Note: Didn’t play much vanilla. I mostly used a visually upgraded + QoL-rich mod pack.
PROs:
✅ Large and unique world
✅ Plenty of lore from various sources
✅ Great modding community
✅ Visuals can be amazing with modding
✅ Lots of small details and collectibles in the world
✅ Solid OST
✅ Lots of viable playstyles
✅ Plenty of fun easter eggs to find
✅ Driving system felt pretty good (even though I probably had mods improving it)
✅ Panam 😉
CONs:
❌ Still a lot of bugs even with mods that fix various issues
❌ Broken HDR (needs a mod to fix)
❌ Vanilla lacks a lot of QoL features
❌ Heavily relies on ray tracing for a lot of its beauty (world is filled with screens and reflective surfaces, especially indoor clubs and city centers)
❌ Maxed difficulty still feels pretty casual
❌ A lot of side missions became way too samey (go in, do the thing, go out)
Comments:
Another disclaimer: I didn’t even finish the main story, so my thoughts are based on a limited playthrough. Sadly, I lost interest pretty quickly because most sessions started feeling very forced.
Long story short — this game just wasn’t for me.
Cyberpunk worlds are usually packed with drugs, sex, low morals, heavy violence, ugly augmented people and chaos. (which I don’t mind if done in a way I enjoy it) This game does an excellent job diving deep into that theme with insane amounts of detail, a huge world, and tons of lore. Still, I’d rather play Skyrim.
If you enjoy FPS/RPGs in a Cyberpunk setting, it delivers a great world with lots of build variety and many ways to approach objectives. There are endless stories and characters to discover.
However, even though many characters have deep background lore, I didn’t find most of them likeable. Almost every character I met I genuinely didn’t care about. Silverhand was entertaining at the start thanks to his crazy personality and Keanu’s voice, but he quickly became an annoying, deluded, self-righteous punk. His speeches turned moronic fast.
Visually the base game looks decent, but you need a bunch of mods (plus ray tracing in certain areas) to get that real “wow” eyegasm.
Combat felt oddly easy for the most part. My stealth + power sniper build didn’t help with that easy feeling — I could just snipe everyone through walls from outside the building when I didn’t feel like sneaking. In the end I was mostly doing checkbox hunting from point A to B and felt more exhausted than excited.
Driving around the city was genuinely nice though.
I gave this game a shot mainly because I really loved the Cyberpunk Edgerunners anime. In the end, the lore, the characters, and the overall feel wasn’t simply my cup of tea. It’s definitely a good game (aside from the jank and bugs), it just wasn’t the right fit for me.
🌟 Total score: 6/10 🌟
Game status:
❌ Dropped
Reviewing info: How I review/rate & other info on my website through my profile. (desozone)