Why aren’t you playing this game? It’s got guns, cybernetics, computers, drones, vehicles, street drugs, street thugs, between-mission activities, and a flushed-out city to get in trouble in. Did I mention it had guns? It does, and not the vanilla kind like some of those RED games. This is double-action, full-auto, named hardware. You want magic? You want elves? You want dragons? It’s got that too, except these rules don’t require a PhD to decipher, and strength and armor mean something here. Speaking of rules; do you play D&D or Pathfinder? Then you practically already know how to play!

This supplement adds MORE, and it’s FREE! They could’ve charged money for this. It’s a LOT more useful than the DLC put out by the other “cyberpunk” game. You can actually use this stuff in your game NOW! It’s also free.

Why aren’t you playing this again?

I had originally wrote a 5-star review after initially playing the Jumpstart Kit. I apologize for that. I did purchase both the pdf of the core rules and a hardback copy. After running a 7-month campaign my opionon has changed. The game is easy to learn, create a character, and adjudicating the rules. You can pick up this book, quickly create a crew of edgerunners, and start playing. It is simple while offering a fair amount of crunch.

However, this game stinks. The book is a layout artist's nightmare, and even with bookmarks it's hard to navigate. This is because of redundant sections of rules. If page count is money, this book wasted a lot of money. Many of the rules don't make sense, like armor-piercing, cover, supressive fire, and melee combat, etc.. Skill costs are out of whack. Some Role Abilities are very OP while others are lackluster. While NETrunning was streamlined, it's still a mini-game and doesn't work as they probably intended it to. Don't ask me about vehicles. The setting doesn't know what it wants to be. It claims to be cyberpunk, but the author obviously wanted to make a post-apocalypse game instead. Cyberpunk used to be about "style over substance", but that's completely abscent from this edition. If you came to this game to play a ttrpg version of Cyberpunk 2077, forget about it. You're going to be very disappointed.

My advice: Cyberpunk 2020 is still a good game. It needs some houseruling, but it's a much better game than this slipshod.

Lowlife 2090 is the "sleeper hit" of 2021. It takes the best parts of D&D 5e and converts it into a gritty, fast and stylish cyberpunk ttrpg. Your characters aren't going to be OP superheroes here. Weapons will kill you... and fast, if you're not smart and quick. Yes, there's magic, but it's not that benevolent. Fail a casting check and you could open a rift and release an unexpected monster, grow a beard of tentacles, or drive yourself mad among other maladies. Hacking is not a mini-game. It's quick and simple, and you can actually do those things that you do in those video games. You know, those things that you can't do in the other cyberpunk ttrpgs of the same names.

I purchased both the pdf and hardback. The book is only 322 pages, but none of it is wasted space. There's little fluff here. You get your money's worth with charts, a decent armory and collection of named weapons and cybernetics, vehicles, drones, drugs, weapon customizations, gear, and spells. You get a full bestiary, along with rules on how to customize and create your own adversaries. Did I mention vehicles? This game actually has detailed vehicle combat that's fast and easy (like your mom). There are even rules for what characters do between missions and on their downtime.

Charcter creation can be done in minutes - armed, armored, and cyber-up'd - ready to take on the man. There is a fleshed-out city, but one of the best parts of this game is that it's not bound to any meta-plot. In fact, if you wanted to use these rules to substitute another cyberpunk game (maybe the one that has elves and dragons, or maybe the one that doesn't) it's completely adaptable. You don't like magic? Toss everything supernatural out you still have a solid cyberpunk game.

I can go on and on, but for $20 you're getting a lot for that price. IMO, it's one of the better cyberpunk games out there, and if you're into this genre it definitely should be in your library.

There isn't much more for me to add than what has already been said. This title is bad, really, really bad. DO NOT BUY THIS. There are so many mistakes with the rules, and cards, and pregenerated characters that I cannot run this without re-editing the whole thing. I shouldn't have to do that for something I paid for. Catalyst just doesn't give a damn about this IP. Don't support this kind of incompetence. There are better choices for cyberpunk on this site.

Save your dollar. Other than the most basic of character creation and task resolution there is nothing here resembling a game of any substance.