Believe it or not the view that the game, even at launch, was running ‘surprisingly well for the type of game it is and the platforms it runs on’ is not some wildly implausible position for someone to take. I’s an exremely impressive game from what it puts on screen and the underlying systems at play. That is going to stress current gen to its breaking point. You can disagree here without lurching to claims of it being ‘unplayable’ as most are. There are, objectively, millions of ppl on base Xbox One S loving the game and playing it just fine to their tastes. I also find the vast majority of ppl saying it was ‘unplayable’ never even tried it on those platforms themselves, and are really just repeating the talking point uncritically, having watched 0 videos of it being played on current gen base machines without some fps counter highlighting metrics most players never register with their own eyes.
My central argument is this: Just because things didn’t end up as you had hoped doesn’t mean there must be some malicious or diabolical scheme in play to victimize consumers. There is a grey area where ppl can explain how good intentions and ambitious game design leads to subpar outcomes and a host of only bad options to choose from. Such explanations should never be dismissed on some dumb basis that the person is some shill for the game or some ‘bootlicker’ or an apologist or just making ‘excuses’.
I see endless praise for its story and characters and quest design. So what didn’t pan out, specifically? I was always interested in the game and read close to everything that came out about it, but was never wildly hyped about it like tons of others were. I felt their summer Night City Wire gameplay showcases showed the game loop off pretty much perfectly wrt comparing it to the final game.
I think there is a real chance lots of ppl overhyped themselves and inserted their own imagination into their expectations instead of relying strictly on what CDPR said or showed off.
There is many things that are barely touched on plot wise. It’s like they had a checklist and had to add those points because it’s Cyberpunk but didn’t have much time to fleshed them out properly.
Just a few bits that really bothered me :
Pacifica was a proeminent location in videos but is mostly blocked off in game. There’s like two missions in there with the Voodoo boys and a few minor side quests and you’re done.
Voodoo boys (not animals) are pretty cool but serve as a plot point
black wall and Net watch are also name dropped but serve almost no purpose for the main quest.
the corpo woman, Meredith, I think that’s her name, who was in the demo, is mostly no one. The demo was in fact her whole arc as a character… except a random sex scene I guess…
the trauma team is also heavily teased in the demo and…yeah, the demo is the only time you interact with them…(in the pen and paper, I’m pretty sure you can have those fancy contracts that can save your ass)
corpos are like these huge assholes I guess, so there’s those japanese guys, Arasaka…and those other corpos, like Militech and that Meredith woman… I think I forgot most of them, because they are barely touched upon in some side quests. What are their motives ?
Morgan Black Hand ???
Max Tac… Where are they ?
That’s some huge omissions. I guess we’ll see some of that materialized in DLC maybe, but that’s disappointing. Some of these characters and groups are butchered in the script. Even Viktor Vector (who is a cool character for sure) has more lines than most of them.
Some of that stuff, you don’t really notice while playing the game, but when you think about it, there’s some huge missed opportunities. And I’m not even sure about the different endings.
I think some of those things are gonna be the focus of DLC. I’d bet those other areas are planned settings for DLC. You know you can romance Meredith, yes? Some things you might assume are missing might actually just be hard to find. Like the woman from the announcement trailer (she is in the game in an easy to miss sorta way). I don’t agree wrt Net watch and the black wall. Especially the latter, which si features VERY prominently in the game’s main story.
For me personally, the main story was perfect in length and breadth. I want more, but would want it as a separate thing a la DLC, which as ya noted sounds like their plan.
There may be some things I don’t remember correctly, but I checked Meredith Stout mission’s list and she has two… Two missions and one of them is a sex scene.
The job from the demo is the most realized mission in the game. There is so many outcomes for many of the characters involved. I’m not sure I encountered this kind of depth elsewhere. I have to check on that though. I learned that you can save Takemura. I didn’t know that.
Of course, there’s some really good characters (Viktor, Panam, Evelyne, Johnny, Judy), but in contrast, all the others feel rushed/not that complex. Compare that to Witcher 3…
I also didn’t know ya could save him either til a buddy of mine asked if I did. I love taht kinda thing myself though. I like having those conversations where things are notably different depending on how ya play. That wasn’t a binary live or die kinda choice either.
I’d honestly say the game’s quests and characters better than Witcher’s by a lot. Personal opinion and all, but for me it wasn’t even close. I only did Witcher’s main game though, not DLC (yet).
Maybe coincidence, but that is how I approached Cyberpunk 2077 too. Like with most games, I am not interested in knowing too much about it beforehand. I want to discover things myself, so I do not watch or read too much before I get to play it myself. I did not even watch the demo etc, more than a few scenes here and there because why would I spoil things for myself?
Also, the things I enjoy the most are all there: good stories, interesting characters and intriguing setting. The combat is also diverse and satisfying, so that’s a plus. Of course there are lots of things they can flesh out in DLC’s, which I expect.
120 hours on the XSX, though that was mainly down to me doing all those little blue missions and grinding to craft legendary iconic weapons. I came very close to giving up on those a couple of times, but thankfully the gunplay was great fun.
Overall, it was a good game but could’ve been so much better. I already went into a lot of depth in the OT so won’t repeat it here, but essentially every aspect of it is flawed in a way that detracts from the good they bring.
I don’t know about the different options. I didn’t feel my choices mattered, but I discovered that there is some slight changes when you use stealth in some of the missions, instead of going gunblazing. So there’s that. But for the outcomes from beginning to end, they’re not so many.
In Witcher 3, how you treat Yennefer AND Triss gives you 3 different outcomes which alter the many endings. Yes, I tried to have both of them on my first walkthrough…That was hilarious ! And you have scenes that you unlock in certain circumstances.
It never felt that deep in CP 2077. Characters are not really interacting with each other. Did Panam know about Judy ? You can pretty much do all of their respective quests, it just depends if you’re male or female V.
There’s a real interesting conundrum in game design wrt player choice and you are kinda touching on it here. Making consequences of actions/decisions discrete makes everyone remember them but they also stress ppl out and don’t lead to interesting replay value as ppl will just do a save and replay scenes with new choices. Making them too continuous leaves players feeling like their choices/actions didn’t matter, even when they did.
Anyhow, you noted Yennifer/Triss, but your ending in Cyberpunk also depends on how you treat the romance options. There are different ending scenes in Cyberpunk for romances as well as the other decision we noted earlier (which is kinda spoilery in hindsight). And the secret ending.
I personally don’t recall a whole lot wrt choices mattering in TW3 myself. /shrugs
Agreed. The game is fun (I certainly enjoyed my time with it), but it is those flaws that keep it from matching CDPR’s initial ambition and promise. Personally I am more disappointed by the RPG elements rather than the GTA sandbox comparisons we constantly see online.
I am sorry for the way I spoke to you earlier in this thread. It was childish of me.
I completely disagree with you & stand by my position. I believe I am in the right. However, I shouldn’t have responded to you in that way. It’s not how I wanted to behave when I made an account on this site. I’m not a child anymore, so I shouldn’t behave like one. It is possible to respectfully disagree with someone & I know that.
I get that it also how you feel about the themes and characters, but I ckecked how different the endings are in CP and all the important decisions are made at the end of the game. And you can’t influence characters, it’s just a matter of who you chose to help you take down Arasaka. Yes, Takemura, if alive, have a slight role and how far you went in Johnny’s quest line is important too, but ultimately it’s your decision at the end that matter for the 4(5) different endings. And it all revolves pretty much around your own fate and Johnny’s. Yeah, that’s the whole point of the game, but this plot point is stretch pretty thin at the end I think…
Even in a game like The Outer Worlds, at the end of the game (and I say that, as someone who don’t really like how it plays out), your decisions matter. Not just in the last mission, but throughout the game. Your companions are also involved, can critic your decision, etc. It’s not just black and white either. CP endings are all bittersweet and depressing, I think. But maybe it is just paving the way for future DLC, Idk.
To further illustrate my point, Witcher 3 is better in every way, while proposing 3 endings that are different from each other, offers many variations from how you resolved important missions throughout the game and treated characters, and offers a really great conclusion to this epic serie. You don’t feel that you just pushed buttons, but get involved in the fate of Ciri. And all is hidden behind well written dialogues.
I get that it is hard to make that kind of branches in games, as gamers will only see a portion of that, but I think that it’s true for every medium. Even in movies with special effects, when it’s good, you don’t see what is faked. That’s how you know it’s good. So video games are the same. If you’re wondering what are the consequences of every one of your actions, that’s a sign of a great game. In Cyberpunk 2077, it’s like I was seeing all the strings attached and it distracted me from caring about my decisions. The game kind of made me feel like a stupid narcissist, now that I think about it…
