Writing for the last 2 years about "Cyberpunk 2077", I certainly did not make a mistake in 3 things - the game will be very bugged at the beginning, the game will not handle PS4 and XBoxOne and it's a good game that will lose a lot by the above points. Contrary to what the CDProjectRed folks say, because I can't use any other words, they knew perfectly well that this game doesn't work on the consoles mentioned above. Personally, I don't know much about game dev, I don't have any friends who are interested in it, but I watch a lot of YouTube and I like to listen to substantive people who have such knowledge. In April 2019, Borys on the Remigiusz Maciaszek channel predicted the future - he said that CDProjectRed would make the game work on the previous generation consoles. This problem was known a year ago and has not been corrected in January 2020, which was also mentioned by Borys on the Remigiusz channel. Since it was openly discussed a year ago, they must have known in advance that "Cyberpunk 2077" will not be released on PS4 and XOne. Then it should go out and say that the game will not be released for the previous generation and apologize for promises, or announce two versions of the game - one truncated, with a strong graphic downgrade and the other, which will go to PS5 and their Microsoft counterparts. Instead, they preferred to fuck the crap that "Cyberpunk is the crowning glory of this generation." No, that is what the new "God of War" or "Red Dead Redemption2" deserves. While this is probably the case in terms of the story, technically ...
As I have said many times, the graphics are average to me, be it in anime or games. I mainly play old productions and do not get excited about new graphic possibilities. Sure, I like to play on a good PC, look at nice and detailed textures, but I prefer to run the 3rd part of "The Witcher" or some RTS, because such "Crysis" or "Doom 4" at the highest settings are not for me so interesting. I can also turn a blind eye to the underdeveloped gameplay, if this is quite intuitive, does not piss off too much and it is compensated by the plot, characters, interesting universe, its length and mechanics. I believe all of this (or at least most of the things mentioned above) has Cyberpunk 2077, but they've made too many mistakes. Fatal optimization, a lie about the underestimated, allegedly recommended hardware requirements, a huge number of bugs, embarrassingly poor AI of opponents.
Starting at the end, such AI has already been criticized when I was in high school (over a decade ago). Back then it was forgivable, because writing a good artificial intelligence was not that easy back then, but CDPRed is no longer a small company from Poland that released the "The Witcher" trilogy, but a title that tens of millions of players around the world have been waiting for. We have 2020, many games with good AI or at least scripts came out, and in "Cyberpunk 2077" it is enough to hide behind the wall and the opponents will stop chasing us. Hardware requirements and optimization - you can turn a blind eye in this matter, because in a way it is like reading coffee grounds. It's hard to optimize the game for different hardware configurations, but ... This only applies to PCs, not consoles, and the PS4 and XOne specs have been known since at least November 2013. The Reds were making the game for 8 years, so they had to know the PS4 parameters before it was released. the official premiere. When it comes to the gigantic number of bugs, opinions differ here. On PC, some people had several of them, some didn't mind, others did. Overall, it wasn't that bad and the launch patch reportedly fixed some bugs. Consoles are the problem, where the hell are they.
Due to the fact that the picture expresses more than a thousand words, I will give you some sample links. The first bug in the first video blew me the most. Roach located on the roof of the house in the third part of "The Witcher", is a small beer in front of the car that flies to us as if Superman or another Shazam fucked him out of his shoe.
And how could reviewers not see it? How can reviewers ignore these bugs by saying something ashamed of "phew, I have a great computer, I don't give a damn about the words of others with weak computers." such as Rock, or Zagrniku, when talking about Polish editors. Arhon or NrGeek could be honest about the subject, and they didn't. The latter has not yet published his review, but recorded a vlog in which he said something about the game. It coincides with what I hear from my 2 friends and colleague (respectively - one game on PS4, the other on PS5, friend on PC) - the title has at least a good story, it touches on topics that are often avoided in other games and in ours life (e.g. raping children), interesting moral choices, intriguing characters, feel the influence of quests on the further adventure, etc. Why did I write "at least"? For the simple reason - they did not reveal too many details to me, I try to avoid them myself, so I assume that it is "only good". I have heard from the aforementioned Boris, or Zróbnik that it is better than in the case of "Witcher 3: Wild Hunt" or "Red Dead Redemption 2", but I prefer to wait until I play myself or someone I trust tells me and I know that he knows things. Going back to the reviewers, they were playing developer-supplied versions without a day one patch supposedly weighing over 40 gigabytes, so they felt all the bugs more than PC players. To my knowledge, the PC version was more stable and less buggy than what people got on PS4 and XOne, so I believe they might have been lucky and didn't run into too many bugs. However, I don't believe they didn't know what was happening on the previous generation consoles. Proof - if Arhon and Boris knew it, they should too. Sure, they were playing the PC version, so theoretically this doesn't apply to them, but the scale of the problems was too great to ignore. What about being fair to players who have paid so much money for their copy of the game?
I understand that they can have an approach like me or Rock, i.e. if the game is underdeveloped but will be fixed in the near future and the story is really good then you can turn a blind eye to most of the errors, but being a reviewer comes with some obligations and limitations . Kind of like being a priest or a teacher - some things are simply not appropriate due to the nature of their profession. I do not want to compare myself with the above-mentioned YouTubers, because it is a completely different level than for me, but even I feel certain obligations towards my readers. I often wonder if I have been honest with my text, if I have exaggerated in some way, if I have not missed something, and although I may have a different impression, I genuinely care about every criticism and try to improve. If I were in their place, I would perhaps exaggerate my judgment myself, because as I wrote several times in this text, I focus more on the plot, characters and atmosphere of the game. Certainly I would not pay attention to some of the flaws pointed out by others, I am almost sure that the above-mentioned aspects would disturb my sobriety, but at least I would mention the problems on other platforms. For example, in this form - the game is generally great, but on a strong PC, because bugs from consoles effectively disrupt the immersion. And don't get me wrong, I am not only complaining about them, my words of criticism can be addressed to all reviewers who approached their work in an unreliable way, I mean, for example, IGN, Metacritic. While writing this text, I ignored all my animosities towards editors and bloggers and approached them with a clear head. Well, I hope they will write or record reviews in which I rightly criticize the console version.
And speaking of criticism, an overly subjective opinion, to be honest I make a self-criticism. When I went through "Witcher: Wild Hunt" I was so infatuated with this game that I happened to write on my blog several times that CDPRed was "game messiah" or something like that. Well, I even compared them to the good old Blizzard, both from the times when they made "WarCraft 2", or the better ones - ie "Diablo 2", "WarCraft 3", the beginning of "World of WarCraft". Mea culpa, I wrote this terrible nonsense. It doesn't mean that I changed my mind 180 degrees. No, it's just that no big company, especially corporations, deserves such a name. Neither are the average ones, although in their case you can be deluded like me. Why? Because they are closer to the players, because they need them to become a large entity on the market and gain positive opinions. The big ones sometimes count with them, but the better their products sell, the more they stand out from them. Kind of like politicians or spoiled kids from wealthy homes who never worked outside parliament or had poorly paid jobs because of connections. If they never felt like ordinary people, or it was so long ago that they forgot it, it is difficult to expect a fairly normal approach from them. Continuing the thread at the beginning of this paragraph, most people and companies strive to have the highest status, the best position and the most comfortable life possible. Probably each of us at least thought about it at some stage of his life, or at least dreamed about it. It's a natural mechanism and it applies to basically everything - people, states, companies, rulers, all want to constantly expand their possibilities and assets. CDProjectRed is no exception and you can see it in their actions. True, they give a lot of their own, maybe even more than most developers, but they too have their ears and they like to cheat on their clients too. Simple examples - the situation with CP2077 on PS4 and XOne, as if such big opponents of DRM protection, and the 1st and 2nd part of "Witcher" somehow had them, EVERY game has problems with correct operation at the beginning, constantly postponing the release date of "Wild Hunt" , cutting out content from this game and saying that they will come later in the form of free add-ons (although I justify it to some extent, because the game would be too big), graphics downgrade and lack of modding tools in the above-mentioned game.
How do I see the company's future? It depends on the sales of their latest game. If there aren't too many returns, CDPRed won't lose a lot of money and will make up for its mistakes, as in the case of the Witcher 3, that's good. Players have a memory of goldfish and it is quite easy to make most of them forget. If the situation is bad, they will probably speed up the work on the fourth part of "The Witcher" to make up for financial losses. I'm probably repeating myself, but I will emphasize it again at the end - when they release a few or a dozen patches, in six months it will be a beautiful game with a great story that we will remember for many years. If I had played it on PS5 or a strong PC, I would probably give at least 9/10 or maybe even 10/10. Only one thing - this will be the opinion in six months, maybe a year when the GOTY version will be. Not on the day of the premiere, not a week or two after the premiere. Now it's a failed product that is reportedly the worst CDPRed game to start with. I hope they will learn eventually and the next games will be less bugged.
Thank you for substantive help to Karol and Dorota, Lukasz and Krystian for providing information about the game.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/14/technology/cyberpunk-2077-refund.html