I confess I haven't spent a lot of time playing missions or getting immersed in the story. It seems safer to wait until a lot more bugfixes and optimization patches have landed. One or two might potentially break all progress. So I have contented myself with driving and mostly just walking around the city, Watson that is, as the rest is still locked for me. This has proven to be a great way to just chill and become immersed in the environment. I find it very relaxing and I'm constantly in awe of the density and art direction of the surroundings. What I do feel is that the difference between the more busy parts and the more desolate places/roads is too stark. Some streets and roads are just much too empty, while others are some of the most dense I have ever experienced in a game like this. Surely it can't be a problem to up the car and pedestrian count in those emptier places, or at least provide an option to do so. I suppose mods will come along to fix this, like in TW3. On a technical level, I am using an I7/RTX2080 combo with very high settings. This gives me very playable framerates on a 1440p Gsync monitor. I had hoped for even better performance, but I also feared a lot more bugs. I know it has been a subpar experience for many people (especially console players), but this seems to be at least partially due to using less powerful hardware. I suppose the game will only really start to shine in a couple of years, when even more powerful GPU's can deal with it. That is not the way it should have been, but given CDPR's track record so far it is certainly what I was prepared for. Remember the mess TW1 and 2 were in when they launched and how many fixes were needed afterwards. And those were far less complex games. So far so TW3... We'll see what happens next, and by that I mean in the next 18 months or so. CDPR released the game too soon, that much is abundantly clear, but I feel I'll eventually get my money's worth anyway. In the meantime I'll just keep strolling around Watson.
