Game On: ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ is everything I like in a role-playing video game

After three delays dating back to April, the long-awaited “Cyberpunk 2077” was unleashed upon the gaming world on Dec. 10. It’s the latest effort by CD Projekt Red, the Polish development team best-known for “The Witcher” series that catapulted a little-known book series into stardom. This time, the team exercised its open-world, role-playing game muscles to produce an adaptation of the “Cyberpunk” tabletop RPG dating back to 1988.

When most people think of RPGs, their mind pictures high fantasy settings – wizards, dragons and medieval times. Or perhaps they think of science-fiction “space operas” with alien species and bombastic spaceship battles. “Cyberpunk” is closer to sci-fi, but instead of space travel you get an Earth-grounded, near-future dystopian setting fueled by transhumanism, debauchery and twisted political systems.

I found myself easily engrossed in the gritty and immersive setting. Some reviewers have accused “Cyberpunk 2077” of being gratuitous or edgy for the sake of being edgy, but I’d argue compared to the other narrative-driven hit of 2020 – “The Last of Us Part II” – this one pales in comparison. It’s a dirty city full of dirty deeds, but the game rarely dwells on its bleakness. Beneath its rough exterior are heartfelt stories and characters who, despite their cybernetic body modifications, are still very much a reflection of the human experience.

Working as an opportunistic gunslinging outlaw, the player character, who goes by “V,” soon finds itself inadvertently entangled in political upheaval. I’ve always appreciated the “right place at the right time” approach to storytelling more than the “chosen one” cliché. Nothing makes V particularly special, and you can even choose from three backgrounds – nomad, street kid or corporate. Each backstory changes how V is initially brought into the story and adds a variety of dialogue options specific to your character.

The dialogue is engaging, even mesmerizing. The game’s themes and narrative are communicated entirely through conversations instead of the boring and all-too-common video game trope of third-person narration. V can chime in frequently, and “Cyberpunk 2077” even denotes which dialogue choices will drive the plot forward and which will not. This benefits gamers who want to rush through, as well as people who enjoy role-playing their characters, and it’s a brilliant mechanic that other dialogue-driven games would do well to emulate.

Open-world games aren’t my cup of tea. They are often too vast for their own good, relying on bland, repetitive environments and pointless side missions to pad out the run time. “Cyberpunk 2077” takes place entirely within the confines of Night City, which is densely populated and appropriately packed full of activities. It’s the exact opposite approach of “Fallout: New Vegas” and “The Elder Scrolls” series, where players can wander around desolate landscapes for many minutes before encountering anything noteworthy.

That said, “Cyberpunk 2077” is not above every time-sucking RPG staple. While many of the side quests assist the narrative and add depth to its eclectic cast, there are occasional fetch quests and other uninspiring activities. If you spend any time scavenging the environment or looting fallen enemies, you’ll have to waste a lot of time in menus managing your inventory. The issue is mitigated somewhat by a handy “sell junk” button for selling found commodities, but it’s hardly a perfect solution.

“Cyberpunk 2077” sold 8 million copies via pre-orders alone, which doesn’t include sales made on release day. Fifty-nine percent of those purchases were for the PC version, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time. It attracted more than 1 million active players on Steam hours after its release, the highest concurrent player count for any single-player game.

Despite the sales, CD Projekt Red also has created a scandal. While “Cyberpunk 2077” runs like a dream on a good PC or even via Google Stadia with a good internet connection, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ports leave a lot to be desired. Framerates regularly dip below 30 frames per second, characters randomly pop in and out of existence, objects fail to render, and some players’ save files have become corrupted, forcing them to restart the game from the beginning.

In response, the developer has promised refunds for dissatisfied players. But video game refunds typically land on the hardware manufacturer – in this case, Sony or Microsoft – and not the developer. A publicized CD Projekt Red conference call has cast doubt on whether it’s even possible for the company to give out direct refunds, and its stock recently plummeted by 29%.

The game is so cutting-edge that CD Projekt Red shouldn’t have even bothered with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which came out in 2013 – it should’ve instead prioritized getting “Cyberpunk 2077” running on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. The game will be ported to those consoles in due time, and the upgrade will be free, but many gamers are adamant the damage is already done.

Regardless, “Cyberpunk 2077” is my favorite open-world game by far, and I highly recommend it for fans of RPGs, shooters and science fiction. If you’re unable to play it on a PC, I’d hold off until the dust settles. CD Projekt Red has promised to rigorously update the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ports to improve performance, but only time will tell if those fixes are sufficient.

Riordan Zentler can be reached at riordanzentler@gmail.com