The first reviews in the Polish and foreign press show that Cyberpunk 2077 is a very good game, but full of mistakes and flaws. The number of bugs is beyond the acceptable scale, and many say that CDP RED takes at least six months to fix everything. However, I have good news: consoles are playable. Immediately for the premiere. I am writing this after the first 10 hours in Night City.
IMPORTANT: The material below should not be considered a review. This publication focuses on one aspect of the game, which are errors that prevent comfortable play.
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“Avengers level threat” – this is how one of the leading reviewers in the Western press referred to the scale of errors, bugs and shortcomings. Warnings about the technical condition of Cyberpunk 2077 can also be found in the Polish media. Editor of Komputer Świat already underlines in the title “An absurd number of errors.” All this is a consequence of putting the late test build in the hands of the media, without the premiere update.
The scale of errors and shortcomings turned out to be so great that, according to many, even a patch prepared for the day of the debut is not able to fix everything. Cyberpunk 2077 struggled with fundamental bugs sewn deep into the game. The main character lost his gun, dead enemies were able to warn his comrades, dialogue options appeared with a delay or did not appear at all, passers-by completely collapsed underground, and numerous elevators in the game announced a general strike to the authorities of Night City.
I didn’t experience any of these errors while playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox Series X console.
I am using the pre-release copy of the game provided to the editorial office by CDP RED. It seems that the Xbox edition has already received an update on the day of its debut. It’s hard to explain the fact that after more than 10 hours of gameplay, I experienced only two clear, vulgar bugs. Both from the same category: losing hand-held items by NPC characters near the player’s avatar.
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I saw the first bug relatively quickly, right after checking into Night City. One of the teenagers was scrolling the smartphone while sitting on a bench near a residential skyscraper. At some point, she decided to get up and walk. As a result of changing the position or changing the animation, her phone was suddenly stuck into the back of the bench. One of the theses assumes that the boy broke up with her through Messenger and the young lady got a bit nervous. However, I put my money on a bug in the game.
A few missions later, the same bug was somewhat replicated elsewhere and by another NPC. Everything took place in one of the factories taken over by the gang. We were combing the area with another gun for hire when a ladder appeared in front of us leading down. My comrade in arms – with two pistols held proudly in his hands – began to descend the rungs. His guns remained in front of the ladder, however, proudly levitating in the air. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pick them up. What is it for? To give back to the owner, of course. After all, in my life I would not get rich because of the misfortune of another mercenary.
Both bugs have been documented in the screenshots above. We are talking about relatively innocent and rather easy to eliminate errors. They in no way interfere with gameplay, exploration or mission performance. At the same time, I would like to point out that there are such a large number of variables in open world games that my two modest bugs do not necessarily reflect the actual state of the game. Another player in the same amount of time may encounter more … or not at all.
While the bugs aren’t terribly numerous, many things can be fixed.
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I especially don’t like the system responsible for distributing Night City residents around the player. The solution written by CDP RED sometimes does not fully match the field of view in the first person perspective. As a result, we can see how people magically appear out of nowhere in the corners of the screen, and then walk briskly forward. A bit like a well-organized, secret society of wizards, using magical teleports under the noses of unsuspecting Muggles.
I was also a victim of a dialogue system lacking a clear end call button. During one of the story missions, I spoke to an important and influential representative of the corporation. I was leaning briskly against the doorframe, trying to use my conversation to gain valuable information. During the conversation, I just stepped back. A gentle brush of the analog. However, my interlocutor decided that I wanted to end the chat in this way and continued on his way. There was no way I could start the conversation again. It was necessary to load the save state.
While walking around Night City, I saw many small imperfections. The policeman was saying something to me, looking in the opposite direction at first. When my car was called in auto-drive mode, it rammed into the rails and crashed into walls. These are all sins inherent in games with a large open world and I know how difficult it is to eliminate them. On the other hand, their intensity seems to be greater than that of many other open world games.
Cyberpunk 2077 has poorly designed elements – like the operation of the city police with its hyperactivity and extraordinary attention to lines that must not be crossed. It is difficult, however, to call these types of complex systems that can be implemented better bugs in the traditional sense. These are more areas for improvement that require a lot of work as they touch upon many aspects of the gameplay.
It doesn’t change one thing: Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles it is playable.
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If you ordered the game for PlayStation 4 or Xbox One, you probably don’t have to worry about getting to the end credits. Compared to the problems reported in the media when testing the pre-release build on PC, the console edition is more stable. Of course, this is only my impression, built on over 10 hours of continuous gameplay. Perhaps in the near future I will come across a bug that will prevent me from playing. If this happens, I will definitely update this post. I also emphasize once again that the number of errors encountered in open world games depends on the player’s actions.
Each of us has a different experience. All we need to do is take a different alley, make a different story decision, grab different weapons, look in a different direction or choose other dialogue options. During my gameplay, I had the feeling of traveling around a huge and complicated world, glued a bit hastily on tape. And while the tape holds, someone else might not be so lucky. Before the premiere, it is difficult to say anything with certainty.
To make it not too nice, let me point out that the PS4 and XONE versions have their own problems. When I play the Xbox Series X in enhanced graphics mode, Cyberpunk 2077 feels very arduous and sluggish. These 30 frames per second touch the title much stronger than more linear productions like God of War or The Last of Us Part II. The game in 30 frames lacks the appropriate liveliness and dynamism. I am convinced that I would get used to playing in this mode after a while, but I prefer the alternative performance mode much more.
Due to the performance mode, the game speeds up noticeably. It becomes smoother and more jumpy. You can feel it especially when moving the camera, when we look at objects in the background and background. That’s why I’m surprised that PlayStation 5 doesn’t have a choice between performance and graphics modes. At the moment, the selection slider is only available on the Xbox, which is a huge advantage for Microsoft’s consoles. It would be nice if, over time, the appropriate option also appeared on the Sony platform.
If you have any questions about console gameplay, feel free to ask in the comments. Meanwhile, I’m back to futuristic Night City for a visual comparison between graphics mode and performance mode on the Xbox Series X console.
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