Digital environments created by Polish studio CD Projekt Red for the controversially buggy but game-changing RPG Cyberpunk 2077.
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Everything. As It Happens.
Rushed it out on consoles, apparently plays well on PC and Stadia but is it anything more than a sci-fi skinned GTA?
Not yet played it long enough for solid review but initial thoughts are it’s a masterpiece in the making. It’s not there yet mind you given the bugs. I’m playing on PC and you’ll need one helluva a PC if you want to play even raytracing medium settings anywhere near to 4k, or in my case ultrawide screen 1600p, with a fast refresh rate. I can play mostly ultra settings with a few tweaks to raytracing shadow options on a RTX3080 and get between 50 and 70fps depending on how busy the action is. Lot;s of NPCs, it reduces refresh to about 55fps.
Anyways, as an RPG, it’s very very clever with an amazing set of customizable options to progress and enhance your character. Missions are interesting, challenging and a lot of fun. And as for ‘Brain Dance’ It’s a spectacularly good feature and very clever.
Comparing it to GTA5 feels a bit off. GTA5, awesome game as it is (and one I still play), is not a full on RPG. Its sandboxing is not quite as open as Cyberpunk and character development and evolution thru the game is a lot more sophisticated. A more accurate comparison is of course Witcher 3 – still a reference standard for RPGs.
Cyberpunk will evolve for sure in the coming months and folks will be playing it for years to come – I’m pretty certain of that. Especially when Cyberpunk Online is launched next year.
As I said at the start, it’s a masterpiece in the making but as a release it feels like its transitions from alpha to beta in terms of testing is a ways away – 3 or 4 months maybe – from release candidate ready. And that’s PC. I fear a long wait is in store for console.