Martin Gagne

This is the kind of looter/shooter we, as gamers, have been waiting for in a very long time. We had hoped that Anthem and Destiny 2 would have satisfied our need for this genre, but alas, those games just did not hold up to the level of satisfaction we were hoping for. Outriders on the other hand has pretty much everything right. Third person shooter, a balanced gear flow, dark humoured story, a thorough crafting system that rewards players instead of punishing them, access to everything in the game (not locked out by microtransactions), and a World Tier system that allows you to maintain or lower the dificulty based on your own playstyle. It also offers up to 4-player coop, or run solo, as you see fit. I give this game a 4 stars at launch mostly due to some of the glaring issues this game has: namely, a stuttering framerate that I have yet to fix even though I have a good rig, intermittent crashes to desktop without warning, and a few QoL items that would make the UI even better. All in all, feel free to support the developers (whom have been excellent in responding transparently to their community), or wait for a sale further down the road. If you do have an itch for a good looter shooter right now, this is definitely the title to pick up. Happy Hunting!

The reason I give this game 4 stars despite the slew of bugs and missing features, is the fact that I am a gamer that loves a good story. Cyberpunk 2077 not only delivers on a great main plot story, but it divides the main story into 3 segments that tie in together to a choice of 4 endings. Add to that the number of Side Jobs that are well written and wonderfully voice-acted. They are not your typical fetch or kill quests, but rather stand-alone mini-campaigns that bring added depth to the game. And you can do these at your leisure, however you want to handle them. Furthermore, the size and scope of Night City is truly breathtaking. When you do one of the Side Jobs for the Peralez's, and you stand on the balcony of their penthouse overlooking major areas of the city, you stand in awe at what the developers have created. Or, when take one of your vehicles and drive around the city, or out in the Badlands, you can appreciate the long drives that allow you to take in the scenery. Don't get me wrong though. The game is very good, great even in some aspects, but there are quite a number of bugs and missing features. This game needed another year of development, and CDPR management rushed the game out to their detriment. The gunplay is good, but the melee combat is bad. Driving around in Night City is awesome, but the driving mechanics can be very bad with certain cars and motorcycles. Some game-play mechanics feel good, and some are downright exploitative (like shooting through walls with Tech weapons). And one of the worst transgressions, at least for me, is hard-locking certain keys on the keyboard to certain commands, without any choice to rebind them. As an example, for 20 years I have always used ESDF as my movement keys, but this game forces you to use WASD, thereby limiting my options due to a small deformity in my left hand. I have logged 160 hours in the game (second playthrough), but it's still aggravating to be forced to use WASD. But this is a personal thing and I understand many are fine with this. Lastly, CP2077 is a good game. Feel free to either buy it now and experience the stories, or wait a year for the DLCs and massive bug fixes and implementing missing features that were initially introduced but have since been removed from the final product. Regardless, you'll have a great time with this game (as long as you play it on a solid PC). Avoid at all costs on consoles, for now anyways.