I’m a big fan of the open world video game. I have written on this site about the early innovation of the genre with the original Legend of Zelda, the serene pleasure of Skyrim, and unlike Ty I think the latest Zelda game is the greatest video game ever made. Just the other day I finished Grand Theft Auto V for my third different console. Add in games like Minecraft and No Mans Sky and we are sitting in the golden age of open world games.  

In late 2020, after many delays, Cyberpunk 2077 was released into the world. The game had a lot of hype. It was supposed to be the evolution of games like GTA V. The game has Keanu freaking Reeves in it. Also as a teenager my friends and I played the Cyberpunk role playing game. This game seemed destined for my Xbox. I purchased it almost immediately after it was released.  

If you know about the early days of Cyberpunk 2077, you know the next part of the story. For those of you that don’t know what happened I can sum the saga of the game with one word, broken. Cyberpunk 2077 was broken when it came out. I am not saying it was less than the hype like No Man’s Sky when it was released. Cyberpunk 2077 did not work. Sure you could start the game, customize your character and start the story, but it would not be long before the game locked up. It happened to me when I first went to the ripper doc, and when I would try again it would lock up again. I did what the internet told me to to fix the game, but then I had a lame game that looked terrible. After a few months I gave up on Cyberpunk 2077 and went back to causing havoc in GTA V.  Recently I upgraded to an Xbox X and decided to give Cyberpunk 2077 another try. I heard that there was an update for the newer generation of consoles and that the game actually worked as it was supposed to. I downloaded the very large update and started the game once again.  

The good news is that I got past the ripper doc without the game locking up. Also, the game looks great and runs smoothly. Even the part when you get to play as Keanu’s character was pretty cool. The bad part, Cyberpunk 2077 is a boring game. I have put about ten hours in and I can count on one hand the number of fights I have been in. The story is pretty bland compared to other games in the genre. The gun fight mechanics are good once you know how to do them, but the learning curve is quite steep, and I have yet to figure out an easy way to know what weapons are better than others. The game is needlessly complicated.  It is quite frustrating.

Yet I am still playing Cyberpunk 2077. Part of it is that I want to believe the game is good. The potential is there. Another part of my compulsion to complete the game is because I want to experience the open world of Night City with the strongest character and the best weapons. I know it sounds stupid, but that’s what these games give us, a reason to be stupid.  

Would I recommend Cyberpunk 2077 to anyone. That’s hard to say, I have not finished the game. Maybe it gets way better the next ten hours. I have been with No Mans Sky since the beginning and that game is fulfilling its early promise these many years later on. Maybe Cyberpunk 2077 will develop the same way. I just hope this broken first fix later does not become the norm. If it does I will just go back to play good working games. Hyrule and Los Santos are always fine places to spend a few gaming hours.

RD

RD is the founder and Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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