I usually skip on playing action shooter games, that’s why I wasn’t that hyped when Cyberpunk was being released. It will haunt me forever to know that was it not for the Edgerunners anime, I would most likely not play this game at all. Missing out on this gaming jewel would truly be tragic. I am not being hyperbolic, the only critique I have for this game is the limited romance options, but I will spare everyone the several paragraphs about how unfair it is not being allowed to romance Viktor Vektor and Goro Takemura. To be completely honest, it is not even that big of a deal. In fact while the romance part of this game is cute, it could be skipped entirely without it taking away from the absolute perfection this game is.

What is so good about this game then? Well… kind of everything.

Let’s start with world building, the year is 2077, future is here and almost everyone you meet on the street has some sort of cyber enhancement installed in their body. You are introduced to Night City, a brutal environment with several gangs plaguing each part of the city. I won’t spoil any part of the game in this review, but you are SHOWN just how dangerous this city is right from the very start, your first encounter, first mission. The characters, even those that only appear ever so often are wonderfully crafted with their own personalities and problems, making them unforgettable.

That brings us to narration, the main story left me giggling, ugly crying, gasping and staring with open mouth at the screen, I don’t remember the last time a game spurred this many different emotions within me. The dialogues are filled with witty lines and apart from your attitude and tone you use with people, there are choices to be made. Some will affect the outcome of a situation, some you might regret later. You are not pressured to follow the main story, in fact I have spent hours hunting side gigs and objectives before dedicating time to the main story. Even if not accompanied by ‘cutscenes’, the side gigs do offer a peek into the lore of the world you are in, they might even reveal things aren’t as they were presented to you. Of course due to the sheer number of these missions, some will be nothing more than a fetch quest with a little bit of extra story. I still found doing these enjoyable, probably for the sole reason of the freedom of choice. How do you want to do this? Enter guns blazing, grenades rolling, clean up the house to steal what you need? Or would you rather sneak in, distract the guards and jump out of the window once you are done? Up to you.


So how is the combat? Incredibly satisfying. The options might even be a little overwhelming in the beginning. Do you want to hack or slash? Watch the chaos you sow erupt from the distance or bring the heat right to the gonk’s faces? There is abundance of weapons you can find or buy to suit any type of play style you like and if you don’t like weapons at all, you can make do with hacking the enemies’ cyberware or get a spicy little whip installed in your forearms.

Equipped with whatever suits your fancy you get to explore the city and its surroundings, while you do get to fast travel and use other means of travel like cars or bikes, I often ran through the city by foot, there are so many places to discover, so many side quests, tidbits of lore or interesting weapons you might stumble upon.

I do have to mention, however, that since the very… unfortunate… launch of this game, of which I heard about even if I wasn’t intending to play back then, there are still glitches and bugs. I did not encounter any game breaking ones and managed with a quick google search, but I do have a piece of advice - don’t lose yourself in the side gigs, whenever you have yellow side mission available - do those first. A lot of them are locked behind waiting for someone to call you, and I spent a long time trying to trigger this with no more side gigs available.

And that is it my chooms, the past few weeks I have spent thinking about nothing else but Cyberpunk and now it is time to set the game down. I’ve completed what I wanted, looked up secrets I missed on my crawl through the Night City. But worry not, I have about fifty unreasonably long YouTube videos I shoved into my watch later playlist, analyzing all parts of the game to cope. I’ll be back for the DLC, until then - contract closed.

I've played through this game a few times over and each time i get more connected to this world.
With games you'd think once you figured out the mechanics you'd start min-maxxing and skipping dialogue you've already heard but not with Cyberpunk.

I started paying more attention to quests. Then I started doing what my character would do not just what I thought would get me the best outcome. Five playthroughs later I find my self reading every data shard, checking every terminal, and blasting all the songs.

I'm not gonna explain what this game and the cyperpunk genre means to me because I can't.
Just know you'll love this game no matter what...
but if you take your time, if you really take it all in and open your soul to it

there's a deep catharsis to be found in this world that doesn't care

hE He hE Lucy, SaNdEvIsTaN GoEs bRRRRR wWhZzZzzzz ⢸⣿⣤⡀⡀⡀⡇⠕⢄⡀⢸⣫⣢⡀⡀⠇⣿⣄⡀⡀⣯⡟⡦⡀⡀⢠⣏⡀⡀⡀⡔⠁⡀⡀⡀⢰⡇
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