Cyberpunk: Edgerunners Is Great, But It Won’t Make Me Play 2077

thegamer.com:

I’m not much of an anime head, as my colleagues constantly bemoan. I’ve seen most Studio Ghibli films, the first few series of Pokemon, and Death Note, but that’s it. I’m not going to watch 1,000 episodes of One Piece, and although Cowboy Bebop has been recommended to me time and time again, I still haven’t got around to watching it. But ten short episodes set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe? Sure, I’ll give it a shot.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was great. I enjoyed the second half much more than the first, but overall it was a really cool story propelled by great characters. The show explored concepts of losing your humanity as you augment your flesh with increasingly complicated bionics in interesting ways, and the central love story was as poignant as it was tragic. Gory fight scenes are full of unrealistic athletics, time-slowing gadgets, and more explosions than a Schwarzenegger flick. For an anime noob, it was perfect.

Related: Cyberpunk 2077 Hasn't Earned Its Redemption Arc

On the other hand, we have Cyberpunk 2077. While I only played five to ten hours of CD Projekt Red’s RPG before I got bored and turned it off, I’ve read a lot about it. I’m aware that’s no substitute for playing the game, but everything I’ve read has turned me off it, and I’m not even talking about bugs. When it first launched (and was subsequently pulled from stores), I read about its childish views of sex (something Edgerunners sadly replicates), its useless skills, and the fact that Cyberware barely worked. You can only play by shooting your way through levels, there’s no place for hackers or any other roleplaying in Night City, no matter how hard you try.

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