CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 has resurrected an infamous Assassin's Creed Unity bug. The long-anticipated action RPG transports players to the futuristic Night City, where they are tasked with traversing the city's seedy criminal underbelly.
After years of anticipation, Cyberpunk 2077 released to a divisive reception. The most glaring criticism of the game has been its high number of glitches and crashes, which resulted in #Cyberpunk2077Bugs trending on Twitter. Missing textures, broken NPC animations and story missions that never trigger are only a few examples of the title's many issues. The last-generation versions of the game on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are particularly rough, presumably because the consoles' outdated hardware is unable to keep up with the extremely taxing game. CD Projekt Red apologized to owners of the last-gen version of the game, as well as offering a refund for those who do not wish to wait for future patches.
Twitter user JaredRheeders is now reporting a new Cyberpunk 2077 bug, one which calls to mind a horrifying glitch in Ubisoft's 2014 title Assassin's Creed Unity. The glitch removes the faces of non-player characters, leaving only hair, a mouth and a pair of eyes freely floating above the body. While the glitch has only been reported on an NPC named Misty, it is possible that the issue could appear on other characters as well. A similar bug that plagued Assassin's Creed Unity was known to appear on multiple different in-game characters, turning the historical adventure into a horror game at random junctures of the story.
In the midst of a disappointing launch for what was a hotly anticipated game, CD Projekt Red appears to be taking important lessons from fan feedback of Cyberpunk 2077. While the company usually gives its employees a bonus based on their project's review scores, its executives have taken full responsibly for the game's buggy state at launch. Therefore, CDPR employees will be receiving a post-launch bonus regardless of whether the game achieves a score of 90 or higher on Metacritic, which was originally the metric that would have decided their bonus structure. The game will also be receiving numerous post-launch patches and bug fixes, in order to bring it into a state of higher quality.
Cyberpunk 2077's development and launch have damaged public perception of CD Projekt Red. Having the game's NPCs appear with horrifically missing faces may be icing on the cake for such a troubled production. However, CDPR has promised to make positive change both within the studio and within the game itself, and hopefully this positive change comes to fruition. In the meantime, at least this particular Cyberpunk 2077 glitch is one that resurrects a classic - not all bugs are built the same, and the Assassin's Creed Unity faceless NPC memes are the stuff of legends.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC.
Source: JaredRheeders