What in the World Happened to Cyberpunk 2077?
Picture this: the year is 2077. The pandemic is over, kids are back in school, people are back at work, and Cyberpunk 2077 has won Game of the Year for the last 56 years, because it’s just that good. CD Projekt Red promised us this way back when Cyberpunk 2077 was announced. Okay, well maybe not exactly that, but they said that the game would be revolutionary–a pioneer in RPGs. Now, in this timeline, the year is 2020 and Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t even available on the PlayStation Store at the moment. People are demanding refunds for the game, because of the absolute mess it has become. So what exactly happened to turn Cyberpunk 2077, the promised pinnacle of games, into an absolute dumpster fire? What happened to turn beloved Witcher 3 developers, CD Projekt Red, into one of the most hated video game developers out there?
Performance Issues
Probably the biggest issue that players have had with Cyberpunk 2077 is the plethora of performance issues, specifically on last-gen consoles Xbox One and PS4. The game was marketed around these consoles and was announced before the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were even announced. This should have been an indicator that the game would be able to perform at a playable bare minimum on these consoles. This was not the case as you can see in this gameplay from IGN on the base model Xbox One
The game looks jittery, the resolution is pixelated, and even with the incredibly low quality of the game, the frame rate still manages to be incredibly choppy. Now how about we take a look at what the game was supposed to look like from an official gameplay trailer released in November, 2020 directly from the game’s official YouTube channel.
This trailer is undeniably better than the actual gameplay that we got on launch. I’m honestly shocked that the game still released with the way it performed on last-gen consoles. Some people have defended the game’s performance issues using the argument that the game is better on next-gen consoles and if you want better performance, you should “get a PS5 or an Xbox Series X, or even a PC.” While yes, this would seem to be the case, the game was marketed for last-gen consoles. This isn’t a next-gen game that can also run on last-gen, this is a last-gen game that can also run on next-gen consoles.
It’s Not A Bug, It’s A Feature!
In the few hours I’ve been able to play Cyberpunk 2077, I have encountered my fair share of bugs including overlapping dialogue and NPCs clipping through walls, the usual. However, it’s nothing compared to the bugs that most of the playerbase has come across.
NOW is the time to actually buy cyberpunk, while the bugs are still hot and hilarious, not refund it! cherish this pic.twitter.com/CSEmyKmrQl
— Gene Park (@GenePark) December 17, 2020
This is just a short compilation of goofy glitches turned into the best trailer I’ve seen for Cyberpunk 2077. If CD Projekt Red would have just marketed the game as the glitchy mess it is, they might have been able to run with it. From what it seems, the best way to play the game is to just enjoy the bugs. What’s the classic programming phrase? It’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Refunding Cyberpunk 2077 Purchases
Since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has had to put out quite a few fires, including disgruntled consumers looking for their money back. Many players are upset because of the game’s horrific launch due to performance issues on last-gen consoles.
— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 14, 2020
Dear CD Projekt Red, please never say “dear gamers” ever again. Sincerely, people who actually play video games. All jokes aside, this was a very good decision from CD Projekt Red to accept refunds until December 21, 2020. However, it might have been a good idea to run it by Sony first before telling players to go through Sony themselves for a refund. Due to Sony’s strict refund policy, this caused a lot of problems and actually led to Sony completely removing Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store. Many players were attempting to receive refunds while also maintaining access to the game. Not really sure that’s how refunds work, people.
Corrupted Save Files
Apparently, if the save file of your game is 8mb or higher, your file might corrupt and be rendered completely useless. CD Projekt Red’s response to this? “Unfortunately the save is damaged and can’t be recovered. Please use an older save file to continue playing and try to keep a lower amount of items and crafting materials. If you ave used the item duplication glitch, please load a save file not affected by it.” They say that the save file size limit might be increased in one of the future patches, but the corrupted files will remain that way. That’s right folks, CDPR’s solution to your game being corrupt is to not pick up items. In an RPG. Basically just keep crafting stuff and keep your inventory low to hopefully avoid corruption.
Gimme the Goods
The good news is that it isn’t all bad news for Cyberpunk 2077. Early next year, CD Projekt Red will hopefully be releasing free content updates for the game. Just as long as they aren’t delayed for whatever reason whether development issues or other unforeseen problems. We’ve also got the multiplayer mode coming at some point! Though it is currently unknown when we will be getting it, especially now that they’ve had to shift all of their developmental focus onto fixing the game as it is right now. To think they would still be developing the multiplayer mode right now is kind of just unrealistic.
Well, if you were wondering what in the world happened to Cyberpunk 2077, I hope I answered that for you. Luckily, it looks like CD Projekt Red is working as hard as they can to fix the game and hopefully it’ll see some drastic improvements here pretty soon. CD Projekt Red just released Cyberpunk hotfix 1.05 which aims to fix a lot of the issues many players have been having since the launch of the game. I’m sure more patches are very soon to come and will fix even more problems like the current inventory bug that corrupts save files.
