From where I'm standing, CDPR have a problem, and the name of that problem, oddly enough, is "The Witcher 3". Those who have played and enjoyed TW3 have experienced the limits of what can currently be achieved with a modern open world RPG, and it is glorious. The trouble with making a game that damn good, however, is that your fans expect you to do it again, and my experience thus far - just a few hours in - is that Cyberpunk 2077 does not equal those lofty standards. Yet.

Among the early reviews on Steam I've read praise and criticism alike that speak to my heart. I have seen no sign of some of the technical issues (ever-present trees, frequent crashes, etc) that have plagued other players, leading me to believe that these might be clientside and not directly related to the game, so maybe look into that before assuming that CP2077's launch is broken. Be aware also that some of the more glaring issues I *did* experience - no lip animation during conversations and invisible guns being the most jarring - have already been patched out, which is promising.

On the other hand, some game features that have been fully integrated and function correctly feel uninspired. At this early juncture the mods, augmentations, hacks and the skill tree mostly revolve around boosting your basic combat stats, debuffing enemy damage resistance, dealing direct damage or distracting enemies; there is little variation on these themes. Where is the cool stuff? We have destructible obstacles in the environment, so why can't I augment myself to punch or charge through them? Or run up walls? Where are our crazy sprint speeds? Xray or thermal vision? Drones? Stealth augmentations?

Then there are the weapons. Since most hostile side missions seem to devolve into gunplay eventually, and since all dropped weapons can be looted, you will quickly find yourself neck-deep in dakka. These, however, are mostly clones of the same three or four guns with slightly altered stats. Admittedly, there is no real need (at normal difficulty, at least) to pore over the minute differences to ensure you have a razor edge over the opposition, but that does beg the question of why CDPR chose to include it at all. And again, where was their creativity? Guns typically fall into the Power or Tech categories, with advantages to enjoy depending on how you work your skill tree, but they are still minor variations on the theme of propelling ammo into targets. I'm yet to see anything that promises to mix things up, such as grenade launchers, flamethrowers, etc, but if pistols, SMGs and shotguns excite you, CP2077 has you covered. Weapon feedback feels great, though, with shotguns in particular feeling, looking and sounding very beefy, knocking enemies down and keeping you on your toes with massive recoil. I love me a future shotty.

There's an argument to be had that this tactical content is something to be encountered later in the game and that CDPR didn't want to unbalance the early experience by making over-powered options available (a weak argument for a singleplayer game in my opinion, but that's a whole other rant). The thing is, powerful options *do* exist at the start of the game but are locked behind level and street cred requirements. That CDPR don't even tease at the possibility of more exciting options makes for a less interesting springboard into Night City and does little to motivate the player who likes to experiment.

There are other ways in which CP2077 feels like it has missed the mark. Vehicle handling is distinctive per vehicle (very good) yet somehow sluggish across the board (very bad). I could compare it to APB:Reloaded, in which driving cars was handled serverside....on laggy, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ servers. Further, vehicle AI pathfinding continues to find the slightest road obstruction worthy of backing up traffic to the end of the block; it's hard to fault CDPR for this as it seems to be something that has plagued every open world game with cars, ever. Running into or over a corpse on the road is like driving into a tank trap. NPCs have no sense of ownership and will pay no attention whatsoever as you strip their property of loot. Braindances, well, your mileage may vary; I personally find them kind of tedious, but I'm not a puzzle solver, and I can see the appeal they'd have to other people. All in all, the game lacks polish and gives the impression that it was rushed for release, despite having a longer development time than TW3. All in all, a start unworthy of the devs' reputation.

So, why Recommended?

Well....despite all my complaints - and there are quite a few of them, looking back - Cyberpunk 2077 is actually pretty good! I am a roleplayer at heart, and drawing you into V's blossoming career as a chromed-up, tooled-up, drugged-up, screwed-up merc is something the game does very, very well. Conversations with NPCs flow naturally and make you feel like you're part of a dangerous world. Rarely have I played a game in which I gave deep consideration as to how an NPC might feel about my choices; in CP2077, there is a deep certainty that upsetting the wrong people might have serious consequences. I have read complaints about CP2077 not allowing players to be who they want to be, and this is both true and, I think, missing the point. Cyberpunk doesn't want you to be yourself, it wants you to be V, in the same sense that The Witcher wants you to be Geralt rather than a blacksmith or a politician. You are not writing your own story in CP2077 - you are participating in someone else's. While that does indeed limit your freedom to a degree, it does allow for a more compelling narrative (looking at you, Dovaakhin, picking flowers and completing gem collections while Skyrim burns). The combat also appeals. It may take a little practice and a few loaded games, but once you let the current of battle take you, you will be absorbed all over again, slinging quickhacks, grenades and buckshot with joyful certainty to turn the tide.

I am not one to give a game a good review because it 'has potential' and 'will be so awesome when it's done, you guys', and CP2077 doesn't get a free pass. The early patch does suggest that CDPR are on top of things, however, and I would recommend that anyone having doubts due to negative reviews hold onto their money for now and check it out again in a month or two. I have a feeling that the gaming community - including myself - are in for a real treat.