Posted on: December 13, 2020

Alixen
Verified ownerGames: 59 Reviews: 1
A narrative better suited for a movie.
Others have reviewed the clunky mechanics, shallow combat, and world that is simply an initially impressive but ultimately shallow stage, so I'll focus on the narrative and how it led to expectations that were sadly not met. Without delving into spoilers, the main story locks you out of exploration in Act 1, and in Act 2 it opens up with one of the most "urgent" main storytelling I've experienced in an open-world game, making doing the side-gigs feel tonally dissonant to say the least. Worse, there is a grim and at this point overdone theme through all the available endings (unless there's some no one has discovered yet hidden behind high-% completion) that makes going back to do more side content feel pointless once you beat the game. I was also particularly disappointed in how little available interaction there was with the few NPCs that V can come to consider friends and lovers; outside their interactions in the main story most get no further content. There is little point in stopping at your lovers house or calling them, most have a few lines of extra dialog, and that's it for the entire game. What you get in their main story/side gigs is all there is. After the rich interactions with friends and even acquaintances in the Witcher games Cyberpunk falls massively short. The side-gigs are also a mixed but mostly shallow bag. Side-gigs with any depth are usually given to you by phone call, but there are are very few that come anywhere close to a satisfying depth. Most of the maps 'extra content' consists of MMO style repeatable events consisting of gangs/crime scenes, cyber psycho mini bosses, and 'rogue AI taxi' missions that constantly intrude on main story quests via reports from the taxi HQ. Unless further % completion unlocks another 30 hours of side-gig narratives, locations worth exploring, more NPC interactions with friends and lovers, offer a less grim series of endings, and post-credit play, I think I'm done with Cyberpunk after several days of play.
Is this helpful to you?