Cyberpunk 2077 dev claims “bugged and undercooked” game was always good

Cyberpunk 2077 is flipping the script, with its own developer now claiming the game was ‘always good’ at its core despite conceding to its ‘undercooked’ state at launch.

Cyberpunk 2077 faced immense criticism upon its release, with players encountering numerous bugs and incomplete features, leading many to believe that the game was released prematurely. The game’s rocky start led to a significant player drop, and it was temporarily removed from the PlayStation Store.

Since then, CD Projekt Red has been hard at work, releasing a substantial 2.0 update on September 21. The update introduced a ton of new changes, including a revamped skill tree, a new cyberware system, and an overhauled police system and car combat mechanics.

The recent update has seemingly helped to revive the game’s reputation, experiencing a massive increase in player count and competing closely with new releases like Starfield on Steam Charts.

But now, the significant update has sparked discussion around whether the game was “always good” and underappreciated.

Michal Zbrzezniak, a Cinematic Designer at CD Projekt Red, joined the discussion on Twitter, writing, “I wouldn’t retroactively change the past. The game had a lot of problems. I think the overall mood, story, characters, art direction, gameplay, and music were solid from the start, but bugged and undercooked (or not working). We had to fix it and that’s what we did, that’s the story.”

Fans are divided on the matter. As one Redditor posted, “Story hasn’t changed, and always felt it was good in that sense. Would’ve liked the city to be more than pretty backdrop.”

“What I loved about the game has never changed. Story, characters, music, etc were never really “patched’. Still it always depends on what you wanted out of the game. I always wanted a great CDPR story and characters and I got that day one,” another player wrote.

Others disagree with Zbrzezniak’s stance, stating, “It was a broken pile on launch for most people. It was not the game we were sold. It was missing a lot of features expected from games of its type. 2.0 seems to have brought it to the state, IMO, it should have launched at. It should have been delayed, significantly. It was a bad game on launch, and it was dragged up to okay over the following months.”

Regardless of whether Cyberpunk 2077 was “solid” at launch or not, this latest update has been well-received by the community, with many players praising the new features and gameplay enhancements in Night City. The developers have even recommended that both new and returning players should start a fresh save to fully experience the updated mechanics and features in the 2.0 update.

Players will have even more to look forward to as the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion is on the way, set to release on September 26.