Cyberpunk 2077
CD Projekt RED · RPG, Shooter, Open World
Overview
Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure RPG set in the dark future of Night City — a dangerous megalopolis obsessed with power, glamor, and ceaseless body modification.
THE GAMEQ VERDICT9,995 reviews analyzed
What players are actually saying
1. Summary
Players overwhelmingly recommend Cyberpunk 2077, and the story is what they talk about most. V's death sentence, Johnny Silverhand, and companions like Panam, Judy, Jackie and Takemura get the most attention, and some reviewers say the ending stayed with them for days. Night City comes up next: its neon, rain, radio and density keep people driving around with no destination. A recurring thread is the comeback. Launch buyers who quit in 2020 came back, some after what they call the 2.0 update and some on a sale, and found a game they now rank among their favourites. When reviewers describe the Phantom Liberty expansion, it is usually with praise, and some call it the best part of the package.
Bugs split players. 34% of negative reviews bring up bugs, glitches or crashes, while recommenders who mention bugs mostly call them minor or funny. A smaller group hits crashes or broken saves bad enough to stop playing. Other recurring complaints are the talk-heavy pacing, the slippery driving, an open world that looks richer than it plays, and RPG choices that some players find thin. Some reviewers advise buying the game on sale together with the expansion.
2. What keeps coming up
What players praise
A story and cast that stay with peopleHigh
Story is the subject reviewers raise most. Players describe crying at the endings, thinking about choices for days, and caring about characters "like real people". The V and Johnny relationship gets the most attention, and several reviewers say they disliked Johnny at first and did not want to lose him by the end. Panam, Judy, Jackie, Takemura, Kerry, River and Viktor all have fans, and romance with Panam or Judy is a running theme even in the joke reviews. One reviewer wrote that "the characters feel like actual adults", and another said they "haven't cried at a game this hard since RDR2." The bleak tone is part of the appeal: "no happy endings in Night City" turns up as a tagline in a couple dozen reviews, nearly always from players who loved the game.
A minority disagree. Some find the dialogue cringey or the slang forced, a few find Johnny grating, and a handful of long reviews call the main Arasaka plot the weakest part of the game next to the side stories and Phantom Liberty.
Night City's atmosphere and visualsHigh
Players talk about driving at night in the rain with the radio on, spending time in photo mode, and getting distracted for hours by side content. The graphics come up constantly, with path tracing named by some, and several reviewers are surprised how well the game now runs: they report playable frame rates on older cards, gaming laptops, the Steam Deck, Apple Silicon Macs and Linux. A typical line: "The map of the Night City is one of the best in gaming history."
The same reviewers often add that the city is better to look at than to interact with (see the frustrations below).
The comeback from the 2020 launchHigh
Reviewers keep returning to how far the game has come. Some bought it in 2020, had a broken experience on PS4, Xbox One or a weak PC, and say they flipped their old negative review after returning. "I posted a negative review in 2020 because of game breaking bugs." is a typical opening. Others say they deliberately waited years and are glad they did. Reviewers who mention what they call the 2.0 update credit it with reworked skill trees, perks and cyberware, and some compare the turnaround to No Man's Sky. "What a tragic launch but the greatest comeback story ever."
A few dissent: some say the core game was always good on PC and the launch reputation was overblown, while others argue the fixes hide design problems that patches could not solve.
Phantom Liberty, as base-game players describe itMedium
Reviewers who say what they thought of Phantom Liberty mostly praise it, and some advise buying it together with the base game, for example in the Ultimate Edition on sale. "Phantom Liberty absolutely mogs the rest of the game, it carries my positive review on its back, heavily." A few compare it to The Witcher 3's expansions: "I ended up enjoying the DLC even more than the main campaign." Dogtown, Songbird and Solomon Reed are singled out.
Some reviewers raise problems: frame rate drops or crashes in Dogtown, an ending that strips V's abilities, a horror-style robot mission that some loved and others hated, and the fact that a better ending sits behind the expansion's price. A few critics found the expansion boring or worse than the base game.
Build variety and cyberwareMedium
Players enjoy how differently V can play: netrunner hacking through cameras, Sandevistan and katana, mantis blades, gorilla arms, smart weapons or a plain gunslinger. One reviewer put it as "this game let's you be Neo from the Matrix, the Terminator, or The Doomguy." Some credit the 2.0 perk rework for making builds feel distinct, and several say they replayed just to try another build. Edgerunners fans enjoy the anime tie-in gear and the Adam Smasher fight.
The counterpoint is balance: once a build comes together, some say the game gets too easy (see the split on difficulty below).
Side quests and gigsMedium
Some reviewers rate the side content above the main plot. Players say side jobs carry their own characters, consequences and endings, and several say they forgot they were doing optional content. "each side quest feels like main quest in other triple A titles." A common tip is to ignore the main story's urgency and do side jobs first.
Gigs and NCPD scanner jobs split opinion: some enjoy them as relaxing filler, others find them copy-paste combat after a few hours.
Soundtrack and radioLow
The radio stations and score come up regularly as a highlight, with Samurai's songs, "Never Fade Away" and the Edgerunners track quoted often. "The radio songs are so good I legitimately listen to them even outside of the game." A few find some tracks weak or the combat music repetitive.
Mods and long-term replay valueLow
PC players praise the modding scene for visuals, quality of life fixes, respecs and New Game Plus, and a few say they bought the game a second time on Steam just to mod it. Some long reviews go further and say the base game needs mods to fix bugs or add depth, which is a backhanded compliment.
Where players are split
Is it fixed? Lingering bugsHigh
34% of negative reviews bring up bugs, glitches or crashes. Recommenders who mention bugs mostly describe them as funny or minor: cars spawning upside down or falling from the sky when summoned, T-posing or floating NPCs, pop-in while driving, missing takedown prompts, quests that need a reload. "Not completely fixed, but close enough." "As of patch 2.31 it's still buggy as hell, but i love it anyway."
Critics read the same bugs very differently. They report softlocked quests, items that cannot be looted, scripted scenes that break, and constant save reloading, and they push back on the idea that the game is now fixed: "Anyone who says that this game is fixed is lying." The worst cases, crashes and lost saves, are covered under frustrations.
A slow, talk-heavy openingMedium
The first hours divide players. A number of positive reviews admit the prologue and first act drag, with lots of tutorials, systems and talking, and then say it clicked. "But everything changed after finishing the prologue." Others never got that far. Several reviews that mention a refund blame the long prologue or too much talking, and some feel the long intro runs out the refund window: "It takes too long to realize, how boring this game is before you can get a refund." Several returning players say they dropped the game more than once before it finally hooked them.
Is it really an RPG?Medium
Players disagree about how much choice matters. Fans point to multiple endings, side quests that change outcomes, and characters who remember earlier decisions. Critics say the lifepaths are flavour after the prologue, dialogue options lead to the same outcome, and V is a fixed character: "95% of the time these choices are meaningless". "It's an RPG with barely any of the RP elements." Several players settle in the middle and describe it as an action game with RPG systems: "if you want an RPG you might be disappointed, but if you're looking for a good action FPS with RPG elements, great story and music, this is it".
Bleak endingsMedium
Reviewers who write about the endings mostly praise them as sad and earned, and some describe sitting in silence after the credits. "Not every choice you make will lead to a happy ending, which just adds to the general vibe of the game." A smaller group finds the relentless bleakness draining or feels the "no happy endings" rule is forced: "So many different endings yet they are all bad with very limited scope of change." Some also complain that the point of no return ends free roam, and that missing a specific dialogue line can lock out the secret ending.
Difficulty and combat feelMedium
Balance is the recurring caveat about combat. One camp says the late game gets too easy, even on the highest setting: "the game just is too easy with the right build even on very hard." Several call the Adam Smasher fight anticlimactic. At the other end, some players find enemies to be health sponges on higher difficulties and die quickly themselves: "enemies are comical bullet sponges and bounce around like beach balls, while you die in 3 hits." Melee hit detection, dodging and the enemy AI also draw criticism.
Main story lengthLow
Some players say the main story is short, around 15 to 30 hours, and wish it were longer: "Main story wayy too short". Others answer that the side content is the real game: "People complain the main story is too short when so much of the meat and potatoes comes from the side gigs and all the side content."
First-person onlyLow
A recurring wish is a third-person camera, especially for melee and for seeing your own V. Some came round to it ("i was just salty about the no third person option at first but it's actually pretty good"), while a few could not get past being "trapped in 1st person view." A handful report motion sickness.
Full price or on saleLow
Sale prices come up often, and several reviewers call the game a steal at that price. Others say full price is too much, especially with the expansion on top: "I would argue it is not quite worth a $70 price tag". A few launch buyers resent paying again for Phantom Liberty after the base game's state in 2020.
What frustrates players
Crashes and lost savesMedium
Crashes appear in 14% of negative reviews, and together with other bugs they are what negative reviewers with long playtimes raise most. Reports include crashes on launch or when loading any save, crashes every few minutes on new hardware, crashes when opening the map, inventory or settings, and saves that stop loading after a Johnny sequence. "crashing every 5-30 minutes has done me in." One player whose saves stopped loading after playing as Johnny, on two separate playthroughs, wrote: "Twice now it has become completely unplayable." Some recommenders mention crashes too, mostly with mods, frame generation or after a recent patch, and a few pin a fix on drivers or an SSD. A Phantom Liberty quest blocker is also mentioned.
Too much talking and unskippable scenesMedium
A frequent complaint in negative reviews is that the game plays like a movie. Critics single out long conversations, walking slowly behind NPCs, scripted crawling scenes, braindances, Johnny flashbacks and unskippable cutscenes, especially on a second playthrough. "This feels more like an interactive movie than a game." "it feels like 90% of the game is listening to dialogues and only 10% is actual gameplay." Several also complain that the main plot's urgency clashes with an open world built for side activities, and that quests stall while you wait for a phone call.
Slippery drivingMedium
Driving draws complaints even from people who like the game. Players describe cars spinning out at a light touch, especially on keyboard: "most vehicles (cars being the worst offenders) feel like you're driving on an oily kitchen floor". Races and driving-heavy quests make it worse, and NPC drivers in scripted scenes look janky. Some say bikes feel better, a few defend the handling, and one player found a fix in the settings: "the driving can be really finnicky, but reducing the steering sensitivity and driving camera auto reset time helped a TON."
An open world that looks better than it playsMedium
Even fans say the city can feel like a backdrop. Most buildings are locked, NPCs walk aimlessly or vanish when you turn around, gangs never remember what you did to them, and there is little to do outside quests, races and combat. One critic wrote that "it feels like a nice picture you look at and then move on because that's all there is to it." Several want more enterable interiors, roleplay activities and NPC reactions, and some critics say the world has nothing left once the story ends: "Finish the story and there's literally nothing left to do."
Weak enemy and police AILow
Enemies that stand still or lose track of you, police that spawn behind or on top of V, and NPCs who walk into traffic come up repeatedly. "the enemy AI is so bad that it completely ruins the combat for me."
One respec and no New Game PlusLow
Players who like to experiment dislike that attributes can be reset only once per playthrough, and some ask for New Game Plus or post-ending free roam. "My only major issue with Cyberpunk 2077 is the lack of being able to switch builds more than once in a playthrough." "such a great story, only complaint is theres no new game plus". Several fix both with mods.
Controls and small annoyancesLow
A handful of reviews raise smaller irritations: custom key bindings that do not stick ("The game lets you set your customized keys and immediately forgets them."), poor support for non-QWERTY keyboards, menus and keys that change between contexts, no flashlight in dark areas, phone calls that interrupt conversations, and a launcher that some skip with a launch option.
3. The player conversation
Most reviews are short and enthusiastic: a few words or a single line ("peak", "never fade away", "Don't meet Hanako at Embers."), full of the game's slang and in-jokes. Longer reviews are more measured, and some recommenders spend paragraphs on bugs, driving or thin RPG choices before landing on yes. Most reviews were written from late July 2026 onward, and some of them name a sale or the Edgerunners anime as the reason they picked the game up. The positive share held between 94% and 96% for almost every week of that period. Mixed in are older reviews from the 2020 launch that their authors later updated, most of which now recommend the game.
What negative reviewers raise shifts with how long they played. Those who quit early split between calling the game boring, too talky or not their kind of game and running into bugs or crashes, some before the tutorial ended. Critics with long playtimes lean more on bugs, crashes and lost saves, along with a shallow world and choices that do not change much.
4. What the developers could do
- Fix the crashes and save-breaking bugs players still report. Crashes appear in 14% of negative reviews, including saves that will not load after Johnny sequences and a Phantom Liberty quest blocker, and negative reviewers with long playtimes cite bugs and crashes more than anything else.
- Let players skip or speed up dialogue, cutscenes and scripted walks. Several players who refunded early blame the long prologue and the talking, and replayers ask for a way past scenes they have already seen.
- Retune vehicle handling, starting with keyboard steering defaults. Players who otherwise like the game still complain about driving, and some found the fix buried in the steering sensitivity settings.
- Allow more respecs and add New Game Plus or post-ending free roam. Players who want to try other builds or keep exploring after the credits say they rely on mods to do it.
- Give the open world more to do between quests. Reviewers want more enterable buildings, NPCs and gangs that react to V, and police that do not spawn on top of the player.
- Rebalance difficulty around smarter enemies and boss mechanics. Players say late game builds trivialize combat while harder settings mostly add enemy health, and they ask for better enemy AI and bosses with real mechanics.
- Fix key rebinding and unify controls. Custom bindings that reset, non-QWERTY layouts that need mods, and keys that change meaning between menus frustrate keyboard players.
