Good God. Over seven years since that first CG trailer, and this is what we get? We always thought that writing this review was going to be difficult, but CD Projekt Red has made it a lot easier than we had ever imagined. Why? Because Cyberpunk 2077's a damn mess on PS4, PS4 Pro, and yes, even PS5 via backwards compatibility.
To be brutally honest, it feels like the Polish developer has sold us down the river. We've been covering Cyberpunk 2077 since October 2015 here on Push Square. Off the back of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — one of our absolute favourite games of the last generation — we had near unshakable faith in the studio's next project.
As the years ticked on, we started noting the lack of console gameplay for Cyberpunk 2077. The open world adventure looked so advanced and next-gen during previews, where it was always running on a very high end PC. But still, our hope remained. Even with all of the delays, we knew that, one day, we'd be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a PlayStation console. That day has come, and the crushing disappointment that we now feel is a bitter pill to swallow.
Buried deep beneath the immersion-breaking bugs and shockingly bad performance issues, there's an excellent open world RPG at the heart of Cyberpunk 2077. The scope and ambition of the game is plain to see, but right here, right now, the title seriously struggles to live up to and maintain its own potential. At its best, Cyberpunk 2077 is outstanding in terms of atmosphere. A truly engrossing experience that refuses to let go even when you're not playing it.
Night City is an incredible setting — a sprawling post-apocalyptic metropolis that takes pleasure in beating your senses to a pulp. Just walking its streets, taking in its many sights and sounds is special. No open world game has ever conveyed the sheer scale of a city like this before, with skyscrapers and other, massive futuristic constructs obscuring the sky.
That sense of scale also lends itself to how brilliantly intricate the map is. There are countless backstreets and alleyways to explore as you sniff out both trouble and loot. There's always something around the next corner, which gives Night City a distinct air of intrigue.
It really is a genre-defining backdrop, but its functionality as an open world leaves much to be desired. This is primarily down to the city's non-playable characters — the citizens, cops, and gang members that populate the metropolis. So many of these NPCs look great, with really interesting cyber-human designs, but they almost feel like an illusion because their AI routines are so dreadfully basic. Shoot a gun in a crowded marketplace and the surrounding NPCs will simultaneously squat on the floor, hands over their heads. And they'll just stay like this for ages, instead of running away or attempting any kind of self defence.
Members of the infamous Night City Police Department are arguably even worse. Cyberpunk 2077 features a wanted system similar to what you'd find in Grand Theft Auto. If you go around murdering innocent people, you'll gain a bounty, and the cops will come running. Except they don't actually come running — they just spawn right beside you in plain sight and start shooting. Lose your wanted level by fleeing the scene, and they simply vanish into thin air. It beggars belief.
But it's the population count that really kills the illusion that this is a living, breathing, dangerously overcrowded hellhole. When you're on foot, just taking a leisurely stroll, the amount of NPCs that the game spawns isn't so bad — it feels reasonably busy. But hop in a vehicle, and the population count plummets. You can take the biggest highway in Night City — the one that stretches right across the outer limits — and you'll see maybe two or three other vehicles. How are we meant to believe that this is one of humanity's most bustling cities when the roads are this barren?
It's abundantly clear that sacrifices had to be made in order to get Cyberpunk 2077 running on PS4 — but that's no excuse. On Sony's base system, the game's performance is woeful, with both a dire framerate and an egregious amount of pop-in. It's a bit better on PS4 Pro, but it's still not good enough. On PS5, via backwards compatibility, it's a night and day difference thanks to a (relatively) smooth 60 frames-per-second, but the game's still plagued by bugs, and, worst of all, a consistent crashing issue that shuts the software down every couple of hours, pretty much without fail. Frankly, it's a disgrace — especially after CD Projekt Red went on record in multiple interviews saying that the console versions of Cyberpunk 2077 would be up to snuff.
Again, we find ourselves in such a disappointing situation. If Cyberpunk 2077 just worked exactly as it should — without the often ridiculous bugs and application errors — it would be right up there in our ongoing discussions for Game of the Year.
We haven't finished the game's main story yet, or experienced most of its side content — hence the review in progress — but we love (most) of what we've seen so far. The central questline is packed with cool moments and memorable characters. Punchy dialogue helps sell both the lore and the story, before main missions kick into gear with some great action sequences. Aside from the on-rails shoot-from-a-car sections, that is. They just feel so outdated.
Anyway, Keanu Reeves is killing it as Johnny Silverhand — a digital ghost who takes up residence inside of your character's head beyond the game's opening chapter. We've also had multiple occasions where our actions during side quests have impacted the events of the main story, which is encouraging from a role-playing perspective.
We love the conversation system, too. Given that the game takes place almost entirely from a first-person perspective, the dynamic nature of these dialogue scenes is incredibly impressive. Characters get up, walk about, and pose as you chat, giving conversations a very organic feel. When it's not bugging out, the game just oozes charisma. The immersion factor is usually off the charts during these intense story segments, which makes it downright soul-crushing when a technical problem wrenches you from the moment.
Conclusion
We're still playing Cyberpunk 2077 in order to bring you a finished review, but it's impossible to recommend picking this game up at launch on PS4 or PS4 Pro. On PS5 via backwards compatibility, there's still fun to be had — a glimpse of the game's excellent potential — but even then, it's crippled by bugs and crashing issues. There's something truly special at the core of Cyberpunk 2077, but in its current state, it's simply not good enough. So far, a colossal disappointment.
