It's time for reviews (with some *controversial* ones)!

Review Links:

• IGN: Here
• IGN Japan: Here (Felt warranted to distinguish as they were two different scores)
• Power Unlimited (for my Dutchies): Here
• Spaziogames.it (for my Italian fratellos): Here
• PC Gamer: Here
• Game Informer: Here
• Gamespot (Please don't look at the comment section): Here
• Gameblog.fr (Pour mes Francais): Ici
• VG24/7: Here
• Eurogamer.it: Here
• Gamesradar: Here
• Kotaku (in Progress): Here
• The Verge:Here
• Polygon:Here
• Vice:Here

Scores:

• IGN: 9/10
• IGN Japan: 10/10
• Power Unlimited: 90/100
• Spazio Games: 9.5/10
• PC Gamer: 78/100
• Game Informer: 9/10
• GameSpot: 7/10
• Gameblog.fr: 10/10
• VG24/7: 5/5
• Eurogamer.it: 9/10
• GamesRadar: 5/5

Overall very positive although keep in mind these reviews are playing the pre-Day One Patch versions for PC (supplied by the developer though so any notion that a score should wait sounds dumb to me if CDProjektRed themselves supplied the copies).

Main issues with reviewers tend to be bug related and so hopefully these will be ironed out. Super curious to hear the crew's reactions/opinions on the game and will have to watch Dan's Twitch stream to see how stupidly he plays the game (I'm saying that in the most affectionate way possible).

Edit: As mentioned by TheFlamingo352 "Eurogamer doesn't number their reviews anymore: that's Eurogamer Italy.", changed it to reflect on both lists.

Just a heads up, Eurogamer doesn't number their reviews anymore: that's Eurogamer Italy. They said they wanna play it more and see how many bugs the day 1 patch fixes before assigning judgement.

Reviews are unsurprising--mostly high, few outliers, lots of reviews spending a lot words reckoning with the game's tone and cultural wake and how it does or doesn't mesh with them. I'm honestly more curious what the "three months later" take on this game is.

Good on Kallie at GameSpot, and a few others, to comment on the game's view of transgender and how they are fetishizing it to disturbing levels.

Cyberpunk? More like... Cyberjunk! Cause.. apparently there are a lot of dicks in the game from what Jeff has said..

@theflamingo352: This. The hype is too goddamn unreal that we really won't know about what people think of the game long after its release.

The reviews pretty much confirm what I thought Cyberpunk 2077 would be: a solid open-world game--and not much more than that. As long as it's engaging and fun, that should be enough for most people.

This is definitely one of those games where I care about one opinion and it’s what mine will be.

The bugs are concerning.

[skims the reviews using Ctrl+F for the word "frame"]

[reads the paragraph in the PC Gamer review starting with "With an RTX 2080, i9-9900K"]

Thankfully the more optimistic predictions seem to be right, but I can't say that skepticism wasn't warranted.

So do I want to give CDPR all of the $60, or do I really want those Steam trading cards? 🤔

@theflamingo352: Thanks for the heads-up, edited it.

Very excited to buy this for $30 in six months when all of the hype is gone, the bugs are patched, and everyone agrees this is a perfectly middling-to-average-tier open world game

Im personally concerned with what i call the "skyrim problem". Apparently it has the issue where the main plot seems urgent to the point of sidequesting not making sense.

I gave up on Skyrim cuz i couldnt wrap my mind around fuckin around the mage guild while dragons rampage and this might end up in the same place for me.

I was pretty psyched for the game when trailers first started showing up at E3 a few years back. I'm a sucker for sci-fi. However, after reading more of the previews and such, it was pretty clear this was game was going to depict some pretty unsavory, grimey, and awful human situations.I just don't have it in me to play games with that sort of vibe anymore.

Maybe I'm turning "soft" as I hit my mid 30s, but I've really embraced more the colorful upbeat style of Nintendo and the Switch.. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for powerful "adult" narratives (just finished Ghost of Tsushima and LOVED IT!), but I don't know...this sort of dark vibe just isn't for me anymore. All the more power though to those that pick it up and enjoy it.

@drdarkstryfe:That and the portrayal of some race-specific gangs being cringe make me a little cautious but will have to see it/experience it myself to make any sort of opinion on the matter.

I'm just happy to hear that the game runs well on PC aside from the bugs. I'll have to see for myself how annoying the edgelord stuff and writing will end up being but I'm optimistic so far.

I feel bad for the last gen console players though with this game. All the reviews have been on PC versions and they all mention some sort of concern over the kinds of bugs they encountered that they can only imagine what kind of state X1/PS4 would be in.

At least the backcompat versions on new machines might keep a more stable framerate and look less blurry?

The first Triple AAA game to feature an option to make Trans character gets trashed in reviews for it...

Hopefully the bugs get ironed out, probably won't play it on my PS5 until the "next gen" patch hits. I can't even imagine it running on PS4 / Series S...

I listened to Jeff's take earlier today, my biggest concern is that the gameplay itself won't hold up.

Nobody:

Me: It's my December tradition to play an open world game for most of the month. It started with Mafia 3 in 2016; in 2017 it was Assassin's Creed Origins; 2018 was Red Dead 2, and last year was Death Stranding. This year it was between this and Watch Dogs Legion and I'm going with this because they both look more or less like the same game except Watch Dogs Legion has a, off-putting, ugly look to it and this is the game everybody is gonna talk about. Will I like it? Who knows. But as long as I can be the Cyberpunk 2020 character I created and played as in 1997, I will have a good time.

Big ups though for going through with that 7 because if I know The Gamers it’s gonna be a hell of a time.

@efesell: That review is also as long as a short novel which I’m sure is a plea for people to read and understand the reason behind the score - something the GameSpot audience assuredly will not do.

Pour one out for the reviewers warning folks this game is a buggy, hot mess that may not be able to be fixed by a day one patch. I do not envy them right now.

I was originally pretty tepid on the game and mostly planning on getting it just to be Part Of The Zeitgeist. But now I might be in the minority that's actually more excited after the reviews. Listening to Jeff talk about it, I did not expect it to be as much of a Bethesda-style game as it sounds like it is, down to the "level up skills by doing the skills" and "grab a physics object and watch all the surrounding bits jiggle" details (and the massive bugs, natch). Best Game Of All Time this probably ain't, but as a fan of that very particular brand of jank-ass RPG, it sounds like a perfectly delightful way to pass a stay-at-home winter.

Hm. Can't say any reviews have changed my opinion that this is one to wait on. Going to wait for release day to see more content and make another judgment then, but at the moment I feel like I'll get the better experience if I wait for the next gen console upgraded version, wait for them to patch their bugs, and potentially wait for more content to hit through dlc.

the witcher 3 had the same fucking thing, have to stop the wild hunt and find ciri, but hey let's play 15 more games of gwent, the end of the world can fucking wait.

it baffles me to think that CDPR sends out a build that's a buggy shitstorm for review and claims to fix alot of stuff will be fixed in a magical day one patch. Wouldn't you want to send your best version out for review?

I don't believe this magical patch will fix alot of the stuff though, and a lot of reviewers claimed they had access to a 40+ gig "day 0" patch.

@banefirelord: Where did Jeff talk about it? Hotspot? I didn't think the embargo lifted 'til today???

EDIT: Nevermind...looks like it was kind of a last second thing they did live. Damn. Wish there was a better heads up about that. I would have liked to have listened to it. Guess I'll just wait for the archive of it.

@big_denim: There was a live show earlier today with Jeff Gerstmann and Jeff Bakalar - they are probably archiving it now but possibly you can find the archive on Twitch? I dunno how Twitch works.

I for one have never felt that gameplay held up in any of CDPR's games.

From what I've seen of review though, there doesn't seem to be this massive launch day patch. The reviewers got a "day 0" one and when asked if this is what customers will play on "day 1" they said yes. It's just semantics.

@humanity: @big_denim: Yeah, Twitch VOD is here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/828972351

yeah exactly, but a lot of people seem to still think the day 1 will fix everything wrong with the game.

This fucking behaviour has to stop, i can't believe CDPR is so beloved that alot of people defend this. 8 years of development time and 3 delays and a 40gig day one patch and the game is still a buggy mess, even after all this crunch. But somehow CDPR can do no wrong and all is well.

That's not to talk about the same old open world typical storytelling again. Save the world type of main quest that has urgency and a lot of side content that seems better than the actual main thread of the game. man.

@briarpack: @briarpack: Thanks!

I play too many jrpgs to begin caring about main quest urgency or what have you. It’s not even something I would have considered on my own.

i get that, but as i grow older i find it more jarring, it actively turns me off a game.

That gamespot review was painful to read. Absolute garbage review. Pc gamer review was a much better written lower score review. I'm glad I don't use that shitty site anymore. Bunch of uptight fuckers.

Yeah, I'm pretty similar. I'm not big into the whole anti hero, dark side of society story telling anymore. I honestly want more fun stories with optimistic world views or with characters that make the world better or grow as a person as the story progresses. I think it's time for the 80's and 90's dystopian edge lord story telling to take a backseat IMO.

The game being received well, but getting well earned criticism about the technical issues really cements my plan to not play this until my 5800x and 3080 arrive. Looking forward to playing this in 2023 when those finally get shipped to my house.

@haz_kaj: you wanna actually make a salient point about why you disagree with a review of a video game you haven't played yet or are you just be obnoxious and say nothing

@syndrom: That's a bit of an extreme take of CDPR. Most of their love comes from how dedicated they are to supporting their games for months/years on end. This game will be the same with that kind of support and will be better for it. Cyberpunk in particular is just suffering from unreasonable mountains of hype.

If there's one to thing criticize the company for its their labor practices but I can only imagine the amount of pressure being placed on CDPR as a whole due to being a publicly traded company who's share price is in absolute sync with the drip feed of news coming out about the state of the game, Cyberpunk the pinnacle example of a make or break game for these guys.

Also not sure that I've seen anything about this game having a "save the world" narrative in the central plot. It just sounds like high stakes events that directly affect the protagonist.

I read that long review from Gamespot and disagree with a lot of things, but not necessarily the score. The score is what it is but it seems like that review is compromised on the simple fact that like all reviewers on a tight deadline with this game, there is just too much content to parse through.

She explicitly states that she had to pass up lots of equipment upgrades due to needing to interact with more side content to farm currency which then pigeon-holed her into solely working on the mainline quest in order finish a review on time. This game sounds great for someone who will be able to take their time in the world and slowly build up their character in interesting ways.

All the reviews/impressions mention how great the combat opens up as you get upgrades but that the barrier to entry to those upgrades are so high that you won't see them until way later in the game and only if you work on a lot of side stuff. I don't envy being a reviewer with a deadline and I'm glad GB doesn't suffer from those kinds of restrictions.

@oursin_360: glad to hear Im not the only one!

It's funny, I was always a big "story over gameplay" guy growing up through the ps1, ps2, and ps3 eras. However now, just give me fun mechanics to play and I'm sold.

@haz_kaj: Idk man, Kallie has been on the Bombcast a few times and seems great. Just finished the review and it was well written and thought out.

i guess, i still feel CDPR gets a pass on shit other companies don't. I find it a bit hypocritical. People seem to forget this is still a triple AAA studio with most of the shady stuff that comes with that. Sure they don't put DRM in their games and i can applaud that, but some of their takes on politics and the workethic they cultivate is just awful. The whole thing with the crunch and the way it was defended was just awfull imo. Sure the devs got payed for the extra work they had to put in, but that's just fucking normal. I really feel for the rank and file devs that work on this game, they probably are still gonna be on 6 day workweek for a while to fix the state of the game.

And again i'm not saying their bad like EA/ubisoft or anything, but they shouldn't get a pass on shit just because they support their games, that's the least they can do.

I do agree the hypemachine did this game no favors at all. I really hope i enjoy the gameplay though, that's what's gonna make or break this game for me, just like it did with the witcher.

I agree completely. She articulated her opinions well, and people might not agree when they play it for themselves, but you can totally see her argument.

Then again, I saw someone on Twitter quote her paragraph about how poorly the game handles the trans issues it begs to be discussed with the number of "mix it up" adverts with just the reply "valid criticism LOL" /s, so some people just suck.

That is, if they read at all and don't just skip to the 7/10 and summary.

Expect to see so much of this in the coming days, as the Gamers with the smoothest brains log-on to the discourse. This week in Video Game liking is going to be insufferable.

@syndrom: I’m with you on their labor problems and yeah no one should get a free pass on the shit they’ve been doing but I feel like the people white-knighting CDPR at all costs are the gamer-gate, knuckle dragger variety of gamers who don’t want to think about how their precious vidya gaems are made. CDPR has been given a lot of shit for their messaging and labor practices, which they should be.

Would be nice to eventually see some thoughts about that Gamespot review because I find some parts of it to be quite flawed but I feel like discussions over the review in particular will end up being drowned out by misogynistic incels obsessed over a stupid score and other people focused solely on shouting down those bottom feeders.

@colourful_hippie: you're right, the white knighting is for sure from that part of the community, i'm just and old dude who has no tolerance for it :p

@colourful_hippie: We are going to have to wait a good 3-5 months to have a meaningful discussion about the game itself, let alone reviews. The hype cloud for this game is blocking out the sun.

@plan6: Totally. Big releases like this because of everything going on turn into these big events even for people who may not play the games. They turn a release into a weird hyper reflective and sensitive moment for gaming culture at the existing moment as the various sides all wind up get over involved.

It can be frustrating too because keeping up with the discourse even for those who may not want to play the game feels super relevant. The nuances alone in what make or break aspects of this game for various reviewers is relevant dialogue to the state of games, given the overall context and stature of a game this big. But obviously the caveat of engaging with so much of the good discourse is that there is a plethora of it that is as you said, insufferable.

I've long since been a fan of removing scores from games, and now I think more so than ever. People need to learn to treat this stuff as a discourse, not a giant big social media game of rallying behind your supporters to trash people who don't agree with your opinions. Good intentioned people get caught up frequently in toxic discourse because they are trying to help mute or push out the bottom feeders as someone mentioned above, while good intentioned criticisms can get mistakenly lumped into that category as a result too. It'd be much easier if the process and system itself was less inviting to quick note mob style reactionary takes. I think a lack of a formal review score would help with that, as people would be more encouraged to actually read a reviewers thoughts to get their take on the game. They may still find paragraphs and out of context boil things down, but they'd at least then be engaging with the discourse and it'd be a lot easier to spot the bad faith with less of the spam.

@colourful_hippie: Yup. That's always the problem with these early reviews -- it's impossible to properly respond to or process them because no one else has played the game yet. So it's just one mob "zomg they gave the game I'm hyped for a low score" (bonus points if the reviewer is a woman who clearly "should be fired", thanks YouTube comments) and the other mob (which I'm a part of by responding to these chuckleheads, I guess, sigh) saying "hey maybe don't."

Very much expecting a TLOU 2, Bioshock Infinite long-tail on the reception of this game from both players and critics. I would bet money that the same outlets that are just gushing with 9s and 10s over this game will, in less than 6 months, put out think pieces saying "hey this game has some serious problems" because the public conversation has shifted/the hype train has faded away.

I don't know what I'll think, heck, maybe I'll love it despite all the red flags that are popping up in the lead-up to this game.

As promised, smooth brains have logged on to complain about rushed reviews and “agendas“. Because in 2020, the gamer still expects reviews to avoid the dreaded “politics”. Especially when it comes to the extremely not political setting of cyberpunk.