I knew that this game was not going to live up to the hype, and so I tempered my expectations accordingly. Surprisingly, underneath all the bad press and crashes is a great enough game that is worth your time IF you are a fan of the cyberpunk and open world genres. I'll admit my bias: I am an avid fan of the cyberpunk genre and I'm very happy that more and more cyberpunk games keep coming out. For this game, I was looking for two things: a good story, and more importantly, an immersive cyberpunk world. Basically, a First-person version of the Shadowrun Trilogy. The city looks gorgeous and jumps past the uncanny valley with a solid landing. There is depth in the open world if you are paying attention; if you learn about the people you kill or save, the game rewards you with more lore and loot if you continue following the bread crumbs, and I'm a sucker for a game that goes out of its way to put in details like that (RDR2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, etc.) The little details matter more than the big ones for me. This admittedly comes with the cost of design and technical issues. I've been lucky since I haven't had many bugs unlike others, though I've had a fair bit of crashes when playing the game for hours at a time. Still, game runs smoothly for me when it runs. In all fairness, I scored a 3060TI early on in the pandemic, so it SHOULD be running smoothly. I also don't mind the skill tree since I set my own house rules when playing games anyways. If the game delivers 5/5 on the aspects I have expectations for, it can deliver a 2/5 or 1/5 experience on every other aspect and I will still power through the game. It's a 5/5 for me on all I wanted (story, immersion, details). Obviously, I recognize that this isn't the normal way people play or review games, so take that as you will. Wait until the price drops if you don't play games in the same stubborn way I do, dive right in if you do.
