The Redemption of Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 was poised to take the gaming world by storm, promising unprecedented levels of choice and customization, but it landed with something more akin to a pathetic splash than a tidal wave of success.

[masterfox]

yes I forgive you CDPR for fixing(kinda) your game two years later............

[Welshy]

I wouldn't call this a "redemption" at all honestly. No Mans Sky for example is praised for it's comeback, not just because it fixed it's issues and eventually met launch expectations, but because it has gone on to waaaaaay overdeliver on even the biggest claims they made at launch and is legitimately a phenomenal game across the board that's significantly better than anyone ever dared to hope even at peak pre-launch hype.

Imo Cyberpunk is only now at the point that the game should have been Day 1 if it had anywhere near the polish/depth they promised. Instead of being good day 1 and using 2 years to improve to greatness with multiple expansions etc, we're only now at the point it should have been 2 years ago. It's overall a net loss on where it could have been today.

[IanTH]

I think "redemption" is too strong as well. Still missing SO MUCH that was promised in those Night City Wire videos, so I even think saying they are now where they should have been at Day 1 is still too charitable.

They've certainly had a sales redemption, but not a true redemption. Not a "character" redemption, so to speak.

The net loss is you mentioned after it launched was, of course, unavoidable. It's always going to be behind where it could be. But they should have further back-burnered the expansion - dropped entirely, if needs be - and expanded & overhauled its systems & overall dynamism. To create a more interesting moment-to-moment game, and one more like the game they initially promised. That's where they'd earn redemption, IMO.

[CorndogBurglar]

It's still missing some things it should have had at launch. The big thing it's missing is working police. That should have 100% been there and it's still not working right.

I didn't bother playing at launch for more than a couple hours due to it being unplayable on PS4. But now, ON PS5, it's a good, functional game. But thats it. What I've learned is this game was never going to be the huge innovative masterpiece we were told it was going to be. If I'm being honest, it just feels like a pretty generic open world FPS. There's really not anything innovative here.

Deus Ex Human Revolution did the Cyberpunk setting and body modifications way better than this game, in my opinion.

[gamer9]

I was expecting something new, fresh, the next big thing. It's another GTA type game. i don't see the big deal at all, even if the bugs are all fixed

[Demetrius]

Ikr

[philm87]

The fact that you think this is a GTA type game shows you've not played it.

[SullysCigar]

CP world is crap compared to the 2 gen old GTA world. Way too basic, especially given what was indicated ahead of launch.

It's fine, just weak by comparison.

[gamer9]

Played it for 5 hours, it wasn't the next big thing and i was bored. Story driven game, get missions from various NPCs and drive around the city to complete the missions and advance the story. If you can't see any similarities to GTA shows you've not played it.

[Vx_]

It’s even worse than last last gen GTA

[CorndogBurglar]

Deus Ex Human Revolution also did the futuristic cyberpunk setting and body modifications way better. And that game came out in like 2010 or something like that.

[TheEnigma313]

The game is ok. I only paid $5 for it, so I can't complain too much.

[MrVux000]

Deja vu

[Hofstaderman]

Another one of these?

[neutralgamer1992]

Don't you know CDPR needs this every 2 weeks and gamers are so eager to forgive and praise the greediness

[Levii_92]

What redemption ? There's a redemption ? Is it a whole different game now ?

[Smellsforfree]

I played through v1.6 between PC and PS5 using cross-save progression and I thought it was a lot of fun. I bought it when it first came out and was put off by all the bugs I encountered. On my v1.6 play through the only bug I came across was a random NPC hovering slightly above the ground and calling my bike still causes it to drive pass where I'm standing and flip over sometimes.

[JEECE]

I'd love to see their cross-platform save system become a default.

[Crows90]

Yeah always found that funny with the bikes.

[Crows90]

The game was buggy. Get over it. Move on

[shinoff2183]

It was more then just buggy. People shouldbt move on. Everything these devs do should be scrutinized. People paid for this and they let it release like that. Its on them in the end. This isnt redemption. Not even close

[Crows90]

The game was perfectly fine then. Move on.

[jznrpg]

It was and still is missing many features they said would be in the game on top of all of the bugs . A living persistent world . Etc etc etc

[CorndogBurglar]

What do you mean "The game was perfectly fine then. Move on."

Are you absolutely insane? Games don't get pulled off of PS online stores when they are "perfectly fine".

This game was a total, unplayable mess.

[Crows90]

He wasnt okay with me saying it was buggy ...so I tried to appease with the opposite view point.

This dead horse is in the ground. No point in any more beatings.

[CorndogBurglar]

"He wasnt okay with me saying it was buggy ...so I tried to appease with the opposite view point."

That approach might have made sense if he was trying to say the game was good. But he wasn't. So it makes no sense to "appease" him by saying it was the opposite of his opinion, which he made very clear.

[Crows90]

Cant say I cared enough to put thought in that comment. Little tired of the overdrawn and tiresome narrative about how awful cyberpunk 2077 was and so on. The game itself is perfectly fine. People are pissed because it wasnt what they were told or their lofty expectations werent met.

There were signs content was being removed throughout the process...the wallclimbing for instance...that was a big step back. People shouldnt pre order..they did. People regretted their purchase on last gen weak ass consoles...so be it. Saw it coming from galaxies away.

Management in cdprojekt f'd up. Thats it. Theres no more to the story. Move on.

[IanTH]

TLDR version:

"But CDPR did not give up. Instead of cutting their losses and moving on to something new, they vowed to do right by their fans and turn Cyberpunk 2077 into the game it was always supposed to be."

That small sentence felt so disingenuous, and I had to think about why it left such a bad taste after reading it. Came down to two things: it'll never be the game it was supposed to be, and I don't think CDPR *the company* did anything with the "fans" in mind.
============================= =============
NON-TLDR Version

1) Sadly it'll never be the game it was supposed to be. They aren't focusing on making the game as dynamic as it was promised to be. They've done things to improve the illusion (i.e. making cops not spawn further away, instead of on top of you), but not actually fixing the root issue (i.e. creating a dynamic system to govern how police show up, reputation affecting if they show up or how they act, etc). Devs may wish it to be so, but the issue was never them. It was the company. The higher-ups. The marketing department. Which is why.....

2) I ultimately find it hard to feel it was done to "do right by their fans". I think the same higher-ups, driven by money & beholden to shareholders, are still as driven and beholden by those things now as they were when they launched 2077. "Fans" were never at the top of their list in any steps of their decision-making.

I think if CDPR were as big as EA, there's a high likelihood that 2077 would have been dropped after minimum viability. If they had 30 dev studios cranking out multiple titles per year, they could blame it on one studio - maybe even shutter it - and say "it'll be different with the next title, it isn't the same people" to placate fans and (most importantly) shareholders alike. But CDPR doesn't have the same luxury. As one studio, with one game & one reputation, they had to go back and fix it.

Hopefully they'll go back to putting the customer first, do right by their fans, but I'm not seeing it. Spinning up multiple dev teams for multiple games before proving they can handle one clean launch feels very much a decision based around pleasing shareholders. I'll be happy to be proven wrong, but unless you buy-back all your shares and go private, shareholders are always going to hold undue sway, with "fans" coming in a distant 2nd.

[-Foxtrot]

Redemption? Lol

Oh yeah because of a few updates and a really good anime series which had nothing to do with them

Yeah it's "redeemed" alright...sure

[Crows90]

They were involved if my sources are correct. In some ways an impediment for sure though.

[-Foxtrot]

Did they write it? Create the animation? Direct it?

Most likely not...

[SurgicalMenace]

Even if they did none of those things it was their world that was championed in the series. That speaks a higher volume than opinions of those not adding anything more than their 2 cents.

[Crows90]

@foxtrot

I'm pretty sure they were involved in art and direction as well as stroyline characters

[darksky]

What's redeemed about it? The AI is still as dumb and stupid as launch day. GTA did far better AI 10 years ago. Even after updates it's not much different from launch.

[Thundercat77]

The game shouldn't have been release 2 years ago. It was a total mess. It should have been released in the state that it is now.

No excuses and no redemption.

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Tried it twice on PC, installed then uninstalled, could not get into it, plus all those issues could have been fixed before launch. You know like delay your game until it's actually ready 🙄. I do like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners though on Netflix😁

[Father__Merrin]

Got it cheap £8 for an Argentine key it's a decent game. The cheap foreign keys has been great for me I won't be leaving the series x for some time

[anast]

Just played a couple of hours today. It beats playing a fake gangster in GTA.

[Flewid638]

Add third-person and I'm all in

[Frodosmugins]

Tried the trial! uninstalled after an hour. Not much could have changed if it's still boring

[AndrewM]

Fuck cyberpunk

[dolfa]

I was wise to wait 2 years before playing. Just started the game with 120 mod collection. Hopefully CDPR will remember their mistake or atleast the drop in their market-stock.

[Phoenix76]

I went back to it a few weeks ago and still having issue when shooting enemies. They do an Agent Smith and dodge bullets by being "jumped" to either side of where I'm firing.
I gave up in the end

[Dirty_Lemons]

I don't care what anyone says, I absolutely love this game. I loved it when it was flawed and locked me out of a quest, I loved it when it began to get patched and got the next gen update it should have always had, and I love it now.

[SurgicalMenace]

I wholeheartedly agree.

[SurgicalMenace]

Redemption will never be had in a community that expects perfection with little to no understanding of what it takes to be great. I enjoyed the game thoroughly, given I was expecting the challenges because I understood the limitations they were facing. They've done everything needed to be done by NOT giving up and leaving it in the state that it was. All those still trashing the game, most likely, have never been great at anything so they will always have something negative to say about it. We are in a society of overstated opinions from those who don't even hold the most basic of skills of those they aim to critique. To each their own.

[CrObInStInE]

No Mans Sky. Now that was some redemption.
Cyberpunk was the first and last game I will buy from this company. Was looking forward to the multiplayer that they gave up on since the game was such shit.

[ChasterMies]

More people playing Cyberpunk 2077 does not make it better. More patches and bug fixes will make it better.

[mastershredder]

Yeah I’m really sick of these fluff-defense and forgiveness articles. Just bend on over and get ready for more. The game is still a massive bellyflop and No we don’t have to forgive a bad show nor the bad ethics of cdpr. I love journ-ohs that that stand for nothing, but consumption.