Will you buy Cyberpunk now that you've seen the reviews?

I'm sitting right now on the very tip of the fence. I've been cooling on the game with every trailer and story about it, especially when the PR/social media team were throwing out the transphobic garbage and then the stories about the labor conditions just had me fuming. I don't believe in separating art from the artist or separating the material conditions the thing was made in when making a judgement of the product, especially when it comes to big giant AAA games that are commodities. I do factor stuff like that in when I play games.

However, part of me wants to buy it this week for a few reasons. In general I like the cyberpunk genre, stuff like Deus Ex and Ghost in the Shell are my favorite IP overall. I like open-world RPGs and generally have fun with them even when they're janky; as long as it's not causing BSODs or booting back to menus or causing massive framerate drops I can tolerate a bit of jank. Also, part of me wants to be at least in the zeitgeist so I can understand the context behind commentary, jokes, memes, spoiler-talk, etc. about the thing.

So I'm having a big debate in my brain if I even want to buy it all and if so, do I want to get it this week so I'm in the zeitgeist or just wait? The last time I was in this situation it was with Red Dead Redemption 2. I ended up buying it despite my hangups, but in the end RDR2 left me cold and questioning whether it was even worth putting all the developers lives through the winger for the product to turn out like that; my answer was no and I wish I didn't buy it.

I put my quip because I thought it would be humorous since you essentially went the long aay to saying Eurojank. Did not realize they should not be directed towards posts by mods. Or was the term offensive?

Yes, I will eventually buy it and thoroughly enjoy it. Being part of anything's zeitgeist in 2020 is not for me, thanks. I can't handle the unstoppable hype people have for it, or the negativity that's been surrounding it recently. When did people become this awful?

Seeing reviews talk about the game's refusal to engage in the politics of the cyberpunk setting has killed much of my interest. I'm interested in the story and the writing, but Witcher proved that CDPR can meaningfully engage with the problems of its setting and to see Cyberpunk miss that mark is a massive bummer.

For the most part the games seemed to live up to the hype so of course I'm going to play it. The reviews if anything make me more eager to play it. The Witcher 3 was carried on the fact that the writing and characters were so good and the reviews seem to indicate that the writing and characters are great here as well.

Jacking in day one.

According to metacritic the game is getting mostly rave reviews. Only Gamespot, and I guess GB based on the Jeff with Jeff video talking about the game are giving it less than 4 and 5 stars. With that said, I might wait to get it. Call me silly, but I see a possible Christmas or New Years sale for the game happening if it comes out for the next-gen consoles in time and its not delayed until 2021.

I already didn't really see anything this game was doing to excite me, Jeff/Jeff conversation just helped alleviate FOMO for me and I'll probably play it eventually once it goes on sale or ends up on Game Pass or something.

No way, no how. The game is completely toxic in my eyes, I have no interest in supporting CDPR and their business/design practices. It's also a bummer to me that this seems to be a completely superficial interpretation of cyberpunk, stripping it of social commentary and nuance and just cribbing the aesthetic and pushing edginess. I was never consumed by the hype because I'm past the point in my life where I feel the need to consume every piece of pre-game coverage, and I never watched a single trailer for it. It was on my radar, and maybe if the reviews had been more overwhelmingly positive I might have changed my mind. I'm sure I'll get it on sale at some point. All that being said, I still haven't played Witcher 3.

If you're buying the game at launch/have bought it and are enjoying it, then all power to you. If you're not bothered by the politics or toxicity, then all power to you. It's a shame that the game became a lightning rod for all this commentary and negativity (of course it's CDPR's fault that this happened because of how they marketed the game), but that doesn't mean that people shouldn't be able to enjoy the game.

The metascore is sitting at 91 so I'm pretty surprised people are turned away by the reviews, they are by definition overwhelmingly positive, but at the same time people are way to obsessed about that number in games :).

For me I think it's probably fine but I'll wait as I don't really have a big affinity for CDPR or big open world RPGs, maybe when I have one of the new consoles or so I'll jump on it but we'll see.

@slaughts: Yeap, that sounds about right to me. It's a double edged sword, because to a certain extent speaking with your wallet effects some things, but the way CDPR is set up it will adversely effect the dev team as they are financially invested in the success of the game more than most teams. So how do you support the work without supporting the work environment and decisions being made at the same time? No easy answer there.

I'll certainly play the game. It looks like it has a lot of the game systems I enjoy. But, I don't expect it to have anything meaningful to say. Despite the improvements to storytelling and the benefits of the whole "ludonarrative experience" and all that, game stories are hamfisted. They just are. Some have had great moments and I have loved them, but I do not expect ANY game to handle the subjects cyberpunk trades in with subtlety. Scifi is great because it turns a mirror on society and allows for these sorts of discussions, but it's a raw wound. We don't like talking about how screwed up our society is. Cyberpunk (both the genre and the IP) put a pretty, empowerment fantasy veneer on top of the exploitation and classism and degrading that occurs when things like corporate corruption runs amok.

Anyway. Support games unions. Or at least better workers rights. Support trans people. Or at least basic human decency. And buy games from studios you want to support, understanding that not everyone in a team that big thinks the same way. I shall get off my pedestal now.

The problems with the game itself won't keep me from eventually picking it up, but CDPR's business practices made it a lock I wouldn't pick this up day one. Which is sort of hypocritical since I've supproted other devs knowing full well there were problems behind the scenes, but... I don't know. It seems particularly gross here.

@mezza: No worries, I was being a bit obtuse.

@ragnar_mike: I agree with you. For me it's less of a situation where I think withholding my dollar is going to change their practices (I don't, it requires a kind of collective action that only something like a union could push because a purchase/non purchase doesn't communicate intent to the C-suite at CDPR) and more of whether I as a person am comfortable with the knowledge that what I'm playing was made under stressful and exploitative conditions.

Bugs have never really bothered me much in games like these, so I'll still get it day 1. Also with Christmas coming up, now is the only time where I'll have a couple days off with nothing else to do, but play games all day long.

The edginess is par for the course for the cyberpunk genre, it's not cool, but also doesn't bother me. The trans issues are the only thing that I think a really a shame here, hopefully some of the more egregious stuff will get patched out or the subject matter will be better handled in the future DLC updates.

The dev crunch also definitely sucks, but boycotting the game will not change anything, except for the devs probably getting paid less. So that kind of reaction from gamers, I just don't understand. The culture needs to change, but not buying the game is the wrong way to go about this.

The "I haven't played this game yet, but fuck you for saying it's not perfect." crowd is just... dumb? But then again, it's 2020 on the internet, what can you expect, really? Not playing the game because of morons is another thing I don't understand at all, it has nothing to do with the game or devs themselves and everything with our culture in general. That's, again, where change needs to happen.

Bottom point: Get active in your community and educate people that don't know better (for LGBTQ, crunch etc.), donate to worthy causes if you can and just try to be a good person yourself. Don't project stuff on generally unrelated issues like a videogame or "gamers" (most DON'T just fucking suck).

Yeah. I was already coming in to it expecting it to be a cool RPG with jank. Witcher 3 launched with significant jank too which is why I expected it. CDPR is pretty good about post launch support.

Kinda weirds me out to see so many people just glancing at the Metacritic scores and committing to buying the game.

There's no video of it out yet due to embargo, every reviewer has said they only had a week to play it, and not seeing a lot of people who are reading these reviews.

Listen, games are complicated and expensive. Worse yet this one, in particular, brings its own set of odd issues to consider. The idea you'd blindly buy a game based on a handful of numbers and somehow think the 7/10 (which is a good score) or the Jeffs' caution around it is the outlier and not even read or look into the issues is beyond me.

Then again if you've got $60 to burn and really don't care cause it's that game you've been waiting for, I guess have at it.

If I based what games I bought off of every review I would have way to many game or no games at all. I feel seeing enough of the game and based of what I enjoy and don't, I feel like I can judge what to play without reviews telling me what I should be playing.

Its more so CDPR and the reputation for quality games that has many people committing to buy. The metacritic score for them is icing on the cake. You also have a lot of Keanu Reeve fans. And from what is being said by those who played the game, he is used to great effect in the game. Even both Jeff's admitted they did a good job with is character.

@finaldasa: The metacritic score is as good an indication as any to be honest. I never expected Cyberpunk to be game-changing in the way some people were apparently expecting, so I didn't have unrealistic expectations going in. The general consensus from what I've seen (that's it a very good open world game without being revolutionary) is just fine for me. It's not often I pay full price for a new release but sometimes it's just nice to be part of the zeitgeist. If I don't end up enjoying Cyberpunk then it's not really a big deal. I take on board Jeff's criticisms but at the end of the day this is just one of those instances where I'm going to need to play it for myself.

@ape_dosmil: I think calling it an indication is totally accurate, but it shouldn't be the only one.

I don't recognize a healthy chunk of those 9/10 reviewers so I can't just accept that it's a good game cause strangers say so. I also want to see footage that isn't the best version of what the developers will let us see.

There's just enough to consider before I toss my $60 towards a company that has several issues that a bunch of 9s listed in a row on Metacritic don't come close to convincing me.

So really like you mentioned I think it does partially come down to your expectations going into it, because they really hyped this up, and seeing a GTA with Deus Ex bits doesn't sell me.

This is one of those rare instances of phenomenon releases like (thinking back to HUGE releases) like San Andreas, GTA IV, Halo 3, and even BOTW. Reviews won't matter to a majority. Perhaps players will read the review AFTER they've already bought and played the game a bit. I can see Cyberpunk the game being one of these moments.

I've been excited for Cyberpunk 2077 since it was announced and have it pre-installed.

I would say my hype has deflated, but it's not because of the reviews. The more I see of it, the less impressive it looks. This game has been hyped up to be a new industry standard, yet... the advertisements are trying to spin character customization and dialogue choices like we haven't been doing that in games for the last 20 years now?

Whatever vision they had of this game seems to not be realized in the final product. I'd say this is probably because CDPR had to narrow their scope and come to terms with reality, which a lot of the fans seem not able to do.

Post-launch free content is fun, but at what point do we start asking about content that should have been there from the start?

None of the lead up hype for this game really sunk its hooks into me, and maybe that’s because I’m not very emotionally attached to The Witcher games. I’ve sort of just felt like this was going to be another enormous AAA title that I was totally content to let pass me by. It’s release feels similar to me to how I regard the newest Madden or Final Fantasy. I know those games are beloved, and recognize that their newest iteration is likely the best representation of what people love about them, but has it done anything to pull me in? Not really. I don’t want to sound like “I knew this game was gonna be mediocre”, I just feel like my initial impressions have been validated by the first wave of reviews.

People seem to be saying it starts slow, and is tutorilized/linear for the first 10 hours. That has put me off more than anything. My patience for games to ramp up to "the good part" is at an all time low.

In a way I'm glad to have my hype tempered. I'm still looking forward to it, and I will play it day one, but I now have more realistic expectations. It's a game I want to take my time playing and exploring. It's too bad that reviewers had to rush through it, especially in its current buggy state. I look forward to Jeff and Vinnys opinion after playing it for a longer time and in a less buggy state.

I'll admit I'm in the "my excitement continues to wane" camp, and at this point I'm glad to wait for a PS5-optimized version (and a PS5...) before I dig into it. The Outer Worlds (and a weekend rental of Fallout 3 forever ago) is my only real experience with this type of game and The Witcher 3 is my only previous experience with this studio so I'm not fully attached to anything going on here. Pair that with the fact The Witcher 3 played far better in 2016 than it did in 2015 I'm willing to drop my hypebeast tendencies when I'm feeling tentatively and let the people better suited to parsing things out do the dirty work.

Maybe this is the ultimate favor that buying DOOM Eternal despite some trepidations has done me? To teach me to trust my instincts and wait out a broader base of opinions?

@jepsen1977: Woof

There's a decent amount of rumor chatter suggesting that the next-gen update may take most of next year to complete and judging by the amount of jank that will be in the game at launch I can totally see half of next year being dedicated to getting this game to a proper '1.0' completion state.

CDPR built up a good enough track record with me from my time with Witcher 2 and 3 that all I needed to know was that this studio was going to tackle an open world cyber dystopia and I was sold. That fact plus it being an FPS are clearly outside of their wheelhouse and is why this game took so long to only reach a state that will still need months more to properly finish still didn't completely dissuade me because now I got the remaining info I needed from these previews GB did and the other reviews that are out there. It sounds like this game will run just fine, performance wise, on my PC and I'm OK with everything else.

@efesell: Came through crushing buildings with the "Crash is the epitome of dumb fun, it deserved its Oscar and there's absolutely nothing wrong with it because it's not real life" level take.

It's one of the biggest curiosities in gaming in recent memory, ofc I'm gonna play it and see where I land on it.

@colourful_hippie: That's totally fair.

CD Projekt Red has a great history of releasing fantastic GOTY versions of their games that fix a lot of the launch issues while adding in new content. I have always played their games a year late because of this and haven’t been burned yet. So next year’s Steam Year End Sale is my likely time to purchase. By then most of the bugs will have been fixed, and they might even have retranslated or rewritten parts of the script that are causing outcry. Plus they have a bunch of post release content planned. So I will play it but was never planning on playing at launch.

As a trans person, I gotta see this thing for myself. Likely not right away, but I want to dissect its successes and missteps on that front for myself, as a matter of academic curiosity. But my expectations have been -severely- dampened.

I went ahead and trimmed out as much of the bickering as possible from this thread, including my own. It wasn't my intention to be drawn into a pedantic discussion over whether the game qualifies as Eurojank, and I guess I should know better than to be baited into any remotely sarcastic exchange with anyone on this website lest it be construed as either an abuse of power or hypocritical. I apologise for that.

Anyway, let's get back on topic please. I'll continue to remove any sniping or offrail comments from the thread. Thanks.

I know that CDPR genuinely cares for the products they put out. I pre-ordered the game on GoG at the start of the year and have never doubted that decision. Yes the game is probably a mess right now technically but if their past games are any indication, it will get there. Sounds like there is a good game underneath the mess anyway.

Large portions of the games media have painted the biggest target I have ever seen on the back of this game. That other games have come out recently by other more problematic studios (Ubisoft... My god, Ubisoft) and have not received the kind of constant attacks that this game has at even the slightest provocation kind of pisses me off at a certain point because CDPR are kind of the last bastion of AAA consumer friendly, no DRM, no microtransaction bullshit products we have left.

Are there problems with CDPR? Yes. But they are mostly GIANT problems shared throughout the industry that take more than isolated attacks on one studio because they happen to have the biggest game coming out this year. But I guess that drives clicks to your website so business is boomin' I guess.

PS: I am not talking about Giantbomb's criticisms, which by far have been the most fair I have seen.

The way I approach purchasing video games nowadays is less about "Do I think this will be good?" and more about "Is this something I want first hand knowledge of?" Even if Cyberpunk ends up being an offensive, unmitigated piece of trash, I still value knowing that and seeing it for myself. So reviews don't really effect me all that much when it comes to purchasing a game. I still value reading them, as a way of seeing what others think of something and seeing different perspectives than my own, but I don't think I've ever purchased a video game based on reviews.

Ubisoft has gotten kicked up and down the street for quite a while. The difference is that folks already had a middling opinion on Ubisoft long before we learned the top brass of company was trash. So it wasn't a shock when we found out Ubi had some big issues. Much like Valve, CDPR built up a ton of good will with the Witcher and by being "pro-consumer" in their marketing of everything. So when people started reporting that, in fact, CDPR is not the shining expectation of the video games industry, there has been a ton of push back.

And their social media team steps in it all the time. So often it is hard not to wonder if, in fact, CDPR might have some real shitheels working for them that are actively courting the worst video game likers out there.

I'll buy it in a year or two for five bucks and play it for a bit before falling off it, just like I did with Witcher 3. The extreme marketing campaign for this game has made me highly skeptical of it. It has felt like they went for the Star Wars prequels strategy of creating a level of artificial hype so big that no matter what comes out, it won't live up to hype. I imagine people will probably be disappointed in the game within a couple months from now, similar to something like GTA IV where the same happened.

@schmollian:

I swear this is not a callout of any kind, but could you be a little more specific about what you mean by: "Large portions of the games media have painted the biggest target I have ever seen on the back of this game."?

A lot of what I have seen has largely been people being ganged up on or harassed for their reviews (Plagge is so attacked at this point other people get attacked just for liking her review) and that leads to some people standing up for why they feel the way that they do (especially in the face of largely being attacked by people that haven't played the game). If you are referring to people being critical of CDPR outside of the game...I think it's warranted. It's been a building story for months if not years and it has literally gotten worse every time any more information comes out. It's not really relevant that it is "just as bad" in the entire industry, because this is for many the biggest game of the year from a darling developer that could previous do no wrong to many people (some people still feel this way). And CDPR find ways to step in the shit and create unforced errors every step of the way, not helping themselves in any capacity.

Honestly, I'm just not vibing with the way it's so story is so dark and depressing (I know, thats the cyberpunk style). Hearing reviewers talk about how there is sexual assault, and lots of extreme violence and stuff just isn't for me these days. I just have a hard time playing those types of games. Not sure what's happened to me over the years. If the violence is more cartoony and played for laughs, I'm in. The ultra realistic stuff just rubs me the wrong way. I stayed away from Last of Us Part 2 for the same reason. I played the first one and thought it was decent, but fast forward to now and I'm just not interested. Maybe it's being in my early 30s now? I don't know.

Although, that being said, I totally understand the reason people could get into a cool cyperbunk dystopian society and want to immerse themselves in the game. If that's you, then I say rock on and enjoy it!

Yes. Absolutely. Even more so since people are whining about it.