Cyberpunk 2077: Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand hailed as an all-time great performance

Ah, Cyberpunk 2077, a game that had such a woeful launch, but still remained a firm favourite with fans of the sci-fi RPG genre.

You’d struggle to think of many other games that garnered so much pre-release hype quite like CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 from the same developers as the critically acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Check out the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty trailer below.

When Cyberpunk 2077 was released in December 2020, it failed to live up to the anticipation not only from fans, but also from the developers. Despite showing so much promise, Cyberpunk 2077 was released in an unfinished and buggy state. For the most part, Cyberpunk 2077 performed best on high-end and expensive gaming PCs. As for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, it was a different story entirely.

Cyberpunk 2077 was deemed to be so bad, that Sony decided to pull the sci-fi RPG from sale on its PS Store until it was in a more acceptable state. CD Projekt Red’s game would later return, but some might say that it was still far from a perfect experience.

By the time the promised new-gen version would arrive on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on 15 February 2022, Cyberpunk 2077 was well on the road to recovery, and today, following a series of major updates, this sci-fi RPG is pretty much the game we were promised many years ago.

Yet, despite its times of highs and lows, if there was ever one thing that fans could enjoy in Cyberpunk 2077, it would be the breathtaking performance of the one and only Keanu Reeves who plays the rebellious Johnny Silverhand.

“I think Keanu's incarnation of Johnny is fantastic, he disappears behind the character and it adds to the immersion,” posted Reddit user Kinda_Silent_Bob kicking off the discussion on the thread.

“I think it's a testament to what a drastically different character Johnny is to Keanu's persona,” explained FreestyleKneepad. “It sounds like Keanu but the character is such a drastic departure that I never had problems mixing them up.”

“I totally agree. Johnny is one of my favourite characters. The character of Johnny just had that feeling of a close friend who was always ride or die for you,” agreed l_Mir_l. “I don’t really know how to explain it, I just really enjoyed his character growth, how he was serious one minute and then in side missions, he’s flipping you off or doing a noir voiceover, it’s just great! I’m really excited to see how his character is during Phantom Liberty.”

“I don't think we will see too many examples like that which go as well as Johnny Silverhand,” replied Grendel_82. “It was both good dialogue, a good story, and the charisma of both Keanu and Johnny, the characters coming together that made it so engaging (even when he was being a jerk).”

In related news, the highly anticipated expansion Phantom Liberty, which also stars the charismatic actor Idris Elba, releases next month for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.