Cyberpunk 2077

 So, yeah, I went into Cyberpunk 2077 expecting worse than I got. Apparently the game suffered worse and more widespread bugs prior to the release patch, so early reviewers saw the worst of it. I heard about that, but decided to try diving in anyway. So far, the issues I've run into have been occasional, mild annoyances - visual duplication where an item may hang in the air or animation issues where a person may move oddly or float. Neither issue has been as common as reviews led me to expect and they do little to lessen my experience, but they do bear mentioning. I haven't hit any progress-blockers or outright crashes yet, so from where I sit this is actually better than something like AC: Valhalla.

That said, I know others have been having it worse. It sounds like the PS4/Xbox-whatever-recently-turned-last-gen versions are quite bad to the point of refunds being discussed/offered. If there was any clue of that, those versions in particular probably should have been further delayed, but I can see the company pressures that probably deemed otherwise. And I was rather surprised to learn the Directx12 requirement on PC means it runs on Windows 7 and 10, but not 8. I tend to take things like that for granted.

So the launch has been a serious mixed bag, but I'm personally enjoying the game so far.

I like getting to know the Cyberpunk setting more. I've been far more familiar with Shadowrun, which may qualify as cyberpunk, but has far more fantasy injected. I don't mind that so much, but it's nice to have the chance to experience it without as well.

I've been fairly impressed at how well the 2023 storyline is woven in. It may not be flawless, but it takes some genuine effort to put together a rock star, a reporter, a hacker, and a couple mercenaries in a group in a way that doesn't feel forced.

From a more meta standpoint, I'm kind of surprise at how much of a social lightning rod some people taking the game to be. I've seen articles saying how it's good or bad for trans rights. I've even seen a friend's comment expressing disappointment about how it's "pro cop" because you can do jobs for the police and cyberpunk should be anti-establishment.

Wrrf. I think people are prone to seeing what they want to see.

Sure, the city is scattered with little encounters where you are encouraged to take out some gang members in some fashion for reward of reputation and money. Some of those are at the behest of the police. It feels like a stretch to call that "pro cop" to me as a street-level fixer asking for the same. And if you really want to analyze, we're talking a setting where the police are so overwhelmed they're willing to toss a little cash at bounty hunters to gun down troublemakers on the street. That feels pretty dystopian to me and feels about a "pro-cop" or "pro-establishment" as Punisher or Judge Dredd - if you take it that way, I don't think you're looking closely enough.

If anything, the story missions of the game have been hammering home that the Cyberpunk world is a screwed up place where everyone is out for themselves. Life is cheap. Money talks. Trustworthiness is probably the rarest currency of all. That... seems pretty cyberpunk to me.