in PC version.

[specialguest]

There's absolutely no way a game should get a 10/10 or even a 9.5 for all of the bugs

[Vx_]

The game problem isn't just the bugs, the whole system and mechanics are crap. AI is the worst I've ever seen, the crafting is boring and useless at most, the side quests are insignificant, the character is way too overpowered and this game has major balancing issues. Oh, and btw, the game "endings" only are affected by the choices you make in the very final act. so whatever you choose throughout the whole game doesn't really matter. Trash game of the generation more like, Corona 2077.

[esherwood]

The games awesome and I’m playing on Xbox. Easily the best game this generation, no idea why all you nerds are on a warpath to tear it down but it’s ridiculous

[Baza]

Those console reviews looking real rough.

[Vandamme21]

It’s actually 88 now on metacritic. This game was way too overhyped.

[nommers]

On open critic now its an 82.

[-Foxtrot]

See people might call it “review bombing” when it’s a game they like or a from a studio they don’t want to see criticised but it’s not all trolls and the like...it helps gamers vent

It’s rightly deserved here

[Ninver]

This is a 70 game at best. Talk about falling from grace.

[Mulando]

Well, after all it is a really good game if the hardware can run it fluent.

Yes, they should not have released it in that state on last gen base-consoles.

[Father__Merrin]

Goto YouTube and search for Cyberpunk bug montages it's hilarious no way is that a finished game it's shocking ppl gave it 90's

[NoLifeLoser]

Reviewers look at the name of the publisher and then give their score accordingly.

[abstractel]

If I were to review it based on MY experience, it'd be a 9 or 10. I realize I'm talking into a massive down-vote like Tiqila, but I love the crap out of this game. The bugs I've run into have been not being able to pick some objects up that are near corners or NPCs and similar, minor ones like that. I have a ridiculously powered PC which plays a big part.

I do feel bad for people running this on consoles, especially last-gen PCs, and even low-mid end PCs. It comes down to your personal experience.

Refunds are being accepted so I don't really care about speculating regarding the devs decision as I find it pointless. Want to wait until it's more stable on your hardware, you can. No one is forcing you to buy or even keep the game since they are accepting refunds. I'm glad it's out because I enjoy it, I'm sorry there's a lot of people who don't.

[repsahj]

... that's why it's weird that CDPR didn't let reviewers use their own footage. Why they didn't experience all of this bug? Did they play until the later parts of the game or they just play the good portion and based that review on it?

[Eamon]

Yeh, I'd say this does deserve a solid 7/10. 1 point off for bland gameplay and 2 points off for horrendous bugs.

It seems the characters, script, story and aesthetics are highly praised while the gameplay is pretty generic for a 2020 Action-RPG game with braindead AI.

I think I'll wait till all the debugging work is done before I get this one. And considering how huge of a mess it is, that might take a year.

[anast]

One thing I dislike about game reviewers is that they never say which version of the game they played, especially with sometimes up to 5 different versions of the same game.

Now on to 2077, this whole "struggling hardware" thing is getting old. They advertised it as a current gen game and it is still a current gen game; therefore they mismanaged the project by making a current gen game that can only run well on next gen hardware. It is not the fault of current gen tech or current gen gamers. This is all on them. There are no should haves or would haves. They straight up went for the money play. Now they got their money and now gamers want their game fixed. It is as simple as that.

[Mr_cheese]

I honestly don't believe hardware is the issue.

GTA5 was a ps3 game and look what they achieved.

[cartoonx1]

GTA5 had worst performance on ps3 thn this has on ps4 tho.

[Ezio2048]

@cartoonx1 are you crazy? Gta5 ran fine on ps3. I completed the game without any issues and I am sure a lot of people did. They didn't get 97 meta on ps3 for nothing.

[jbrock11]

Just absolutely terrible optimization.

[Father__Merrin]

Not only that but their minimum and recommended pc specs are laughable. No way will you get a stable game unless you have ultra high end set up

[jbrock11]

Doesn't even matter really. If you can even manage to avoid the bugs ( virtually impossible on any platform ), the game just isn't very fun. They had a lot of good ideas but virtually everything outside of the world itself was executed terribly. Game's a 5/10 or 6/10 at best in it's current state. 7/10 if they can get out all the bugs and I played on PC at max settings with a 3090/10900k.

[anast]

I'm liking the story and I am playing on base... I would give it a 6 current or lower for lying about the state of the game and easily an 8 or 9 if the game wasn't all jacked up.

[Xbox_Oldies]

I agree @Anast,
Far too many reviews don't mention it or hide it in small print.

Cyberpunk has proven there can be such a massive gap in performance between the same game running on different hardware (Xbox One/Series X),
I dread to think how much PC reviews would differ between the experience of minimum specs and the 3080+ they're probably reviewed on.

[anast]

Exactly.

[waverider]

Its funny all the talk of scale down is easy to do.... but in reality it goes right out of the window,,, Big fat lie.

[SullysCigar]

Bu..But what about the magic Xbox 'slider'??!

[hadowajp]

This really doesn’t have anything to do with scaling tho.. it’s poorly optimized and the brute force of the higher end consoles can smooth some of those issues. It’s to about scaling of it was designed for the hardware that can’t scale the program. 7years and this is what we got, glad I got a refund even having next gen systems I’ll grab when it’s 30 or less for the finished game.

[Silly gameAr]

Just take note of every blog or gaming site that rated Cyberpunk a 9 or above, and be wary the next time they review a game that's hyped to high heaven. Also, watch the sites that rate great games lower than it seems like they should be. You can't really trust the gaming media now in days. You're your own best critic, and your opinion should matter more than anyone else's.

[mafiahajeri]

Some of these guys go to freaking behind door showings of games where they probably sit down and drink and eat and chat and get chummy with the devs and shit, so basically what im saying is dont put value to peoples opinions that much, because theres a huge chance external factors could easily make their review scores biased. Also dont bitch and moan after you get tricked into buying a game like a dog being teased by his owner dangling a bone infront of them for 8 years only for it to turn out to be a fake toy bone.

[Artemidorus]

If you rely on reviews for your gaming then I'm afraid you will learn the hard way.

Always check out people playing the game first.

[Ninver]

People who preorder games will always fall victim to disappointment. Never give money to devs before seeing consumer gameplay and opinions before hand.

I have saved alot of money and headache buying games a month or two after launch. Can't go wrong.

[Artemidorus]

I agree, I wanted to try C2077 for being different.

I opted out of buying a console this year knowing the problems that need ironing out but at the same time knew playing on a lesser system would be a challenge.

It's now important to focus on retail gameplay these days, I wouldn't even trust some YouTube reviewers as they are given freebies like these websites and are encouraged to speak about positives even on something terrible.

[Ninver]

@Artemidorus

You're spot on about not putting too much faith in youtube reviewers and influencers. The industry is but a shadow of what it once was years ago.

[RgR]

At the end of the day. Current users will have one experience and users that play it later will have their own experience as well.

I'm pretty darn sure that when I get my chance to play it I'll likely give it a 5/5.

Story is the best part of cdpr games...and as far as I'm concerned that's top notch. As long as they clear the technical issues there won't be anything holding back that aspect

[Aaroncls7]

clickbait at its worst. Write a real piece, choom

[ebotj]

Well written article. I enjoyed reading it! Too bad it's about a game I had such high hopes for! :(

[Xbox_Oldies]

Thankyou :D

[Knightofelemia]

I never go with the word of a reviewer like a politician they can lie to your face and keep their job. I leave it to myself to rate a game whether I will like it or whether I will hate it. I watch low numbered streamers stream the game and hear what they have for feed back on the game. I skip partnered streamers who get the game for free and are all about that hype train for the game. I study my games before I buy them last thing I want is an overhyped pile of shit that is just going to take up room on my shelf. Reviewers to me either get paid to say yes this game is bloody awesome you should buy it. Or reviewers play the game for two hours say yes its good you should buy it or they play a good game for two hours get stuck and say the game is crap.

[esherwood]

Playing on Xbox and really enjoying it. Gamers are a fickle bunch, thankfully I don’t have to cater to them

[esherwood]

Games great. They even went overboard to please the sjw’s and put a bunch of gay crap in there. Was caught off guard doing the racing quest when I realized I was romancing a tranny

[spwittbold]

This guy's writing is trash for a "professional reviewer."

[Xbox_Oldies]

Thanks for the feedback, I never claimed to be a "professional" this is a hobby, and would never claim to be on a level of the websites I refer to,
I'd rather write good opinions poorly than write rubbish / biased opinions well.

At least it sounds like I'm worthy of a job with CDPR ;)

[Mandingo2020]

I bet everyone is enjoying being a beta tester after purchasing a full product 😂

[jBlakeeper]

I can give this game credit for being very unique with a LOT of stuff to do, but I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed coming off of games like TLOU 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. The game feels antiquated in many areas... almost like it belongs in the PS3/360 era.

[DJStotty]

"the reason why I won’t be reviewing the game."

Then goes on, to review the game....

[Xbox_Oldies]

That was far from a review, more an overview to give people a quick impression of what I actually thought/experienced with the game.

After all, it'd be much more difficult to process if a reader never had a clue what the author actually thought.

[DJStotty]

Detailed the platforms it was buggy on, highlighted some of the bugs, said that if was reviewing on PC only would give it a 9/10.

May as well just reviewed it.

[Xbox_Oldies]

@DJStotty.

Never mentioned PC, my "good" experience was on Series X.

"I would have easily scored Cyberpunk 2077 a very capable 9/10"
followed by
"Looking at the core Xbox One experience, that review score might have been lucky to receive a disappointing 6/10."

Merely explains the disparity between the experience on the two consoles.

I'd really like to think my reviews are a little more detailed than that ;)

[Jayszen]

Frankly, the devs should have delayed the game for as long as it takes. There just isn't any excuse. As for critics, I for one have never bought a game based solely on a critics view as many of them lie or have vested interests. Those who can should return the game and get something else to enjoy over the holidays.

[esherwood]

Why wouldn’t you just wait to buy it? I’m playing on Xbox with no problems so I’m glad they released it. If they delayed it you wouldn’t be playing right now anyone so having a hard time understanding the problem

[Hurfs]

Just finished the game on PC and loved it, were a few funny bugs but nothing game destroying.

Over all I would give it 8.9 on PC. Main story is to short.