One of the things that video gamers are tired of is hearing that a game that was launched after much anticipation is a buggy mess waiting to be train-wrecked through. Sadly, multiple AAA titles have fit this bill, with some coming from truly respected developers! One such example is the infamous launch of Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red. The game’s release was so fraught with problems that certain stores stopped selling it because they were selling the titles and then had to give refunds for it! However, as one team member noted recently, it wasn’t all just about the buggy launch.
For them, something that happened often was that players would note something was wrong with the game, but “didn’t have an idea on how to fix it,” putting all the pressure on the CD Projekt Red crew.
“Players, in most cases, can quite well say ‘what I don’t like’ […], but they often won’t be able to tell you exactly how to fix it,” associate game director Pawel Sasko noted on the Flow Games podcast from Brazil. “Great example, I think, it’s the one that always makes me laugh: the clown fiesta in Cyberpunk 2077. You know, the clown meta. Because of the fact that clothing had armor assigned to it, then, suddenly, you run around with, like, pink boots and a bra, and high heels in a cowboy hat, because that has the biggest armor. That simple decision to tie up the armor with the clothing […] led to the creation of the clown meta, that everyone looked like…just, ridiculous.”
He wasn’t joking about the disparity in the game. The title had serious issues where it proclaimed that gamers could “be who they wanted to be” in Night City, and yet they had to wear ridiculous outfits to be “best equipped” for certain situations.
Eventually, CD Projekt Red did away with that in favor of linking the armor stats to the various cyber upgrades that players would naturally get and boost. That made the clothing more cosmetic, and thus something that people could mix and match with to their heart’s desire.
Sasko even noted on the podcast that 80% of the fixes within the game were due to fan feedback. While that is an impressive number that fans should be proud of, it also highlights just how much had to be changed for the RPG to be at the level it was always meant to be.
