I have so many mixed feelings about this game.
On one hand, I'm in love with the world and the characters and the music, and the idea of what this game is.
On the other hand, this is very clearly an unfinished and unpolished game with some major issues.
Stuff I liked:
- The world: I genuinely enjoyed Night City as a setting. I think its cool and it does feel lived in, despite the lackluster NPCs and broken police system. By the end of the game, I did feel an attachment to this fictional city.
- The side missions. CDPR knows how to make good side missions, I'll give them that. The optional stuff felt fleshed out and kept me engaged for hours. Theres different "types" of side missions here: story-driven character related side missions, gigs, and random combat missions. They all felt good for what they were. Obviously the story driven side missions are the most detailed, but even gigs were designed in a way that made them feel more than just your average fetch/kill quest.
- The music. This game has a killer soundtrack. Not much else to say here. I do wish some of the stuff for the later missions was better utilized though.
- The story + performances. Though not perfect, the plot was interesting to follow, and the character performances were pretty great.
Stuff I'm on the fence about:
- Combat. There were parts of the game where the combat felt pretty great and I actively sought more of it. The guns were fun to use and the enemies reacted well enough that combat felt fluid.
But... as I kept playing, problems started to get obvious. Melee combat, for example, is just broken. Its not responsive and hitboxes are weird. This is a shame because mantis blades are really cool.
Theres stuff you can do aside from just shoot, like hacking, but mixing shooting and hacking didnt always feel great. The best combat moments for me were the ones where i would use hacking and stealth first and then resort to shooting only if i was discovered. However, i really wish there was more to this.
- Choices. I have so many mixed feelings about this. I like that choices do change things a little bit. Depending on how you handle certain situations, you could find yourself with some cool prizes or extra missions, or an easier way out of missions. For example, helping certain characters do something landed me with some sweet vehicles. Or investing in certain skills allowed me easier access to missions. However, most main story choices dont have any long term effects on the story. Maybe its not fair to expect them to, since thats usually just how things are with games like this, but it would've been nice if CDPR delivered on some of the things it promised?
- RPG elements. Again, mixed feelings. Honestly, if this game was advertised as a sandbox action game, it probably would have been received a little better. Some RPG things are nice, like investing in certain points to unlock some additional options in side quests, but overall i didnt feel like my stats mattered all that much. The same thing applied to weapons -- i would just check the dps and nothing else because it didn't seem like anything else really mattered.
- The setting. I know I said i liked this, but i have a nitpick: theres a disproportionate amount of focus on sex in night city. I find it hard to believe that most of the ads and a significant amount of shops focus solely on selling sex. Its like CDPR ran out of ideas pretty early about what makes a cyberpunk city. Theres so much else you could show players about a futuristic city. This doesnt ruin Night City, but does make the ads around the city really annoying. Stop trying really hard to be edgy, CDPR.
Stuff I hated:
- Bugs and performance, obviously. I played on PC on v1.1 so I didnt have it as bad as console players on launch day, but I still saw my fair share of bugs. I had to reload the game every now and then to fix things, which was a mild inconvenience. The bugs broke the immersion for me multiple times. I would be getting really into the game, and then be forced to reload or have to see something ridiculous, which would just throw me off the rhythm.
Performance is pretty bad too. I saw dips every now and then, and my frames would drop by 10-15 during driving. I had to do some optimizations and install some third party tools to ensure a smooth framerate.
- Driving. The driving here is ABYSMAL. Its ridiculous how bad this is. I had to install a mod to make it better. I would have stopped playing halfway through if I had to play with the default driving.
- Minimap. CDPR, how did mess up a minimap? Its so zoomed in, it makes navigating incredibly difficult. The fact that a minimap mod is one of the top downloaded mods for this game shows how much of a problem it is.
- Cops. Again, just abysmal. Cops spawn out of nowhere at the slightest indication of an illegal activity and start shooting at you. And if u run away, they'll just pretend you never existed. The whole thing is broken. The game would legit be better without it.
- Being unfinished. This is not a finished game and it shows. A prime example of this is how you'll get random phone calls from unknown people introducing themselves and giving you jobs. These people are available on the map and you can visit them, but there is no sequence in the game where you meet most of them. It seems to me like there were plans to do this but were scrapped. It feels really unorganic.
Parts of the main story feel a little rushed, as if there was supposed to be a little padding somewhere but its missing.
The side quests, albeit really good, also feel like they were supposed to come together at some point in the main story, but they never do (barring some exceptions).
Some other things worth mentioning:
- I loved the unique reload animations on the guns.
- I think every mission name is the title of a popular rock song. I thought this was a neat detail.
Closing thoughts:
Look, i enjoyed this game enough to finish most of the side quests and spend 40 hours in its world. I don't think its a terrible game but its so far from perfect, or even great. It needed a lot more work to get there.
I genuinely believe one of the reasons I enjoyed this more than most other people is because i never kept up with the hype. I stayed away from trailers and news about this game, so I never really knew what features were unfulfilled promises until after release when people started talking about it. I didnt have any major expectations from this game. However, I did want it to be good because Cyberpunk is a cool genre and I'd love to see other studios get inspired and create something in this genre too.
I also strongly believe this game was incorrectly and over-marketed. The fact that there was cyberpunk-themed hardware being sold way before the game was even released is ridiculous to me.
This needed more time in the oven, and less time on billboards.
On one hand, I'm in love with the world and the characters and the music, and the idea of what this game is.
On the other hand, this is very clearly an unfinished and unpolished game with some major issues.
Stuff I liked:
- The world: I genuinely enjoyed Night City as a setting. I think its cool and it does feel lived in, despite the lackluster NPCs and broken police system. By the end of the game, I did feel an attachment to this fictional city.
- The side missions. CDPR knows how to make good side missions, I'll give them that. The optional stuff felt fleshed out and kept me engaged for hours. Theres different "types" of side missions here: story-driven character related side missions, gigs, and random combat missions. They all felt good for what they were. Obviously the story driven side missions are the most detailed, but even gigs were designed in a way that made them feel more than just your average fetch/kill quest.
- The music. This game has a killer soundtrack. Not much else to say here. I do wish some of the stuff for the later missions was better utilized though.
- The story + performances. Though not perfect, the plot was interesting to follow, and the character performances were pretty great.
Stuff I'm on the fence about:
- Combat. There were parts of the game where the combat felt pretty great and I actively sought more of it. The guns were fun to use and the enemies reacted well enough that combat felt fluid.
But... as I kept playing, problems started to get obvious. Melee combat, for example, is just broken. Its not responsive and hitboxes are weird. This is a shame because mantis blades are really cool.
Theres stuff you can do aside from just shoot, like hacking, but mixing shooting and hacking didnt always feel great. The best combat moments for me were the ones where i would use hacking and stealth first and then resort to shooting only if i was discovered. However, i really wish there was more to this.
- Choices. I have so many mixed feelings about this. I like that choices do change things a little bit. Depending on how you handle certain situations, you could find yourself with some cool prizes or extra missions, or an easier way out of missions. For example, helping certain characters do something landed me with some sweet vehicles. Or investing in certain skills allowed me easier access to missions. However, most main story choices dont have any long term effects on the story. Maybe its not fair to expect them to, since thats usually just how things are with games like this, but it would've been nice if CDPR delivered on some of the things it promised?
- RPG elements. Again, mixed feelings. Honestly, if this game was advertised as a sandbox action game, it probably would have been received a little better. Some RPG things are nice, like investing in certain points to unlock some additional options in side quests, but overall i didnt feel like my stats mattered all that much. The same thing applied to weapons -- i would just check the dps and nothing else because it didn't seem like anything else really mattered.
- The setting. I know I said i liked this, but i have a nitpick: theres a disproportionate amount of focus on sex in night city. I find it hard to believe that most of the ads and a significant amount of shops focus solely on selling sex. Its like CDPR ran out of ideas pretty early about what makes a cyberpunk city. Theres so much else you could show players about a futuristic city. This doesnt ruin Night City, but does make the ads around the city really annoying. Stop trying really hard to be edgy, CDPR.
Stuff I hated:
- Bugs and performance, obviously. I played on PC on v1.1 so I didnt have it as bad as console players on launch day, but I still saw my fair share of bugs. I had to reload the game every now and then to fix things, which was a mild inconvenience. The bugs broke the immersion for me multiple times. I would be getting really into the game, and then be forced to reload or have to see something ridiculous, which would just throw me off the rhythm.
Performance is pretty bad too. I saw dips every now and then, and my frames would drop by 10-15 during driving. I had to do some optimizations and install some third party tools to ensure a smooth framerate.
- Driving. The driving here is ABYSMAL. Its ridiculous how bad this is. I had to install a mod to make it better. I would have stopped playing halfway through if I had to play with the default driving.
- Minimap. CDPR, how did mess up a minimap? Its so zoomed in, it makes navigating incredibly difficult. The fact that a minimap mod is one of the top downloaded mods for this game shows how much of a problem it is.
- Cops. Again, just abysmal. Cops spawn out of nowhere at the slightest indication of an illegal activity and start shooting at you. And if u run away, they'll just pretend you never existed. The whole thing is broken. The game would legit be better without it.
- Being unfinished. This is not a finished game and it shows. A prime example of this is how you'll get random phone calls from unknown people introducing themselves and giving you jobs. These people are available on the map and you can visit them, but there is no sequence in the game where you meet most of them. It seems to me like there were plans to do this but were scrapped. It feels really unorganic.
Parts of the main story feel a little rushed, as if there was supposed to be a little padding somewhere but its missing.
The side quests, albeit really good, also feel like they were supposed to come together at some point in the main story, but they never do (barring some exceptions).
Some other things worth mentioning:
- I loved the unique reload animations on the guns.
- I think every mission name is the title of a popular rock song. I thought this was a neat detail.
Closing thoughts:
Look, i enjoyed this game enough to finish most of the side quests and spend 40 hours in its world. I don't think its a terrible game but its so far from perfect, or even great. It needed a lot more work to get there.
I genuinely believe one of the reasons I enjoyed this more than most other people is because i never kept up with the hype. I stayed away from trailers and news about this game, so I never really knew what features were unfulfilled promises until after release when people started talking about it. I didnt have any major expectations from this game. However, I did want it to be good because Cyberpunk is a cool genre and I'd love to see other studios get inspired and create something in this genre too.
I also strongly believe this game was incorrectly and over-marketed. The fact that there was cyberpunk-themed hardware being sold way before the game was even released is ridiculous to me.
This needed more time in the oven, and less time on billboards.