Cyberpunk 2077

To me, the most important aspects of games like these are the story and characters. Hence that will be my focus, and I will ignore the rest. SPOILER AHEAD. What an absolute let down. The protagonist has one single personality, and it doesn't matter what choices you make or what backstory you have. The protagonist will always be whiny and unsure. I played as Corpo as I was intrigued to climb on top of the food chain in an ice-cold but calculated manner. In reality, V sounds like he was an intern, and never embrace the Corpo culture. He is whiny and he will stay whiny throughout the whole game. If you chose Corpo dialogue alternatives, V will sound whiny or like an angry barbarian. I was somewhat okay with this since, in the hero's journey, the protagonist can start out pretty pathetic (Although the backstory implied that V should be past this point). The biggest disappointment though was after Act 2, when I thought things would start heating up. The game all of a sudden ended. The protagonist never got past the pathetic state. If you want to be Corpo you are destined to be a submissive loser. This ending felt so unbelievably rushed, and out of place and completely ruined the story. The AI beyond the black wall was a really interesting concept, but nothing came to fruition out of it. It was hinted at that this was a much bigger threat than Arasaka, but it seems like Project red kind of forgot about the AI threat (or got cut out because of deadlines hoho). ps. Playing as stealth is bugged.

I havent completed the game yet as my original save file just stopped working and I've had to start again so I'm not at all pleased about that. Just add it to the large (expanding) list of bugs that make this game frustrating to try and enjoy, which I mostly have. Cyberpunk's core gameplay has been fun and has an enticing story that pulls you in and leaves you wanting more. I love the characters and factions within Night City. I can really immerse myself in their world when everyone is running as intended. However... This game is nothing special. It would be a run of the mill FPS with RPG elements 5 years ago but wouldnt stand out amongst the others. Its very obvious this game has used Witcher 3 as its inspiration for all the mechanics but the Witcher did it way better. - Combat is generic and limited - The controls are terrible and make basic interactions a chore - The AI is terrible to the point you can no longer call it an intelligence - Stealth is Skyrim level busted. Large part due to the terrible AI. - Your choices don't matter and have little impact overall - Character creation is basic and modifications in game are very limited - Loot pool is shallow and modifications are bland - World missions and events are very generic and offer little replay value - Don't even get me started on how pathetic the police implementation is My final thoughts are that if this game came out in 2015 without bugs it would be considered really good and sit amongst the greats of that era. However in 2020 this game is very mediocre and a far cry from what was promoted over the years. It's obvious to everyone that even after 8 years it still needed more time and I could have easily waited. If anyone from CDPR ends up reading this I am very dissapointed with your companies behaviour around this games launch. I have always given you the benefit of the doubt and used GOG over steam where ever possible to support you. That ends for me as of today.

The Good: The main story is amazing and well written, the voice acting is top notch and superb, the music and soundtrack are simply amazing, and the game world is beautiful to behold. Some of the side quests are just as good as ones you would find in The Witcher 3, and many of the characters that you meet have depth and are very interesting and fun to interact with. The foundation of a wonderful open world RPG is there, but... The Not So Good: With all of the hype surrounding a robut character creation, I found it to be pretty lackluster...a modded Skyrim or Fallout4 allows much more freedom with character creation than Cyberpunk does. And once your character is set, then it is unchangeable throughout the game. There is very little weapon or clothing customization either, both visually or functionally and crafting is pretty vanilla as well. Basically you upgrade for stats over style, which usually means that you look "clownish" to get the best protection. Gigs are mainly kill or fetch quests, primarily busy work that serves as "filler" if you deviate from the main story or side quests. NPC AI is just not great, nor does there seem to be any set routine to a NPCs life...they all just meanader around the city taking up space. Vendors all sell pretty much the same bland, boring products without much flavor or variety. The Ugly: Bugs, more bugs, and even more bugs. Too many bugs for a title as anticipated as this one and delayed as much as it has been. Poor optimization in certain areas...frame rates dip for little or no reason in certain places. Driving...omg, trying to drive in this game is frustrating to say the least, not to mention unrealistic It's better to just run or fast travel unless you want to site see the gorgeous world. Locked keys on the keyboard? Is that still a thing in 2020?! That is extremely frustrating. I had fun playing this game but, sadly, it's just not what was promised.

Not mentioning the performance, the cut features or bugs the game sometimes is just plain frustrating. You cannot craft or transmog clothes so you will look like a clown most of the time The crafting system is just plain mess, too much to list here Most of the sidequests are "GO HERE KILL STUFF" The NPCs on the street could be replaced by chickens for all The police just magically spawns at your location Overall coming from witcher 3 this is just unexcusable, the whole game needs an overhaul

Besides the obvious technical issues, the quality of this game in general is an insult to the reputation of CDPR, as a game developer company. The city of the game is empty and lifeless with zombie-like NPCs who feel completely detached from the world around them. The game is not even an RPG, it's a genuine looter-shooter with bullet-sponge enemies and a wonky stealth system—almost makes me think it's falsely advertised as an action role-playing game. Enemy AI is flat-out idiotic and harder difficulty levels only make enemies more resilient to bullets and not smarter. Hacking in this game is just a cardboard cutout of the same thing found in the Watch Dogs series. The entire driving model is despicable. The wanted-level system and police spawn-in is abhorrent. The perks in the game are some of the least impactful or memorable tools of character advancement I've ever had the misfortune of reading through. The $72.79 asking price of this game is a blood-boiling scam.