Cyberpunk 2077 pulls off greatest redemption arc in gaming with "Overwhelmingly Positive" Steam reviews

[zohaibahd]

Epic glow-up: Cyberpunk 2077, the open-world action RPG that launched to a storm of negativity back in 2020, has incredibly turned things around and is now basking in "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam. This redemption story is nothing short of remarkable in the gaming world.

When Cyberpunk 2077 first launched, it was essentially unplayable on consoles due to a nightmare of technical issues. The buggy mess saw the game yanked off the PlayStation store entirely as players revolted. Critics panned it and fans seethed – it was a sad state of affairs for a game that took over 4 years and $436 million to make.

But the developers at CD Projekt Red were not throwing in the towel that easily. Through a barrage of patches, fixes, and next-gen upgrades over the subsequent years, they've managed to overhaul Cyberpunk 2077 into the slick experience it was always meant to be.

The evidence is in the reviews. In the last 30 days alone, a staggering 95% of the nearly 7,100 user Steam reviews have given Cyberpunk 2077 a big thumbs up. That translates to over 6,700 satisfied customers singing its praises recently. Even looking at the overall user reviews, 83% of 650,000+ ratings are positive.

You can't imagine how much it means to me ð­ I have never been close to giving up and always believed this could be somehow possible, but never thought I will actually see it.

Thank you so much for the second chance choomsðÂ¥º https://t.co/HLr1Ykphu1

– PaweÅÂ Sasko (@PaweSasko) May 10, 2024

The developers are, understandably, elated about this incredible turnaround. Pawel Sasko, an associate game director at CDPR, tweeted: "You can't imagine how much it means to me I have never been close to giving up and always believed this could be somehow possible, but never thought I will actually see it. Thank you so much for the second chance chooms."

So what spurred this epic resurgence? A few key things helped Cyberpunk get its groove back in a major way.

First, that steady cadence of major patches and updates was critical, addressing issues comprehensively over time. It started with the 1.1 patch released on January 22, 2021. This was basically CDPR trying to put out the biggest fires by stabilizing the game on consoles and patching the worst bugs. Everyone knew that the next patch was going to be bigger, so this one was eagerly awaited.

Then the launch of the Phantom Liberty expansion in late 2023 injected new content like story expansions and added territory to explore.

Another possible reason for the turn of fortunes is the hit anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners on Netflix, which rekindled intense interest and appreciation for the game's stylish and immersive cyberpunk world. Between the expanded universe and a finally polished experience, fans flooded back to Night City.

With its reputation now rehabilitated, all eyes turn to CDPR's next moves. The studio has tapped veteran narrative designers like Anna Megill and Alexander Freed to lead the writing for the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 sequel, codenamed Project Orion. While still early in development, CDPR is even "considering" multiplayer elements to further shake up the franchise.

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Cyberpunk 2077 pulls off greatest redemption arc in gaming with "Overwhelmingly Positive" Steam reviews

 

[noel24]

Still, the lesson is - Don't preorder.

 

[Squid Surprise]

The studio couldn't "give up" on it... it cost half a billion and if they didn't get anything back in return, it would have meant wholesale firings if not outright bankruptcy.

What's a shame is that they couldn't have waited a year or 2 for it to actually be "good" before releasing it.

What's disconcerting is that now they've basically cemented the fact that games don't have to be finished when released - they HAD been one of the few companies that hadn't bought into that.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm glad it's finally fixed, unfortunately it was a massive success, which means we have learned a few things:

1. you can abuse your developers to the point of the whole team quitting (end of blood and wine development) and replacements are a dime a dozen
2. you can release an absolutely borked experience and still make millions
3. you can outright lie about what is in your game and still make millions
4. gamers will never learn, they are the eternal consooomer.

Somehow, I feel that the witcher 4, or whatever their next game is, will follow this same pattern.

 

[Xenocea]

No Man's Sky still has the greatest redemption arc for me. It's far exceeded what the developers originally promised, not to mentioned every single updates to the game has been free of charge.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

No Man's Sky still has the greatest redemption arc for me. It's become more and far exceeding what the developers originally promised, not to mentioned every single updates to the game has been free of charge.

NMS was one of the worst things to happen to the industry, destroying what sense of shame they had left for lying and releasing buggy unfinished trash. The fact consumers lapped that game up and still defend it's development process really shows the bar is so far underground it's melting in the mantle.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Yeah, gamers are basically dopeamine junkies by hobby.

Impulse control is definitely not one of their strong suites.

 

[Nelson28]

Woah, Cyberpunk 2077 went from disaster to darling! Those patches and the killer expansion really turned things around. Plus, the Edgerunners anime must have brought back a ton of players.

 

[Lew Zealand]

So is it just branding?

Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access for 3 years and then officially released, should CP2077 and NMS have done the same? Does the setting of BG3 lend itself better to a staggered release as only Act 1 was available at early release as opposed to CP2077 having the complete game but in a buggy state released. As the base CP2077 all takes place in the same city, it's not clear that they could cleanly (in terms of story) just stop the story at one point and then place the new bits for the next part in when they're done. Would notice afterwards they should have been there in the first place?

 

[PaladinNH]

So is it just branding?

Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access for 3 years and then officially released, should CP2077 and NMS have done the same? Does the setting of BG3 lend itself better to a staggered release as only Act 1 was available at early release as opposed to CP2077 having the complete game but in a buggy state released. As the base CP2077 all takes place in the same city, it's not clear that they could cleanly (in terms of story) just stop the story at one point and then place the new bits for the next part in when they're done. Would notice afterwards they should have been there in the first place?

One is honesty (we're not done yet, but if you want to give us money, we'll let you see and play the first act), and the other is deception (here's a finished game...NOT!). More people are going to pay for (what they think is) the full title, as not everyone wants their experience spoiled by early access. But either way, for me, it ends up working out the same. Haven't played either yet (and I love RPGs), as I typically buy between $20-30, which, is typically when the bugs are sorted out anyway.

 

[NumberNine]

Fixing their buggy unfinished game does not merit celebration. They exploited the hype and trust of all involved and were temporarily delisted in the process.

 

[gamerk2]

Does the setting of BG3 lend itself better to a staggered release as only Act 1 was available at early release as opposed to CP2077 having the complete game but in a buggy state released. As the base CP2077 all takes place in the same city, it's not clear that they could cleanly (in terms of story) just stop the story at one point and then place the new bits for the next part in when they're done. Would notice afterwards they should have been there in the first place?

In theory, they could have done the entire prologue as open beta, since that limits you to the starting island.

 

[UdyrL]

Congratulations for doing what you were supposed to do from the beginning. The same applies to No Man's Sky (and whatever extra they decided to add as damage control). Now gamers will blindly believe in you again and go back to old habits of preordering.

 

[godrilla]

Somehow, I feel that the witcher 4, or whatever their next game is, will follow this same pattern.

Especially with Witcher 4 going to Unreal engine.

 

[daffy duck]

Hang on wasn't it mainly a disaster for console. The PS4 version was diabolical. PC had a lot of issues but nothing like console. The game has had a positive rating for a very long time on PC.

 

[Jerry in WA]

The hyperbole on this game is absurd. It was never "a disaster" to begin with, it just needed some patching/tweaks. I will die on that hill.

 

[OortCloud]

The hyperbole on this game is absurd. It was never "a disaster" to begin with, it just needed some patching/tweaks. I will die on that hill.

I had a pretty high-end PC at the time and so generally it was ok, not great, but ok. When you see how it performed on other platforms and some low-end systems you start to understand peoples reaction a little more.
My main issue with it was (and still is) that it's a bit dull. Like so many sandboxes it's filled with thousands of meaningless side quests. Beneath its glossy surface the game is as shallow as a puddle. The role-playing is paper-thin in that your actions generally have no real consequences and it very quickly becomes incredibly easy. I chose the netrunner style of play as I thought it would be interesting to do something different. But very quickly you become so over-powered that you can just rinse-repeat the same few moves to mash your way through everything the game throws at you. Oh and the endless Destiny-style identikit weapons, gear, etc that are thrown at you quickly become a real chore to sift through. After about 30 hours I realised I was having no fun at all really, just grinding a very dull game loop again and again.

 

[gamerk2]

Hang on wasn't it mainly a disaster for console. The PS4 version was diabolical. PC had a lot of issues but nothing like console. The game has had a positive rating for a very long time on PC.

I lost interest fairly quickly, but aside from the standard amount of quests where certain outcomes were bugged (which IMO you have to expect at least a few of at launch) I didn't see anything obviously broken on PC.

The problem was CDPR tried to support the XB1/PS4, which simply couldn't handle the game.

 

[Nobina]

Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky have shown developers can release a buggy and unfinished mess, charge full price for it, then fix the game afterwards. Next time, the game might never get fixed because they already got the money. It is good that these two games got fixed, but they shouldn't be praised for delivering the bare minimum and being late at that.

 

[BogdanR]

Waiting with baited breath for a similar headline concerning Starfield.

 

[scavengerspc]

Cyberpunk and No Man's Sky have shown developers can release a buggy and unfinished mess, charge full price for it, then fix the game afterwards.

I was just going to say the same thing. CDPR and Hello Games deserve a lot of credit.
Not for the out of the box games, but it was certainly a lot of work to fix them.

 

[Squid Surprise]

Waiting with bated breath for a similar headline concerning Starfield.

Clearly the model is Star Citizen… definitely not a scam - that game will be out any decade now