After what feels like aeons and aeons, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally out in the wild, and critics have offered us their thoughts on what could be CD Projekt Red's "crowning achievement for the generation".
The game was first announced in 2012, with a glitzy and glittering teaser trailer released in 2013. Fast forward to 2020, and delays pushed the game from April to September, to November, to December. Even though this extra time was afforded to the team, reports of crunch persisted, and the studio's boss confirmed that employees were required to work six-day weeks in order to remain on track. One anonymous account from an apparent CD Projekt Red developer asserted that the project's management were "completely detached from the reality" of working on Cyberpunk 2077.
Fortunately, co-CEO Adam Kiciński has expressed regret over his poor choice of words regarding crunch, and head of studio Adam Badowski stated that "10% of the annual profit our company generates in 2020 will be split directly among the team". It's been a mammoth undertaking for everyone involved at every stage in its development, but now we finally know what the critics are saying about one of the biggest games of this decade.
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At the time of writing, Cyberpunk 2077 is sitting pretty with a 91 on Metacritic and OpenCritic, based on 44 reviews and 45 reviews respectively - but it's worth noting that all reviews so far are based on the PC version of the game, and not its console versions. A strong start, to be sure. Windows Central gave it five out of five stars, and praised it for "some of the most immersive and liberating storytelling this industry has to offer". Eurogamer, offering an unscored, impressions-first review, said that the game is "frequently impressive" and provides interesting insights to the fragility of humanity, while also scattering crass humour here and there. Jade King, of Trusted Reviews, also agreed that the world is "breathtaking" and an "interactive achievement of the highest order," but argued that the writing lets it down, ultimately.
There are also more negative reviews in the mix. Giant Bomb's Jeff Gerstmann wasn't thrilled about the overall experience, and said "they should've delayed this game even more". Yikes. Kotaku isn't impressed either, after 30 hours with the sprawling sci-fi RPG. "I'm middle-of-the-road on it so far-having fun in spots, left wanting the game to be more like what made The Witcher 3 great in others," reads the write-up, adding that Cyberpunk 2077 "tries too hard" to shock the player.
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If these snippets sound at odds with those stellar scores from Metacritic and OpenCritic, it's due to the fact that a lot of these less-glowing reviews aren't scored at the moment. Because Cyberpunk 2077 is a ginormous game asking for hours and hours of your time, and codes were offered very close to the review embargo, it simply wasn't feasible for every site to produce a full review in that short window. Our own review is still in the works, for example, and bear in mind again that all reviews so far are for the PC version of the game.
Whether the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will be as well received, remains to be seen. But as a result, we should expect to see the overall, aggregate scores fluctuate over the coming weeks. Cyberpunk 2077 releases for PC, Stadia, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on December 10th, with next-gen versions and multiplayer coming in 2021.
Featured Image Credit: CD Projekt RedTopics: News, Cyberpunk 2077