Pac-Man review!

Pac Man is one of those classics that nearly everyone has played at some point in their lives. Due to its overwhelming success in arcades in 1979, the game spawned sequels, spin-offs (often unofficial), and firmly entrenched itself in popular culture. Simplicity and addiction at its core, Pac Man -- while inherently repetitive -- always delivers as a fun and rewarding gaming experience. However, this comes with one caveat: paradoxically, because of its very success, there are so many versions and opportunities to play it since its release that opting for the old NES version may not be the most prudent purchase.

For those not acquainted with the premise of the game (or perhaps also unfamiliar with the wheel or the discovery of fire), the player controls Pac Man, a very hungry yellow blob, as he attempts to eat dots scattered about a maze -- all the while avoiding getting devoured himself by evil ghosts. By grabbing energizers at the corners of the maze, the ghosts become vulnerable and can subsequent fodder for Pac Man's snapping jaws.

Eating them in sequence yields more points, but it is not necessary for completing the level. Once all the dots are eaten, the level is cleared, and a new round begins. Unfortunately, other than the game speed increasing and the duration of the energizers decreasing, there is no variation from one stage to the next.

Of course, the game was the first of its kind and it would be silly to fault it for not having varying maze design like its successor, Ms. Pac-Man. Nevertheless, when reviewing old school releases such as this, one must look at the big picture: while a faithful port to the arcade original, there isn't anything that really beckons you to play it. There are even web-based Pac Man clones that can be accessed through the very internet browser you're reading this with. Alternatively, the controls are very tight and rewarding, so that's a plus.

Verdict

It's highly probable that anyone that would be interested in this latest may very well already own the game as part of a collection on another system, or perhaps even an original arcade unit. As already mentioned, this is a truly respectable and accurate port of the original. Yet if it's already present in your gaming library, there's really no need to get it again. Further, much to the chagrin of purists, some even argue that Ms. Pac-Man is an all-around better game anyway.

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Rust review!

 It's hard not to have your interest piqued by Rust. Few other games strive to make you feel as helpless, vulnerable, and lost as its startling opening and outwardly confusing mechanics do. Rust wants you to think it's about survival, but it never uses the tools at its disposal to realize that. Instead it becomes a playground limited not by your understanding of its inner workings, but instead by how much time you want to spend slogging away at its tedium.

Starting stark naked on a beach with nothing more than a rock and torch on your person, Rust doesn't waste time letting you know that you're in danger. Health, hydration, and hunger bars make it immediately clear that your time on its massive island is borrowed. Without food and water (and later shelter, light, and warmth), you can slowly watch your life seep away with every passing minute. Rust attempts to guide new players with an often less-than-helpful tutorial to keep you alive longer than a handful of minutes, but it does nothing to prepare you for the real dangers its world holds.

Rust's facade is its survival mechanics, and its menagerie of crafting options and resources for you to gather up keep the illusion alive at first. You can use your otherwise useless rock to chop down trees or hammer away at different types of ore, and eventually you might gather enough to make a hatchet or pickaxe to increase your bountiful gains and speed up the process. This process quickly ramps up into more meaningful items, with the allure of modern weapons and robust armor only at the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

It's a nightmare of menus and item wheels that really slow things down to a halt. Rust might be out of Early Access, but it has so many elements that indicate otherwise. You can easily search for a building foundation in one menu, watch its building timer somewhere else on the screen, and then have it pop into your inventory, which is an entirely different menu at this point. Equip it and you have a relatively flat surface in front of you (Rust absolutely doesn't like any gradient variations and refuses to allow you to place items on them), and you're good to go. But what about moving it? You'll need an entirely separate tool for that, as well as another trip into a separate equipment wheel with options to rotate, move or otherwise dismantle one of your creations.

The cycle of gathering, crafting, and building up something to be proud of never feels rewarding. Rust doesn't have the tools you need to be creative, nor does it care about practicality when it comes to redesigning a small dwelling you might have crafted for that first chilly night out in the wilderness. Teases meant to entice you to brave Rust's other dangers fall flat fast, giving you few reasons to stick around for the tedious slog of dismantling greater weapons and gear to hopefully have the means to build them down the line.

You don't know these items exist because you see them on a list, but rather because they're probably what's being used to endlessly kill you. The island in Rust is inhabited by many other players, capping out at 250 per server. And despite only being alive for a few minutes and having nothing really of worth on your person, they will (often) waste no time in showing you how far down the food chain you really are.

In this way, Rust's true enemy shows its face: its other players. That's somewhat fascinating to ponder on for a moment. Rust has been the subject of many a think piece during its long time in Early Access, often centering around discussions of human nature and the tendencies towards violence when other options clearly present themselves. But while that makes for a neat article to read or interesting mechanic to discuss, it detracts from another vital part of the game: what it feels like to play.

Playing Rust is a frustrating experience even with a friend or two in tow and feels downright impossible to go at alone. Wandering players will attack you at a moment's notice, with their time spent in the server used to build up an arsenal that no amount of skilled play can overcome. Rust's ceiling has nothing to do with how well you understand its survival mechanics or get to grips with its clunky movement and cumbersome first-person action. It's a game that rewards those who put the most time into it first: giving them the boots to step on the ants that are any other players that might dare join after a server wipe.

Design is partly to blame for this, with Rust's server wipes a clear indicator of how little depth its survival elements hold. Some servers might routinely reset after a week of play, while all are forced to this measure within a month. The idea is to re-level the playing field--just a day or two into a fresh server is enough for towering fortresses and high-level weaponry to be crafted by those incredibly dedicated few--so that the process can start again. This wouldn't need to be a feature if Rust had any semblance of balance to it. But because time is the only commodity it rewards, it pushes itself into a corner where this is the only viable solution.

Without a skill ceiling of any kind, Rust demands that you dedicate every waking moment you have to it if you're planning to have any sort of fun. Logging off leaves you vulnerable to attack from other players, while your shelters slowly decay should you not top them up with the right resources. And a momentary slip up means certain doom. Death means your corpse and anything you've gathered to that point is ripe for pillaging, leaving you to respawn on that same beach with just a rock, a torch, and questions about what you've actually achieved.

Rust's community might sometimes offer glimmers of hope, but it's fleeting. Every so often you can witness players making amicable agreements to trade or stumble upon a shop that needs to be both stocked and protected by players. I once ran into another survivor that handed me a hatchet and bandages to make my early game easier; a simple, memorable moment to dull the pain of the frequent deaths in the hours preceding it. Rust's mixture of trigger-happy players and often toxic in-game chats make the entire experience profusely unwelcoming and unpleasant.

Technical issues only add to the unpleasantries. Rust routinely runs into periods of incredible slowdown, tearing the game from an unlocked framerate (its options menus riddled with spelling mistakes couldn't lead me to a lock of any sort) to single digits at the most inopportune times. Animations look stiff and unnatural. Character models look ugly and dull. And both stand in stark contrast to an often-gorgeous backdrop. Rust's island is serene and pleasant to look at, with its saturated blue skies and purple haze sunsets inviting you to take pause. There's beauty to mask the repetitive models used for resources and the inconsistent textures, but not enough to make them truly go unnoticed.

Rust is also disappointing because of just how long it took to realize its own inescapable faults. Its lack of survival depth and inclination to only reward time served instead of clever play saps whatever life it might have had to give. Its survival systems show their age, while its community does its best to chase off those who might dare try surviving a new night on the island. Rust might make for an interesting discussion on what it brings out of its players, but it's not one you need to experience firsthand.

This video will help you understand the game:

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Undertale review!

 Undertale, a RPG video-game...one of the best of 2015, created by Toby Fox!

Undertale shouldn’t be spoiled in advance. You’ve seen the score, you’ve seen from
the screenshots that it’s a JRPG-style game, and I’ll tell you up front, it’s one of the funniest and best designed RPGs you’re likely to play this year. Beyond that, I’ll try to stay light on details—as much as I can while still telling you why it’s great—but avoid Google, avoid forums, avoid picking away at the scab of not knowing much. The less you know about Undertale before diving in, the better it can work its magic.

The basic secret is that it’s not entirely what it looks like: a goofy 8-bit RPG parody that owes a debt and at least two limbs to EarthBound/Mother. It’s partly that, sure, and it’s brilliant at it. After a slow and not particularly fun intro area, it opens up into a world more densely packed with jokes and puns and adorable characters than pretty much anything out there. Papyrus, the skeleton guard desperate for recognition and friends. His brother Sans, mocking RPG puzzles by just dumping a Junior Jumble to block your way. Crazy monsters like Woshua, who just wants you to be clean, and a ghost who only lowers his HP when you attack to be polite.

I haven’t laughed this hard at a game in years, and if Undertale was purely a joke RPG like Cthulhu Saves The World or Barkley Shut Up And Jam: Gaiden, it’d honestly be enough. Even its weaker moments where it veers too close to reference and inside joke oversaturation—the stuff of many a comedy RPG Maker game—just about work, if only because they’re always over quickly.

But that’s just what’s happening on the surface, and it’s disarming in just the right way. The cleverness builds as you play, and systems that originally seemed throw-away usually end up being more than they seem. The big gimmick is that nobody has to die: there are ways to spare everything and everybody, from the random monster encounters to the bosses. Combat plays out via a series of minigames, mostly unique to each monster, in which you move your pixel heart around in a small box—dodging bullets, blocking shots with shields, simple platforming, getting past shields, often layered to make things more complicated when you face off against multiple enemies at once.

As a really basic example of the mechanics being more than they seem, Undertale often uses them to convey the character’s mental state: faster attacks when they’re annoyed, bolder attacks when they’re feeling confident, or even aiming to miss when they don’t really want to fight. There’s the vegetable who just wants you to eat your greens and will leave you alone if you do. A late game encounter with a character who gets a mid-battle telegram from a previous zone to tell them that it’s cool, you’re a friend. Papyrus, who's so desperate to have cool attacks that he’s forgotten to actually make them deadly, and who's interrupted by a dog stealing the bones he intended to throw at you in his next turn.

How you choose to handle things affects how the story plays out. It also affects your replays, with Undertale interested in experimenting with what happens if certain characters remembered what you did the last time, and what the implication of that power might be. Finishing the story only takes about 5-7 hours, but to dig into its secrets takes another couple of loops, and a strong stomach. We’re also not just talking a few line changes. Going for a genocide run, where you murder literally everybody, essentially turns the whole thing into a pitch-black horror game. A peaceful run meanwhile leads to one of the most charming and heartfelt RPGs ever made. Murder followed by a reload to see what might have been… well, you get what you deserve.

You can spare the monsters. Not always their feelings.

Undertale obviously has its faults, including a couple of puzzles that wear out their welcome, a first play that’s a little too easy to be satisfying, and occasionally relying a bit too much on players getting jokes like a jealous aircraft called the ‘Tsunderplane’. If you can’t stand those, or the JRPG style in general, it won’t likely win you over. Every player also seems to have one area that they dislike, though rarely the same one—for me it was the Hotlands, not because the action was bad, but because the puzzles were time consuming without being satisfying. Luckily, the same location also had one of my favourite characters, as well as one of Undertale’s best direct parodies.

To miss it though is to miss out. Undertale isn’t simply like Earthbound, like Chrono Trigger, like Final Fantasy VI in its graphical and mechanical style, but a worthy successor to the way they took the JRPG genre and experimented with it, evolved it, took it in new and interesting directions. It’s an old-school game, but one designed with modern sensibilities and an eye for deconstruction matched only by Knights Of The Old Republic 2’s brutal assault on the Star Wars universe.

The fact that this is basically a one-person project only makes it more impressive, from the excellent use of simple graphics to convey emotion, to the fantastic lo-fi soundtrack. It may or may not be the best RPG you play this year, but it’s certainly going to be one of the most worthwhile—as memorable as anything in, say, The Witcher 3, and every bit as worthy.

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Pokemon Sun & Moon review!

 

Doing the same thing over and over again is supposedly the definition of insanity. Then again, that only applies if you expect a different result.

As someone who has played practically every Pokemon game, including the supplementary double-dip versions such as Crystal, Emerald and Platinum, I guess you can say that I’m crazy for Nintendo’s pocket monster juggernaut. I mean, here I am in 2017 — a grown man — playing another Pokemon game with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon. If the throngs of folks who swarmed downtown Reno during the release of Pokemon Go was any indication, I’m not the only one either.

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon for the Nintendo 3DS.

Now in case you missed my review from last year, I Absol-utely loved Pokemon Sun and Moon, pun so totally intended. Thanks to a new presentation that replaced the top-down camera with a 3D one, some quality-of-life improvements and a fresh mechanic that replaced gym battles with island challenges, Sun and Moon had a sense of newness that I haven’t felt in a Pokemon game since the jump to Ruby and Sapphire.

At the same time, what was once new ultimately becomes old. In the case of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, the question now is whether its new features are enough to warrant a return trip to Alola for veterans of the previous game.

As I started my journey once more, the first thing that I noticed is just how similar Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are to their predecessors. As someone who plays a lot of games, I tend to have a short institutional memory for many of the titles that I go through. Apparently, my brain makes room for new game information by dumping out old ones, especially as the years go by in between my playthroughs. Familiarity with the controls is usually the first go, which is eventually followed by story details.

In the case of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, however, there was a definite sense of deja vu all over again while I revisited the same areas and relived the same plot points for the story. Maybe it’s because Sun and Moon came out just a year ago so the memories are still relatively fresh in my mind. Regardless, I couldn’t shake off this “been there, done that” feeling as I was re-introduced to familiar characters like the protagonist’s mom, Prof. Kukui, Lillie, Tapu Koko and Kahuna Hala.

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon for the Nintendo 3DS.

Then again, Pokemon is a franchise that does a lot of repeat business so it’s imperative that Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon include some new features as well. At the top of the list is an expanded role for Necrozma, who gets prime placement on the games’ alternate covers via fusion with mascots Solgaleo and Lunala to form its Dusk Mane and Dawn Wings variants.

Eagle-eyed trainers will also notice colorful patches known as Totem Stickers scattered about on the sides of buildings and other locations, which can be used to acquire special Totem Pokemon. These Pokemon are typically larger and have different weight parameters than their regular versions and can only be acquired by gathering a certain number of stickers, starting at 20 and going all the way up to 100.

For mini-game lovers, each island now has a Mantine Surf course that lets you ride across the sea while doing tricks and avoiding obstacles. The goal is to beat the high score for each course, ultimately netting you the all-popular Surfing Pikachu (i.e. a special Pikachu with the Surf move) as a reward. Folks who miss the classic gym battle mechanic, meanwhile, will be happy to know that you can now do daily battles at the Malie City Gym, which reward you with experience as well as a Surge Badge. There’s also a Battle Agency feature that allows you to fight using rented Pokemon to earn Festival Coins and Rare Candies.

Players who finish the game are rewarded with more beefed-up post-game content, including a new Fairy-type trial as well as the return of familiar villains from past games. These bad guys actually join forces to form the supervillain group Team Rainbow Rocket, which is a neat addition for folks who have played the different generations of Pokemon games.

For completionists, the game throws in an extra nostalgic treat by letting you catch previous Legendary Pokemon such as Mewtwo, Rayquaza and a whole bunch more via the expanded wormhole mini-game.

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Moon for the Nintendo 3DS.

Admittedly, all those new features still might not be enough for folks who played the heck out of Sun and Moon and are pining for a new story and entirely different generation of Nintendo’s pocket monsters. While Sun and Moon felt fresh to me, for example, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon felt like rehashes of the previous game, albeit more fleshed out and with more stuff to do. Folks who want to play and enjoy every iteration of Pokemon regardless will still enjoy Ultra Sun and Moon, even if it repeats a lot of the content from the previous pair of games. Otherwise, you’ll definitely want to think a bit before jumping into this one.

The main exception, of course, involves newcomers or even Pokemon veterans who did not get to experience Sun and Moon. If that’s the case, go ahead and add an extra point to the final review score and get this game for sure. If this is truly the last mainline Pokemon game for the 3DS, then it’s a worthy way to end an era for the popular Nintendo and Game Freak franchise.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon encourage a visit to Alola to catch ‘em all once more, but your mileage will vary based on your past experience with the previous titles. If you’ve never played the original Sun or Moon games, then Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon is the definitive version of the series’ seventh generation and a must-have for your Pokemon gaming collection. If you played the heck out of Sun and Moon, however, then the new features might not be enough to warrant a return trip. Still, it’s a worthy swan song for the series on the 3DS.

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Mount & Blade 2 review!

Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlords is continuing the trend of gaming companies releasing games in a beta format and releasing consistent patches as you play. I know many gamers decry this trend in gaming but if a company handles it well, and fully supports the title and responds to feedback, I don’t have a problem with this. Luckily that is exactly the kind of beta release Bannerlords has been. I had never played any of the other titles in the series, but when my friend KorchGR started to tell me about the game when it came out I had to give it a try.

We went on stay at home orders in mid-March and being stuck at home all day and night I was definitely in need of a game to get lost in and Bannerlords is absolutely immersive enough to scratch that itch. I have played over 200 hours and only finished a single playthrough, although I have started several others. The gameplay is really immersive. The basic point of the game is to conquer the world, but you don’t necessarily need to do that, nor even have it as your particular goal. You can join a faction, stay part of that faction the whole game, and do whatever you want while they conquer the world. You can focus on amassing money in your coffers, building the largest army you can, and seizing cities, you can specialize in a bow, melee weapons, polearms etc. You can be a mounted warrior in heavy armor crashing into the enemy with lance and shield, a swift rider that’s deadly with a bow, a footslogging melee master. Your character can focus on having a family and many castles or being a blacksmith who makes fantastic weapons. Your character can go all-in on being a combat beast and you can level him up by fighting in tournaments, which can also win you some good loot. You get to do all this in both the macro strategy world of the large world map and the micro strategy world of Third Person real-time strategy and adventure. You can focus on the economy by building workshops in cities and providing Caravans for merchants. You can empire build as part of a faction, or strike out on your own by building your own kingdom. There are quests to perform as well!

It all starts out with choosing a faction as your character’s background and then building a character. The faction you choose will influence the character you build in some ways, but it doesn’t mean you have to align yourself with that faction in the game at all! You can be a member of the Khuzait (Mongolian) tribe for character creation but swear yourself to the leader of the Sturgians (Vikings). From there you can start to create a character that is good at fighting on foot or horseback. Good with certain weapons, has certain personality traits, or skills like trade or being a good smith. It’s fun to create different characters, you can even customize their appearance, including their size.

So one of my favorite things was to play the game with my character modeled after a Primarch from Warhammer 40,000. The playthrough that I completed was my first. I decided I wanted to play as a character from the Khuzaits (Mongolians) because an army of all cavalry, mostly bow cavalry, just seemed so cool to me. Commanding 200+ mounted warriors and riding along with them on the battlefield looked fun. So I made Jaghatai Khan my first character. I customized him to be like the Khan, good at riding, melee and ranged weapons, and points in scouting. I had a lot of fun with that. I have also started campaigns with characters based on other Primarchs like Leman Russ, who is a Sturgian (Vikings) and is excellent with melee weapons. He also tends to execute his captured enemies. I have a spear for him (the Spear of Russ), as well as a sword and axe. Leman is also really good at fighting in tournaments.

My Jagahti is the only character with which I complete the game. One of the best things about Mount and Blade is the ability to play it in different ways. With Jagathi I never had the hang of the diplomacy and interpersonal relationships, as a result, I was never able to get him married to a character in the game. He was however amazing in a siege with such a high skill with the bow. I wanted to play a full cavalry army, and I have to admit, playing the real-time battles in TPS or FPS riding at the head of a cavalry charge of hundreds of archer and lancer cavalry never got old.

I created a character based on Vulkan who took a lot of points in the Smithing category and who I spent a lot of time running around collecting the things I need for him to Smith weapons. He can now make exceptional weapons that get sold for a lot of money. Unfortunately, hammers are trash weapons in the game so I have him use as many two-handed weapons as possible, and all the weapons he uses he has forged himself. Whenever he forges a new weapon for himself I give his previous weapon to one of his companions, so his companions are all really well armed too. While I finished the game with Jagathi I have poured the most hours into my game as Vulkan, conquering less but getting the full game experience more. You’ll note Vulkan is married, has 3 children, and completed the part of the quest storyline involving his brother.

I haven’t played as either my Magnus or Leman Russ as much. Both the factions they are part of are harder to play, and their campaigns just haven’t kept my interest the way Jagathi and Vulkan have. What I also really like is the mod for the game to add custom banners. There’s also a great Reddit community just for Banner Lord’s banners where you can find everything from 40k, Fantasy, Game of Thrones banners to banner codes for modern countries. You can also try creating your own banners, but that’s hard in my opinion.

Besides just the insane character customization the game itself is quite fun. You make multiple decisions throughout the game via the quest storyline, relationships, conquests, and politics that make each play through absolutely unique. You can choose to join the Empire to rebuild it, join a faction to destroy it, even start your own Kingdom, and conquer the world yourself. Another cool aspect of the game is each faction starting territories supply different kinds of troops for recruitment. You can build armies that are blends of different factions troops or go all-in on one. You can choose to blend your army as a massive footslogging force with archers and swordsmen and polearm wielders or have a large cavalry force. Playing around with upgrading your soldiers to better and better types and then fielding them in different places with different strategies is immersive, challenging, and fun. Another cool factor is there is a ton of online content for helping you play the game, from YouTube videos to the Reddit community, so you never get stuck if you’re willing to look for help.

If you’re looking for a game you can pour hours into that combines micro battle strategy like the Total War series, with your character being controlled in the battle by you in either FPS/TPS, and has macro large world empire building then you might want to check out Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord.

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Everything we know about Far Cry 6!

What is Far Cry 6's release date?

Far Cry 6 is expected to launch sometime in 2021 for PC, Stadia, the PS4 and PS5, and Xbox One and Xbox Series X. 

According to a Microsoft Store listing, Far Cry 6 will launch on May 25, 2021. Ubisoft hasn't confirmed this date, but Microsoft Store dates published before official announcements have proven true in the past.

During an earnings report call, Ubisoft announced that the game would be delayed from its original  February 18th, 2021 date to later in the year. A new date hasn't been officially announced.

What's the story in Far Cry 6?

In Far Cry 6 you'll be fighting in a revolution against the rule of Yara's dictator Antón Castillo who has been in power for 50 years. It appears to be a dangerous time for the country, with the trailer showing government agents with guns and riot shields and civilians with explosives. Ubisoft says its writing team spent time in Cuba getting to know the island and meeting former guerrilla revolutionaries that influenced the game's story. 

"When you're looking at something as complex as an island that's been essentially cut off from the rest of the world for 50 years, been in an economic downturn, electing this leader on the back of this idea of building a new paradise, the idea with Antón is he definitely lulled people into believing this was the only answer for them. That he was the one that was going to solve all their problems," Khavari says "And so for us, it became super-interesting on the character side to explore the idea of, you know, there definitely were some people that voted for him, that believed in him, that now are regretting that choice; and there are those that still support him. The intersection of those demographics and worldviews and opinions is something that plays out in the story as well."

Ubisoft say that Antón witnessed his own father being executed 50 years ago, part of how he rationalizes his policies and the views that he attempts to pass on to his own son Diego. "He believes that not only do the Castillos deserve to be in power, but they're the only ones that are going to be able to see Yara through to becoming a paradise once again."

Ubisoft haven't said yet how Dani becomes involved with the two Castillos just yet, but Khavari tells Game Informer that "That triangle of characters between Antón, Diego, and Dani is absolutely crucial."

Is Diego actually young Vaas Montenegro?

After the Far Cry 6 reveal trailer, fans begin speculating that Far Cry 6 could actually be a prequel to Far Cry 3. The theory hinges on Diego Castillo being a young Vaas Montenegro, based on the scar both have on their right eyebrow. 

Vaas's voice actor Michael Mando teased a possible return to the role during a Reddit Q&A with fans, saying "Vaas is my spirit animal - having co-created that character is something that will always be dear to me. I still get recognized as Vaas, and I still feel the outpouring of love for that character - makes me very happy. Who knows... maybe I will reprise the role very soon?"

Vaas is a fan-favorite villain of the series, so folks would certainly welcome his return, though things may not be quite so simple. In Far Cry 6's reveal trailer you can see Diego wearing what look like modern headphones, which doesn't exactly square with him being the younger version of Vaas who was born in 1985 and would have been Diego's age in the late '90s. Consider this one wishful thinking for now.

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Cyberpunk 2077 review!

 Cyberpunk 2077 is the latest title from Polish game studio CD Projekt Red, the same company that brought us the successful Witcher series. Announced first in 2012, Cyberpunk 2077 went through multiple delays before it was finally launched on December 10 on Windows, PS4, Xbox One, and Stadia.

It would be an understatement to say that Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most hyped game launches in recent memory. While the initial announcement did happen in 2012, it wasn't until the developers showcased the game at E3 2018 when it suddenly exploded in popularity. Then last year, the studio announced that Keanu Reeves would be part of the game. Reeves appeared on stage during the Xbox E3 2019 event and ended up giving us one of the best memes of 2019. The game also finally got a launch date - April 16, 2020.

Since then, the hype train had been going full speed until it reached its first major hitch in January of this year when CDPR announced that they won't be making their April deadline and instead will be releasing the game on September 17. They said the game was complete but needed more time to polish. Then in June the release date was pushed back further, this time to November 19. Again, the studio cited the same reason for the delay, saying they need more time to iron out the issues and fix the bugs.

The final hitch came in October, where the studio once again took to Twitter to post what is now their infamous yellow text image to say that the game is being pushed back again to December 10. The delay was to further polish the game and work on the changes that would be going into the day 0 patch.

The hype train, which was still going strong at this point despite all those setbacks, ended up derailing itself on launch day. Turns out, the game wasn't finished, wasn't polished, and the bugs certainly weren't ironed out. While the PC and Stadia versions were still playable despite the bugs, the PS4 and Xbox One consoles were also burdened by severe performance issues that rendered them largely unplayable unless you had the next-generation version of those consoles or particularly low standards.

The reason for this preamble is that Cyberpunk 2077 is not your average game to review. Few games have received so much attention, curiosity, and interest before launch and managed to lose all of that in such a spectacular fashion immediately after launch. Other than the death threats, refunds, and negative reviews, the studio has also had to deal with Sony removing the game from its PlayStation store indefinitely along with multiple lawsuits.

But underneath all the drama there is still a game to review, the one the developers had been working on for so many years and the one they wanted you to play. After 65 hours on the PC version, there certainly is a lot to talk about because, underneath all its issues, Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that might be worth your time and patience after all.

Story and setting

Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in a fictional place called Night City in California. The world in 2077 is ravaged nearly beyond repair by multiple wars and climate change. Fresh food and water are scarce, most wildlife has gone extinct, and humanity has taken to extreme body modifications to survive and adapt to rising local and cyber attacks.

Night City is divided into multiple areas, each with a distinct look and identity. There are parts like Westbrook and City Center, where the rich and famous live and spend their money. The slightly less fortunate live in Watson and Heywood, places that still have that big city charm to them but where the streets aren't as shiny and the cars aren't as expensive. Those who are really down on their luck inhabit the streets of Santo Domingo or Pacifica whereas the deserts of Badlands have mostly been taken over by nomadic clans.

Night City is home to all sorts of people, from billionaire CEOs of mega-corporations that essentially run the city to celebrities, violent criminals, skilled hackers known as netrunners, mercenaries, sex workers, drug dealers, and the homeless. The city also houses several gangs, many of whom have claimed a part of the city as their own and don't take kindly to outsiders.

You play as V, a mercenary for hire. Whenever someone needs to get something or someone delivered, snatched, or just made to disappear, they call you. Depending upon the lifepath you choose in the game, V is either a corporate employee fallen from grace and trying to make their way back to the top (Corpo), someone who was raised on the streets of Night City and trying to rise up (Street Kid), or someone who once belonged to a gang of nomads but left wanting to become a big shot in the big city (Nomad). Regardless of how you start, your goal is the same, become a legend in Night City.

Since this is a non-spoiler review, I'm not going to get into the events that happen in the game. All I'll say is that things don't quite go according to plan for V, which puts them on a path to set things right and thus we have a game on our hands.

I really enjoyed the main storyline in Cyberpunk 2077. Although parts of it are influenced by the choices you make, the overarching story largely remains the same and is entertaining regardless of how you choose to play it. It has its usual twists and turns but also has a fair bit of emotional depth and ends on a surprisingly poignant note that I wasn't expecting. It's something that sticks with you long after you've finished the game.

To my surprise, the main story isn't actually very long and if you just focus on completing it then you will make your way to one of the game's multiple endings in about 20 hours or so. However, this is really not the best way to play the game and you would be missing out on so much the story has to offer, which really grows the more side-missions you do and get more side characters involved in your adventure. These people will later also influence the endings so make sure you take things slow, help others out, and not rush through the story.

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