Cyberpunk 2077

I avoided Cyberpunk 2077 for a long time because of the launch reputation, but playing it now (post–Update 2.0/2.2) it honestly feels like the game it was always trying to be. The big systems overhaul in Update 2.0 (perks/skill trees, cyberware, etc.) makes builds way more fun and the moment-to-moment gameplay a lot tighter.
And Update 2.2 adds extra customization and quality-of-life stuff that just makes the whole vibe better.
What I liked:
Night City is insane — the atmosphere, visuals, and just wandering around are the best part.
Side quests are where the game shines. A lot of them feel more memorable than the main story in a good way.
Combat/build variety is great: guns, blades, stealth, hacking — you can roleplay your own style pretty easily.
What I didn’t love:
It can still be janky sometimes (AI/pathing, little bugs, awkward moments).
Driving can feel weird depending on the vehicle.
Performance can be heavy — if your hardware is struggling, it’ll kill the immersion fast.
About the DLC: Phantom Liberty is genuinely worth it if you like story content — it adds a new district (Dogtown) and a spy-thriller style campaign that’s one of the best parts of the whole experience.
TL;DR: If you’re buying Cyberpunk in 2025, you’re not buying the “launch version” drama — you’re buying a really strong open-world RPG with great atmosphere and quests, plus some remaining rough edges.

i wish i could hit my head so hard that i forgot about this game so i could get the chance to experience it again for the first time. 10/10 game

Unbelievable—I’m saying this now, but there’s no way I would’ve said it back when Cyberpunk 2077 first launched. Those memes about all the bugs and crashes? Yeah, I was one of the people who couldn’t deal with it. I rage-quit and left it for dead.
But coming back to it now? 10/10. I’m honestly blown away. The gunplay is smooth and satisfying, the story is incredibly rich, and the graphics are on a whole other level. It’s clear that years of work and countless patches turned this game into something truly special. CD Projekt Red really redeemed themselves, and I’m glad I gave it a second shot. If you dropped it like I did back then, trust me—it’s worth diving back in.

Even though this game had a rough launch, Cyberpunk 2077 today is a completely different experience, and honestly, it’s one I recommend.
The atmosphere is top-tier. Night City looks incredible, and sometimes I just drove around slowly, because the visuals and the overall vibe are that good. It’s got style, no doubt about it.
As an RPG, it’s far from perfect. If you’re expecting deep choice and consequence mechanics, this isn’t the game for that. Your decisions don’t really change much, and that’s a bit disappointing. But if you can accept it for what it is, a story-driven action game with RPG elements, it’s a lot of fun.
The gameplay is solid, the story has its moments, and there’s plenty to do. And with the DLC, there’s even more content to enjoy. After all the updates and improvements, Cyberpunk 2077 went from a mediocre launch to a game that’s absolutely worth playing in 2025.
It’s not the best RPG out there, but it’s stylish, entertaining, and offers tons of hours of gameplay. If you skipped it at launch, now’s the time to check it out.

Every time I start the game over I tell myself I won't be a Netrunner. Well, I'm a Netrunner again.

I waited four years before playing this game due to pesky real-life distractions. Remembering, but not experiencing, all of the flak the game got near its release, I think I unwittingly timed it perfectly.
World/Immersion:
I won't be the only one to say it, and won't be the one to say it the best, but when you play this game, you're in another world which is supremely realized and oozes with life. The third or fourth ingame night after the intro I was making my way down the street, rain starting to fall, and the blade runner umbrellas popping out, wet streets shining under various lights, with "I really want to stay at your house" catching my ear on a passing radio followed by me quickly swapping to it on mine, just as it hit the ~55sec mark and opens up... the entire experience was pure, unadulterated _Excellence_. While the expansion is not perfect (but it's still pretty good), the part where the performer comes on stage at the party midway through--I was actually _in_ that room, making my way through the crowd to get a better view, just soaking it all in. The game has several chef's kiss moments such as these.
Story:
Right up there if not leagues ahead of 95%+ of other AAA games around the same time or since, and up there with some of the best indie games I've played the last decade. I was engaged pretty much the entire time. HR was not in the room. The characters have flaws, personalities, and reasonable goals for which they take reasonable actions to pursue, which is as refreshing as it is an unfortunately novel concept for much of western storytelling these days. If you'll forgive what is a severely dated comparison now, Fallout 4's story looks like the low-effort output of a 12 year old C student compared to what Cyberpunk offers. As far as V, your own character, dialog options never irked me; there was rarely a time where the thing I wanted to say wasn't an option for V, and never really a dialog summary that misled me. There's several subtly branching paths that might make a reply worthwhile.
Combat:
Feels fine enough, and more than a few times a bit of a thrill, especially for the first couple of encounters each time after you unlock (or install) some new ability. I played it on normal mode, and I think I somewhat regret not doing it one notch harder. Despite combat feeling good and not really being a weakness, it would be the weakest point of this masterpiece if I was forced to choose one.
Non-combat Gameplay:
Driving a car or bike feels fine enough. Movement in general feels just fine. The little hacking game is not as annoying as most other ones in other games. Brain dances are a fantastic thing to play with, even if they are slightly hand-holdy. Entering and leaving conversations with people feels extremely fluid. Ingame money isn't so plentiful that it quickly feels useless, but not so hard to obtain that it feels like you must grind. The crafting system is limited and largely ignorable for those that prefer that, yet still worthwhile enough for those who prefer having one.
Bugs:
I'm only addressing this since the game was notorious at launch. I played this game for the first time in December 2024, right as v2.2 dropped. In my 100+ hours, I noticed three odd NPC clipping incidents, some cars clipping through on cutscenes (seemingly to avoid collisions during dialog, which I am okay as a fudge to preserve immersion (though apparently this was even addressed in a patch later in 2025!)), and one glaring floating object. The most common thing to happen, maybe 12-16 times for me across 100+ hours, was for environmental clutter objects, especially stacked ones like piles of garbage, to jostle or break as you enter a room or get near them. If this hadn't have happened I might have forgotten I was playing video game entirely. For the scope and complexity of this game, that these things are all I noticed is damned impressive.
Performance:
This thing ran silky smooth almost all of the time on medium-high settings on my unimpressive 2023 rig. At times when driving through the city at 180+ MPH there was some 50~100ms load stuttering every 45 seconds or so. Not a single crash to desktop. All in all very pleasing.
Annoying Monetization:
None! No ingame micro DLCs or other signs of the rot affecting most other publishers. Thank you, CDPR.
I can't speak about how it was at launch, but as for the game that I just finished in 2025? These guys fucking nailed it. I can't recommend it highly enough. Treat yourself to this experience if you have not yet done so. It's well worth full price, and on a sale you'd be silly not to grab it, even if it takes you a few years to get around to playing it.

From zero to hero. This is one of the best video games of all time, that said, the precedent of releasing unfinished games needs to change.