An RPG thats not an RPG - I wrote a review years ago, but somehow it disappeared. The game lacks a lot of features that were advertised before release. It feels more like a regular FPS shooter. There is no decision making and the world feels just shallow and empty.
The story is rather short. Shorter than I thought it would be. I was around 40 hours into the game when I realized I am almost through. I did a lot of side missions and contracts.. But most of them are very repetitive. Get/Hack/Kill x. Nothing I want to dilute the plot with. After I finished the main plot and the last savegame was reloaded, I felt an emptiness. The world felt empty. There is not much to do in Night City. Actually there is nothing to do, besides the quests/contracts and shooting thugs wherever blue icons appear on the map. The whole main plot feels rushed. Just dissappointing. Then there are technical issues, or more like questionable design choices, like the whole AI. Whether it is the driving AI, which is incapable of reacting to obstacles (drive around them? not necessary, just let the AI honk until it disappears when the player is not looking at it... lol), or the police which just spawns around you. They will never chase you, you will never see them chase others. All they do is idling on certain spots or kill you, if you do not behave. And CDPR said all citizens have their own full day and night cycle.. No.. they do not. Quite the reverse! Citizens, whether in cars or on foot, get despawned immediately if you turn yourself around 360°. The prologue is so thrilling, you get totally hyped for the game. The first presentation of the Trauma Team.. The police killing thugs at the intersection.. It looks nice.. But after that you will never see stuff like that happen in the world. It was just scripted for the prologue.. I have seen the trauma team helping a citizen. I was like "Oh nice, lets see how they patch that citizen up" but the animation was lame and nothing happened.. The team and citizen just despawned in front of me after a short time.. And then there are bugs.. many of them. Since CDPR decided to do cetain things the way they did, I do not think stuff like this will ever be "fixed".
