We knew things were going to be rough when Cyberpunk 2077 launched today. The question was, how rough was it going to be? Sadly, for a game that I have been waiting for for so long, it’s worse than I thought. Things are still bad even after the launch update that CD Projekt Red rolled out to fix many of the issues that they found for console players before launching the game. It makes me wonder how bad were things before the update if things are still this bad now? Still, despite all the bugs I’ve experienced, I still can’t stop playing this game.
The Shotty Graphics – Character Customization
When you first load into Cyberpunk on PlayStation 4, there is a noticeable issue with the lackluster graphics. Things don’t look polished, nor do the characters look realistic in their design. You’re given a long list of customization options for your character from eye shape, hairstyles, to breast size and even pubic hair, but nothing seems to mesh well from the start.
Even with the issues with the graphics, in the beginning, I still spent about thirty minutes during my character creation process. Taking the time with the many options that you have to make your character truly feel like your own makes dealing with the bad graphics bearable. All the options we have to choose from allow us to create a backstory about who that character is and how they got to where they are now before embarking on the story within Cyberpunk 2077.
Faulty HUD And Menus
You can tell a lot of time was put into creating a unique HUD for Cyberpunk 2077, and I commend CD Projekt Red for putting in that extra effort. However, all that extra effort means nothing if things don’t run smoothly. Whenever I used the touchpad on my PS4 controller to open up my inventory, the game had a brief delay and sometimes a long pause before letting me view my inventory.
Even if the HUD and interface did run smoothly, things are still difficult and confusing to navigate through. With a little more playtime, I’m sure things will become more familiar, but, as we’ve seen from The Witcher 3, CD Projekt Red doesn’t always come out the gate with the most fluent menus.
On another note, CD Projekt Red uses hacking and glitchy animations as a theme for the game when V interacts with different items in Night City. I find it ironic that the issues we are experiencing happen to fall into that same theme.
Many Game Crashes
I played Cyberpunk for about 3 hours in one sitting and my game crashed at least 3 times during those 3 hours. There was no obvious cause of the bugs either, so it’s impossible to avoid them. For instance, the first time the game crashed was during an interaction with a character named Jackie. As I went through my dialogue options, Jackie proceeded to hand me a key. This is the moment that the game crashed.
When I loaded the game back up, I went right back to the same mission, chose all the same options, and the scene played out the exact same way it did before. This time, there were no crashes. This is the most frustrating part of playing Cyberpunk. Stumbling across an interesting side quest, or some brand new gear, only to have the game crash makes this game almost unplayable. That doesn’t mean it has stopped me from continuing my playthrough.
Cyberpunk 2077 has many issues, but the story is still worth playing if you can get past the bugs. If you haven’t purchased Cyberpunk yet, I suggest you hold off for a while and let CD Projekt Red iron out the kinks a bit.
In other words. You don’t have standards and you endorse an industry that releases more broken products rather than functioning ones. Yeah, that sets a good tone. I’ll be outright disgusted if CD thought you were a “journalist” and gave you a review copy. You’re the problem with this industry, flat out. Just so we’re clear.