CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is reportedly beset with bugs and glitches on launch, especially on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
As previously reported, to say the game was hotly anticipated to some would be an understatement. The game was announced back in 2014, with thieves then stealing the game’s in development files and demanding a ransom in 2017.
A new trailer was finally revealed in 2018, before finally being announced in 2019 to launch on April 16th, 2020. It was later delayed to September 17th. CD Projekt President Adam Kiciński would later insist that Cyberpunk 2077 would still meet its planned release date, despite the “troubled times” brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
The game was then delayed to November 19th. CD Projekt Red Co-Founder Marcin Iwinski and Head of Studio Adam Badowski insisted in a joint-statement that the game was “finished both content and gameplay-wise,” with only bug-testing and balancing remaining.
It was announced in early October 2020 that the game had gone gold. In other words, finished and sent to be distributed on discs and digital distribution platforms. No announcement of a Day 1 patch was made at that time.
The game had one final delay to December 10th. The reason for this was cited by Iwinski and Badowski and as “undercalculating” the time spent improving the game via a Day 0 patch, along with preparing the game for multiple platforms while working from home.
The game finally launched on that day for Windows PC (via Epic Games, GOG, and Steam), PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia. The game is also coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in 2021, and players on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One respectively will be able to upgrade to the next-gen for free.
We previously reported how there were numerous reports of leaked gameplay footage online, along with an image of a boxed PlayStation 4 copy of the game outside of store shelves. CD Projekt Red stated they were looking to “take legal action against anyone breaking embargo/street date.”
CD Projekt Red then released PlayStation 4, PlayStation 4 Pro, and PlayStation 5 gameplay footage; focusing on the same areas shown in the leaked footage.
The rocky road continued up to early reviews. While early reviewer scores praised the game overall (currently sitting at 90 out of 100 on Metacritic), Associate Editor of Game Informer Liana Ruppert reports that while playing the game she suffered “one major seizure and felt several moments where I was close to another one.”
Ruppert further claimed the initial Braindance sequence in the game featured a device inspired by medical devices designed to intentionally induce seizures. The player character places a headset over their face which flashes white and red LED’s into the character’s (and player’s) eyes.
“If not modeled off of the IRL design,” Ruppert states “it’s a very spot-on coincidence, and because of that this is one aspect that I would personally advise you to avoid altogether. […] “This is a pattern of lights designed to trigger an epileptic episode and it very much did that in my own personal playthrough.”
Now, the game has finally launched, players have found the game has issues with graphics and bugs. Despite the aforementioned high praise from reviewers prior to the game’s launch, even they admitted the game had those issues.
Currently the PC Metacritic userscore for Cyberpunk 2077 is 6.6, and was at 5.8 with the first 1000 user reviews. Meanwhile the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions have scored 2.6 and 3.2 respectively with users.
It should be noted that due to the game’s widespread infamy, that those who have not played the game may be submitting user reviews. The platform’s user reviews do not verify if a user has completed or played a game. For example in February a user of Reset Era orchestrated the review bombing of AI: The Somnium Files.
Though the exact motivation was never clear (evidence suggests it was due to the user’s grudge with the game’s content), the user initially they claimed they did it to prove how easy it was to manipulate a userscore on Metacritic. They cited how Warcraft III: Reforged became the lowest rated game on Metacritic after outcry from fans.
Another game that had drawn attention to Metacritic’s user review system was The Last Of Us Part II. Despite high praise from reviewers and critics, the majority of players seemingly despised the game. This may have been motivated by major cutscenes from the game leaking, making many feel the game would have an unsatisfying conclusion. After release and in-context, this only grew worse.
Metacritic placed a 36 hour grace period on user reviews for video games in July of this year. Metacritic would later insist this decision was not motivated by reactions to any particular game.
Editor’s Note: On citation 14, the video contains bright flashes that have allegedly caused epileptic seizures. We have linked to a time-stamp beyond that point. In addition, some of the links below may contain spoilers.
So- how bad are the issues in Cyberpunk 2077? For some the hashtag #Cyberbug2077 is trending, where players submitted their own screenshots and videos highlighting issues. Combined with other scenes from Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch, [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and more] the alleged glitches include (but are not limited to):
- Textures not loading properly or being blurry.
- NPC animation errors, t-posing, and parts of their model vanishing.
- NPCs, cars, and the player phasing through geometry, doors, and the world; especially when players move at high speed.
- NPCs being replaced by entirely different NPCs sitting in the same position when the player moves away a few feet, then returns. This also occurs should an NPC be made to run away (i.e. If they are shot at).
- NPCs vanishing or appearing out of thin air.
- NPCs randomly dying and sustaining injuries.
- Objects NPCs hold floating in mid-air (entirely stationary, moving in the correct manner but out of the NPC’s hand, remaining stuck to the NPCs’ hand when they should clearly no longer be holding it, or multiple copies floating in the air)
- NPCs in wheelchairs standing up and running away when being shot at.
- Female “vagrant” NPCs peeing while standing up (using the male NPC animation), and continuing to pee while walking around.
- Cars bouncing wildly into the air after minor impacts.
- Cars failing to drive up to you after being hailed, and getting caught in geometry.
- Being able to escape combat with police (and remove the Grand Theft Auto-style wanted rating) by starting a conversation with an NPC or merchant.
- Enemies taunting and moving around as though in combat you while you are in a conversation, but not attacking you.
- The player’s gun vanishing during a mission where they fire at enemies while an NPC drives their car.
- Enemies de-spawning when you exit a room, and police enemies seemingly spawning behind you in a dead-end area when your wanted rating is high enough.
- Carried bodies of dead NPCs being able to clip into geometry when players drop them into it.
- In the character creator, the player’s penis can hang outside of their clothes.
In addition players claim they are experiencing frequent crashes, and poor optimization. The game’s graphics are also stated to be worse on console versions, with poor frame-rates, texture load times, and resolution (and not looking as they did in prior trailers).
Some are saying the game should have been delayed yet again, as the game required more development. There have also been unconfirmed claims of players getting refunds on Steam and the PlayStation Store.
Finally, while the game had a mode to disable licensed music for streamers concerned with DMCA strikes, it seems that mode still enabled some licensed music to play. CD Projekt Red have apologized for this, state there is a fix in the works, and recommends users to mute the game’s music.
CD Project Red have already released Hotfix 1.04 (changelog can be found here). We will keep you posted as we learn more, and you can expect our thorough review soon.
Image: Previously released press release.
