Is Now The Right Time To Play Cyberpunk 2077?

Cyberpunk 2077 received a massive 60+ GB update called Patch 1.5 earlier this week, and it’s been aptly referred to as the new-gen update for CD Projekt Red’s latest RPG. Maybe you waited too long to buy a PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X in order to enjoy it. You know how slow the game is on previous-gen consoles. Maybe you were hoping to get your hands on a graphics card from Nvidia’s impossibly rare 30XX series. No matter what situation you found yourself in during November of 2020, if you’ve waited until a patch like 1.5 to jump into Night City for the first time, we have you covered. And if you began your journey through Cyberpunk 2077 but decided you’d rather wait until the game was in better shape, we have you covered too. Are you ready to start Cyberpunk 2077 now? 

The too-long, didn’t-read answer is simple: yes. Now is, indeed, the time to play Cyberpunk 2077 if you were looking for a game more aligned with the original promise of CD Projekt Red’s vision. Although this patch addresses many of the issues players and reviewers experienced with Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay, Cyberpunk 2077’s core is still present in Patch 1.5. If you didn’t like Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Silverhand, weren’t enthralled by the larger narrative, or didn’t enjoy the actual gameplay of Cyberpunk 2077, then this patch is likely not going to sway your opinion. If you were looking for some tweaked systems, such as a better police network, more reactive drivers, and more realistic NPCs waltzing the streets of Night City, then you’re in luck: Patch 1.5 features most of the fixes you were probably looking for and then some. 

Cyberpunk 2077 was a launch edition that I spent over 100 hours working on. It was a great feeling to be able to finally drive into Night City. I felt intimately familiar with virtually everything in the game in November of 2020, and after playing this new-gen update for a couple of hours, I’m raring to run through the game’s main campaign once more. Not only has this update fixed a lot of things that made Night City feel unresponsive – it originally felt more like table-setting than a real lived-in place – but it’s vastly enhanced the way one actually plays Cyberpunk 2077. 

That’s not to say that the gunplay all of a sudden feels different or better (if you didn’t like it then, you won’t like it now), but AI enemies react better to player reactions, and combat is more fluid. You can now use the in-game maps much more easily than before. As a result, it is easier to use and much less messy. Because of this, it is easier than ever to actually buy a vehicle. Plus, Wilson’s weapon shop has sales now, which makes decking out my V with new gear more appealing. You can also purchase multiple apartments, and you can buy makeovers to change the entire interior of where you’re living. 

Cyberpunk 2077 was actually a fun game that I had an enjoyable time with. I absolutely felt deceived by the marketing of CD Projekt Red, mind you – what it released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One was frankly unacceptable – but the actual 100 hours of time I spent in Night City are hours I look back fondly on. Sure, Cyberpunk 2077 wasn’t the mindblowing RPG that would define the genre for years to come, but much like the dozens of other RPGs that release each year that I play and say “neat” after rolling credits, Cyberpunk 2077 gave me a good time, albeit one that left me wanting a little more. 

Cyberpunk 2077 was not up to par with open-world video games released many years prior. Driving was horrible. Why couldn’t I really see out of my car’s dashboard or over my motorcycle’s front? Is it possible that traffic behaved like it was playing a 2008 game instead of a 2020 movie? Night City felt so dead? CD Projekt Red already had cities that were alive and bustling in 2015’s The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt. Cyberpunk 2077 has features that I would expect to see in an open-world RPG. Patch 1.5 brought many of the features I wanted, and it was a good thing. 

This is all to say that Cyberpunk 2077 may have been years behind the rest. Cyberpunk 2077 is available on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X. It features both a 30 FPS raytracing mode and a 60FPS performance mode. Both have dynamic 4K Resolution. The performance mode shines especially well. Both modes look fantastic. Still, don’t go in expecting Night City to look like the one seen in dozens of trailers or gameplay segments from beefy PCs with the best graphics cards – that’s not what this is. But do go in expecting a complete cyberpunk RPG that plays like other first-person open-world games you’ve enjoyed before.

Cyberpunk 2077 will likely never be what we all thought it was going to be before release, but at this moment in time, it’s a complete game that runs well, looks great, and features a gameplay loop that will keep you enthralled for the 30 or so hours of campaign awaiting you in Night City. It might not ever be the stunning game some experienced on max-spec PCs if you’re playing on a new-gen console, but it will be a fun and zany romp through an RPG that is now, finally, nearly a year and a half later, worth playing.