Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition: The rebirth of Night City and the impressive performance on Steam Deck

Review of the Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition and its performance on Steam Deck, highlighting the game's recovery, the Phantom Liberty DLC, and configuration tips.

Six years have passed since the first teaser, and today Cyberpunk 2077 is experiencing an impressive rebirth. Released with huge promises, the game showed technical and visual flaws at launch, which sparked severe criticism and refunds at various stores.

Looking back, it is clear that the journey of CD Projekt RED's work was not simple. It took a series of fixes, major updates, and careful work by the team to deliver an experience that finally lives up to its open world.

The rebirth of Night City

The plot puts the player in control of V, a charismatic mercenary with big plans in a city taken over by corporations, gangs, and unbridled ambition. A biotechnological chip involves the protagonist, bringing Johnny Silverhand — a historical figure of music — into V's head. There will be a battle between the memory of who you are and the memory of what you can become.

The story isn't just about becoming a legend; it's about survival, identity, and freedom in an era where even the mind can be altered. Along the way, V finds fragile alliances, explores the darkest corners of Night City, and questions what it really means to leave a mark.

• Three different life paths: Nomad, Corpo, and Street Kid
• Choices shape dialogue, context, and some relationships, without turning everything into entirely separate campaigns
• The combination of action, RPG, and simulation creates a sense of freedom like no other

Characters, world, and atmosphere

One of the game's greatest assets is its well-written characters. Night City feels alive not only because of its aesthetic but because of the depth of the motivations, fears, and agendas of those who inhabit it. Conversations have weight, choices seem to reflect the personality of the protagonists and NPCs, and you start to care about the fate of each one.

The setting is remarkable: neon, rain, shadows, and a city that seems to pulse. Even with time, the visuals remain impressive, making the experience extremely immersive. The soundtrack, often praised, is cohesive with combat moments but can sound repetitive in long segments.

Gameplay and balance of styles

Cyberpunk 2077 offers a very broad approach: shooting, stealth, hacking, technological magic with cyberware, and melee combat. It is possible to play as a lethal shooter, a stealthy assassin, a hacker who disables enemies from a distance, or an agile swordsman who turns every fight into a spectacle.

This diversity is both its greatest strength and its greatest challenge. Each style has already been explored in other titles in depth, which means no single path stands out as the absolute best. Still, the package works and supports the RPG, allowing character building to greatly influence how you solve problems.

Performance — audio, graphics, and bugs over the years

The world is lush, and even after several improvements, some visual glitches still appear without harming the overall experience. Night City's aesthetic remains powerful, but there are moments of visual pattern repetition after many hours of gameplay.

The audio is solid, with a highlight on the voice acting performance. Keanu Reeves, as Johnny Silverhand, remains one of the most striking casting choices in the industry. In contrast, some combat sound effects may seem less impactful in melee fights.

Side quests and activities

Side missions vary between excellent, funny, and moving, often very well written and integrated into the world. In some cases, they provide more context and deepen relationships with important characters. As for the gigs, initially exciting, they can become repetitive over time, feeling more like a chore list than engaging content.

Phantom Liberty: the DLC that elevates the experience

Phantom Liberty is not just an expansion; it is an essential part of the experience. The DLC is inserted into the middle of the base narrative, introducing Dogtown, a region with a more contained and political atmosphere, bringing a more serious and cinematic tone.

The quality of the story grows with more complex characters and conflicts with real consequences. The narrative proves more linear and intense, raising the standards with choices that carry more weight and have a clear impact on the story's progress. Overall, Phantom Liberty proves to be a valuable addition that reinforces the potential of the RPG as a whole.

Performance on Steam Deck

Despite being demanding, Cyberpunk 2077 runs surprisingly well on the Steam Deck. The default Deck preset, locked at 30 FPS, tends to feel less fluid; the image can become blurry during occasional drops. The tip is to adjust to keep the frame rate around 40 FPS, maintaining visual quality similar to the Base preset.

The FSR 2.1 adjustment is decisive. Turning off FSR in XeSS mode can improve fidelity, but the recommended setting is to use Quality to preserve sharpness without sacrificing too much performance. Disabling or reducing motion blur tends to improve the experience during 40 FPS drops, especially in open areas and in the Phantom Liberty expansion.

To maintain consistency, it is common to reduce some lower-priority settings to hit the 40 FPS target in more demanding scenes. In Dogtown areas, drops are more noticeable, but still acceptable to keep the experience playable and visually strong. A specific point of the Deck is the HUD, which can be small; adjusting it via the Accessibility tab solves almost everything.

Accessibility

There is a tab dedicated solely to accessibility, with detailed options: colorblind modes, HUD scaling, center screen overlay, subtitle customization, aim assist for long-range weapons and melee, all prepared to make the game accessible to more players.

Conclusion

What began as a public disappointment has turned into one of the most remarkable recovery trajectories in the industry. Cyberpunk 2077, now with an immersive RPG experience, reaches a solid balance between gameplay freedom, open world, and engaging narrative. On all platforms, including the Steam Deck, it continues to offer some of the most impressive visuals available.

The initial hours may still feel intense due to the complexity of the systems; some side missions may sound repetitive, and certain aspects of gameplay do not shine as brightly as in specialized games. Even so, the atmosphere, the plots, and the well-written characters justify the experience as a whole.

Final note: this review was based on the PC version of the game.

If you enjoyed this analysis, let us know in the comments what caught your attention most: which life path would you choose in Night City and how would you enjoy Phantom Liberty?

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