Just trying to come up with a headline for this article — one that wouldn’t itself become the length of an article — was a tricky. There are so many odd facets to this little story that it was hard to determine which turn of phrase would best encapsulate the gist without overlooking anything important, while also piquing the reader’s interest with a little bit of spice. I ultimately left that in the hands of our editor, so let’s see how he handles this one… (Editor’s note: The pressure was really high to get this one right. How’d I do?)
Basically, for $4.99, you can buy access to a third-party website’s online-only Google Maps-style 3D interactive map of Cyberpunk 2077‘s Night City. I stumbled upon this interactive map on Piggyback.com, and, to be honest, the features list seemed pretty cool at first. This interactive map includes:
- Ultra HD Satellite Map
- Unlimited progress tracking
- 800+ location screenshots
- Full coverage of Hidden Gems
- Official guide updates
- Unlimited custom notes (which are sharable)
At first, I thought this was a decent enough idea. After all, I have used maps like this in the past for a handful of games, most notably Red Dead Redemption 2 and DayZ. Although in the case of the former, it was mostly to help find collectibles for the online game mode via the jeanropke map, although the map in the RDR2 companion app was also handy, since it synced with the game in real time, so you could navigate without having to bring up the in-game map. As for the DayZ map, you still needed to read in-game signs and use landmarks to find your way around, even with that map app. So it’s usefulness is still kind of a mixed bag.
So the idea of using a third-party interactive map for Cyberpunk 2077 — a massive game with a ton of content crammed into its relatively compact Night City, with icons galore overlapping and obscuring others in the game’s built-in map — was actually pretty enticing, though it comes with a heaping side of skepticism. The $5 fee is less-than-welcoming, but I definitely lingered on the thought of purchasing access. (I should point out here that you can use a free version of the map, but the features I’ve listed above are only available in the premium version.)
Without knowing exactly how useful any of this would actually be, I decided to venture down to the review section to see what other users were saying. And that’s when things got a bit crazy.
Seeing the 1.5-out-of-5 rating gave me initial pause, assuming this meant, much like with the RDR2 companion app I mentioned earlier (and to some extent, the DayZ map app), that this app was less-than-reliable, or maybe some of the features didn’t quite work as advertised. But after reading through the torrents of reviews, the consensus seems to be that the quality of the map itself is really inconsequential when compared with the anger the user base has about the map’s always-online requirement. This practice is at stark odds with GoG’s commitment to keeping their games DRM-free.
I’m going to highlight just a few of the many, many reviews I combed through, and point out some interesting trends.
A majority of the reviews are for one star. For example, there’s user peacfulpagoda, who wasn’t familiar with Piggyback.com and struggled to understand why this map wasn’t a feature already in the game.
I’ve never heard of this piggyback thing until right this moment in time, but if an excellent map for Cyberpunk 2077 is available, then shouldn’t it be found -within- Cyberpunk 2077?
peacefulpagoda
By far, the through line for most of the negative reviews follows user titus216’s sentiment:
this is a pure scam, it’s a shame to find this on GOG
titus216
As far as I can tell, after reading all 26 pages of reviews, no one who gave the map a one-star review had actually used or purchased the product.
User pippo-san, who did buy into the premium version of the map, had a mostly positive experience, although it sounds like the map hasn’t yet been updated to reflect recent additions to Cyberpunk 2077.
It’s a really good map, nothing you can’t touch already with the free version, but with a few welcome additions like UHD map, unlimited progress tracking, images and more… The only issue here is that the map is no longer updated: as the time of writing this review (ed. November 3rd, 2022), it hasn’t been updated with the new 1.5 and 1.6 (example: no apartments)
pippo-san
And finally, there was a levelled-headed review from user Andtha, who didn’t buy the premium access key and confesses to having no intention of ever using this product, but felt it necessary to add some context concerning the DRM-like nature of this product.
Technically this is neither a game nor a DLC. It is access to an online service, hence IMHO DRM-free doesn’t apply here: you cannot “install” a webpage, so there cannot be an offline installer for it. I agree that this is something I wouldn’t have expected from GOG.com, but in their defense I have to say that this goes against all those “steam games have this and that – why doesn’t GOG” comments out there: If GOG wouldn’t supply this, the now very negative comments would be the other way around. That said, I confess that I wouldn’t buy (or use) this map either, since it’s unclear for how long such a webpage will (or can) remain… (4 stars for going new ways while staying true to the old ways.)
Andtha
At the end of the day, I was never able to really discern whether or not the map itself is of any real value for the premium cost of $5. It does sound like the free version is pretty cool if you don’t care about the more robust features, so I might check that out the next time I have a hankering for some Night City shenanigans.
But really, I just love stumbling upon the little communities that spring up around very specific product reviews, if for no other reason than to add some spice to my opinion of a product I never heard of and, if I’m being completely honest, may never think about again in my entire life.
So thank you, internet, for providing some (mostly) wholesome drama to keep me entertained for a few hours.
