NO SPOILERS
Version 1.06 reviewed
I have a feeling that this is going to be a long review. I have a lot to say about this game, both good and bad. One of the reasons this game failed so spectacularly is the fact that people relied on one hit wonders to create the perfect game to end all other games. It was never going to meet expectations and even with patches i don't see this game hitting those expectations. Personally I enjoyed Cyberpunk more than the Witcher 3 however I never ranked the Witcher that high as others have. I'll get all my gripes out of the way first.
The Negatives:
- Obviously I can't talk about this game without mentioning bugs. Yes most of these will get fixed in the Jan and Feb patches however the Witcher 3 is still buggy even to this day. They sadly won't be able to smooth out everything, however most of the bugs weren't too bad. Most made me laugh and there were only a couple that frustrated me as these made me restart entire segments.
- The physics are actually laughable. You can literally drive up people like they are ramps. The driving isn't too horrendous when you get used to it but it's no GTA. Again these physics problems can often bring a laugh out of me but they also ruin immersion much like the glitches.
- Speaking of driving, the minimap is too zoomed in. I would always react too late when turning a corner because it tells you to turn at the last second
- Enemy AI was clearly done by 5 year olds. They could stare at you for 5 minutes before giving up and going about their lives again. They can also get stuck on invisible walls if they venture too far from their 1 meter radius they are stuck to.
- Bosses in first person games have never really attracted me and this game doesn't change my opinion.
- I absolutely hate games with save systems like this. I want it to autosave more regularly. There is nothing more frustrating than dying or glitching and having to go back 15 minutes of gameplay because you forgot to save.
- Characters often have no hit-boxes so you can just walk through them or vise versa which totally ruins immersion.
- Hand to hand combat is awful. I actually quite liked it in the Witcher 3 and yet this is somehow worse than that in GTAV.
- The police are really stupid. They spawn in out of nowhere and either you get one shot by them or they give up when you get 2 metres away. Apparently it was thrown in last minute which makes a lot of sense.
- I very much dislike the looting and item management compared to the Witcher 3. The looting is especially finicky with a controller
- Lip syncing was pretty poor for a 2020 story driven game. I appreciate that they had lip syncing for many different languages however the mouth and body movement is a little static
The positives:
- The story here is obviously the main attraction and it delivers. Characters are well developed and the main story contains very little filler (Witcher 3 looking at you!). The voice acting is consistently good with a lot of dialogue options to choose from. I especially love how there are no loading screens or time skips between cutscenes. You just walk in naturally and initiate the conversation.
- While the combat isn't the best I've seen, there are loads of variations in how you approach a fight. You can go stealth, melee, guns blazing, Quick hack and a bunch more. These classes all go even deeper with lethal and non lethal weapons, different abilities as well as different weapon types to keep you interested in the fight.
- The sheer amount of content here is staggering. Somehow this game manages to have so many hours of content without any excessive padding (Witcher senses be like). So many side quests feel like main quests with proper character development and really heartfelt moments.
- The graphics are gorgeous. I'm not a graphics guy but the amount of screenshots I took in this game is well over anything I've done for other games. The photo mode works really well for this.
- It's unacceptable how badly this runs on last gen however it is understandable. The scope of this world is something I've never seen in a game. The world is incredibly detailed, there are roads being build on top of each other and there are buildings towering over even the flying ships.
- The life paths are nothing to gawk at but they are really nice to have for a second or third playthrough. Even just the change in some dialogue goes a long way. Changing V's gender also helps with this.
- I'm pretty confident that I didn't get the best ending and yet I was absolutely thrilled with how they handled the ending I got. From the final mission to the final cutscene I was invested all the way.
- I love how you can message characters even after you are done with their quests. It adds to the immersion and it helps bring the characters to life.
- The soundtrack is pretty solid throughout. I appreciate that they composed their own songs for radios and clubs, definitely a nice touch.
I understand that this game isn't quite what people wanted but I was still very satisfied with what I got. I'm definitely going to do another playthrough of this. With the Witcher, there is just too much padding for me to do a second playthrough but with Cyberpunk I can not only change the story, but also my combat playstyle, what vehicles I drive as well as my life path and gender. I am exited to see how beneficial these patches will be and I'm 100% down for the free DLCs.
81
Version 1.06 reviewed
I have a feeling that this is going to be a long review. I have a lot to say about this game, both good and bad. One of the reasons this game failed so spectacularly is the fact that people relied on one hit wonders to create the perfect game to end all other games. It was never going to meet expectations and even with patches i don't see this game hitting those expectations. Personally I enjoyed Cyberpunk more than the Witcher 3 however I never ranked the Witcher that high as others have. I'll get all my gripes out of the way first.
The Negatives:
- Obviously I can't talk about this game without mentioning bugs. Yes most of these will get fixed in the Jan and Feb patches however the Witcher 3 is still buggy even to this day. They sadly won't be able to smooth out everything, however most of the bugs weren't too bad. Most made me laugh and there were only a couple that frustrated me as these made me restart entire segments.
- The physics are actually laughable. You can literally drive up people like they are ramps. The driving isn't too horrendous when you get used to it but it's no GTA. Again these physics problems can often bring a laugh out of me but they also ruin immersion much like the glitches.
- Speaking of driving, the minimap is too zoomed in. I would always react too late when turning a corner because it tells you to turn at the last second
- Enemy AI was clearly done by 5 year olds. They could stare at you for 5 minutes before giving up and going about their lives again. They can also get stuck on invisible walls if they venture too far from their 1 meter radius they are stuck to.
- Bosses in first person games have never really attracted me and this game doesn't change my opinion.
- I absolutely hate games with save systems like this. I want it to autosave more regularly. There is nothing more frustrating than dying or glitching and having to go back 15 minutes of gameplay because you forgot to save.
- Characters often have no hit-boxes so you can just walk through them or vise versa which totally ruins immersion.
- Hand to hand combat is awful. I actually quite liked it in the Witcher 3 and yet this is somehow worse than that in GTAV.
- The police are really stupid. They spawn in out of nowhere and either you get one shot by them or they give up when you get 2 metres away. Apparently it was thrown in last minute which makes a lot of sense.
- I very much dislike the looting and item management compared to the Witcher 3. The looting is especially finicky with a controller
- Lip syncing was pretty poor for a 2020 story driven game. I appreciate that they had lip syncing for many different languages however the mouth and body movement is a little static
The positives:
- The story here is obviously the main attraction and it delivers. Characters are well developed and the main story contains very little filler (Witcher 3 looking at you!). The voice acting is consistently good with a lot of dialogue options to choose from. I especially love how there are no loading screens or time skips between cutscenes. You just walk in naturally and initiate the conversation.
- While the combat isn't the best I've seen, there are loads of variations in how you approach a fight. You can go stealth, melee, guns blazing, Quick hack and a bunch more. These classes all go even deeper with lethal and non lethal weapons, different abilities as well as different weapon types to keep you interested in the fight.
- The sheer amount of content here is staggering. Somehow this game manages to have so many hours of content without any excessive padding (Witcher senses be like). So many side quests feel like main quests with proper character development and really heartfelt moments.
- The graphics are gorgeous. I'm not a graphics guy but the amount of screenshots I took in this game is well over anything I've done for other games. The photo mode works really well for this.
- It's unacceptable how badly this runs on last gen however it is understandable. The scope of this world is something I've never seen in a game. The world is incredibly detailed, there are roads being build on top of each other and there are buildings towering over even the flying ships.
- The life paths are nothing to gawk at but they are really nice to have for a second or third playthrough. Even just the change in some dialogue goes a long way. Changing V's gender also helps with this.
- I'm pretty confident that I didn't get the best ending and yet I was absolutely thrilled with how they handled the ending I got. From the final mission to the final cutscene I was invested all the way.
- I love how you can message characters even after you are done with their quests. It adds to the immersion and it helps bring the characters to life.
- The soundtrack is pretty solid throughout. I appreciate that they composed their own songs for radios and clubs, definitely a nice touch.
I understand that this game isn't quite what people wanted but I was still very satisfied with what I got. I'm definitely going to do another playthrough of this. With the Witcher, there is just too much padding for me to do a second playthrough but with Cyberpunk I can not only change the story, but also my combat playstyle, what vehicles I drive as well as my life path and gender. I am exited to see how beneficial these patches will be and I'm 100% down for the free DLCs.
81