Cyberpunk 2077 from an artist’s perspective

For years video game enthusiasts have anxiously awaited Cyberpunk 2077, marketed as a massive open-world adventure game entailing next-level graphics and storylines. Keanu Reeves being advertised as a character was enough to get the whole world raving about the game. The game includes three different paths: The Nomad, Street Kid, or Corpo. The main character, V, must survive a futuristic and crime-ridden metropolis through side gigs and exploration.

Since the game began development by CD Projekt Red in 2012, hype amongst the public grew exponentially. I remember when I first discovered the game in development. I gawked at the minimal teaser trailers and screenshots that were slowly released. They were unlike any games I had seen before. However, as it was released on December 10th, exhilaration cascaded into frustration, rage, and a succession of refunds. 

From an artist’s perspective, Cyberpunk 2077 is an artistic masterpiece. Once I exited tutorial mode, I sat in my character’s apartment for an hour and admired every little detail put into objects. It pains me to criticize the game at all as I still cannot comprehend the sheer amount of time put into every object. Creating one model or texture can take up to a few months, so having such a wide range of players and assets requires an extremely dedicated and talented team of 3D modelers, artists, and developers. After a few PC gameplay days, I only ran into a few minor bugs, like overexposure and hair not appearing. Other players report that most of the issues arise in open-world gameplay and on the console. 

However, as much as I would love to keep praising Cyberpunk 2077’s graphics, most console users were substantially let down. I have seen some disappointing clips of Non-player characters (NPCs) erratically spawning and cars disappearing off the map. This generally happens to users with older GPUs and drivers. The characters on older PCs look like Roblox avatars; the faces are indistinguishable, and movements are turbulent. With nine years of development, it appears that developers still overestimated the capabilities of most consoles. 

Another big issue included the AI. Users reported bugs such as crowds looping in circles, cars incessantly crashing, and characters not reacting when being assaulted. I’m not sure if these should be considered bugs or just poor design. It seems that there was too strong of an emphasis on detailed assets and storylines instead of the gameplay. Actual bugs included issues like people disappearing, walking through walls, and the game just completely crashing. Currently, the game is nearly guaranteed to have a few bugs here and there. Depending on how high quality a player’s setup is, the bugs can be extremely minimal or ruin one’s experience. Personally, the bugs I noticed did not get in the way of any of my gameplay. CD Projekt Red was more than apologetic about the defects and continues to issue refunds and updates.

I think most people can agree that the plotline and concept of Cyberpunk 2077 are enthralling and unique. It’s not necessarily a shooter game or an open-world game; it instead blends aspects of a role-playing game and a first-person shooter. The development of plotlines and characters is very strong. Players take on dodgy jobs, battle robots, explore six different districts, and hack into corporations. The ending has five different results, and every player has a unique narrative. The game transports players to a different dimension. My all-time favorite task is definitely hacking a few cameras and swiftly eliminating all my enemies with surprise attacks.

Overall, I highly recommend Cyberpunk 2077 if you have a PC. I cannot speak for console users, but with new updates and patches coming out every week or so, most of their critical bugs should be resolved soon. Even if you don’t particularly care about video games, Cyberpunk 2077 has something for everyone. The elegant screenshots from the PC gameplay speak for themselves.