For a year as awful as 2020 for some, with millions and billions being affected by the spread of this unstoppable virus, there was still hope for some in the gaming community. That the game that they’ve championed for, since the day of the first teaser trailer back in the summer of 2013. Could at least provide some well needed escapism from this hellish nightmare that is 2020.
Well if your idea of endless hours of escapism and lore rich world building is a bug riddled mess, then you are in for the time of your life.
The Dawn of a New Era
The game was announced in 2012 by a somewhat ‘independent studio’ of developers called CD Projekt Red based in Poland. They had received critical acclaim working previously on The Witcher 1 and the recent instalment at that time The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings.
The trailer for the game was met with fan acclaim and hype all across the board. The cyberpunk genre was a relatively fresh concept and setting for a game, a futuristic Open World Action RPG ala the beloved GTA series. The game itself is based of a tabletop RPG game called Cyberpunk 2020.
It was immediately hailed as a shift in the gaming industry which would change it for better because of its ties into pop culture. Films like Blade Runner (1982) and Dredd (2012) were already fan favourites and iconic. Plus games like System Shock and Deus Ex had a profound impact on the development process so people were wondering how it would turn out on a larger scale, amounting to even more hype.
The ‘Unexpected’ Hit
After the first set of news and trailers, the studio went silent on anymore updates about the game. Instead they shifted their focus into pouring all their resources, hard work and love into the already established Witcher series. They had been developing The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt which released in 2015 to an inconceivable scale of praise and love from the fans. It won Game of the Year in 2015 at the annual Game Awards and multiple other awards that year too, some people calling it the game of the century or generation.
The praise was because of the extreme world building, an established and fleshed out plot, excellent gameplay including scintillating combat and Role Playing choices in the world which would affect how the story would turn out, including the ending.
But not enough people are talking about the connection between both The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 except the obvious fact that this game was made by the same people.
Personally, I believe that The Witcher 3 add more fuel to the fire that was the hype and wait of Cyberpunk 2077 plus now the studio had won over the fans and had a stellar game in their resume. So what could wrong? Apparently little at that point in time.
Skyrocketing Hype
At the annual E3 games showcase in 2018, Cyberpunk 2077 was officially unveiled to the world by none other than Keanu reeves who was revealed to be a crucial character in the game that same day. The very next year CD Projekt Red showed us 48 minutes of a demo gameplay which showed incredible promise, that the game is every bit as good as people had imagined at first.
The game was scheduled to release in April 2020, but as we all know, the virus happened and the game was delayed to September 2020. Meanwhile, the gaming community was reeling because of the sheer storytelling disappointment that was The Last Of Us: Part II, looked to CD Projekt to deliver. But unfortunately, the game was delayed once again to November 2020 much to fans displeasure and frustration.
Alas, came November came too but to no avail, instead it was delayed again for last minute touches and fixes on the game. And this time the fans and the shareholders were promised that the game would be released on the 10th of December in 2020.
And much to fan satisfaction and hype, the game actually released on the 10th of December and what happened next, was shocking at best.
The Downfall
Much to fan surprise and shock, the game was in an unfinished state, with pesky bugs and far too often game crashes on consoles and PC alike. But there was some saving grace as the players and critics thought he substance the game had to offer as executed brilliantly but lacked because of the buggy state of the state of the game. With players reporting drops in frame rates, game breaking glitches, bugs and the game bricking their device as well.
These abysmal performance issues were mainly experienced on the last gen consoles, but current gen consoles and high end PCs seemed to run just as usual.
But this alone could not save the game from being bashed as people on the last gen consoles demanded refunds and called out the studio for misleading them accusing them of false advertisement, (which is ironic as the game is a commentary on the mass consumerism of todays day and age) as the game was not showcased on last gen consoles. The game was review bombed on critic aggregate sites ultimately leading to CD Projekt Red issuing a public apology and digital refunds for the game, whilst also promising to fix the game by February 2021.
But this has not yet stopped fan outrage, as of now, there is a class action lawsuit being pursued against the company for false advertising and misleading marketing.
But kudos to you if you’re a next gen or pc player, you are safe from all the mess which the last gen are experiencing, so here’s how you can enhance your experience by using a racing gaming chair or a gaming keyboard, mouse or a gaming headset. And if you’ve neglected a game just like CD Projekt has neglected Cyberpunk 2077, we suggest you take a look at some storage boxes or CD and DVD cases.