Cyberpunk 2077: where is the game one year after its release?

Game news Cyberpunk 2077: where is the game one year after its release?

If you are undoubtedly familiar with the history that led CD Projekt to keep a low profile and focus on correcting its title rather than supplying it with an online mode and additional solo content, a quick reminder of the facts is needed. Announced in 2021, even before the release of PS4 and Xbox One, and even before the arrival of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which was the revolution we know, Cyberpunk 2077 marked a turning point in CD history. Projekt. Exit the dark fantasy, and hello futuristic dystopian universe. While maintaining its desire to make RPG, Cyberpunk being from the paper role-playing game of the same name, the Polish studio took the risk of leaving its comfort zone by launching into the first person view, in an urban world and extremely dense.

A disappointed confidence

The promise of the know-how developed by CD Projekt put at the service of an urban open world, relatively little exploited in the world of video games, left rather dreamy. And the first previews as part of E3 2018 did not calm the enthusiasm. Vibrant and responsive world, intense and varied shoot phases … everything led to hope that Cyberpuk 2077 would be a new cornerstone of the Western RPG. A year later, Keanu Reeves announces a first release date set for the beginning of 2020, the headliner is placed and the promotional campaign is accelerating. Unfortunately, the first postponements have arrived. And if usually the industry and the public have learned very little to be moved by postponement, which has become a norm in the world of triple A, Cyberpunk has multiplied them. First scheduled for April, the game has been announced for September. During the summer, the game was postponed to November 19, then finally set its release date for December 10, 2020. These successive postponements, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 epidemic, were fairly clear indicators of the confidence that CD Projekt had in the quality of the finish of its title. The first concrete previews also hinted at some technical hiccups that turned out to be more pronounced than expected when the game was released.

But it is essentially the console versions which, more than not having lived up to the ambitions of the studio and its promises, were close to the unplayable, mainly on PS4 and Xbox One fat. This fiasco plunged CD Projekt into a certain turmoil. Where the confidence of the fans in the studio was almost blind, which moreover undoubtedly allowed Cyberpunk 2077 to be profitable when it was released thanks to the millions of pre-orders, the feeling of betrayal was keen.. But unfortunately, trust takes as long to build as it quickly breaks down, and the fact that the Poles have never mentioned, or even shown, the old gen versions of his game and made the title available for download. the press the day before its release was seen as a blatant lack of respect towards the fans.

It was not until a few days later that the reimbursement proposal was put on the table, but under rather restrictive conditions. The initiative was effectively left to the players who themselves had to contact their dealer to try to win their case. Shortly after, the refund terms were relaxed on the stores, and Sony ended up removing the game from its online store.. In the process, CD Projekt issued a rather gloomy press release, where management took on development errors, half-heartedly. And it was then that a long period of work allowed the game to improve over time. The successive and massive patches have accumulated, gradually making the gaming experience more in line with the studio’s ambitions.

So of course, a sad finding is to be made: the PS4 and One versions are not savable and, even if it means playing Cyberpunk on the machines of the previous generation, opting for the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X would be the most suitable choice for note the efforts made by CDPR to optimize, as far as technology allows, their play on these media.

Every day for the better?

However, over the course of the updates, which have led CD Projekt to revise its schedule by postponing the releases of new gen patches to early 2022 and to wall itself in silence regarding the story DLCs, Cyberpunk 2077 has been redacted from many bugs, making the experience much smoother than it was before. Of course, nothing is perfect and it is never easy to correct such numerous bugs, all the more so that they do not trigger systematically or as frequently in all players. However, the efforts were noticed and finally praised by the community. Indeed, very recently, the title has garnered no less than 23,000 positive reviews on Steam in just a handful of hours.. Admittedly, Black Friday, having raised the game to $ 29.99 greatly helped a new audience to enter the gaming world and players were able to discover the title in a more flattering light than when it was released, but CD Projekt’s efforts are no stranger to this new health. The management is in any case confident since it declared that the game would ultimately be considered “very good”.

In recent days, Cyberpunk 2077 has received a wave of very positive reviews on Steam from new players. You can’t imagine what this means to me. More than 15,000 (23,000 at the time of this writing) very positive reviews have been posted in recent days, while Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher are in the Steam bestseller list.

One year from the game’s release, the horizon seems to be clearing up for CD Projekt, which is starting to see a little beyond simple bug fixes or the development of next gen patches. A DLC (instead of the two initially planned) is currently mentioned. Larger teams are working on their development without neglecting game fixes, which will materialize in early 2022 through an update announced as massive. Besides, all was not gloomy and the consequences of the console launch were not bad for the industry in general. Given the virulent reactions from consumers who logically felt aggrieved, studios that opt ​​for cross-gen game development are more inclined to show different versions of their project in advance so that the public is aware of the state of the game on. their platform of choice.

One year after its release, Cyberpunk 2077 is getting better and gradually regaining, patch after patch, some of the splendor it could have had upon its release. The title should finally express its full potential, unfortunately a little too late. The bad publicity received during the release caused a lot of damage to the game which, while not perfect, had a lot of arguments to make. If the public manages not to lose interest too much and CD Projekt turns out to be more clear on its intentions and its schedule while protecting the good health of its teams, Cyberpunk 2077 could well be this game with the prestigious aura that ‘he promised.

---

Buy Cyberpunk 2077 on Amazon