To the Death! Defending "Bad" Games

Although I cannot find it now, I read a recent gaming piece where the author posited the question--what "bad" or hated games would you die on a hill for?  I think we all have at least one game that we love but which other people will sort of roll their eyes at.  It didn't even take me a second to think of mine--it'd have to be CyberPunk 2077.

There are plenty of reasons for people to hate CyberPunk with the chief one being the infamously disastrous release.  And, I agree, people had a completely valid reason to be upset at the buggy mess that the game was in its initial state.  I think many people then chose to completely walk away from the game and disregard it.  Eventually, some of them came back, but I think the release poisoned the experience for a lot of people.  Fortunately, I was not one of them and chose to wait until I started reading that it was stable and playable.

Another reason why I think some people dislike CyberPunk is due to some design choices and the way that people play the game.  I vaguely remember reading an article in the lead up to its release where CD Projekt specifically touted the fact that they were making the main CP storyline much shorter than in The Witcher 3 due to the fact that they had some sort of internal statistics that indicated that a surprisingly large number of people didn't finish it.  In another sort of opinion-y piece a gamer related to the fact that he hated CP because he played it the way that many gamers (apparently) do and just buzzed through the main storyline and ignored the side content.  I have to admit, if I had played CP that way, I wouldn't have liked it either--I found the main storyline to be short--I remember accidentally triggering the "point of no return" message and being shocked that it was already happening.  The endings and choices were a bit underwhelming (and I played through all of them--even the suicide mission one).

One of my many V's.

To me, the best parts of CP are found in outside of the main storyline.  It boggles my mind that someone wouldn't want to do the companion side quests and get to know the characters better--those are some of the best missions--diving with Judy in Laguna Bend, helping Panam steal a freakin' tank, tracking down a serial killer with River, or helping Kerry work through his midlife crisis.  It's from those missions that you get a much fuller picture of the characters and world, so skipping them would make you miss out on so much.  There are other great side missions too--racing with Claire or helping Jefferson Peralez with his "surveillance" issues.  Heck, even though there's an annoying number of them, the scanner jobs have some redeeming qualities when it comes to helping to explain the word of CP.

CyberPunk has been through a bit of a redemption arc and has seen its popularity surge thanks to CD Projekt's continuing effort to sort out the messy state of the game (it didn't deserve the "labor of love" award though--just sayin').  That poison taste in the mouths of so many seems to have dissipated and many are anticipating news of the Phantom Liberty DLC (supposedly being released this year).  Maybe the DLC will give CyberPunk a boost out of the "hated" category?  We will see.