The game has so much potential that the disappointment is huge for me. Writing this after my first playthrough a month after release, there are still so many bugs it ain't funny. Few of them were game-breaking for me; the most serious could be solved after loading old saves and playing a short stretch again a couple times until the game worked as intended. The countless other bugs however keep reminding you that you're playing a video game, and a flawed one at that. The little bugs and glitches really kill the immersion. Bugs aside, the game wants to be many things and fails at most of them. First person shooter? Other gtames are better. RPG? The skill tree, implants and loot systems are all kind of lacking and have been one better by other games, including CDPR's own Witcher 3. Open world game? Night City is big and crowded and still feels somewhat empty, despite the tons of side missions you can do. Stealth game? Despite the fact that the game forces you to play that way again and again, the mechanics simply suck. What we have is a really flawed, bug-ridden, badly performing piece of software that would have needed another 6-12n months to adequately finish. I pre-ordered the game back in 2019. Everybody was hyped, so was I. Until the release was delayed twice, and when the game came out in December '20, I didn't really care anymore. For me, CD Projekt Red has lost a lof of credibility and they have a lot of work ahead of them to regain trust. As it stands right now, the game is a 7/10 for me, and that's being generous considering the sheer amount of bugs and design flaws it has. I wanna play it again, however. Maybe I'll have forgotten about the story near the end of 2021 and the bugs have been fixed by then.
This game is visually beautiful, the music and sound effects are amazing, the story is engaging with a superb pacing. Yes, it's a relatively short game and if you're looking for a challenge or any new gameplay mechanics, you might be better off looking elsewhere. If you want to experience a phenomenal piece of storytelling, don't hesitate one second. It's a brilliant piece of software.
I've put way more hours into the game than I wanted to, after recommending it to my girlfriend purely based on reviews. I'm now 75 hours into my own game and have to stop myself after reaching my last personal milestone. The graphics are charming, the music is fantastic (but can be a bit repetitive) and there's so much to do. It's up to the player what to do, and how fast to do it. Wanna be a lonely, rich farmer like myself? Sure. Wanna be a pure, but socially active farmer like my girlfriend? Sure. What makes this game even more astonishing is the fact that apparently one guy did it all on his own. I can say as a "core gamer" of 20-something years: 9.5/10 would recommend.
