Cyberpunk 2077 produces mixed opinions

Freddie Gist

Empty street in the game’s main area of Night City

The open-world and RPG (role-playing game) game Cyberpunk 2077 was released on December 10, 2020, but it has been making waves in the gaming industry for some time, winning RPG game of the year at Gamescom 2020.

The game sold 8 million copies raking in $480 million from pre-orders alone according to an article by Sean from Gizomochina.

The game has held a constant 250,000+ viewers on the streaming platform twitch and is ranked #2 on the site at this moment according to twitch tracker.

Players have loved the game and appreciated the wide range of customization for their characters, but are not as thrilled about the bugs that are fatal to the game, according to a review forum on Metacritic. There is criticism of the development team for letting these bugs slide by when putting out the game, with one user, Bette13, stating,”Several crashes and game-changing bugs ruined the game. I am leaving cyberpunk 2077 for a long time.”

Not all reviews were bad, though, with user Agarwel saying the game was “great,” with an in-depth story that is supported by its great characters and world.

“Great game with a huge focus on story, characters, and world-building. I don’t remember the last time when the RPG story absorbed me so much. Yes, there are few bugs here are there (playing on ps4pro), but nothing game-breaking. Usually minor visual glitches. If you like story RPGs this is simply a game for you. If the small bugs bother you too much, then this will be a game for you after a few updates….”

Although the game has produced mixed opinions, there seem to be more negative reviews compared to positive ones.

On Twitter and Metacritic, most complaints come from users on last-gen consoles, saying it wasn’t optimized for them. Players on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 report that the graphics are not anywhere near the advertised quality, and there are multiple bugs that occur with models.

The most lethal bug I have observed so far comes from the PlayStation 5, where the game crashes once or twice an hour, causing the player to lose progress and be sent back the last save point – leaving players frustrated  to redo missions or go back to locations that took a while to reach. Despite the bugs, there has been high praise for the story, romance options and customization.