Cyberpunk 2077
Wire your body with cyberware until you can slow time or fry a guard's optics, then take each Night City gig your way — netrunner, silenced pistol, or shotgun.
Fixed since 2.0 and worth it at $18 — Night City and the writing carry it, but the build variety is thinner than the skill tree pretends.
For you if
- You want a story-and-atmosphere RPG and will forgive a sandbox that's mostly backdrop.
- You loved the Night City of the trailers and want to actually live in it now that it runs.
- You're buying at $18 rather than $60 — that's the price where the complaints stop mattering.
Not for you if
- You want builds that play fundamentally differently; 170-hour reviewers say pistols and shotguns end up feeling the same.
- You expect missions to be gameplay-first — many are travel, then dialogue, then a short fight.
- You are on a mid-range PC and play long completionist sessions; crashes still come up for some.
Long-haul players credit Night City itself: 100-hour reviewers point to the density and the character writing as the reason they finished it twice.
Reviewers past 150 hours flag build sameness — different weapon specialisations end up playing alike, which flattens a second run.
Latest patch
Patched 11 months agoMedia
What critics say
- Digital Trends
It may have taken nearly three years, but Cyberpunk 2077 is now the game it should have been all along.
- TheGamer
It makes Cyberpunk 2077, unambiguously, worth the trip.
- PC Gamer
It doesn't reinvent the game as a whole, but it's a fantastic final outing for V and Night City, as well as one of the best individual stories CD Projekt Red has told to date.
Before You Play
Refreshed monthlyIs Cyberpunk 2077 fixed now?
Largely, since Update 2.0 in September 2023 — and it landed free for every base-game owner. CD Projekt Red rebuilt the perk trees from scratch, moved armour off clothing onto cyberware governed by Cyberware Capacity, added a wanted-level police system where MaxTac swoops in by AV, and introduced vehicle combat in both first and third person. Note the same update made an SSD a hard requirement rather than a suggestion.
Do you need the Phantom Liberty expansion?
No — it is a separate paid expansion, not a patch, and it requires the base game to play. It adds Dogtown, a spy-thriller storyline in which V works with secret agent Solomon Reed, and an exclusive Relic skill tree. The base game stands on its own; the systems overhaul that fixed it was a free update, not part of this purchase.
Which lifepath should you choose in Cyberpunk 2077?
Pick the backstory you want to roleplay — it matters less than it looks. Each lifepath gives a different roughly 20-minute prologue and background-tagged dialogue, but as of Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty the three still have no significant impact on the main story. Where they pay off is specific objectives: a Corpo V can bluff a guard during Gimme Danger, a Nomad can read Anthony Gilchrist's messages in The Pickup, and a Street Kid can talk past the guards at Fingers' clinic.
Source: Game8 — lifepath differences
Which build should you start with in Cyberpunk 2077?
After Update 2.0 a safe opening is roughly Body 4 and Reflexes 6, then push Reflexes to 9 early — that is the threshold for Tier 2 perks, where Dash and Air Dash live. Take Adrenaline Rush in Body for the health buffer, Hack Queue in Intelligence if you want quickhacks, and Ninjutsu in Cool if stealth appeals; leave Technical Ability until later levels. Avoid spreading points evenly, which can lock you out of higher-tier perks entirely.
Does Cyberpunk 2077 run well on modest hardware?
It is Steam Deck Verified, and Valve's compatibility report passes all four checks including that the default configuration is performant. On PC the official minimum is a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 580 8GB with 12 GB of RAM, rising to an RTX 2060 SUPER or RX 5700 XT with 16 GB for the recommended spec. An SSD is a hard requirement on both.
Source: Steam — system requirements
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