Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the most anticipated games of 2020, but also one of the most controversial it was easy to get excited about CD Projekt Red's ambitious open-world cyberpunk RPG and its rich world, and easy to be skeptical about the company's poor labor practices and biased It was easy to be skeptical of the company's poor labor practices and bigoted marketing campaigns

In any case, the game is coming out soon; Tom's Guide was not one of them, but we read what is out there and there is no real consensus Some reviewers raved about the size, complexity, and scale of Cyberpunk 2077, while others felt that the detailed world was somewhat uncreative and merely window dressing the buggy core

In any case, this is what early reviewers had to say about Cyberpunk 2077 More reviews (including ours) will be coming in the next few weeks

Tom Marks reviewed Cyberpunk 2077 on IGN and praised the game, giving it a 9 out of 10 He praised the game's structure, story, and characters, but did not like the game's myriad bugs

Good Points

"Cyberpunk 2077 feels like an RPG all the way through There is an almost mind-boggling amount of choices in conversations, how to build your character, and how to tackle missions"

"Cyberpunk 2077 feels like an RPG all the way through Bad Points

Bad Points

"I've had important or emotional conversations ruined by the character speaking glitching between incorrect poses or not loading the object I'm holding or referring to at all It was not uncommon for a phone call to come in the middle of another conversation, causing two discussions that were going on at the same time to overlap"

On GamesRadar+ (one of GamesRadar's sister sites), Sam Loveridge gave Cyberpunk 2077 a score of 5 out of 5 with little but praise, citing only the short core campaign as a notable drawback

Good Points

"Cyberpunk 2077 is an exemplar of open-world gaming, offering a freedom of exploration and character definition that provides a new pinnacle for the genre It takes everything we admire about open-world games, learns from it, and implements best-in-class variations on a very dense and detailed world

Bad Points

"The core campaign is surprisingly short, so you'll want to explore everything "Cyberpunk 2077" has to offer I was really surprised when I was faced with the "point of no return" warning in the core campaign, as it seemed to come just as the story was coming into its own"

Kallie Plagge reviewed Cyberpunk 2077 on Gamespot and gave it a 7 out of 10 She liked the deep RPG mechanics and, of course, Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand However, the plethora of side content did not mesh well with the main storyline, and bugs were a major problem

Good Points

"The side quests and the characters introduced in them are a bright light in the neon-soaked, bleak Night City, giving you room to explore the best that the core RPG mechanics have to offer"

Bad Points

"Technical issues not only literally took me out of the game, but made me question whether certain things throughout the game were intentional It often took me a minute or two to determine if the visual glitches were supposed to be caused by V's cyberware, a major part of the story, or if I needed to reload the game

Polygon, like many other outlets, had mixed opinions about Cyberpunk 2077 in a review by Caroline Petit Petit liked the game's character moments and plot, but ultimately thought it did not do enough to develop the open-world RPG or cyberpunk genres

Good Points

"Cyberpunk 2077 is not afraid to slow down, both in plot and character development The tight plotting, especially early on as the characters become obsessed with gathering information and meeting secretly to acquire all the tools they need to accomplish their daring crimes, draws us into V's life as a mercenary seeking to join the exclusive ranks of Night City's criminal elite"

Bad Points

"This is what I least expected about Cyberpunk 2077" The concept of "cool" is so tied to the digital persona of past heyday rockers that it sometimes feels like looking at your uncle's musty record collection while talking about how great the Rolling Stones are"

Gene Park contributed a review of Cyberpunk 2077 to the Washington Post He praised the game's scope and attention to detail, but was put off by bugs and unpolished enemy AI

Good points

"The story may seem like a bland petty crime drama at first, but it gears up without anxiety The forced first-person perspective lends itself well to tense moments It feels like a proper role-playing adventure, not just a shooter with a story"

Bad Points

"The artificial intelligence here probably contributes to the overall shenanigans of the game Both enemies and allies have no clear combat tactics other than point-and-shoot to death Encounters with bosses are even worse, and the mechanics are confusing