By Sam Coles:
In the modern era of video games, it is common place for projects to come out unfinished and buggy and it is rather frustrating but sometimes certain games can rise from the ashes. Cyberpunk 2077 was a notorious example of this; to put it lightly the game was completely unplayable for most players and when I say most, I mean console players.
The first trailer for this game dropped all the way back in 2013, as it was used more of a launching off point to announce The Witcher 3. After that announcement, it went quiet until E3 2018 where it was shown to the media behind closed doors where it was later released to the public. People were impressed; however, it looked to be too scripted and almost as if it was pre-rendered and that turned out to be true and a former CDPR developer came out and admitted it a few years later after the 2020 release. The game was set to release in April of 2020 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC, but then was delayed to September, then November and finally released in early December of 2020 and to say it was a disaster is being kind.
The game was shown off before the release of the game, and curiously throughout its marketing the base Xbox One and PS4 were missing in their official comparisons, and most shrugged it off. Then when it came to the media reviewing the game, first they were only given PC codes for the game, no console review codes were sent out and second which was a huge red flag, they were not allowed to use their own screenshots or video footage. All my years of writing in the industry, this was the first time I have heard of such an embargo with game reviews and it was deeply concerning and when the game came out the review stipulations were clear as the game was a complete mess mostly on the PS4 and Xbox One.
The PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game barely worked, the game targeted 30 frames per second, however you were lucky to get 20 fps at most. Textures popped in all the time as the game struggled to keep up with the player, especially driving cars at speed. Most often blame the fact the game was released on the Xbox One and PS4, which I would say no that is not the case at all as the hardware was capable of running an open world at this scale and detail, as Red Dead Redemption II came out two years prior to this game. No, this was rushed out the door, coupled with the COVID pandemic as well as the Red Engine which was already an unoptimised mess, this game turned the engine’s cracks into chasms which lead them to ditching it in favour of Unreal Engine 5.
CDPR knew they had a complete PR nightmare on their hands, and quickly issued an apology to players on console about the unplayable state. However, the damage was done, PlayStation took the game down from digital stores due to the unplayable nature which is unheard off in the triple A space, where as Microsoft had a performance disclaimer for Xbox players. CDPR went back to the drawing board for the game and started to work on fixes.
Fast forward to now, the game is in a great state if you play it on Xbox Series X|S or PlayStation 5 and it really feels like the game it was supposed to be. The game has a living and breathing world that is really convincing, the variety of people that walk the streets of Night City is incredible. Not only that, they added in a wanted level system that actually works now, so police will no longer spawn out of thin air they actually chase you, something that Grand Theft Auto got right in 1997 but I digress. The game runs a lot better too, running at a consistent 60 fps on the PlayStation 5 which is the platform I played it on recently, visuals in general have been given a massive overhaul and texture pop in is nonexistent now. The world feels lively and lived in, with streets crowed and meets their initial ambitious vision all those years ago.
Gunplay and physics were tweaked too, combat just flows better now and shooting feels satisfying too. The driving was and to put it bluntly dreadful in the original release, as the physics just didn’t feel right and cars would often fly off in a different direction whereas now it feels like you have a handle of the cars now. The gunplay felt really off in the original release, mostly because I was playing it on an original 2013 PS4 and the framerate was lucky if it hit 20 fps during frantic firefights, 10-15 fps was the normal which made my eyes turn inside out.
After all the fallout of the initial launch Cyberpunk has turned into a great game that everyone should play, it showed that the team was dedicated to fix a broken promise. However, we should not forget what CDPR did to consumers, with a broken mess that most players could not get through. We should not allow scenarios like this to become the norm, yes, it is great that CDPR didn’t abandon the project all together but we must remember what happened so we don’t repeat said scenario or that is what we should do in theory. We need to hold developers and publishers accountable more, instead of sweeping most issues under the carpet with a mere shrug of the shoulders waiting for an update. Cyberpunk is a great game now yes, but we need to remember the past to build a better future for the games industry and community.
Just a quick P.S. I am sorry for not uploading any articles on the blog for the past two months, been really busy with video content on my Instagram and TikTok. Been doing vlogs, mini reviews and uploading gameplay content on said channels so it has been eating a lot of my writing time, I will get back to a consistent writing pattern in 2025, thank you for understanding and thank you for the support! 😊