Cyberpunk 2077 Review

Cyberpunk 2077 is a story driven, first person shooter with role-playing elements. It's set in the dystopian future where tech is high and life is low. In Night City, the city of dreams, you play as the mercenary V taking up various gigs and missions given to you by fixers.

The main character, V can be customized the way you like and in the beginning you choose between three different backstories, Streetkid, Nomad or Corpo. I don't know how much these actually affect the story  in the game but the beginning is a little bit different and in conversations you do get different dialog options depending on which path you have chosen.

This is what my V looked like

From start to finish the game is an adrenaline fueled ride filled with car chases and gun fights, but also romance and intrigue. Along the ride you encounter charismatic leaders and self-centered assholes (and that's just Johnny Silverhand) as well as sympathetic hackers and amiable bikers.

A story driven game like Cyberpunk 2077 wouldn't be anything without its characters and this is where the game's greatest strength lie. In its characters. They feel real and you do care about them. Some of the character quests are optional but I highly recommend playing through them before you finish the game. They are some of the most memorable. 

Because the game is played from a first person perspective, you seldom see your own character. It therefore seems kind of silly to spend time on customizing your clothes and armor. Which is a shame when there is a lot of clothes, gear and armor to buy and find. It would be nice if you could switch between the first- and third person perspective like in GTA 5 or Fallout 4. Driving on the other hand can be done from both a first and third person view and there is a lot of cool cars and motorcycles you can buy (or find).

The Cyberpunk genre is really interesting because it feels like that it's where our own society might be heading. Games like the Deus Ex series has already explored many of these themes before. However, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn't quite go deep enough to really explore the typical Cyberpunk themes. It feels that it only scratched the surface and left me wanting for something more. 

That didn't stop me at all from enjoying the game. The game is still a stylish and cool action game with great visuals and music. It just feels too much Far Cry and not enough Deus Ex and the magic from The Witcher 3 is not quite there.