This review contains spoilers
took me fucking ages to beat this badboy but i finally got around to it. should preface this by saying i never played 1.0 of this game! i wasn't super interested at that time and the more i heard of the gameplay mechanics the more i figured it weren't for me! by ashleigh played lisa the painful for me this year in exchange for me becoming the Cyber Punk, so i waitied until 2.0 dropped and here i am! i have become the cyber punk, the flatliner of gonks... or whatever
i like the gameplay. i like first person RPGs like fallout, TES, vampire masquerade, so on and so forth. so it was probably a given that i'd at least find this playable. but the gameplay is genuinely good and feels involved because it's got so much variation. there's a bunch of different types of gun, your pistols, SMGs, snipers, so on, but there's all these different variations of them from there. i don't just mean like, different types of SMGs, but there's power types, smart types that work with the cyberware in your body to produce extra affects, tech weapons that use electromagnetic technology to bust through walls and do the big damage. then there's melee weapons, which is blades and clubs, and punching, Gorilla Punching, or Mantis Slashing, or Wire Killing, theres so many different ways to murder people that it feels very fresh. i understand it certainly didnt use to be as balanced as it is now, but i decided from the get-go i wanted a shotgun, a sniper, a pistol, and mantis blades, and at literally no point did i ever have to even consider using other kinds of weapons. you can use quickhacks to set people on fire or distract enemies. i didn't do any of that sneaking stealthy shit because i'm not a pussy though. there are tonnes of options for avoiding combat encounters, and using quickhacks on tech around the room or on people to distract them, cover your path, so and so forth. i never did it as i say, but it's cool that every level feels designed with both rooty-tooting as well as sneaky peteing. you also, obviously, get better at your jazz as you go. there's normal leveling up and skill trees that you can put points into. if western RPGs have taught us anything its that interesting perks are ones that slightly change the way you interract with the world, not ones that produce bigger numbers. the perks allow you to get the dash, the sickest ability in the game, and not much else matters? there's a bunch of other cool shit in there like the first reloaded bullet being an eletrical explosion, or slowing down time, or deflecting bullets with a blade, but that dash and double jump is the only conceivable way to travel in this game. it makes movement for an RPG feel great, and i can't help but feel going back to new vegas where i cant even sprint is going to be a bit sore! especially now that matthew perry has passed into the great beyond! i digress... on the note of progression, there's also little mini level up trees that level up with specific actions that you do, so the game is constantly rewarding you for a specific playtype and you get better at the type of gameplay you keep doing. it's nothing major but its a nice bit of positive reinforcement. same with cyberware really, i found a lot of the cyberware was just "number go up" so didnt' care too much for it, but cyberware did allow me to double jump and have cool blades in my arms so i cant complain too much! i think the only problem with the gameplay is that maybe combat is too easy? i only had a few difficult combat encounters in the game. one was right at the start of phantom liberty (which i promised myself i woudlnt talk about, but fuck it. seems like the writers didnt give a fuck about dogtown because why the fuck would you renegate the quest of "who's going to lead dogtown" to a sidequest and make it THAT boring??? whatever) when i decided to kill ALL the guys outside dogtown's entrance, which was clearly not the intended way to play. the other hard fight was adam smasher, who wasn't too hard himself, more just that the ending segment makes it hard by capping your max health continuously as it goes. you have an infinite amount of healing items in teh game from the beginning, so all consumable items in a normal difficulty game were totally pointless. sold them every time and never felt wanting. maybe that stuff matters more in hardmode, but i just never felt the need to swap out from frag grenades or the normal healing item! they both served me perfectly for the entire game! tangent but the gun camo and car decals are so nice, i love that so many games have different coloured variants... shame you cant pick any! whats up with THAT? same with the car. i bought a maimai and used it for the whole game, but had to use the red one when i wanted a blue one? what am i carrying all these freakin eddies around for, huh, choom?
on the subject of "chooms" lets talk about that writing. was it preem or not? for the most part i really like it! the main story is relying so heavily that the relationship between V and Johnny will work. if it doesnt, the whole game is completely pointless and we should uninstall right now. it's not that you have to like johnny, but it's that you have to learn to understand him, the way he learns to understand you. the moment to moment plot beats are perfectly fine. they're servicable and sometimes serve to make night city feel like a lived in place. but the important stuff in this game is not really to do with themes of transhumanism or reliance on technology, or the ship of theseus. instead it's all about the characters. johnny is the duetoragonist of this and i think casting the most lovable man in hollywood as johnny works. listen, everyone loves keanu reeves (except for the aforementioned dead Benny Gecko of Fallout: New Vegas fame) so i'm choosing to believe that CDPR put a chunk of budget into Reeves bc they knew that if Johnny didnt work, the game wouldnt work... and not because they wanted a celebrity to help sell the game. even if the latter is true, which it at least partially is, Reeves' Johnny is overflowing with a well performed venom for your character and the state of the world. johnny's not edgy because he's a cool legend, he's a narcissistic dickhead who hurts other people and lets the guilt wash over him. he's also lonely, and bitter about what happened to him. the rare moments of sincerity in that character endear you to him so much. because like, this is the only guy in the whole world who GETS it. who gets YOU. he might not be the perfect person to team up with, but he's all you got, through thick or thin. and keanu makes it fucking work, baby. the side characters are okay too. or at least, judy is pretty damn good actually. i played as male V, made him a drug huffing booze cruiser who liked to shoot cops for fun. wasnt any place for romance for me. i did the quests for panam and kerry, both of which were fine, but i get why everyone says judy is queen. because she is! her story is so much more emotionally enriching and that much more tragic for it too. i didn't get to romance her because judy is a lesbian, but i know that if i ever play this game again i will do so as judy and see it through. characters got me wanting to come back to night city, which is saying something because the place is a shithole, and doesnt actualy have much in it! oh well, time for good chicken to delta! syonara!
i like the gameplay. i like first person RPGs like fallout, TES, vampire masquerade, so on and so forth. so it was probably a given that i'd at least find this playable. but the gameplay is genuinely good and feels involved because it's got so much variation. there's a bunch of different types of gun, your pistols, SMGs, snipers, so on, but there's all these different variations of them from there. i don't just mean like, different types of SMGs, but there's power types, smart types that work with the cyberware in your body to produce extra affects, tech weapons that use electromagnetic technology to bust through walls and do the big damage. then there's melee weapons, which is blades and clubs, and punching, Gorilla Punching, or Mantis Slashing, or Wire Killing, theres so many different ways to murder people that it feels very fresh. i understand it certainly didnt use to be as balanced as it is now, but i decided from the get-go i wanted a shotgun, a sniper, a pistol, and mantis blades, and at literally no point did i ever have to even consider using other kinds of weapons. you can use quickhacks to set people on fire or distract enemies. i didn't do any of that sneaking stealthy shit because i'm not a pussy though. there are tonnes of options for avoiding combat encounters, and using quickhacks on tech around the room or on people to distract them, cover your path, so and so forth. i never did it as i say, but it's cool that every level feels designed with both rooty-tooting as well as sneaky peteing. you also, obviously, get better at your jazz as you go. there's normal leveling up and skill trees that you can put points into. if western RPGs have taught us anything its that interesting perks are ones that slightly change the way you interract with the world, not ones that produce bigger numbers. the perks allow you to get the dash, the sickest ability in the game, and not much else matters? there's a bunch of other cool shit in there like the first reloaded bullet being an eletrical explosion, or slowing down time, or deflecting bullets with a blade, but that dash and double jump is the only conceivable way to travel in this game. it makes movement for an RPG feel great, and i can't help but feel going back to new vegas where i cant even sprint is going to be a bit sore! especially now that matthew perry has passed into the great beyond! i digress... on the note of progression, there's also little mini level up trees that level up with specific actions that you do, so the game is constantly rewarding you for a specific playtype and you get better at the type of gameplay you keep doing. it's nothing major but its a nice bit of positive reinforcement. same with cyberware really, i found a lot of the cyberware was just "number go up" so didnt' care too much for it, but cyberware did allow me to double jump and have cool blades in my arms so i cant complain too much! i think the only problem with the gameplay is that maybe combat is too easy? i only had a few difficult combat encounters in the game. one was right at the start of phantom liberty (which i promised myself i woudlnt talk about, but fuck it. seems like the writers didnt give a fuck about dogtown because why the fuck would you renegate the quest of "who's going to lead dogtown" to a sidequest and make it THAT boring??? whatever) when i decided to kill ALL the guys outside dogtown's entrance, which was clearly not the intended way to play. the other hard fight was adam smasher, who wasn't too hard himself, more just that the ending segment makes it hard by capping your max health continuously as it goes. you have an infinite amount of healing items in teh game from the beginning, so all consumable items in a normal difficulty game were totally pointless. sold them every time and never felt wanting. maybe that stuff matters more in hardmode, but i just never felt the need to swap out from frag grenades or the normal healing item! they both served me perfectly for the entire game! tangent but the gun camo and car decals are so nice, i love that so many games have different coloured variants... shame you cant pick any! whats up with THAT? same with the car. i bought a maimai and used it for the whole game, but had to use the red one when i wanted a blue one? what am i carrying all these freakin eddies around for, huh, choom?
on the subject of "chooms" lets talk about that writing. was it preem or not? for the most part i really like it! the main story is relying so heavily that the relationship between V and Johnny will work. if it doesnt, the whole game is completely pointless and we should uninstall right now. it's not that you have to like johnny, but it's that you have to learn to understand him, the way he learns to understand you. the moment to moment plot beats are perfectly fine. they're servicable and sometimes serve to make night city feel like a lived in place. but the important stuff in this game is not really to do with themes of transhumanism or reliance on technology, or the ship of theseus. instead it's all about the characters. johnny is the duetoragonist of this and i think casting the most lovable man in hollywood as johnny works. listen, everyone loves keanu reeves (except for the aforementioned dead Benny Gecko of Fallout: New Vegas fame) so i'm choosing to believe that CDPR put a chunk of budget into Reeves bc they knew that if Johnny didnt work, the game wouldnt work... and not because they wanted a celebrity to help sell the game. even if the latter is true, which it at least partially is, Reeves' Johnny is overflowing with a well performed venom for your character and the state of the world. johnny's not edgy because he's a cool legend, he's a narcissistic dickhead who hurts other people and lets the guilt wash over him. he's also lonely, and bitter about what happened to him. the rare moments of sincerity in that character endear you to him so much. because like, this is the only guy in the whole world who GETS it. who gets YOU. he might not be the perfect person to team up with, but he's all you got, through thick or thin. and keanu makes it fucking work, baby. the side characters are okay too. or at least, judy is pretty damn good actually. i played as male V, made him a drug huffing booze cruiser who liked to shoot cops for fun. wasnt any place for romance for me. i did the quests for panam and kerry, both of which were fine, but i get why everyone says judy is queen. because she is! her story is so much more emotionally enriching and that much more tragic for it too. i didn't get to romance her because judy is a lesbian, but i know that if i ever play this game again i will do so as judy and see it through. characters got me wanting to come back to night city, which is saying something because the place is a shithole, and doesnt actualy have much in it! oh well, time for good chicken to delta! syonara!
AMoose
5 months ago