Well, after plenty of frenzied speculation over the past 48hrs or so, CD Projekt Red has finally dropped update 1.5 for Cyberpunk 2077, unleashing the much-anticipated next-gen version of their sci-fi RPG, a version which was initially planned to launch back in 2021.
It's certainly been a rough ride for the developer over the past 13 months, with a fairly horrific original launch on consoles, but it seems this is one cybernetically enhanced ship which is now on course for a somewhat brighter future if our initial impressions of the next-gen upgrade are anything to go by.
Yes, version 1.5 of Cyberpunk 2077 is an immediately noticeable and genuinely impressive improvement right out of the gates on Series X; it looks much better, runs far more smoothly and, most importantly, has seen a bevvy of crucial adjustments and additions made to NPC behaviour, driving mechanics and combat AI that make for a more engaging and convincing gameplay experience. This now feels like a game that's actually ready for release!
We jumped right back into Night City as soon as the next-gen upgrade dropped yesterday, playing through the game's opening and well into Act 2 and have, for the most part, been very pleasantly surprised with the changes that have been made.
We kicked off our playthrough utilising the new Ray Tracing mode which limits the game to 30fps and adds all manner of graphical bells and whistles but, after switching over to the 60fps Performance mode, we absolutely advise that you give Ray Tracing a miss for now, as the game feels noticeably less responsive, almost sluggish at times, at 30fps and shootouts with enemies were far more hit and miss as a result, the added wow factor just isn't worth the framerate hit in our opinion.
In Performance mode there are still a few small framerate dips here and there but, for the most part it sticks to that 60fps/dynamic 4K target and is a night and day difference over the game as we experienced it back in late 2020, when we gave it a rather average review due to its myriad bugs and gameplay issues. Night City is a truly impressive sight to behold in this new update then and, more importantly, it feels more alive than ever thanks to massive improvements in NPC behaviour.
The streets here are no longer patrolled by unresponsive dullards, clones and pedestrians who dematerialise as soon as you turn your back. Now crowds react to your presence, go ahead and unholster your weapon and watch them run for cover or even become hostile towards V, there's far fewer instances of the same character models trundling along beside one another, and all-in-all it makes taking in the sights and sounds of this sprawling dystopia a far more engrossing and convincing affair than what we experienced in 2020. Yes, we still came across one or two T-poses here and there, but it's such a huge improvement overall that we're more than happy to turn a blind eye at this stage.
As showcased in this week's livestream, the driving mechanics have also been updated and again it's a big improvement. It still feels a tiny bit floaty to us if we're being really picky, we'd like to see a little bit more weight added to the vehicles, but in terms of overall handling and how traffic in general behaves, CD Projekt Red has done a great job. The driving aspects of the original release were one of our biggest peeves with the game, it was something we weren't sure could be fixed to a satisfying degree and we honestly actually loathed using cars to get around, but they've genuinely managed to rectify it and patrolling the city streets, engaging in chases with the cops and handbraking around corners just for the hell of it feels much closer to how we'd always hoped it would here.
The biggest change though, the most dramatic improvement we've experienced so far, is absolutely with regards to the combat mechanics. Forget about buying apartments and changing your appearance in your bathroom, its chaotic, bloody running gunfights we're here for and the new enemy AI improvements make for battles that are a delight to get stuck into. Skags no longer run towards you like headless chickens, get stuck in scenery or entirely fail to notice that someone is trying to kill them with a gun. Instead, enemies now react intelligently, taking cover, flanking, repositioning themselves and making good use of grenades at long range and blocking attacks up-close, resulting in a far more rewarding combat experience.
Some ten or so hours into this next-gen revamp, then, and we're pretty delighted. None of this stuff should really be cause for celebration, we're well aware that almost all of the improvements we've detailed above are things that should have been there from the start, things that have been staples of this type of open world action-RPG for years, but we'll take it given the absolute shambles that was the original console launch of this game. Yes, we've still encountered a handful of visual glitches, the framerate can dip slightly in performance mode now and again and we experienced one full crash back to the Series X dash, but this is all small beans compared to the mess that came before.
CD Projekt Red still has plenty of work ahead, we wanna see further improvements to the police, for example, areas outside of the city itself need bulked out with reasons to go explore, and New Game+ is still AWOL, but Cyberpunk 2077 is now in a place where we can at least start looking forward optimistically. This is now a game that functions as it should have done all along, a far cry from what we were originally promised with regards to a genre-defining, choice-driven epic, perhaps, and still not really in a fully acceptable state for players on last-gen consoles, but certainly in a place where we're now looking forward to what's next in terms of story DLC and expansions. For the first time since November of 2020, we're just a little bit excited about Cyberpunk 2077.
We'll be continuing to plug away at the game over the coming days and our original review will be updated and added to accordingly once we've wrapped up our latest playthrough.
Have you been diving back into Cyberpunk 2077 or just beginning your first run through the game? How are you finding the next-gen upgrade? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 27
Like I've stated before, it appears this generation is the generation where raytracing isn't really an option. Especially, for shooters (might be an option for racing games). Once you go 60fps in a shooter you can't go back to 30fps. And I am yet to see it work at 60fps on console. So, we might as well just pretend raytracing doesn't exist sadly...
No FOV slider. Even the Stadia version has one. Shame.
@Trmn8r Metro Exodus enters the chat. That's an example of Ray Tracing done right on console. You should absolutely check it out. It's the best lighting I have ever seen on a console game.
@dani3po Stadia is effectively a modified PC version. Consoles rarely have an FOV slider as a wider FOV means more compute needed which cannot be easily optimised for. Instead consoles get the most optimised version for specific fixed hardware.
@Hillmoe Lol good call, Metro is the exception to all rules. Those guys are geniuses with graphics.
@Hillmoe Right and the Digital Foundry video explains it very well.
Not bothered jumping back in since that first hour on release day when I 'stopped' to wait specifically for this promised 'Next Gen' patch. My 'first' hour wasn't too bad on Series X but wanted to wait for this version.
Its unfortunately come at this time for me as I am clearing some of my backlog because Horizon: Forbidden West releases this week, so won't get around to 'trying' this for a while.
I'd be interested to see what 'Review' score this game would get if released today and interested to see DF's comparison too..
Am I crazy? People are acting like the only problems with this game were technical...
It’s a mediocre shooter with few impactful RPG elements, an okay story, and a pointless open-world that creates more problems than it solves.
Are we all just trying to justify buying it at full price on hype and promise? Just me?
@Spiders Well, yeah, as I think i've said in the article, it's nowhere near the game that was promised, it's got a lot problems, but we're looking at where we're at and what we've got, the improvements that have been made over the original release. There's still plenty of things which can't be fixed, it's not magically gonna become a 10/10 game or anything like that. But it's definitely a noticeable step up from where it was.
It went from a negative, to a zero. Hopefully with added updates and dlc, it can go from zero to a positive. I look forward to jumping in again, but let's not praise them for getting the game up to par. They need to go above and beyond, like the nms devs did. Then the praises should come.
Sorry but yall need to stop fanboying just because they added RTX now. The game is still the same awful thing that just literally plays itself. Must be really empowering to look at car sections where no matter what you do you cant influence anything in them.
Its like RDR2 all over again. "Wow I cant believe they let me Hold the X button for 45 minutes while the horses are riding themselves 12 out of 10"
Really glad I avoided the game until yesterday. This is my first experience with Cyberpunk, 4K 60hz with all the improvements. I was hoping for a physical next gen release though I must say.
@Quaali Huh? They just put in DVDs in these physical copies. You would need to download the other 56 gig no matter what.
I really like the game, both gameplay, graphics and sound is great. Story is exciting and voice acting is top notch. And so much improved after 1.5 so I am very happy what they did. This console generation have barely started, the pandemic and shortage of tech parts delayed the shift considerably. Soon enough we will see more impressive stuff.
@thiz- not if it was a native Series X copy without Smart Delivery. MLB The Show 22, King of Fighters XV, Hot Wheels Unleashed, etc...
@thiz- The version on the disc doesn't change. In order to play the game with updates you need to update the game. All the disc does is allows the system to perform a check to make sure you own the game, you aren't playing the game from the disc. The game installs from the disc and just works as copyright protection.
The only thing you would find on most “game discs” these days are licenses, proving that you own the game.
The great majority of the game data will be installed from a download, and subsequent updates.
@Trmn8r Metro Exodus was 4k 60fps with ray traced global illumination, and it was probably the most next gen game I've seen. I think it's what we should expect for games. Some sort of ray tracing at 4k 60fps. But it seems like some games aren't well optimized like Metro is, or their engines are more GPU heavy maybe, like Dying Light 2 can't even do 4k 60fps. So Metro Exodus gives me hope for this gen, but we'll see how many games actually hit that mark lol
I’ve just finished my 5 hour trial earlier and I’m actually glad they offered the trial as it has saved me £25 from buying it in the current sale. I don’t think it’s a bad game but I do agree with some people who say it’s mediocre. If it ever came to Game Pass one day then I’d give it another go and finish the story.
Aside from a few minor bugs I came across I was disappointed with the ray-tracing, I only noticed the shadows when switching between ray-tracing and performance mode and even then the shadows would fade away when I moved further away from it, for it to only pop in when I moved closer again. The reflections are no different from performance mode either. Ray-traced lighting would of been much better, especially at night time with all the neon signs around the city.
Where are all the bells and whistles from playing in ray-tracing mode that was mentioned in the article? I saw no difference from either graphic modes, so I went with performance mode for 60fps with no apparent graphical sacrifices from what I could see.
I also have not played the game until now. I am glad I waited, I am really enjoying it. I do agree with the RDR comparison though of hating the captive ride one the car moments.
@Trmn8r Miles Morales on PS5 does a good job with ray tracing too.
Has anyone heard any news at all about the Free to Play game Exo Mecha, that game has been radio silent for a long time... Feels like the only think they have said since announcing the game was that they needed to delay it to first quarter of 2022
@BleedingDreamer Miles Morales is 4k 30fps with Raytracing, and Performance RT is 1080p 60fps with Raytracing. Which is probably fine with that kind of game. Not as twitchy as shooters where 60fps is a gamechanger.
@MasterkillerX As I stated above, Metro team is an exception to everything. Those devs are graphical geniuses.
@Trmn8r it is 1440p @60fps with raytracing enabled. Shadows and reflections are rendered at 1080p.
@BleedingDreamer Lol k. Still not 4k60 with RT, which is what I am talking about.
Gotta say, for me the world, and scenes are very impressive. The amount of detail in the world is unrivalled in anything I've seen before. Shooting mechanics could be better. I'm only a few hours into 1.5 on series X, and am enjoying more than when I played on PS4 pro on release.
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