I’m onCyberpunk 2077’s side these days. As a critic who reviewed thePCversion ahead of launch and was lied to about both the arrival of console code and the actual state ofCDPR’sRPGonPS4andXbox One, I’ve been through the ringer. I’ve sat through curated demos at trade shows and talked with developers about controversies of awkwardtransphobia. I’ve followed this game’s journey now for the better part of a decade. Now it’s coming to an end, it feels surreal to look back and see everything Cyberpunk 2077 has endured.
Don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of its problems were self-inflicted. It was rushed out in unfinished form after several delays to appease shareholders despite the development team being heavily crunched making it clear that the game wasn’t ready, and more time had been spent creating flawless virtual slices for press and influencers than actually ensuring it worked. Sure, a powerful PC could make it look pretty and run well, but it was still buggy, mechanics still underbaked and large parts of the open world still felt lifeless and contradictory in the face of its titular genre.
Fun fact -Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is up for more categories at The Game Awards this year the base game was upon its release. Talk about a turnaround.
But now, after the release ofPhantom Libertyand the 2.0 update, Cyberpunk 2077 is viewed as the game it was always meant to be. It has excellent characters, feels great to play, and it offers up a selection of strong stories too. I still don’t think it’s ascyberpunkas it should have been, but I enjoy Night City more these days than I ever have.
Phantom Liberty will probably find a spot on my GOTY list at this point, and once games likeBaldur’s Gate 3are in the rearview mirror, I’ll be returning to experience the new ending. You might be quick to claim that CD Projekt Red doesn’t deserve to celebrate a huge comeback like this without consequence, and you’d be right if you’re pointing fingers at the executives making ill-advised decisions, but the developers who made it possible deserve every chance to be proud of the game they likely always wanted to make, but were never given that shot.
However, a newly announced physical version of the game for PS5 and Xbox has me rather conflicted. Known as the ‘Ultimate Edition’ this new physical copy of the game will come with the 2.0 update on the disc, while Phantom Liberty will be available as either downloadable or on the game itself depending on your platform.The broken version of the game that many of us consider a relic that belongs in a museum and deserves to be studied, is being wiped out.
On the one hand, creating a physical version of the game containing code that functions and is without bug and glitches is paramount to preservation once the servers have been closed, but marketing this as the ‘ultimate’ experience when, in actuality, it’s little more than what the game always should have been feels insincere, like the past three years never happened and CD Projekt Red is now comfortably back in our good graces. It feels wrong to know that years from now, we’ll have forgotten such mistakes and only years of corrections will remain.
Cyberpunk 1.0 is arguably the most disastrous video game launch of all time, one that saw an entire developer’s reputation tank as unsustainable development practices were made clear for all to see. It was pulled from sale, then put back on sale with theadvice to not buy it on the machine it was designedfor as it couldn’t properly run it. Yes, the game we have now is a miracle, but to leave behind the ruins it poured so much into rebuilding feels like a betrayal not only to us, but also a willing erasure of history we’re doomed to repeat if we forget its tough lessons.
The developers shifted their marketing strategy and community outreach significantly in the months and years following the failed launch, understanding that gaudy campaigns needed to fade away and be replaced by real people addressing real problems and what solutions to be expected. It was awkward and stilted at times, but it felt authentic. Phantom Liberty seemed all too happy to abandon this trajectory in favour of past habits, throwing Idris Elba and massive viral ads in our faces instead of meeting us in the middle. The physical Ultimate Edition has a similarly misplaced aura of confidence, and I hope it isn’t a sign that CD Projekt Red is back to its old tricks again, because that’s not the sort of studio anyone wants it to be.
Cyberpunk 2077 can’t forget what it used to be, no matter how good it’s become in the face of its own mistakes. The second it does, we’ll begin committing the very same sins all over again.
