I'm playing a dude, that is being played by another dude, while that dude thinks he's playing that dude, and for all I know that dude may be being played by another dude that none of us dudes know about. I think this is one of those games where you won't really know how you feel about it until it is completely patched, all DLC is added, and you have more than 20 hours in. Previous to that - well, it just sort of depends on your preferences. The only bugs I've seen are floating items (cans, cigarettes, etc.), NPCs gliding instead of walking, items unable to be picked up, items exploding when you pick things up, and the usual NPC car issues you see in practically all open world games. Nothing gamebreaking or otherwise bad enough to make me want to quit. With that said, the music selection sort of sucks and only works on radios and in cars (not on motorcycles), some NPCs speech loop is absurdly short, driving sucks, the timing on introducing side missions/gigs or whatever sucks (especially timed ones), the UI is simply inconsistent with some elements outright broken, combat can be really wonky especially if a hidden netrunner is attacking you, and I'm probably forgetting a few other sucky things. Sure, I've had a few fun moments and in general it is passable, but it isn't anything close to what I was expecting. I'll continue playing for now to see how things shake out, but the recent industry articles talking about how open world games are no longer viable are starting to really ring true - devs can't deliver on these promises and frankly while it sounds good, I'd prefer a much smaller game with a better story and gameplay elements. This just feels like Deus Ex Extended now with dildos.
This is basically what I was expecting, bringing back memories of Eye of the Beholder and other classic dungeon crawlers - which is to say that this is a very good thing. Easy to get into without reading the manual, always feeling like something new is right around the next corner, waiting to find that next spell - all good. Based on longer play time my rating may go up or down, but so far I am not disappointed.
