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Cyberpunk RED easy mode is R. Tal's way to help people jump into the game. The book itself is decently lengthy for a free volume, and with it, you could run a very bare bones version of the system, meaning that it accomplishes its goal for helping people dip their toes into the mechanics and see if it's for them.
I will say that I don't love the structure of the book, as the beginning of it is quite a (trunkated) lore dump. We start with a primer for the theme and vibe of the game, only to lead into 8 pages of lore. Speaking as someone who can have problems getting into a new game, having this much lore tossed at me from what I'd consider the pick up and play book is daunting. It's all lore I like, I think it's well written, but I think it stifles the pacing of an initial read through, especially for prospective players. Even from a GM's point of view, there's a lot here that won't immediately add to how they run the game. A list of example media beforehand while putting the lore later in the book would have been a better way of helping people engage with the themes without bombarding them with the world at large.
Past that is a simplified rules set, but one that could be used well enough for the experience. It keeps it simple, snappy, and overall does a great job at replicating the feel of the game under a more limited scope. I feel like I could hand this off to a TTRPG newbie and come back with them asking few questions about the basic mechanics. There's a lot of mechanics that the players won't need to know, lessening the burden on them. A new GM might have issues with how much is being thrown at them though.
Lifepaths also make an appearance, and to me, these are for most pick up and play groups something I'd love to toss to them after their first game to get them invested. No complaints about it here, it's one of the more unique systems in the game, and I'm glad it made an appearance in the Easy Mode offering. Anything that helps show the unique values of the system is aces to me.
Along with a few maps, we get an adventure, Getting Paid. The adventure itself is very classic in its set up, has enough options to avoid being a straight point A to point B adventure, but I do worry that the amount of freedom in what can happen will be daunting to new GMs. To someone who knows how to run a game, they probably won't be tripped up, but I can see the large amount of variance in what the GM could do being too much for someone not used to TTRPGs. I believe a few more guiderails could have been helpful here.
As a whole, I consider this a solid introduction to the system as a whole, with only a few hiccups such as lore placement and an adventure that risks overwhelming new GMs being the only slight stumbling blocks here. But it's also free, so why not grab it anyways and decide for yourself?
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