While Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch last December, to say the least, the game has had a pretty successful year so far full of patches and updates. The game is starting to really take shape as exampled by the fact that CD Projekt Red decided to include a small batch of cosmetic DLC with the 1.3 update that went live recently. Along with the DLC, the patches that have come to the game have fixed plenty of issues, making Night City as immersive as ever. However, while game-breaking glitches and straight-up application crashes have become less frequent, Cyberpunk 2077 is still far from being a completely polished experience.
From Cyberpunk 2077's exploding characters to infinite money exploits, there's still a certain level of "bugginess" that comes hand in hand with playing the game. Though it's certainly gotten better, it's likely to remain flawed until even more updates and fixes come to the game. All that said, it's highly unlikely that Cyberpunk 2077 will ever be entirely bug-free, but that's okay. CD Projekt Red has been working to make each subsequent update the game's best yet, and if the studio stays on course with its update schedule, Cyberpunk 2077 could be able to escape its bad reputation. Ultimately, the game can never be rid of every bug, but players shouldn't expect it to be.
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Open World Games Can Never Be Perfect
There are plenty of open-world titles that are considered some of the best that the medium of video games has to offer. Titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, GTA 5, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt have all received near universal praise for their expansive open worlds and solid narratives, but there's not a single game on that list that runs completely bug-free. Despite their own individual issues, each title is able to stand above them and be recognized for their strengths.
While it's rare for an open-world game to launch with as many issues as Cyberpunk 2077 had when it released, just about every title now is worked on post-release to reduce the number of bugs that players experience in a game's early days. At a certain point, however, every game will stop receiving frequent support and updates, despite the fact that glitches and bugs still exist and are experienced by players. After all, there's no way for a studio to be able to devote the resources to fix every aspect of a game as open-worlds continue expanding in scope.
Getting Cyberpunk 2077 To An Acceptable State
None of this is to say that players should simply accept glitchy and broken games; far from it. The state that Cyberpunk 2077 released in was unacceptable, as it could hardly run on the consoles that it was made for. That said, with the support that the game has received since its release, it's improved significantly to the point where Cyberpunk is now back for sale on the PlayStation Store. As the game continues to get patched and updated, Cyberpunk is getting much closer to a level of bugginess that's acceptable for most open-world titles. As stated above, it'll never be completely bug-free, but it can get to the point where it isn't viewed in such a negative light.
It seems like CD Projekt Red is aware of the expectations that fans have for all of its subsequent updates and Cyberpunk releases. By the time its first big, narrative expansion comes out, Cyberpunk 2077 will likely be close to, if not inside, the acceptable range of issues that all open-world titles have. Hopefully, that comes sooner rather than later so that fans can dip into the world of Night City and refresh on the game's lore before the narrative DLC finally drops.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One. PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades are in development.
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