A few days ago I wrote about Projekt Red, the company behind the magnificent Witcher 3, problems with the release of their next game, Cyberpunk 2077. (You can read about that here)

I noted that the game, which has been in development for some seven years and which was heavily promoted and anticipated, was released last week and… things weren’t all that pretty.

My understanding is that the game works well on high/medium high level PCs and is pretty good on the XBox One X (which I have) but with “lower end” gaming machines like the Playstation 4 and XBox One it has a lot of problems.

While these issues are worrisome and one can’t help but think the company ultimately released the game to try to take advantage of the holiday season, I feel like many of the bugs and glitches will eventually be dealt with over the next few weeks/months and the game will stabilize.

However, due to all those problems, Sony has pulled Cyberpunk 2077 from their download store and offered refunds to those who bought it…

Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store After Complaints

I’ve heard that Projekt Red has also offered refunds and, frankly, the whole situation has moved from one of anticipation and hope for a game that is great to frustration with the company -though not in all parts- with releasing a game that clearly wasn’t ready yet.

As the saying goes, you have one chance to make a good first impression and Cyberpunk 2077 seems to not be doing this.

At all.

But as I said in my original post, I feel like the annoying -and often hilarious- glitches and bugs in the game will get smoothed over in time.

What worries me more are people who say the game itself isn’t all that great to begin with. Even those I’ve read in various posts here and there over the internet who haven’t experienced many glitches and have positive feelings regarding the game seem to agree that the game itself isn’t all that incredible, that it feels like what was promised was more than what was delivered.

As I said before, on the basis of Witcher 3, I had no problem pre-ordering Cyberpunk 2077 and have it already installed -but have yet to play it- in my machine.

I’m in no hurry to play it so maybe I’ll wait until more patches are released and the game’s bugs are better dealt with.

At this point, though, my hopes for the game have been considerably tampered.

A true shame.

…perhaps it was underdeveloped to begin with?

By now, most people out there who are into video games know about Cyberpunk 2077.

The game is easily one of the most highly anticipated releases of 2020, both for the “cyberpunk” concept and the fact that the studio which made it, Projekt Red, were also behind the magnificent (IMHO!) Witcher III game.

At least my thinking went like this: If they do even half as good a job as bringing to life a dystopian future like they did with the fantasy world of the Witcher, then this game has to be a home run, no?

…well…

The game’s release was announced but then delays set in. Finally, the title was released last week…

And then the trouble started.

The game’s graphics turned out to be in some cases quite poor depending on the system used, expending older system’s graphic capabilities and, in some cases, causing crashes. So many complaints were lodged that the studio quickly announced they would release a patch right after the game’s release and were working hard on subsequent patches to fix the game.

This is disheartening stuff, that a studio would release a game in such demand without doing proper quality control to make sure it actually worked well with all systems it was meant to work on!

Sadly, it seems to get worse.

As bad as releasing a game without proper quality control over how it plays on various systems is, this can be fixed with time and with various patches.

What is more concerning are people’s reactions to the story presented within the game.

There were players who noted that, while the game allows you to pick and choose between various different character “types” to play as your Avatar, after the first 20 minutes or so of gameplay these various Avatars prove to have no real impact on the story told… basically, you wind up playing the same game after 20 minutes regardless of your Avatar.

Or, to put it even more bluntly: Your Avatar doesn’t matter.

So why bother giving players the option of creating a unique Avatar?

Worse still, the game that follows has all kinds of glitches on its own, bad A.I. (again, according to several players) and an underwhelming overall story.

If the players are right, these things won’t be easily fixed with a patch.

I can’t help but wonder if with Cyberpunk 2077 history is kinda/sorta repeating itself.

Bear with me here…

When Game of Thrones, the HBO series, first came out, it was an incredible hit. The show benefitted, for at least four or five seasons, from being able to adapt the books of G. R. R. Martin. However, when the producers ran out of Mr. Martin’s books and the stories within them (the final two novels are yet to be released), the show took a sudden downturn, eventually ending in a way many fans of the show found terrible.

With Witcher III, Projekt Red were able to adapt the stories and novels written by Andrzej Sapkowski. However, with Cyberpunk 2077, these same people didn’t have the benefit of adapting any previously written stories. In fact, with Cyberpunk 2077, as was the case with the later seasons of Game of Thrones, they were creating something “new” and, perhaps in both cases, it proved to be too much for them.

I hope not.

I pre-purchased Cyberpunk 2077 solely on how much I loved Witcher III but I have to admit, these early reviews have me concerned.

I’ll eventually play it, when I have the free time.

Though I really hope the critics are proven wrong, I very much fear they may be right.

POSTSCRIPT (12/15/20):

I’ve been looking around some more on various commentary posts and, I’ve noted, there are many people who are pushing back against those who are labeling Cyberpunk 2077 a bust.

The pushback falls into two areas: 1) There are those who say they have older systems and have not experienced problems with the play of the game, that the graphics may have minor glitches -if that- but the gameplay is good. 2) There are also those who say the complaints against the game itself are exaggerated as well, that the game is fun -though there are those in this camp who also note that maybe it isn’t quite as ambitious as it could have been- but that the complaints are exaggerated.

Again: I have the game, I’ve already loaded it into my XBox system and, soon enough, I’ll give it a try.

Frankly, these later comments -and pushback- encourages me.

Perhaps the game was a victim of too high expectations and isn’t quite the disaster many have posted to them it is.