Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on my Xbox One X is rough. It’s a lot rougher than I thought it would be. I knew I wasn’t going to get stunning graphics, but I was still expecting something more and I’m underwhelmed. The game itself isn’t bad, I’m only about three hours into my playthrough and just completed the first major combat scenario (not spoiling anything) but my experience thus far has been less than thrilling. I don’t hate the game, but it isn’t doing enough to pull me into its world.
Yes, the graphics are awful on consoles but I can try to look past it, as least for now. Even the weird lock-ups and many glitches are things I can forgive. What’s bothering me so far is that the game is holding my hand way too much. You don’t really get to do too much early on. So much of it is going from Point-A to Point-B. While I completely understand wanting to ease players into the world but I don’t feel much of anything right now.
I have no real connection to my character “V”, my buddy Jackie isn’t holding my attention and the rest of the characters I’ve interacted with are pretty forgettable. I wish the pacing was a bit better and that I actually felt a part of this world. I’ve reached the point in the game where I ‘should’ be getting to do more but the fact that it’s taken almost three hours to get there isn’t ideal.
As for other aspects of the game, the combat is fine but again, nothing memorable. I don’t enjoy driving but I’ve spent so little time actually driving around so it’s tough to judge this fairly. While the voice acting is ok, the music is fantastic. The few moments where I’ve heard either music being played through the stereos or the score during cut scenes. I definitely am enjoying these moments and want to hear more.
But that’s just about it. I’m in the process of moving, so next week I should finally have my Series X up and running but that doesn’t really mean much. I don’t expect CD Projekt Red to have major console updates that will “fix” the game in the coming weeks. If the rumors that the PlayStation 5 and Series X update to the game is probably at least six months away. I don’t have a 4K capable graphics card on my PC, so playing it there probably won’t amount to anything that looks much better.
As it stands, I’m not quite disappointed with Cyberpunk 2077 but I’m clearly underwhelmed. I’ll keep playing as much as I can, but think I can also take a break and come back to Night City when it’s had more time to develop.