Cyberpunk 2077, the analysis of the next-gen version for PS5 and Xbox Series X | S of the RPG by CD Projekt

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 has finally landed on PS5 and Xbox Series X | S with the long-awaited next-gen update, the one that CD Projekt RED planned to launch in the course of 2021 and which instead required several more months of work: a postponement that also this time it did not fail to unleash the controversy.

It is clear that we are faced with an unprecedented situation: a project that is in many ways too ambitious, both on PC and on consoles, which has been given to the public with a certain advance on the times, probably because the Polish studio could not wait any longer to return costs and close the quarter largely in profit.

Cyberpunk 2077, Jackie in one of the initial phases of the campaign However, that choice represented for Iwinski and associates a real deal with the devil: after launching Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 and Xbox One in the conditions we know, the development team has gone from being the darling of the crowds to the shameless liar, and the words of CEO Adam Kicinski still resonate in the mind when he spoke of a title capable of running surprisingly well on old consoles.

A year and a little more later, here we are talking again about the vicissitudes of V a Night City, in an anomalous and somewhat surreal situation. Many users have already largely completed the adventure created by CD Projekt RED, they chewed, swallowed and digested it. Others have preferred to wait to be able to play it at its best on the new generation consoles: well, let's see if it was worth waiting in the analysis of the next-gen version for PS5 and Xbox Series X | S of Cyberpunk 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077, one year later

Cyberpunk 2077, Judy during the first meeting You will certainly remember our review of Cyberpunk 2077, based on the PC version and characterized by an enthusiastic evaluation, daughter on the one hand, the richness of the open world and the quality of writing related to quests and supporting actors, an element that CD Projekt RED has always shown to care a lot, see also The Witcher series; on the other hand, a technical sector able to best represent the atmospheres of Night City, thanks in particular to ray tracing.

Technology at the service of staging, in short, to give life and substance to the history of V, a mercenary determined to make a name for himself in the big city. Depending on the path, the character comes into contact with Jackie Welles in different ways, but the outcome is the same: the two become great friends and form a seemingly unbeatable couple, at least until Dex Deshawn and Evelyn Parker arrive with their mission. high risk.

The goal is to get hold of a chip that we will discover contains the soul and memories of Johnny Silverhand, a rock star who over fifty years earlier led a terrorist attack on the Arasaka headquarters. For a series of vicissitudes V finds himself hosting this ghost in his body that threatens to replace his conscience. How to solve the problem? This is just one of the issues at stake within the broad and multifaceted narrative structure of Cyberpunk 2077.

Regulated by strictly RPG mechanics, complete with multiple choice dialogues, crossroads and alternative endings, the gameplay draws inspiration from the tradition of the open world to give us a map full of missions to complete and secrets to discover, eddies to be collected and experience to be gained to obtain various types of upgrades and thus enrich a combat system that can adapt to our preferences.

Cyberpunk 2077, Night City with shadows in ray tracing Cyberpunk 2077, Night City without shadows in ray tracing: noticing the differences is hard We can in fact opt ​​for a character growth oriented to strength and action , so as to face our opponents with weapons drawn or exploiting the physical capabilities of cybernetic systems, or with technique and stealth, remaining hidden and carrying out ando hacking the devices and chips of our own targets to confuse, deceive or eliminate them without even coming into contact with them.

All around this facility we find Night City, with its neighborhoods and factions , its palaces and vertical levels, its streets to go by car or the alleys to stroll, its decadence and its unhealthy splendor, the brackets of the sun and the endless nights in which anything can happen.

Patch 1.5

Available for a few days for all platforms, Cyberpunk 2077 patch 1.5 introduces the long-awaited next-gen update for PS5 and Xbox Series X | S, but also a whole host of new features that affect the game in general. They range from adding new weapons to extra apartments for V, from aesthetic customization options to balancing gameplay, economy and loot, to a set of more convincing reactions from the NPCs we meet on the street.

The next-gen version

Cyberpunk 2077, Dex Deshawn A little over a year ago we tried Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox One S and Xbox Series S: you may remember that the title was basically unplayable on former Microsoft flagship, while improving substantially on the budget next-gen console, aiming for a resolution of 1080p and maintaining a rather stable 30fps frame rate, all accompanied by much faster uploads.

After the launch of patch 1.5 we tried the experience for a few hours on Xbox Series X, taking advantage of it to start the campaign all over again and making different choices. Visually, the transition from Series S appears clear-cut, but in reality the Series X version already had two different graphics modes and therefore the technical innovations of the next-gen update are more nuanced, less impactful.

Cyberpunk 2077, Judy Alvarez with ray tracing on the shadows ... or maybe not? As mentioned, you can choose between dynamic 4K with ray tracing and 30 fps or dynamic 4K without ray tracing and 60 fps. In both cases a scaler is used that changes the resolution instantly, depending on the situation, but the most frequent value is the same, namely 1440p. To weigh on the frame rate, to the point of halving it, is therefore only the ray tracing, which however has been implemented in its less suggestive and interesting version, that relating to shadows.

The choice of CD Projekt RED was probably dictated by the impact on performance, but when you think of ray tracing the first thing that comes to mind are reflections and lighting, and it is clear that activating that type of effects (even at low resolution) in the context of one scenery like Night City would have given us extremely evocative glimpses, especially during the night hours and with all the city lights on.

Cyberpunk 2077, Night City at night aboard a car Mind you: the "fault "in this case it is also and above all due to the fact that neither PS5 nor Xbox X | S Series still have techniques such as AMD's Super Resolution, that is an intelligent upscaling system that allows you to render graphics at 1080p or even at lower resolutions to get more than good quality output at 4K. It is no coincidence that even on PC activating Nvidia's DLSS (a technique similar to Super Resolution) is the only way to enjoy the effects of Cyberpunk 2077 without sacrificing fluidity, even with very powerful video cards.

Closed this necessary parenthesis, there is little to do: although the ray traced shadows are more realistic when they are projected on the various surfaces, they add too little to the image quality for it to make sense to give up 60 fps. Furthermore, the 30 fps mode suffers on the Xbox Series X from an input lag that is really difficult to ignore, which requires a tiring adaptation and makes the most lively sequences, especially the fights, approximate and chaotic.

Cyberpunk 2077, l 'Afterlife with or without ray tracing on the shadows appears identical Considering that the effective resolution is the same and that even the improvements in terms of screen space reflection do not appear enormous, much better therefore to opt for the performance mode, which does not show the same problems as input lag and turns out to be consistent, although some dips do still occur when, for example, moving quickly in a crowded environment or during cutscenes.

Observing the assets of Night City reveals that a job has been done improvement even on some textures, and going around the streets you meet many more passers-by, which contributes not a little to improving the general performance of a city that should be and overcrowded and instead in some contexts it continues to be almost deserted. Too bad it is enough to walk a bit to meet the same NPC over and over again, while some glitches remain in terms of polygonal interpenetration.

Cyberpunk 2077, one of the initial turning points of the campaign Tests show that the uploads of the game on Xbox Series X are fast but less than on PS5, by a couple of seconds. However, the exploitation of the SSD capabilities in this next-gen version also extends to the streaming of materials, and in fact the annoying pop-up effect on objects in the distance that was found in backwards compatibility has been almost completely eliminated.

Unfortunately on the Xbox Series S the technical improvements are limited to a modest resolution boost, which goes from the previous peak of 1296p to the current 1440p but remaining anchored at 30 fps and clearly without support for any type of ray tracing, nor the possibility of opting for a lower definition that nevertheless allows you to play at 60 frames per second: a feature that the owners of the console are clamoring for.

In conclusion

Cyberpunk 2077, the well known car ride with Dex and active ray tracing: far from what we have seen on PC Despite the many controversies, many of which are absolutely legitimate, Cyberpunk 2077 has always remained in its e without a title of great depth, with an extremely convincing narrative sector and an enormous structure capable of supporting it; but at the same time a project too ambitious compared to the current capabilities of CD Projekt RED, as amply demonstrated.

Patch 1.5 improves many aspects of the experience, albeit without working miracles, and confirms what has just been said: if the team Polish probably didn't need more than a year to introduce these features, that time was needed to test everything and make sure it worked because of that huge structure we mentioned earlier.

Cyberpunk 2077, an unpleasant situation in the initial phase of the campaign, without ray tracing PS5 users have probably done well to wait for the update, while Xbox Series X owners will perhaps be a little disappointed by an update that does not transform the visual sector of the game but limits itself to optimizing it, however, removing some options in terms of pure resolution in favor of a ray tracing limited to the shadows that can be tranq uillamente for less.

Of course, it is good that with the patch 1.5 a speech that has lasted for too long is finally closed: a lair free all that allows you to try your hand at the Cyberpunk 2077 experience in its best possible version, all things considered, and to finally be able to talk about the undoubted merits and equally undoubted defects of this production with full knowledge of the facts.

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