I feel like Cyberpunk 2077 has come to define my body of work as an editorialist. We have a history, this game and I, we go back a long way. But even though I have spilled a decent amount of ink covering this game, mostly with a slathering of disappointment for what could’ve been, I have always had at least a little bit of hope that things will turn around and the game will one day live up to its potential.
With the release of the next-gen update, that time might finally be closer, if not a full-fledged reality.
Of course, if you were watching CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 version 1.05 livestream, you will have probably walked away with lukewarm impressions of what to expect. The stream itself was buggy and laggy and did the game no favors. The chat was abuzz with assumptions that if the game can’t even run well for this unveiling, it was not a good look. And then add the cringe factor of the presenters themselves, who intermittently engaged in lively banter concerning dildos and at times openly bashed the game. Their saccharine optimism and seeming ignorance of how poorly the game has (until now) performed outside of the PC ecosystem, which itself had issues, didn’t help either.
Nor was the stream aided by the fact that they went into exhaustive detail extolling the virtues of the newly revamped knife throwing skill. Or for the 10 minutes they spent going over the novel new mechanic of being able to change your character’s look and style in-game at the bathroom mirror in V’s apartments (more on that in a sec). By the time they announced the addition of red lipstick to the color options, I could feel time slowing to a crawl.
And even though these are nice features, and it’s great to see so much effort put into fixing even smaller or more banal issues, the presentation did little to buoy excitement. It also seemed tone deaf, since they said there were too many bug fixes to list so they weren’t even going to really offer any examples as such — you’d just have to play the game to experience it. So going on and on about makeup options instead of at least addressing some of the more pressing issues, like the lack of vehicles or pedestrians loading in while driving. If that stuff has been fixed, not mentioning it seems like a mistake. But maybe that’s just me.
The ability to rent multiple apartments is a pretty cool new feature. I know that has been at the top of a lot of player’s lists, so it’s cool to see this has finally been realized. The again, it’s important to note that the presenters kept referring to these features as DLC.
I barely spent any time in the base apartment, but maybe this will give me reason to check it out. It would be nice if CD Projekt Red also added the ability to decorate these pads with various items or just variations on the items already included — a red couch, say, to better match my lipstick!
Perhaps the biggest announcement was that the current-gen update is live and ready to download, at a whopping 50+ GB. And it looks like you have to actively trigger the update, at least for the PS5, since last I checked it wasn’t outright available on the PSN store page. And since I was foolish enough to pre-order the physical copy, now I have to track down my disc and probably sit through any other updates or patches that I might’ve missed since I last fired this thing up.
Based on the trailer (which I will post below), the game does look spectacular running on what are assured are the Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles. But, then again, the game has always looked spectacular in trailers, just not so much so in practice. And considering I haven’t even triggered the download, I’ll have a few hours to wait before I can jump in and kick some virtual tires.
One other bit of good news is that you can try the game for a free five-hour trial period, which, in theory, could very well be enough time to complete the main story (as was off-handedly mentioned by one of the CDPR streamers), which would negate having to shell out full price. But, considering that the glory of this game lies beyond just beelining the main quest at breakneck speed, in most cases this will serve as a nice sampling size to give you a chance to try before you hopefully buy. And any save progress you make during that trial period will carry over if you decide to continue your journey and buy the full game, which is currently discounted at around half off the normal price (at least on the PlayStation store) at the time of this writing (and the discount goes until March 3).
There is a lot to chew on here, with the possibility that, for the first time, Cyberpunk 2077 might actually be running acceptably well on current-gen consoles, which really is a good thing. As much as we all love some juicy gossip in the games industry, I personally never want to see a company fail, especially one that seems determined to fix a game as disastrous as Cyberpunk 2077. But once I have spent some time with the update, I will be in a better position to judge the merits of the update. Rest assured, I will make my findings known.
For now, trigger that update or dive into the free trail, and check out the update trailer below.
