Cyberpunk 2077 on PS4 and Xbox One has severe frame rate issues
Cyberpunk 2077 has finally launched on all platforms, but it's not particularly great news for console players as both PS4 and Xbox One users are experiencing severe frame rate issues, amongst other problems.
Update: Digital Foundry have posted a video analysis of their Cyberpunk 2077 frame rate tests on PS4 and PS4 Pro.
The footage is based on the first three hours of the game on patch 1.02, and you can see that the base PS4 has had huge compromises both in terms of resolution and frame rate performance.
At one point, Digital Foundry's John Linneman calls it, "basically what you would expect a Switch port of another modern game to look like", as they cut to some footage of The Witcher 3 running on Switch.
While the PS4 Pro appears to be more playable, though still subject to frame rate dips as low as 18fps, the player base is still largely made up of those who own the base PS4, and 45 minutes into the game, Digital Foundry's Tom Morgan says "this is just not playable any more."
A console test for Xbox One and Xbox One X is likely to follow.
Original Story
With the first reviews of Cyberpunk 2077 based solely on the PC build, console users have had to wait until the game's release to really see how a seemingly next-gen game will perform on the last-gen hardware it's been initially released for.
While CD Projekt Red had previously posted footage of the open-world sci-fi RPG running on PlayStation and Xbox hardware, these were on the PS4 Pro and PS5, and Xbox One X and Xbox Series X respectively, not the base versions of the consoles originally released in 2013.
On the original hardware, reports indicate that Cyberpunk suffers from severe framerate issues, as well as the multitude of bugs and glitches that had been reported on the PC version prior to patches - the latter is in spite of console users already downloading pre-launch and day-one patches that claimed to address these issues.
Eurogamer's Wesley Yin-Poole has been playing the PS4 version, citing "poor performance, including low framerate and texture pop-in when the screen is busy," as well as "on occasion a low-res blur to the visuals".
Digital Foundry are currently sharing video analysis of the PC version but are also working on an analysis of Cyberpunk's console performance, and Tom Morgan was able to share a few screenshots of the base PS4 analysis in the article. These show the game's framerate barely able to maintain 30fps, crashing down to 15fps in the worst case.
Yin-Poole writes, "While some indoor battles run well at 30fps, they can drop to 25fps", but the worse issue is hitching, that make it difficult to shoot or drive when objects and textures are still loading in.
You can also tell from the blurry muddy visuals that it's running at a poor resolution, almost as if you're looking at a bad Switch port (Cyberpunk on Switch - imagine the horror). According to Morgan, these are between 720p and 900p.
The article also confirms an earlier report that when played on PS5, there is no option to switch between resolution or performance mode, where it runs at an unlocked 60fps by default, though the option is possible on Xbox Series X.
Similar issues have been reported and shared by other PS4 and Xbox One owners, with one Twitter user showing how he goes from a car floating in mid-air to a scene where NPCs and assets take ages to load into the environment.
But besides the poor performances and buggy gameplay, some are also just taking the game to task for its under-developed open-world, as one video highlights how the cars just stop if you leave your car in the middle of a busy road or the absence of any reaction when you're walking around with a gun (I can also say that no one cares if you decide to steal every item you can see even when other people are in the same room and talking to you).
Having already delayed the RPG multiple times in 2020, while mandating crunch on its employees to complete the game, it seems there are just too many bugs for CD Projekt Red to fix.
The studio is clearly aware of this. Amidst celebrating the fact that Cyberpunk has received eight million pre-orders, they tweeted that they're already “hard at work on the upcoming fixes and updates”. Those who are making their start in the game can find out which lifepath to choose before they embark on Night City.
Nonetheless, not all of Cyberpunk's issues are completely terrible. Glitches of your penis hanging out through your pants is at least worth a laugh.