Cyberpunk 2077 Review: From a Buggy Launch to One of the Best RPGs

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person open-world action RPG from CD PROJEKT RED. You play as V, a mercenary in the megacity of Night City. The game came out on December 9, 2020 and its launch was wrecked by bugs, worst of all on PS4 and Xbox One. Five years on, after Update 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion, it’s a very different game. In this review we tell you where Cyberpunk stands today and whether it’s worth your time.

What Cyberpunk 2077 is about

You play as V, a mercenary in Night City, a city of corporations, gangs and implants. At the start you pick one of three Lifepaths, Nomad, Street Kid or Corpo. Each has its own prologue and its own dialogue options, but after the intro they all merge into the same main story. On top of that, Johnny Silverhand, played by Keanu Reeves, keeps talking inside your head. We won’t spoil more of the plot.

The game is played in first person and mixes shooting, stealth, hacking and melee. Which route you take depends on where you put your points. Which Lifepath to choose and how to get started is covered in our beginner’s guide.

Update 2.0 changed the game from the ground up

The free Update 2.0 from September 21, 2023 rebuilt the perk trees: fewer perks, but more impactful ones. Armor now comes mainly from cyberware, and the number of implants is limited by Cyberware Capacity. It added the NCPD police, who chase you on foot and in cars, and vehicle combat. In its Phantom Liberty review, PC Gamer wrote that 2.0 made Cyberpunk a more solid RPG whose systems finally complement its shooting, slashing and stealth.

Five attributes, Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence and Cool, decide which perks you unlock. You can refund perks individually for free, attributes only once. How it works is in our attributes and perks article.

Phantom Liberty

The paid expansion from September 26, 2023 is a spy thriller. V helps rescue the President of the NUSA, whose plane goes down in Dogtown, a district run by a militia. You work with agent Solomon Reed, played by Idris Elba. The expansion adds the Relic skill tree, new weapons and cyberware, and a new ending for the main game. PC Gamer gave it 87. The story takes roughly 15 to 22 hours, everything around 30. How to start it is in our Phantom Liberty guide.

What critics praise and what bothers players

On Metacritic the PC version holds 86 from 106 reviews. The PS4 version has 57 and the Xbox One version 61; the December 2020 launch was worst on the old consoles. At launch IGN and PC Gamer both praised the world and the stories, but both wrote about frequent bugs. IGN described a remarkable RPG whose mood gets spoiled by broken animations and missing models, PC Gamer gave it 78 and wrote about a stunning world undercut by bugs at every turn.

Players rate the game far better today than at launch. On Steam it has 87.0% positive out of 989,431 reviews, a Very Positive rating. One complaint that survived 2.0 comes from PC Gamer: outside missions Night City doesn’t draw you in much, you can’t break into apartments and the world is more backdrop than sandbox.

How long Cyberpunk lasts

The main story alone takes 15 to 20 hours, with the main side quests 40 to 50, and a full playthrough 70 to 100 hours. Rushing the main story isn’t worth it, though, because side quests decide which endings you get. Details are in how long it takes to beat Cyberpunk 2077.

State of the game in 2026

After 2.0 more free updates followed: 2.1 added the NCART metro with 19 stations and races, 2.2 expanded character customization and 2.3 in July 2025 brought AutoDrive, the Delamain taxi, new cars and a Mac version. The latest patch is 2.31 from September 2025, and in April 2026 a separate PS5 Pro update came out. Meanwhile CD PROJEKT is developing Cyberpunk 2, with no release date announced. What 2.3 brought is summed up in our Update 2.3 article.

Price and platforms

On Steam the game costs €59.99 and Phantom Liberty €29.99. On PS5 the base game is in the PS Plus Extra catalog. On Switch 2 the Ultimate Edition including Phantom Liberty came out in June 2025. On PS4 and Xbox One only the base game exists, without 2.0 and the expansion. We compare all editions and prices in our editions and price article.

On PC, plan for 70 GB on an SSD; the minimum is a GTX 1060 6 GB and 12 GB of RAM. On Steam Deck the game is rated Verified. Details are in our system requirements article.

Who Cyberpunk 2077 is for (and who it isn’t)

It’s for you if you want an RPG with brilliantly written characters and stories and enjoy putting together a build, whether as a hacker, a silent killer or a cyborg who goes through walls. If you shelved the game in 2020, today you’ll get a much better and more stable version.

Skip it if you expect an open world where you can poke into everything like in The Elder Scrolls. Night City is gorgeous, but outside missions there’s not much to do with it. And if you only have a PS4 or Xbox One, you get the old version without 2.0 and Phantom Liberty.

Verdict: Is Cyberpunk 2077 worth it?

Yes, if you play on PC or current consoles and want a story-driven RPG. We’re giving it 8/10.

Today Cyberpunk 2077 rests on strong stories, well-designed builds after Update 2.0 and an excellent Phantom Liberty expansion. After years of fixes, players rate it highly. Points come off for a world that’s mostly a backdrop outside missions, a short main story and the fact that the old consoles are stuck with the version from the buggy launch.

Playing Cyberpunk 2077? All our guides are on the Cyberpunk 2077 hub. Start with the beginner’s guide and read our attributes and perks article before planning your build. Anything else, ask on the GamersTogether Discord.

FAQ

This review is based on player ratings on Steam and critic scores on Metacritic, on reviews from IGN and PC Gamer, and on official information from CD PROJEKT RED. Information verified on October 21, 2026. All our guides to the game are on the Cyberpunk 2077 hub.