Review - Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition

"I just wanted the world to know I was here. That I mattered."

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition

CD Projekt Red / PC, NSW2, PS4, PS5, XBO, XBSX, macOS

Played on PlayStation 5

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Story & Lore

The world of Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in an alternative future ruled by corporations, with advanced technology that can be used to enhance and change yourself. Night City is an independent city that is filled with violence, crime, and corruption - and yet many seek to live there and make a name for themselves, or as they say, become a Night City legend. You play as V, either your choice of male or female, and your background sets the stage for your story with either Nomad, Street Kid, or Corpo. I went for a male V with the Corpo backstory. After a set of events, you find your way back in the streets with your longtime best friend, Jackie, doing jobs for fixers who use people like you to get what they want.

After a job goes sideways, you find yourself with a piece of technology stuck to your body, known as the relic. Inside is the consciousness or copy of consciousness of the legendary Johnny Silverhand, a rockstar who became obsessed with taking down mega corporation Arasaka, and now you have to figure out how to get rid of him, before he takes over your body and you die. From here, you set out not just to save yourself, but to get wrapped up with other characters, including potential romantic interests, all with their own issues and character arcs. Add in the Phantom Liberty expansion, and the story gets bigger as you’re tasked with saving the President of the New United States, to potentially get the cure and figure out if a woman going by the name Songbird is using you or not.

I cannot say this without sounding hyperbolic, but I think the story to this game is a rare gem, a masterpiece of storytelling that I’ve only seen in games like the Mass Effect trilogy, Kojima titles, Bioshock, and The Last of Us. The Phantom Liberty expansion’s story alone is incredible. Underneath your quest, doing side gigs and dealing with the multiple characters you bump into, is a story that is ultimately about identity and facing death. This especially shows for me with the Phantom Liberty story, to the point that I felt the ending to that one felt like the true ending to the game, even though I played through it when I was halfway done with the main game’s campaign.

Every small story you deal with opens up to more stories, messages, and themes for you to explore in Night City. The Nomad story with Panam, whom I chose as my romance plot, is practically its own story. Other characters like Judy have arcs and missions that get you invested, and you’ll be making decisions that feel important, and sometimes feel like a lose-lose situation, giving them depth and a real feel. Johnny Silverhand and his crazy antics slowly come together as you get used to his personality and come to understand him. In the end, identity is what this story is about more than anything. There’s a crippling feeling among the characters about what their legacies will be. We’ve all been there when we overthink how the world will remember us. All of this, while facing the idea of your mortality and how you deal with knowing you’re going to die. By the end of both main stories, I just sat there, taking in everything the story feels and is about, putting me in a contemplative state, a rare feeling when the credits roll on a game.

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Characters & Writing

The writing in Cyberpunk 2077 is some of the best I’ve seen. It’s not just the story or the themes; it’s the small things that come together. There’s slang that’s exclusive to Night City or the Nomads, which makes the characters and situations feel alive. Characters are written with distinct personality types and moral codes, never feeling like cardboard cutouts the game uses to fill time. Even the smallest encounter can feel like a genuine interaction, open up a whole new level of thought, and make new friends or enemies. The themes around identity and death aren’t shoved in your face and are subtle, but not too subtle that you won’t notice them. The different responses and choices come together as you help shape V's moral code and choices, without veering away from what Night City does to its citizens.

The cast is memorable and hard to forget, one of the best ensembles I’ve dealt with in a while. The city has a lot of people you need to work with, but you’ll have to ask if you can trust them. Phantom Liberty’s Solomon Reed, played by Idris Elba, is one of the best written characters, as he has a loyalty to his country and institutions that’s toxic and dangerous, and yet you feel compelled to help him and hope he doesn’t stab you in the back. As someone who is pro institutions, but also wants reforms, I found him interesting. Songbird, the agent who recruits you to start Phantom Liberty’s story, is layered in secrets and deception, but is also a tortured soul, which makes later decisions in her arc difficult. All the potential love interests, including Panam, Judy, Kerry, and River, have arcs that are memorable in their own ways and lead to believable romance plot lines for your character. Other notable characters include Rogue, Alt, Misty, Jackie, Alex, Kurt Hansen, an AI system named Delamain, Atom Smasher, and more, who were perfectly cast for this story, and I never got bored with or felt they could’ve cut them out of the game.

Of course, you can’t forget about the main star, Keanu Reeves’s Johnny Silverhand. I had seen the trailers and marketing for Silverhand, so I didn’t realize how much of an a-hole he would be in the game. Johnny is untrustworthy, reckless, and an obvious egotistical narcissist, and he doesn’t care for you. However, as expected, you do learn more about him and develop a friendship as the game progresses. It doesn’t stop him from being a dick, and you’ll still have your moments of disagreements and arguments, but he becomes the ultimate voice in your head, for better or worse.

This is writing and characters that seamlessly connect and combine in a perfect storm. Everyone has their slang, their tells, their personalities, and their arcs, and they all make sense in the violent and chaotic world of Night City.

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Gameplay & Mechanics

Cyberpunk 2077 got a lot of flak when it was revealed to be a first-person game, rather than the third-person gameplay that CD Projekt Red was known for. However, I can report that it’s 100% fine. The guns feel fantastic, and I love how they would get names, similar to swords, from their owners. You can modify them and your own abilities to use ram storage and tech that lead to hacking enemies and messing with materials in the area, if you want to try to sneak-attack them instead of going guns blazing. As you play, you’ll get your hands on more mods and upgrades, and if done right, you can become a nearly unstoppable machine.

The game reminded me of Grand Theft Auto many times, especially in its mission structure. You would get a gig from a fixer or find something out during the main story, get in a car, and then drive there. You have wanted star levels, like GTA, and you can cruise around listening to music, also like GTA. I guess I got my GTA fix before GTA VI could get here. The driving never felt perfect; it kind of had a floaty feel at times, but it was satisfying enough that I never put it in automatic drive, which you can do. I also liked testing out each car because they all feel a little different and have varying levels of handling and speed. What’s also cool is that they don’t use licensed cars; they make their own, with distinct looks and a retro-80s, futuristic aesthetic I was really digging.

The sneaking and stealth isn’t bad either, and I tend to suck at stealth sections in games. Plus, even if you screw up trying to be stealthy, it doesn’t punish you and you can just go guns blazing if need be. Another thing you can do is hack computers and signals to get bonuses, like extra Eurodollars (or eddies), that require you to enter the correct code in the right order before time runs out. I liked the hacking mechanic. I never felt it was too hard, and when I would screw up, it was my fault, not the game’s mechanics. The scanning is simple and to the point, which is how it should be anyway, because you’re going to be doing it a whole lot. They also have some really cool missions where you’ll take the persona of someone, and you have to make sure to act like that character and not screw up during conversations and give yourself away.

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World & Level Design

Night City and the areas surrounding it feel like real places, and they don’t stray from what’s advertised. The city has some beautiful parts, especially when you see the holograms and the skyscrapers up close. Surprisingly, it also has an incredible amount of verticality. Some places are doors or elevators, and you’ll be in a new area you didn’t even know was there. Plus, it never feels overwhelming. Whether you decided to just follow missions or cruise around, I never felt lost, and it all comes together in a way that doesn’t make you feel the game is too big, despite the fact that it is a very big game. It’s not a case of go here and there, and the rest is filler; there are plenty of secrets and unexpected areas, the more you explore. It’s like a real, actual city, and it’s your playground. Even when the game goes linear for major story moments, or you’re in a car with someone to advance a plot, it’s still all the same city, and that immersion never disappears.

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Audio & Sound Design

If the characters, story, and setting feel so real and add to the world, the music and sound take it to a whole other level. There is a full soundtrack you can listen to through various radio stations, either in the car or while you walk. These are a mix of lesser-known musicians and groups, along with original music. There are some songs here that are catchy and memorable enough that I added them to my Apple Music playlist. The DJs in between the songs on the stations are disappointing. They don’t even come close to the memorability of the ones on GTA.

The background score is just as good as the music. The techno beat that kicks in during intense fights and boss battles kind of makes you want to look for another fight when it’s done playing. The important moments in the story have a score that makes sense to each situation, and the vibe and feel of each score, especially with headphones on, add more soul to major moments in the game. The sound design of the weapons, car, the city, background noise, and I could go on, helps make the city alive and is top-notch.

Near the end of the game, I kept going on some small drives around the map, just listening to the radio - that’s how good it all comes together.

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Art Direction & Graphics

This is a beautiful game, even on a base PS5. I’ve seen the videos on YouTube showing just how gorgeous you can make it with the right graphics cards and all that, but even on my PS5, with the sacrifices to run it in performance mode, this is a pretty game to look at. A big part of this is the art direction. It goes for an interesting mix of retro 80s futurism from the cyberpunk genre that Blade Runner gave us, combined with its own flavor of personality and style. The city and its environments don’t feel tacked on, and the surrounding rural areas are a natural extension of the outside. The modifications and upgrades don’t look strange on people; instead, they come off as normal in this world. The various styles and looks people can adopt add to the variety that the city attracts.

What I especially loved is the attention to detail in the cars, both inside and out. They have a 1980s look but still feel futuristic. Sometimes you can aim to have real elements like cars and motorcycles in games, and it can look out of place in the distant future, but in Cyberpunk 2077, they look like they belong there.

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Direction & Performances

Not only do we have great, memorable characters, but what makes them memorable are the performances. Yeah, Johnny Silverhand is basically Keanu Reeves, but it works, and it makes his persona and interactions stand out. Idris Elba as Solomon Reed is not just well-written but performed well by him. The rest of the cast, famous actors or not, does a great job. Panam, performed by Emily Woo Zelle, is a whole character and vibe, kind of reminding me of my wife’s personality. Judy, performed by Carla Tassara, also hits it out of the park. Of course, best friend Jackie, performed by Jason Hightower, nails it from voice to attitude and personality. You can feel that Jackie is that friend you depend on, and it makes certain moments with him hit the way it’s supposed to. The voice cast for V is good too, but female V, performed by Cherami Leigh, is better, in my opinion. Male V, who I chose, performed by Gavin Drea, isn’t bad, but I feel the range of his vocal style during certain moments doesn’t hit as hard.

The direction is also top-notch. You’re not going to get perfectly timed moments of lighting and atmosphere, but they know when to slow things down and get you to focus on what you need to, in order to convey important moments and story progression. They have small optional moments with Johnny, and they do it in a seamless way that doesn’t break immersion or interrupt you at bad moments. There are some camera angles during the ending of Phantom Liberty and the main campaign that enhance the feelings you experience as the credits roll.

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User Experience

This is where the weakness of the game shows for me. This is not a hard to navigate game, but some of the UI decisions I wasn’t crazy about. Choosing weapons gets cumbersome and annoying if you don’t use the favorites feature. They also tend to switch up radio controls when you’re walking or in the car, and that led to some awkward moments of me pressing the wrong button and launching a grenade. The most annoying part, however, was dressing up. Sometimes you’ll do missions with mandatory attire, and when you’re done, you’ll be set to naked, and again, looking for items in the menu felt messy. I had a specific outfit I fell in love with and wanted to keep it as much as possible. Yes, you have the favorites option , but that in itself shows they knew they couldn’t get it quite right.

It’s not a broken experience, and you learn to tolerate the worst parts, but it reminded me of some games where you could tell there’s so much to do that it becomes hard to perfect the UI and controls, such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or Avowed.

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Replay Value

Among replayable experiences, Cyberpunk 2077 is right there at the top. Even after you commit to one ending, there’s still a whole host of others to choose from, and since there are so many decisions in the game, every experience can feel different. There wasn’t a moment that felt annoying or that I would hate to replay; it’s an experience similar to a great movie, and you won’t want to miss a thing, no matter how many times you’ve played. If I ever have the time in the future, I’m 100% open to giving this game another go.

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Recommendation

Not only do I highly recommend this game to fans of the genre or major AAA games in general, but I would say this is an absolutely essential game that ANY gamer should at least try. Even if big open-world AAA Western RPGs aren’t your thing, you should at least dive in a little and see if it sticks with you. I think this game is right up there with titles like Mass Effect 2, Ocarina of Time, Super Mario Bros., Bioshock, God of War (2018), and Elden Ring, as games that you absolutely must play once in your life. I have that much praise for it.

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S - Masterpiece

After half a decade of hype, I can say that this game has only surpassed what it was sold as to me, and I say that as someone who tends to come away less impressed if you hype something too much before I try it. Cyberpunk 2077 is a special game. It’s one of those once-in-a-generation gems that leave a lasting impression by fusing the experience, gameplay, characters, story, music, and everything else in a package that can only be described as a masterpiece.

This is a story about identity and the debate we have within ourselves about legacy and what lasting impact we leave in the world. How that lasting impact can go beyond fame and is just as much about how we impact the people around us. Cyberpunk puts us in this unique city and world and unleashes a freedom of choice to decide just who we are and what our personal ambitions and moral codes will lead us to do when faced with death. It’s more than just an awesome RPG - it’s that art people describe that video games can deliver, and the additional themes and stories around the Phantom Liberty portion just take it to the next level.

Not only has Cyberpunk 2077 become an essential classic that I will be including in many lists for years to come and recommending to everyone in my life, but I dare say it has also entered an elite list of personal favorite games, alongside icons such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Bioshock, Fallout 3, Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid, God of War (2018), Bloodborne, Mass Effect 2, Elden Ring, Super Mario Odyssey, and my all-time favorite game, Metroid Prime, among my personal list of favorite games ever. The game asks to leave a legacy for V to matter, but in the end, Cyberpunk 2077 matters and is simply a Night City legend. Thanks for the ride Johnny.

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