Expectations, Redemption, and Cyberpunk

By Ivan Reyes
Staff Writer

Seldom does any media fulfil the expectations of its fan base, especially if hype is involved. Cyberpunk 2077 is a game by famed developer CD Projekt Red and it was a victim of hype. Well, it deserved the controversy anyway. It was released unfinished, and unpolished, and it was missing some features. The game barely functioned, I remember trying it out on release, staying up late at night just to play it and my experience was horrible. Cyberpunk 2077 on release is a clear example of how not to ship a game and why it’s not good to overhype only to underdeliver your product.

I’ve always wanted to try it all over again, after all the patches, after the huge DLC they released too (it won best DLC of 2023 at the game awards). Something about the Cyberpunk genre always interested me. So, I picked it up again and played it over the winter break. All I have to say is, they actually fixed the game. Update 2.0 + Phantom Liberty fixed the game. The gameplay is much more satisfying, the skill tree has been improved along with the enemy AI (apparently, but it’s still pretty mid), and the bugs are gone, well somewhat gone. It’s clear that the developers didn’t give up on their project, that they were truly passionate about the world they were creating, and they’ve redeemed themselves. Unlike other studios, who would have dropped their game if it was released in that state (looking at you EA).

I wouldn’t say that Cyberpunk is the best action RPG money can buy, I wouldn’t even call it phenomenal. I feel like if we put insane expectations on any form of entertainment, we do ourselves a disservice. I had fun playing it not because I expected it to be profound in a way that it would completely take over, I had fun simply because I wanted to have fun, and I didn’t expect anything else but that. Nowadays, we are so concerned about how we should spend our free time that we forget that we should just spend it rather than contemplate how to.