There has been a lot of discourse about Cyberpunk 2077, one of the biggest games to come out in the last five years, and one that has seen its own share of controversies and backlash from its poorly received launch until the developers slowly fixed their game over time to what it is today.

I waited patiently until the game was adequately patched up, and then waited even more. I wanted to experience it with the hardware ready to run it at full path tracing (something that was only added post-release) and enough free time to give it the attention it deserves.

The stars finally lined up, and I was able to play Cyberpunk 2077 almost five years after its release. Honestly, I didn’t even know what to expect. My hype and expectations for the game have been on a rollercoaster these past few years, but I can honestly say the experience of playing it for the first time in 2025 was still beyond what I expected, given its history.

Pros

• 🖋️The storytelling feels premium and really rivals the best books, movies, or games out there.
• 🏙️ The world-building and quest design is incredibly detailed, making Night City feel alive and believable.
• ❤️Side quest content is absolutely on par with the quality of the main quest.
• 🎭 The performances, especially by Keanu Reeves, are breathtaking, adding a lot of depth to the story.
• 🎮 The gameplay offers impressive variety and player choice, making the gameplay even more immersive on top of the story and roleplaying mechanics.
• 🌟 With path tracing on, the visuals are some of the most photorealistic and stunning I’ve ever seen.

Cons

• 🐞 A few engine quirks and bugs still punctuate an otherwise smooth experience.
• 🚗 Driving in first person is practically unplayable, making third-person a necessity.

A Consistently ‘Preem’ Experience All Around

Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition includes Phantom Liberty, which is an expansion that adds a sizeable middle chapter to the story. Right from the start, I have to say Phantom Liberty’s content is much better and more refined than the main quest, but the main game still stands strong on its own.

Jumping in, the first thing that stands out is just how consistently premium ‘preem’ the storytelling feels across the board. The story is crafted at a level you rarely see, the kind of writing and world-building usually reserved for the very best books, movies, or games out there. Night City is truly out of this world. There is so much depth, atmosphere, and detail in every mission and interaction, every single quest, side mission, and even random gig feels like it had real care and attention.

In other games, there’s the main quest and the side quests, and the side quests are usually filler content, full of padding and often forgettable or boring. In Cyberpunk 2077, though, both the main quest and side quests are on par in terms of quality and design; you’d think that everything is part of the main quest. It compels you to just keep questing and questing, doing every single thing in the game because everything feels genuinely high-quality, from the support character questlines to even simple “Odd Jobs” side quests that you might stumble upon while roaming around. Then there’s the actual “filler content” called Gigs, but even as the third or fourth-rate option, they’re still very compelling and never boring.

The developers went far beyond the basics, putting effort into even minor flavor like text messages, emails, video calls, and even dynamic loading screens at the start of every session, that shift depending on your progress and the world’s current events.

Breathtaking Performance

The cast performance is stellar, with performances that are nothing short of breathtaking. Keanu Reeves leads the pack, and it’s insane to think that he has more dialogue here than in most of his movies, especially in his John Wick films, imagine the sheer volume of lines for a role like this, and it shows in the game’s emotional punch. The rest of the cast matches this energy, bringing Night City’s citizens to life in a way that makes even brief encounters memorable.

Your Choices REALLY Matter

The gunplay and overall gameplay surprised me. Compared to many RPG shooter games that can feel floaty or disconnected, Cyberpunk 2077 delivers combat with real weight and variety. You get a ridiculous amount of freedom in how you approach every mission, whether going loud with heavy hitters like a shotgun, ARs, powerful revolver, or using silenced weapons, or even high-tech weaponry with auto-targeting mechanisms. Maybe you don’t want to fight at all and prefer hacking your way through or sneaking past enemies. That said, the progression tree is not the most compelling; some of the most attractive perks, in my opinion, are buried deep behind others you may not care for. Despite the ability to respec, the skill point requirements to access higher-tier perks make experimenting with new playstyles tough unless you commit a lot of points.

The game is almost entirely in first person, which adds to the immersion, except for the driving, which is playable in third person. And you know why? It’s because the first person driving sucks, it just doesn’t work. The angle is too low, the FOV is too narrow, there are no functional mirrors to use, and the camera just shakes and deviates too much from what’s ahead of the vehicle.

Roleplaying-wise, one of the game’s strongest points is the impact of your choices. Both the main story and Phantom Liberty branch into multiple, truly 100% different outcomes, far more than just a final cutscene or slightly different epilogue scene. Entire late-game sections completely change depending on what you do, which brings a rare sense of consequence and immersion but also means certain characters WILL be underdeveloped depending on your path. To see every layer of the story and the characters, multiple playthroughs are essentially required.

That said, when it comes to roleplaying “skill checks”, I felt the game was still lacking. There are only a limited number of meaningful skill checks throughout the whole playthrough, and most of my skills didn’t feel very useful or impactful regardless if I leveled them or not.

The Best Of The Best In Graphics

Visually, especially with path tracing mode enabled, Cyberpunk 2077 is about as beautiful as games come, even for a five year old game (path tracing mode was added post release, though). The lighting difference in path tracing versus regular ray tracing or no ray tracing is huge, and especially at night and with the proper HDR/brightness configuration, the visuals transforms into something almost photorealistic. There are quirks, though: for all the impressive environments and lighting, character models can still look plasticky or off at times, breaking a bit of the immersion.

And while performance is far better than at launch, a bit of the signature jank and rough edges from the engine are still around, expect the occasional physics bug or odd questing logic moment that reminds you it’s a sprawling open-world beast.

Conclusion

After almost five years of wild ups and downs, major and minor patches, and a full-blown expansion, Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition delivered for me an experience that feels worthy of its hype five years ago. When everything comes together, it’s a must-play RPG and a technical showcase, filled with moments of storytelling and world-building that live up to the game’s ambitions. There are still some rough spots, but the sheer quality of the narrative, the breathtaking city, the performances, and how truly different your story can turn out make this the best time to lose yourself in Night City.