Recent reviews by Dapperstache

This is a highly polished eurojank title. It's certainly much more polished than it's predecessor, but it's clear this isn't quuuite a AAA title. I suppose that is part of the charm.

No RT silliness. Just good old fashioned raster with some optional DLSS. Runs great as a result. Textures are muddy, and animations are very janky, though dialogue animations/lip syncing is improved. Game still often relies on prerendered cutscenes, which is disappointing.

The voice acting, writing and story direction seem to be more refined this time around. It feels like visiting some old friends.

Definitely worth it.

This is a Robocop game with Action RPG elements. What's not to like?

I guess since so few of the other reviews mention it ... The city/environments are small but gorgeous. Trash game in old Detroit is on point.

I do wish this was more of an open world, with dynamic crimes as side missions. Aside from that, this game scratched the Robocop itch. The plot is hammy, but so to were the films. It just sort of works.

Performance is fine on my rig, save for frame drops when loading a new area. 4080, 7800x3d, 64gbDDR5. Seems they finally fixed the wonky reflections, though there are still some specularity issues on some reflections and shadows still.

8.8/10. The only thing it could do better (IMO) is have a slightly bigger scope and one open world map.

First Impressions:
-I have a 4080/7800x3d/64gb DDR5, runs fine for me, as it should.
-Graphics are among the best of the best.
-Intro sequence was absolutely bonkers
-I tried the English dub, couldn't do it, not after hearing the Chinese VO. Obviously, I don't speak Chinese, so enabled subtitles. I like the native VO.
-Controls are pretty straightforward
-Consider me immersed.
-Despite this being called an Action RPG it is no such thing. It is a boss rush, 100%. Minus 2 points for that. If this was an open world with population centers and whatnot, I would give it a 10/10.

8/10.

Niche game for niche weirdos like myself. Focuses mostly on puzzles with some combat here and there. Mainly get this for the atmosphere.

This is the future of Arma.

Tailwinds:
Performance and visuals are better than A3.
Sound is amazing compared to A3.

Headwinds:
Dysfunctional network code.
The series being integrated into the console market brings with it some significant UI setbacks.
Say goodbye to any chance of Star Wars or 40k mods. No way their workshop will allow that.

It's a bit pricey but it can be fun.

*CENSORED*

Man, I really want to wholeheartedly recommend this game. I really do, but I cannot, in good countenance, do so. I wholeheartedly believe that CDPR worked very hard on this game, and that ultimately makes this a difficult review to write, especially after as much as I absolutely loved The Witcher 3. For now, we should all either refund or wait and see. CDPR gambled their good will, and their standing will likely be irrevocably decided by how they respond to the plethora of issues.

So if anyone remembers, Witcher 3 had it's own issues at launch. Downgradegate, UI issues, bugs, etc. were all present, especially for PC gamers, on launch day. In this instance, PC gamers have actually gotten the best possible version of the game - which is saying something considering the lackluster performance on high end systems with the latest CPUs and GPUs. I won't discuss OG console editions outside of saying that the whole situation, including CDPRs apparently desire to cover it up and fix it later (with regard to PS4 and XB1) really ought to raise some eyebrows.

That aside, this game still, even on PC, has some major issues. Some are performance/optimization related, or other commonly expected bugs like textures loading, pop in, naughty bits clipping through clothes, wonky physics and the like. Others are more ingrained into the game and would likely take significant time and expenditure to fix. Those I will touch on last.

I'll start with the wins.
When this game is firing on all cylinders, it looks nothing short of stunning. One of the big complaints with Witcher 3 was the lighting engine downgrade, which had ripple effects through many other aspects of the game. Textures and geometry were also downgraded, sometimes significantly. That is not the case here. Textures look stunning. The lighting is absolutely excellent. The one minor complaint I have is with rain. Rain that falls on surfaces, like windows for example, looks good, but the actual rain itself isn't the least bit impressive. A game that did rain correctly was Arkham Knight. The rain in Cyberpunk is more like a flat, semi transparent white sheet. There is no refraction present, so I am not sure if it's a large texture sheet or clustered (or individual) raindrops. This is likely a tradeoff made to not worsen framerates. I only mention the rain because it's sort of a staple for Cyberpunk as a genre. Everything else I have seen however, looks phenomenal - including RTX features - with the downside being that RTX absolutely tanks performance. This might not be as big of an issue had we not seen what was essentially paper launches from both AMD and Nvidia - but judging from people with those cards, they are faring only slightly better.

The character models range from serviceable to really good - but never quite achieves the standard set by Remedy's Control - which has some of the best character models I have seen since Arkham Knight.

The soundtrack is killer, and from what I have played of the story - it isn't simply a Cyberpunk themed ripoff of GTA as I think many people feared. It has weight and emotion. It feels like a CDPR game.

The gunplay is serviceable. I'd probably upgrade that to great if enemies weren't just bullet sponges, as weapons pack a punch.

That pretty well covers the positives.

Now onto the negatives.

Optimization is atrocious. I say that knowing full well that "optimization" doesn't happen with the press of a button. It takes time. Unfortunately, CDPR didn't take enough time. GPU utilization ebbs and flows on the low end for me (2080 Super) anywhere from 25-40%, while CPU usage (3900x) is hovering nearly maxed out. RTX randomly slows the game to a crawl on a 20 series card, regardless of if I am running in 2560x1080 or 3440x1440. DLSS manages to keep the game from dropping down into single digits, but I experience regular and persistent drops into the low 20s. There are countless other issues as I mentioned earlier - NPCs floating, weird physics, disappearing or magically appearing cars, light rays flickering, light sources like muzzle flashes visible through walls, etc. These are the types of issues that, like it or not, have become baked into large AAA launches. I won't be too harsh about it, because ultimately, I fully expect that these performance issues and bugs will be addressed - and done so pretty early on. Nothing can compare to Arkham Knight's disastrous launch on PC, where WB actually pulled the game off shelves and Steam for the better part of 2-3 months, at least I hope.

(EDIT: Yeah, that last sentence there aged poorly. This is much worse in context, because Sony has yanked the game off of PS Store. Considering that ancient last gen consoles account for the overwhelmingly vast majority of consoles active in the market...yikes. On the flip side, we PC gamers are actually the lucky group here, if there is a silver lining to be found.)

Some of these performance issues however seem to be tied in part to crowd density - which brings me to another point of contention: Just what the hell are these NPCs doing? Very few appear to have actual routines. Many are spawned in from nowhere as you enter the surrounding area and despawned when you leave. Turning around and going back and you will see completely different NPCs occupying the same spaces, clipping through each other. There are relatively few vendors that you can actually buy ♥♥♥♥ from or interact with. Contrast this with Kingdom Come: Deliverance - another game that runs rather roughly even today. KC:D's NPCs all have functions. They all have routines and jobs. Very few here do, and while the variety is far greater than what we got in Witcher 3 (with parts of faces, hair, eyes, mouths and clothes swapped around in a half dozen different configurations), it isn't difficult at all to see identical NPCs standing right next to each other.

Furthermore, this problem affects gameplay. Cops spawn in from nowhere. Shoot someone in a closed alleyway, and watch as NCPD magically appears and starts blasting. Contrast that with KC:D, where guards would actually come from guard towers, where crimes actually had to be witnessed. The AI is also notably unintelligent. A cop can get blasted, laying on the ground, while another cop stands there bored. Shooting in public will make half the NPCs cower down, while the other half walk about like nothing has happened. Can we really call this next gen with a serious face? I understand that implementing any sort of real solution to a game of this scale would be problematic, and I am confident that I don't have a solution - but Cyberpunk's multitude of issues with NPCs and AI should frankly be an complete embarrassment for CDPR. Even worse than that is that it isn't something that will likely be fixed quickly (or possibly even at all without official modding tools, as that would require some major AI and scripting changes.)

As such, at this point, I am honestly more inclined to say wait a month (or six) and see how things progress.

There just isn't anything else remotely like it. At all. Whatsoever. Period.

As my friend Jimmy Pineapple would say:

Case. F#$@$%!. Closed.

I wholeheartedly endorse this game.

It has a great story (based on a novel) and provides plenty of player choice. The art design is well implemented, the voice acting is top notch. It is a slow burner at first, and takes awhile to get ramped up.

It is not without it's flaws. Movement is sometimes janky, the transitions in dialogue are choppy and the settings options leave a lot to be desired, but overall, it's absolutely worth getting, especially if you are a fan of medieval fiction.

This game is adorable AND runs well. Works with SLI if you use Ryse: Son of Rome's SLI bits with AFR2 which translates into 4k60. Also works with ReShade, including access to the depth buffer.

Beyond that, the game really is a wrok of art. I haven't dug into the story line much, but I did try this game back in 2016 and man a lot has changed. Great job for such a small team.