Cyberpunk 2077 Review thread - Umm....

[SilentPony]

Cyberpunk Success Allows CDPR To Recoup Dev Costs On Preorders Alone, Revamp Employee Bonuses

CD Projekt Red earned back everything it invested very early on and has loosened the requirements for employee bonuses as a result.

hothardware.com

So the email they sent to their employees sounds like a great big "Fuck you". It basically reads that CDPR underestimated how terrible their employees were and how even under horrible conditions the employees did their best to deliver a "special game". Not a good game, and not a game that past expectations or was beyond what could have been done by a different team, just a "special game".

As if CDPR is saying "Look you did your best with your limited capacity, and really its our fault for trusting you." Also I should point out the email doesn't actually state they've changed their bonus structure, just that they acknowledge its shitty to tie it to the Metacritic score.

 

[Gergar12]

Spoiler: Jackie

Why can't we save Jackie, He is literally the best bro ever, no one even comes close... for a game that gives you lots of choices you sure don't get any here

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

So the email they sent to their employees sounds like a great big "Fuck you". It basically reads that CDPR underestimated how terrible their employees were and how even under horrible conditions the employees did their best to deliver a "special game". Not a good game, and not a game that past expectations or was beyond what could have been done by a different team, just a "special game".

As if CDPR is saying "Look you did your best with your limited capacity, and really its our fault for trusting you." Also I should point out the email doesn't actually state they've changed their bonus structure, just that they acknowledge its shitty to tie it to the Metacritic score.

Because of the game's initial success, CDPR has reportedly made some changes to bonus structure in favor of employees. Previous reports indicated that the team had been putting in some incredibly long hours over the months running up to release, and they stand to reap some of the rewards. According to a report from Bloomberg, CD Projekt had initially tied employee bonuses to the Metacritic score, which currently sits at 90, and release window. If the rating dipped any lower, however, the previous bonus structure would reportedly not pay out so much. Now, it seems that is no longer the case. In an email to employees, studio lead and creative director Adam Badowsky said,

We initially had a bonus system that was focused on the game’s ratings and the release date, but after consideration, we believe that measure is simply not fair under the circumstances. We underestimated the lengths and complexity involved to make this a reality, and still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game.

I really didn’t get that impression from that excerpt.

 

[SilentPony]

SNIP

Yeah but also "CD Projekt has not confirmed that report". So until they do, and I hope they do, its just kinda wishful thinking from a pretty passive aggressive email.

The email clearly states they tied the bonus to the metascore, and how that's unfair because they "underestimated the length and complexity involved to make this a reality" meaning they don't think the game is where they wanted it to be, meaning they're admitting if they kept the bonus tied to the metascore the employees won't be getting a bonus. Meaning they don't think their employees did a good job, which makes the last phrase "still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game" mean A. Its not necessarily a good game, just a special one and B. "everything you could" meaning they the managers think this game, that they don't believe justifies a bonus based on the metascore, is the best their employees could do. Its a pretty condescending way of saying "Look if we stuck by the old rules none of you would get a bonus because you're just so awful, so we're changing the rules to allow awful performance."

I'd be pretty insulted if I spent months under crunch and got told I did the best I could to make a special game.

 

[MrCalavera]

The game is really combat centric. Don't expect Deus Ex and Dishonered levels of 'immersive sim' here. But the combat is great and there is a huge amount of weapons to choose from. Maybe it can be played with bypassing the combat but I don't know how much shit needs to be unlocked before that is a viable option. To be honest most of the rpg mechanics seems to be mostly set dressing for the combat. It's closer to Fallout 4 then say an Arkane game. You really need to love the story and the world in Cyberpunk.

Well that's kinda dissapointing. I wasn't expecting Cyberpunk to be the Gaming Christ, but i was counting on an ersatz Deus Ex. Are atleast dialogue trees on par with, let's say, Witcher III?

 

[Neuromancer]

Well that's kinda dissapointing. I wasn't expecting Cyberpunk to be the Gaming Christ, but i was counting on an ersatz Deus Ex. Are atleast dialogue trees on par with, let's say, Witcher III?

Thus far they are somewhat better than Witcher 3's. You get stat-based dialogue options quite a bit, and though some of them are just fluff some of them have lead to more favourable options down the line. Cool gets some good dialogue options, Int is relevant about every time hacking/cyber talk happens.

Gameplay-wise, Tech lets you open alternate ways into places which complements a sneaky playthrough, as does Int because quickhacking does wonders in terms of recon. I've been having fun with sneaking around and one-shotting mooks with a silenced revolver, but I agree on the assessment that you don't get a lot of gameplay options.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

Because of the game's initial success, CDPR has reportedly made some changes to bonus structure in favor of employees. Previous reports indicated that the team had been putting in some incredibly long hours over the months running up to release, and they stand to reap some of the rewards. According to a report from Bloomberg, CD Projekt had initially tied employee bonuses to the Metacritic score, which currently sits at 90, and release window. If the rating dipped any lower, however, the previous bonus structure would reportedly not pay out so much. Now, it seems that is no longer the case. In an email to employees, studio lead and creative director Adam Badowsky said,

We initially had a bonus system that was focused on the game’s ratings and the release date, but after consideration, we believe that measure is simply not fair under the circumstances. We underestimated the lengths and complexity involved to make this a reality, and still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game.

I really didn’t get that impression from that excerpt.

Should they really be getting praised for changing something that is a completely asinine bonus structure in the 1st place? It just seems like a way to get out of paying bonuses to begin with especially since the game was gonna sell like hot cakes no matter what. Shouldn't bonuses be based on sales, revenues, and profits to begin with? Who cares if the Meta score is like freaking 20 if the game still sells millions and millions and millions or if the Meta is literally 100 and only sells like 100,000 copies? How financially successful something is should be how bonuses are handed out.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Well I remember hearing them say you can beat the game without killing anyone if you want, so assuming that's still in the game, there's got to be some way to do it.

Not sure about that. I think it's probably possible, but it takes a while to upgrade your stealth and hacking to the point where you can solely rely on it.

I guess in the early part of the game you can talk your way out of a lot of the combat, but if you aren't able to do that you might need to reload back several steps in a quest in order to redo a section that would have allowed you to bypass combat later.

To say that combat can be completely avoided is probably true, but completely not viable in a first playthrough unless you really like reloading sections over and over again.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Yeah but also "CD Projekt has not confirmed that report". So until they do, and I hope they do, its just kinda wishful thinking from a pretty passive aggressive email.

The email clearly states they tied the bonus to the metascore, and how that's unfair because they "underestimated the length and complexity involved to make this a reality" meaning they don't think the game is where they wanted it to be, meaning they're admitting if they kept the bonus tied to the metascore the employees won't be getting a bonus. Meaning they don't think their employees did a good job, which makes the last phrase "still you did everything you could to deliver an ambitious, special game" mean A. Its not necessarily a good game, just a special one and B. "everything you could" meaning they the managers think this game, that they don't believe justifies a bonus based on the metascore, is the best their employees could do. Its a pretty condescending way of saying "Look if we stuck by the old rules none of you would get a bonus because you're just so awful, so we're changing the rules to allow awful performance."

I'd be pretty insulted if I spent months under crunch and got told I did the best I could to make a special game.

We’ll probably never get an official confirmation of the details, since at this point CDPR is probably tired of making statements given the way they’ve panned out in the past year. But still, it would be odd to bring up at all if there wasn’t some baseline of truth to it. At least I’d hope, as you mentioned.

Having said that, it still sounds more to me like they are simply trying to rationalize a bad situation without an actual apology for expecting the impossible. I wouldn’t think I did a shit job based on what they said, but the press and consumer base has kinda been making that case an unavoidable reality anyways.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Should they really be getting praised for changing something that is a completely asinine bonus structure in the 1st place? It just seems like a way to get out of paying bonuses to begin with especially since the game was gonna sell like hot cakes no matter what. Shouldn't bonuses be based on sales, revenues, and profits to begin with? Who cares if the Meta score is like freaking 20 if the game still sells millions and millions and millions or if the Meta is literally 100 and only sells like 100,000 copies? How financially successful something is should be how bonuses are handed out.

Yeah, it was probably used as a carrot to dangle for some internal metric of quality. Sales numbers alone might not translate well enough in terms of motivation to make a good game. Just look at what Ubisoft, EA, Activision, etc. routinely churn out. The game should’ve been delayed indefinitely until they knew it was in at least as stable a state as The Witcher 3.

The other problem they ran into is, considering its development period spanned an entire generation, the game outgrew its initial technical scope. But they couldn’t scrap the 8th gen platforms outright as that might have dampened sales forecasts too much for investors to stomach. It would’ve been nice to think the PC sales would’ve been enough of a bulwark (and current gen sales could’ve perhaps even driven install bases for both PS5 and XSX), but that hasn’t been the reality since maybe the tail end of 6th gen.

In any case, they now have the massive task of retroactively patching up their most problematic launch to-date, and earning back the goodwill lost through all the bad press and consumer complaints.

 

[Trunkage]

Yeah, it was probably used as a carrot to dangle for some internal metric of quality. Sales numbers alone might not translate well enough in terms of motivation to make a good game. Just look at what Ubisoft, EA, Activision, etc. routinely churn out. The game should’ve been delayed indefinitely until they knew it was in at least as stable a state as The Witcher 3.

Witcher 3 was never shipped in a stable state

But they did continually updated it... but I replayed it in 2020 and there were plenty of game ending bugs and quests that are broken

 

[Baffle]

Strange Days

Oooh, that's a good shout. Great film.

 

[Dreiko]

Well I remember hearing them say you can beat the game without killing anyone if you want, so assuming that's still in the game, there's got to be some way to do it.

You can easily not kill anyone, but doing so without using combat is another matter. You have a ton of non-lethal weapons/grenades/sneak attacks which just knock people out, and some things like cyberpsycho treatment require you to use these methods, but it's not like you never entered combat, you just like, beat their head with a baseball bat and not a katana. Mechanically it functions the same, they just faint when their HP runs out instead of flatlining.

So was the game this one is based on, it didn't have levels. I suppose it would have been difficult to translate it directly to a traditional CRPG. Would probably have played a bit more like ARMA.

But anyway, if it's framed ok, like you have actually modified the gun, some sort of perk that lets you somehow got gud at hitting joints in the armour, quicker at reloading, that does at least provide some justification that my brain can accept.

The perks are very flavor-related, same with the cyberware you get (such as for example the implant that gives you more defense being hypodermic armor or the perk that lets you resist bleeding being a blood clotting perk, stuff like that).

I'm playing a cyber ninja in this so I got perks flavored by various kendo moves and other Japanese themed stuff. My fav one is the perk that lets your katana cause bleeding damage. Also some of the perks are references, there's a crouching tiger one and a hidden dragon other (the latter lets you do aerial sneak attacks, fun times XD).

As for the gun upgrades, to do them you need tons of parts from other guns, so it's like you use the parts of 10 copies of this one gun to level it up once, the sheer amount of mats kinda makes the upgrade feel worthy.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Is there a way to keep from being hacking while in combat?

Breaking line of sight doesn't do anything, and I can't ever tell who is actually hacking me in order to kill them, and there doesn't seem to be any cooldown on enemy hacks so the moment it goes through the next hack starts immediately. It's incredibly annoying.

 

[Dreiko]

Is there a way to keep from being hacking while in combat?

Breaking line of sight doesn't do anything, and I can't ever tell who is actually hacking me in order to kill them, and there doesn't seem to be any cooldown on enemy hacks so the moment it goes through the next hack starts immediately. It's incredibly annoying.

There's perks that do all of those things. The one that lets you know when you're being hacked and by whom is pretty low level so you should be able to get it. But yeah ideally you wanna kinda sus out the situation from stealth before jumping in and prioritize the netrunners.


And hacks are not based cooldown but just based on ram so enemy hackers can just have better processors on them which lets them hack you repeatedly.

 

[stroopwafel]

I'm having cramps from laughing at all the memes on the cyberpunk reddit.

 

[Gergar12]

Already 2 crashes since 1.04...

Give us 1.05 or 1.06 already.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Witcher 3 was never shipped in a stable state

But they did continually updated it... but I replayed it in 2020 and there were plenty of game ending bugs and quests that are broken

So really this is nothing new for them. Jesus I guess they never learn.

 

[DJShaddycat]

Cyberpunk Success Allows CDPR To Recoup Dev Costs On Preorders Alone, Revamp Employee Bonuses

CD Projekt Red earned back everything it invested very early on and has loosened the requirements for employee bonuses as a result.

hothardware.com

Great that they can revamp employee benefits and all, but come the fuck on man. What happened to "Never pre-order"? From everything I've seen of the game, man it looks like hot garbage. People ate it up on promise alone, and it paid off for CDPR.
Seriously, why even make good games anymore when you can just promise the world and never deliver.

 

[Zetatrain]

So really this is nothing new for them. Jesus I guess they never learn.

I mean, Witcher 3 wasn't perfect, but it certainly wasn't anywhere close to Cyberpunk in terms of lack of polish. I played the PC version six months after the intial release and I rarely ran into anything game breaking. Didn't notice anything worse when I played it again in 2018 after getting the expansions. But personal experiences aside, i feel if any version of W3 played that badly there would have been a fuss about it.