Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the strangest games in recent memory. It was named ‘game of the decade’ and ‘humanity’s biggest failing’ before it even launched, then most of us played it and realised it was just okay. There are many reasons to be down on the game, several of which I’ve written about before, but when played in a certain way, I finally understand what the ‘game of the decade’ types are on about. It’s not the game of the decade,- in fact, it’s not even close - but if you push back against its intentions, you’ll find a much more compelling experience.

I’ve beaten the game twice, spending over 100 hours on my second playthrough, so despite not being its biggest fan, I think that makes me a reasonable authority on what it does right and what it does wrong. Double saves have let me see every ending, and I’ve completed every quest bar the Corpo mission and one that bugged out on both playthroughs, because Cyberpunk amirite? What I noticed is that for all the game’s violence and its embrace of blood and gore and all those cool things, the best missions don’t require a single bullet.

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The first time I played Cyberpunk 2077 was at launch, where a mixture of my job and my prayers that the PS5 could go 20 minutes without crashing caused me to rush through the main storyline. While the crashes didn’t help, it felt incredibly underwhelming, especially with the swathe of promises about branching choices, the phoned-in character creator with zero customisation in-game, and the gunplay, driving, and traversal all feeling well below par. The second time, I played it as a fashion shoot simulator. This V was far more photogenic, and despite the lack of transmog I opted for form over function with my looks. This made for a slower, much more enjoyable playthrough, allowing me to soak in every inch of Night City.

Cyberpunk 2077

I still don't think it was worth the hype. I struggle to think of any game that could be, but if there’s one that is, it certainly isn't Cyberpunk 2077. There's a decent game in here somewhere, and if it had less marketing and more development time, a great one might have emerged. Right now though, it's the moments of quiet amidst the carnage that make it worth it.

Sinnerman, as regular readers of TheGamer will know, is Cyberpunk 2077's best quest. After fans named it one of the most underrated quests in the whole game a month ago, I wrote about why they were right. It involves a criminal who finds Jesus on death row and asks that his execution be a recreation of Christ's crucifixion, saved as a braindance so other Christians can experience the sacrifice of the Lord. It's exactly the kind of story a cyberpunk narrative should seek to tell, although Cyberpunk 2077 leans away from this far more than it leans in.

Us Cracks - secretly the game's best characters - also have an excellent, (mostly) non-violent mission. With one of the girls dealing with a stalker, you must take to the rain-soaked streets, neon buzzing in the noir darkness, to catch the perp. Another musical quest, called Violence despite being pretty non-violent, centres around Lizzy Wizzy. The chrome-covered singer suspects her boyfriend of being up to no good, and when you follow him through the club, you find out he's not cheating on her - he's attempting to clone her. Very grim, but very better-than-go-here-shoot-these-dorks. While Delamain's car retrieval quests occasionally call for minor violence and are weirdly reliant on old Vine memes, they also add more depth beyond the usual 'blast your way to X' missions.

Cyberpunk 2077 fashion shoot

And obviously Judy's romance quest, which sees you swimming through a modern day Atlantis, is the most memorable example of Cyberpunk 2077's bulletless brilliance. River's romance is weirdly twisted too, but romancing River means a) not being a lesbian and b) fucking a cop, so I can't in good conscience recommend it. You do get to see weird cow nightmares though, so maybe that balances things out.

Even almost a year on, conversations around Cyberpunk 2077 remain toxic and are pulled to extremes by either side. For that reason, I'll end on this: Cyberpunk 2077 is a decent game that's good when it's good and bad when it's bad. That ought to keep everybody happy, right? If you still haven't played Cyberpunk because you're waiting for the bug fixes and upgrades and everything else, don't go in all guns blazing - the game might surprise you.

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