Cyberpunk 2077's big Xbox Series X|S patch is here ... but is it good enough?

Source: Windows Cardinal

I loved Cyberpunk 2077, right from launch. I stand by my review of the game, and am still more than than happy to not only phone call it my 2022 game of the year, simply one of my favorite games of all time. That said, I did play exclusively on the PC version of the game on a capable rig without any expectations any, which is an experience that very aggressively diverged from many others.

Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox and PlayStation was a well-documented mess. The new-gen Xbox consoles didn't do too much to mitigate the damage either, with poor resolution, bad textures, poor performance, and glitches galore. Since then, CDPRED has been difficult at work trying to repair the game and bring it up to expectations. This week, we finally got the i.5 update that brought with it new-gen enhanced versions, consummate with a wealth of other changes and improvements.

I went back to give Cyberpunk 2077 another effort on my Xbox Series X, to come across whether it lived upwards to my experiences on the PC version. Thus far, I'd say it's finally prepare for console play — with caveats.

Rebalancing the loot and "RPG" aspects

Source: Windows Central

One of my biggest complaints and criticisms about Cyberpunk 2077 was the itemization and RPG mechanics. In my humble opinion, CD Projekt RED isn't peculiarly great at this in general, with itemization and graphic symbol progression in The Witcher iii falling a bit on the messy side. Cyberpunk 2077 turned that strangeness upwardly a notch, though, with itemization that not simply made characters look horrible, but too came with gameplay-trivializing overpoweredness in sure gear combos.

I played Cyberpunk 2077 entirely equally a Netrunner in my review, which I'm sure enhanced my experience of the game overall. I didn't appoint much with the game'due south weaponry or gear, instead opting to hide in a corner and murder enemies via CCTV cameras and hacks. This gameplay style felt great and still does, only in subsequent attempts to play, I found Cyberpunk's gunplay and melee combat wholly lacking. CD Projekt RED has attempted to accost some of these inconsistencies by adding new weapons and rebalancing some of the game'southward high-cease mods and equipment aspects. You tin can't just stack mountains of crit-enhancing mods anymore, with new restrictions forcing y'all to be a little more than considerate about how you lot approach character building.

Many high-end items now have more than strict stat requirements too, which should add together to the sense that your build actually matters. Some existing builds might end upwardly broken equally a result of this, though, with no way to re-allocate stats beyond starting over every bit of writing. They have added bonus stats to certain bionic upgrades, though. For example, Gorilla Artillery now enhances your "body" stat, allowing you to deport heavier weapons without actually investing the points into your grapheme.

While some existing playstyles may become nerfed equally a event, many of these tweaks should add to the game'southward depth, allowing for lesser-used builds to smoothen. CD Projekt Crimson too tweaked some talent copse like Cold Blooded to bring them up to par with other builds. CD Projekt Scarlet also added new animations for sure melee weapons, similar the Katana, which enhances the "cyborg ninja" fantasy a off-white chip.

Source: Windows Central

I demand to get deeper into the game to really get a feel for how this translates to overall gear progression, just early impressions are promising. This time, I'chiliad going through the game as a tech sniper with calorie-free hacking, which should allow me to pick off dangerous enemies through walls and then opt for a tech shotgun to mop up.

Sadly, it doesn't seem like CD Projekt RED has gone to much trouble to address how horrible-looking gear is in the game. You tin can accept a badass armor suit, then find a ripped neon greenish vest that has improve stats. The game badly needs some course of "transmogrification" arrangement where you can swap an item'due south stats for another item's looks, but I suspect that'll come in a futurity patch. CD Projekt Blood-red did add a barber system to your mirror in-game, allowing yous to change hairstyles and the similar, so I doubtable they've heard the feedback well-nigh the visual aspects of roleplaying in Cyberpunk 2077.

Speaking of visuals, let's dive into some performance and graphics criticisms, shall we?

Visuals, performance, and AI enhancements

Source: Windows Central

I did dabble with Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X post-launch but found it too horrible to play. The game ran far better on my RTX 2070 gaming PC, both in terms of visual quality and performance, making the Xbox version simply rough to deal with. Thankfully, as of 1.5, the game has get a petty closer to what you might await from a "AAA" new-gen game.

Previously while driving effectually Night City, the game would hitch and stall, unable to stream new areas fast enough on the Xbox Series X. Performance enhancements and optimizations seem to take fixed that across the board, with the game running at a thoroughly stable 60 FPS at all times. The game is simply stunning, with 1 of the densest and detailed open worlds in manufacture history, and the Xbox Series X finally comes a little closer into parity with its PC analogue. It'southward not all glowing, though.

The "rooftop sequence" with Johnny Silverhand was utterly listen-blowing with ray tracing enabled.

Cyberpunk 2077 has a ray-tracing mode on Xbox Series 10, which is a little tough to utilise. It absolutely craters the frame rate on Xbox Series X, cut in half to 30 FPS. Not only that, but information technology seems to introduce some uncanny input lag that'south difficult to measure. The game is utterly stunning with ray tracing turned on, dripping in graphical opulence, but it just makes it feel a bit tough to play. The "rooftop sequence" with Johnny Silverhand was utterly mind-blowing with ray tracing enabled, something more than akin to that Matrix demo nosotros recently got, but the frame charge per unit trade-off is a bit too much in full general play. Information technology'southward a shame, considering on PC it tin produce truly indulgent environmental realism without impacting performance anywhere almost equally much equally it does on console. Hopefully, Microsoft can explore machine learning to elevate ray-tracing capabilities of the Xbox Series X, because today, it but doesn't seem to be quite there yet.

Source: Windows Central

Source: Windows Primal

Furthermore, if you're on an Xbox Serial S, you're pretty much flat out of luck here. While the game has been improved over its Xbox One S backward-compatible format, the game is still capped at 30 frames per second, despite the more than powerful CPU found in the Xbox Series S. CD Projekt Ruby-red says they are investigating potential methods to raise the frame rate, but at to the lowest degree for at present, the Xbox Series S version of Cyberpunk 2077 notwithstanding remains a bit of a disappointment. Considering other games like Chivalry 2 and Call of Duty eventually did figure out how to squeeze more frames out of the Xbox Series South, I'm hopeful that Microsoft can potentially piece of work with CD Projekt Ruddy to assist elevate the Xbox Series Southward version a bit.

1 of the virtually contentious aspects of Cyberpunk 2077 pertains to its sandbox. Coming in from other CD Projekt RED games with no expectations whatsoever, I did not expect Cyberpunk 2077's NPC behavior to be any more than complex than that of The Witcher 3, serving merely as background objects rather than sandbox entities. However, CD Projekt Ruby's marketing near definitely tries to align the game with Grand Theft Machine-style expectations, and it became a central criticism of the game over time. It does seem similar CDPRED has made some enhancements here, though. Vehicles behave a little more than intelligently than earlier in subtle ways, slowing down alee of inclines and other obstacles. Constabulary behave a little more intelligently too, reacting to criminal behavior from NPCs in a less scripted, and more dynamic way.

I think CD Projekt Crimson may nevertheless have a long way to go before the sandbox truly feels "alive" and not like a properties, though, if that is indeed what they're going for. But the work being done is excellent and makes the game world already feel more like a sandbox, and less similar a pretty background y'all're meant to mostly ignore.

A long road to redemption

Source: Windows Central

Despite the enhancements, Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox is still glitchy. Later on a few hours of play, I've probably encountered more than glitches and odd behavior than my entire playthrough on PC, coupled with four hard crashes. I've seen NPCs in cutscenes path through objects. I've seen the return of an sometime bug where "jacking in" to objects glitches out. I've also experienced hovering objects and strange ragdoll anomalies in gainsay. Nearly irritatingly of all, sometimes the music gets corrupted, adding maddening distortion to bass tones in some tracks — although, feel from other games on Xbox makes me wonder whether this is an issue with Xbox's Quick Resume feature, rather than Cyberpunk itself, since I've had this happen in other games too.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an incredibly special game, with unprecedented ambition and ecology detail, in a earth that withal has truly insane potential.

Indeed, it still seems like there'due south a long route ahead before Cyberpunk 2077 really hits the level of quality and smoothen CD Projekt Carmine led people to expect. Cyberpunk 2077 is an incredibly special game, with unprecedented ambition and environmental detail, in a world that notwithstanding has truly insane potential for DLC and long-term fun. CD Projekt RED was one of the manufacture's almost love developers before Cyberpunk 2077, making it something of a cautionary tale. The all-time place to play undoubtedly remains a Windows PC. Still, I think Cyberpunk 2077 as of ane.5 is more than than in a playable country for Xbox Serial X gamers, but Xbox Series S gamers may notwithstanding want to hold off a chip to see whether they can solve the FPS problem.

Patch 1.five says to me that CD Projekt RED has finally turned a corner on salvaging Cyberpunk 2077, though. The boosted weapons, gameplay features, and other tweaks are a promising sign that more costless content and expansions could exist on the way to elevate and enhance the game even farther and assistance it to finally deliver on that very clear potential and become unanimously one of the best Xbox games of all time in the process.

Night City

Cyberpunk 2077

There'south a city to burn down

Ignore the haters, Cyberpunk 2077 is 1 of the best open up-world games ever fabricated, although it remains a flake rough around the edges. Xbox Series X and PC players should exist good to get at present, but Xbox Series S gamers may want to wait a bit longer. For those on Xbox 1 consoles ... you should probably skip this one until you tin upgrade.

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Updated February 2022

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/cyberpunk-2077s-big-xbox-series-xs-patch

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