Again,
Night
City
It took three years for me to return to the meticulous, impressive art direction of Night City's often dramatically lit streets and interiors.
The first time was at release in December 2020, when visiting Night City meant playing an unfinished video game that took its massive hype and installed base for granted. I finished and reviewed it in mid-January; it still has the lowest score I've given out on whatbrentplay. Back then, reviews had summaries for each category and this is what I said about Cyberpunk's Quality score:
I have never played through a game as broken as this one. In my 65ish hours, I experienced over 30 game crashes. And when the game was "working" I regularly had to deal with NPCs and vehicles popping in, braindead AI, broken UI elements, cars clipping through basically everything, vehicle handling (I can't accept it being intentional), issues with interactive items, missions and quests that got into broken states, etc. The list is too long for this format and that is not an exaggeration. It's sad because the amount of effort that went into crafting Night City and bringing life to the ensemble cast is beyond commendable. I just can't do so when the overall package is so flawed.
I summed up my review with:
Cyberpunk 2077 is the worst single player AAA game release I have ever seen. It's a sad, unforgivable result especially since there is a good—maybe even very good—game buried under the unavoidable nonsense you'll have to wade through first.
It seems there was a good game buried in there but it needed three more years and a DLC to excavate it. Cyberpunk 2077 isn't perfect in 2024—it'll never be everything CD Projekt RED promised—but it's playable and that's enough for its strengths to shine. A couple of those stood out during my second time through.
Cyberpunk 2077 tells its entire story in-engine and from an unwavering first person perspective. You customize V's appearance at the start and after that you only ever catch foreshortened glimpses of their arms, hands, chest, legs, and feet. Unless, of course, you stop to look in a mirror—just like in real life with your own body. When you interact with others you often remain in full control of V and even if you can't move you can always look around and choose where you want to focus your attention.
That may sound basic—obvious, even—but that's not how all first person games present their experience. Often, cutscenes play out with the main character visible in third person via cinematic camera angles. In many first person titles you're just a controllable camera moving around at head height without any hint of a body.
Cyberpunk 2077 has you experience its world and story the same way V does—always, no exception. It makes Night City something that happens around you rather than something you look at. It's subtle but that gameplay decision adds up with every mile you drive, gang member you put down, and job you complete for extra eddies.
When Cyberpunk 2077 first came out, I was impressed with how emotive its cast of characters were. It was some of the only praise I gave it my original review:
While the NPCs you pass on streets are stilted and use obviously repeated animations, the animations used for the supporting cast—especially their faces—is top tier. They're some of the most convincingly emotive NPCs I've seen this generation.
Three years later it's still a strength, though I'm not as impressed as I was. The relentless first person presentation combined with the natural way the cast interacts with V makes them almost believable. They move around the spaces they're in, get close to or put distance between themselves and V, make or avoid eye contact, interact with objects around them, and often communicate their feelings before they say anything.
Again, this sounds basic—it's how people interact—but it's common for conversations in games to be presented in a shot-reverse shot format where characters face one another like carefully arranged life sized cutouts. Those details plus good-enough-at-worst writing results in a cast that is memorable, emotive, and convincing.
Cyberpunk 2077 still isn't a great game. It is, however, a good game that offers a notable level of immersion in one of the more impressive open world video game locations I've seen. There are no score redos on whatbrentplay but this time around I recommend giving it a try.