This is an interesting one because it's really hard to gauge what the overall consensus on Cyberpunk 2077 is right now. The opinions are all over the place, at least when not talking about the bugs. It's not something that I am taking into consideration for this review, but it is an interesting thing to take notice of. That said, the first thing I am going to do is talk about the bugs.
If you are not playing on either a PS5 or a really strong PC, all signs point to avoiding this game like the plague. On my PC, which is pretty strong and beats out the recommended requirements, I experienced four PC Crashes and a random teleport across the map (It was during the Nomad opening. Had to walk from the radio tower back to Jackie's car. Regularly I would be unable to run unless I opened my menu and closed back out, which was a constant annoyance, There are also a fair bit of AI bugs and other graphical glitches. All that said, I experienced fewer bugs that I had with some Bethesda titles, so if you have a sufficiently powerful PC you'll probably be able to largely enjoy the game despite the bugs.
That out of the way, one thing you will need to reign your expectations in on is how many choices you have. I speak specifically in terms of the narrative because the trailers all made it sound like there was going to be so much more than there was, but the character you are playing is largely set in terms of personality. You have a degree of control over the choices you make in the story, but it all seems to have very little effect. Your background gives a few different dialogue choices in different situations, but again they don't have a lot of impacts. The only ones that make much difference is a couple of relationships you can form that give you an alternate ending. That sounds like a big deal, and It's a nice touch, but the one I got felt like it was just kind of thrown in as nothing about that route had anything to do with the actual plot of the game. It was this unrelated side story that was going on and those involved just seemed to be willing to help you out, even though you honestly are asking an incredible amount of them despite not knowing them for very long (In-game it can't have been more than a couple of weeks). This is all fine, but I think it's important to know you aren't getting much of an RPG in terms of the narrative as some of the trailers may have led you to believe.
So judging it on those grounds, the actual story is a pretty mixed bag. On one hand, there are a lot of fantastic characters, Jackie being as incredibly likable as he is and Johnny being a marvelous asshole. The game does a great job with its atmosphere and can at times capture that kind of dystopian and corporate future feel. There is a lot of very dark and gritty imagery that does the game a great service. It's early on, but pulling someone's naked body from a tub of ice (They were there to keep their body cool as to not overheat during some pretty intensive meddling with their internal hardware since most people are wired up in some fashion in this world).
Then there is the other hand where the dialogue can sometimes sound like they were trying hard to sound edgy. I could point to Eva making a lot of comments about how her information is so good it will make your dick hard, but I am going instead to point out the biggest culprit with 'biz'. Whenever discussing business, every character always just says biz. 'It's just biz, let's talk biz, I'm just here for biz' it doesn't matter who or what the situation, they will always say biz. There are also slang or shorthand terms for so many other things that just sound awkward. It seems small at first, but you start to notice it takes hold in a lot of things in this game. It makes it hard to praise the atmosphere to much when there are often things that detract from it like this. Overall though, I do still think the atmosphere of the game works in its favor.
Where my biggest gripe is going to come in is there is an incredible amount of bloat to this game. So many missions that are just to stop and beat up a few random guys because they are wanted, so many uninteresting reported crimes you can help resolve (by beating up a few random folks), and so many more side jobs and missions that just have nothing to them. Then there are all the shards you find just packed with information about the world and its people. I'm not saying I dislike these things, but it feels like it dwarfs even an Elder Scrolls game, there is just far more crap in this game you could read than you would ever have any interest in, most of it doesn't even relate to anything going on. Even the main narrative can start to feel a bit overstuffed for lack of a better term. It's not bad, but considering the actual plot doesn't take up too much time it feels like they included far more than was necessary. So while there are a lot of fantastic and interesting things about the narrative, it feels like it just gets dragged down and over-complicated.
Then there is no getting around the biggest issue I have with the story, and that is you are operating under a time crunch, maybe a few weeks left to live before the chip in your head kills you (I won't' spoil what's going on for those who have managed to avoid spoilers at all so far). And what are you doing most of the game? Beating up random people on the street, doing sketch jobs for a guy called Mr. Hands (Not to knock Handsy, I love the guy), tracking down Tarot Card related images around town, electronically robbing people of their eddies (Yes, the money in the game is called this for some reason I don't' understand), and maybe even attempting to overthrow a brothel. This is where the bloat of the game starts to hurt because given the story the game tells there is no reason for you to be doing the vast majority of all of this. Because when times up with that chip, you go bye-bye forever. Mind you, there is no actual consequence for taking all the time in the world, but the more you think about it the more ridiculous this being a huge open-world game like this becomes.
And even ignoring how little sense it all makes, there isn't getting around most of the side stuff get's pretty repetitive quick. Even if you do overlook the issues from a narrative structure, there just isn't enough variety in tasks to justify the volume of it. Especially when none of it matters. That isn't to say every side gig is boring, some are fun and very interesting. I liked doing the nomad stuff for example, and while I gave the brothel thing shit earlier there is a lot to like about that little story as well. But there just isn't enough of that compared to the rest. It's a game that is seriously hampered by the bloat.
The actual combat of the game is solid, and here you do have a good number of ways to customize your character. Between the cybernetic enhancements and level-up options, there are a lot of ways to enjoy the combat of the game. First playthrough I went full non-lethal stealth up until I got caught, that it was scorched earth on everything in the area. I used many grenades. Also a bit of hacking to shut down cameras, but nothing extensive there. Second play-through (Not finished it the second time yet) I went full-blown physical bruiser and Quick Hacking. Smaller areas and skirmishes still feel largely the same, but bigger areas seem to allow some more fun to be had. The ability to Power Jump from one of the leg upgrades gave me a lot of options in terms of traversing areas unseen. It's nothing revolutionary, but the game does a lot of good with the tools at its disposal from a pure gameplay standpoint.
And now is my biggest nitpick, and something I almost feel should have been an 'Old Man Yells at Clouds' article at this point, but I don't think I have enough to go on for its article. So this will be where I bitch about this, just know that while it does irritate me immensely it's not a huge point against this game, but Portal needs to die. I have never played portal, and at this point, I never will. Do you know when 'The Cake is a Lie?' becomes an overused meme? 2008. 'The Cake is a Lie' needs to die a horrible, horrible death. It's not even used in a clever way here, it's just said in a Glados voice so people can go 'Oh yeah, Portal was a thing'. It's not like you can't use memes either, I didn't come across it myself but saw the Spanish Inquisition joke they made, and it was kind of funny and clever. It didn't just remind you Monty Python was a game. If I never hear another Portal reference for the rest of my life I will consider my life a success regardless of what else happens.
All that out of the way, I know I criticized this game far more than I praised it, but once the bugs start getting fixed and the game is more playable to more people, Cyberpunk 2077 is still a good game. The story they tell is interesting, there are some great characters, and the gameplay is solid overall. It may not live up to the years of hype, but if you don't let the hype get to you it's a solid enough release.
And for context, my PC Specs. Framerate stayed a pretty constant 40FPS for all the game.
*Ryzen 5 3rd Gen 3600 (3.60GHz) (6 cores, 12 threads)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
16GB DDR4 3200MHz RGB
1TB SSD
AMD B450 (Motherboard)*