Worth: $16.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Idris Elba, Keanu Reeves
Intro:
… there’s a lot to like here, with slick graphics, finely tuned and enjoyable combat, and a pervasive sense of the bleak existence in a futuristic hellscape… which is a bit like our own but with better tech and moodier lighting.
There’s an old adage that goes, “you only get one chance to make a first impression”. However, it seems that CD Projekt Red, the talented devs behind the Witcher series and vanilla Cyberpunk 2077, are trying to subvert that dusty old idiom.
When Cyberpunk 2077 first launched in December of 2020, its reception was… mixed, to say the least. The game, particularly on consoles, was in a shocking state, beset by a record number of bugs, glitches and frequent crashes. Worse still, when the game actually did work (a rarity), it ended up feeling shallow and perfunctory, with poor AI, dull skills and uninteresting RPG elements. Over the years, the Polish devs got the game up to code, with a multitude of patches and fixes, and eventually the game was… pretty good. Not great, not amazing, but a mostly well-written, albeit quite linear, experience with some standout moments.
However, CD Projekt Red weren’t keen to settle on just “pretty good”, and they got to work on Cyberpunk 2.0, a massive patch that basically reworked many of the game’s core elements from the ground up, and brand spanking new story expansion, Phantom Liberty. And the result? Well, it’s finally the game that it should have been three years ago.
Phantom Liberty is a mostly self-contained story, set within the previously unreachable district of Dogtown in Night City. Dogtown is a walled-off autonomous district that resembles the aesthetic of John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, even before the President’s plane crash lands within its boundaries. From there you, V, must meet up with President Meyers and become embroiled in a plot that involves a powerful netrunner called Songbird and a grizzled government agent, Solomon Reed (played by none other than Idris Elba).
The story is a solid, engaging slice of spy drama, with neat twists and endings that hit surprisingly hard. Taken by itself, Phantom Liberty would have been a decent offering, however it arrives at the same time as the free Cyberpunk 2.0 update. Said update has tweaked enemy AI, reworked the entire perks system, enhanced driving mechanics, updated clothing/armour options and a host of other refinements that, while they don’t entirely make it feel like a new game, improve the player experience in a massive way. Basically, if this had been the state of the game at launch, Cyberpunk 2077 would have easily been in Game of the Year discussions.
But it wasn’t, so the question is: can you move past the disastrous 2020 launch and enjoy the game anew? If you’ve never played Cyberpunk 2077 before, it’s a no-brainer. This is a wonderfully atmospheric game that doesn’t quite live up to the legacy of Witcher 3, but is more than a match for most RPGs out there. If you’ve already played through the game, however, the question gets a little more complicated. Because even with all these improvements, Cyberpunk 2077 still has weird pacing issues, frequent ropey dialogue, and a world that doesn’t allow a massive amount of interactivity. That said, there’s a lot to like here, with slick graphics, finely tuned and enjoyable combat, and a pervasive sense of the bleak existence in a futuristic hellscape… which is a bit like our own but with better tech and moodier lighting.
If you’re willing to give this embattled title a second chance to make a first impression, the results might just well be worth it.
