the following is based off my first two hours:
really not impressed with this whatsoever. even the technical bugs like trees popping in sporadically aside, the gameplay is unbelievably clunky and the writing is both bland in concept and bland in delivery. i'm a huge stealth fan and went into this with that in mind, dumping the majority of my points in the sneaky stats. i then sit through what has to be, what, an hour of molasses pacing with nothing really happening? no, really, i picked the corporate tree and here's what your fun, fun first hour consists of:
walk out of bathroom, walk down halls with little of interest, sit in elevator, walk down more halls, talk to my boss for ten minutes, get a fun sounding mission, don't go on the mission yet, sit in helicopter, fly for five minutes, go to bar, walk around bar, sit down, another ten minute conversation with another guy discussing the fun mission, other guys come over, they tell me i don't get to go on fun mission, i frown, my character's friend gets mad and makes it seem like something's about to happen, nothing happens, the guys go away, and then i'm treated to a big montage of my character doing things that i wouldn't want him to do, which is weird because this is an RPG, right?
actually, that's the weirdest thing. why am i not getting any choices? whenever your main character is prompted to say something, the options both seem to offer the same sentiment--that is, if you get any options at all. sometimes, you just get a line that you're forced to say along with the choice to get a bonus throwaway line. still gotta pick the forced dialogue in the end. and this really sucks, because my character keeps saying things that i really don't want him to say. it feels very fallout 4 all over again, and that pisses me off. compare this to deux ex's last two entries where the player is offered multiple dialogue options straight from the start that all have different intentions and, more importantly, give the player a 100% view of what the hell they're going to be saying.
and speaking of which, it's that saying that bothers me. the delivery of the lines are just terrible. your main protagonist, should you choose to be male, sounds like a dumb yokel, and this is particularly funny if you start your background in corporate. he's not hick or anything, but he sounds like he's down a few braincells--there's one line in particular when he mocks his friend for "not being nice" and he sounds like a damn child. there's an encounter with an asian police officer too featuring some real poor English and some even poorer interaction with the player's friend that's just eyerolling. while we're on that topic, there's a part where you get in the car and your friend starts driving, and this... just horrible trap beat starts playing and i could not have frowned harder. i went into the options to see what the radio key was--F, or R, or something--and i mashed the hell out of it. a fruitless endeavor. trapped in the trap.
i said something about the writing, right? it's not really bad or anything--just boring and uninteresting. i won't go into this too much because it's unfair to just say something's bad and not elaborate, and i literally can't remember what any of the dialogue was. nothing memorable. also, any given scene just looks like a generic synthwave album cover. giving credit to deus ex again here, that game's developers saw the writing on the wall and were very forward thinking in their aesthetic compared to this, a vague idea of what cyberpunk looks like.
anyway, i want to end this talking about the gameplay--specifically the stealth, since that's what i cared about going in, what i built my character around, what i brushed up on in the tutorial, and what i set out to do, clearing the entire first mission with no deaths.
it sucks. here, i'm going to describe the process for you. i might mis-remember some exact keystrokes but the sentiment is the same: FIRST, you hit your crouch toggle key. oops, hold on, the crouch toggle key broke, so you have to go into the options, bind the toggle key to the other crouch, and then bind it back (you'll be doing this a lot, so get used to it). okay, what were we doing again? right, stealth. so, you crouch successfully, your first hurdle accomplished, and then you see some enemies. NOW, you have to hit tab and go into batman vision mode. now, you highlight enemies and mark them (with a different key, of course). why are you doing this? why aren't you just going in and sneaking?
because there's no. fucking. leaning. in a game. with fucking. stealth.
why is leaning important? because it allows you to take cover behind objects and peek to see where hostiles are and what they're doing. what's the alternative? you literally have no idea what direction someone's facing so you just bumble out from behind cover and get immediately spotted. therefore, your only solution is to have to highlight enemies so that doesn't happen. but then, this means you're having to spend the damn game constantly with these glow-in-the-dark villains, something that's a powerup or unlockable in games like dishonored or, again, deus ex. anyway, i'm getting off track, let's continue with the stealth process.
so now you've successfully highlighted them, and now you're ready to hunt. you sneak up from behind someone and press F. now you have them in a vague chokehold? it doesn't really... look right. anyway, now you have to decide if you want to kill them or knock them out, so you press F again or whatever the key is. a weird animation plays where your character looks like he's grasping at air, and then, congrats, he's on the ground. NOW, you have to look at the body and hold R to carry it. okay, now we've got to bring it somewhere. you go to a hiding spot and you press--what? what do you press? oh. oh you know. E. and congrats, you've finally achieved your first stealth takedown. now, just to sum it up, let's go through all the steps one more time.
you hit control, then you hit tab, then you hit your second mouse button, then you unhit tab, then you walk forward, then you press f, then you press f again, then you hold r, then you walk, then you press e.
i want you to imagine an exasperated AVGN face right now because WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
i keep bringing up deus ex but holy fuck, in that game you just hold q, they're automatically being dragged, and then you let go and continue on. no need to highlight enemies either because the game goes in third person when you take cover. or hell, if you don't want that, dishonored lets you, in first person, you guessed it: LEAN. YOU CAN LEAN.
i don't really know where the story goes from here, and i don't know how the other backgrounds start, and i don't know how much more fun it is to play the game like an action hero--but i don't care. this was enough. now, i'll probably be back after a year or two of patches and updates, but for sixty dollars? you could do a lot, lot, lot better.
[EDIT: apparently you can lean! you have to specifically have a weapon out and then attempt to aim it while at a corner. seeing as i was playing as a stealth pacifist, i saw no reason to have a gun out at all. that's a good thing! there is definitely still way too many buttons for what should be a simple action. but this definitely makes this more playable, now. i'll update these first impressions with a fuller look if i continue on]
[EDIT 2: yeah it still sucks. play deus ex]
really not impressed with this whatsoever. even the technical bugs like trees popping in sporadically aside, the gameplay is unbelievably clunky and the writing is both bland in concept and bland in delivery. i'm a huge stealth fan and went into this with that in mind, dumping the majority of my points in the sneaky stats. i then sit through what has to be, what, an hour of molasses pacing with nothing really happening? no, really, i picked the corporate tree and here's what your fun, fun first hour consists of:
walk out of bathroom, walk down halls with little of interest, sit in elevator, walk down more halls, talk to my boss for ten minutes, get a fun sounding mission, don't go on the mission yet, sit in helicopter, fly for five minutes, go to bar, walk around bar, sit down, another ten minute conversation with another guy discussing the fun mission, other guys come over, they tell me i don't get to go on fun mission, i frown, my character's friend gets mad and makes it seem like something's about to happen, nothing happens, the guys go away, and then i'm treated to a big montage of my character doing things that i wouldn't want him to do, which is weird because this is an RPG, right?
actually, that's the weirdest thing. why am i not getting any choices? whenever your main character is prompted to say something, the options both seem to offer the same sentiment--that is, if you get any options at all. sometimes, you just get a line that you're forced to say along with the choice to get a bonus throwaway line. still gotta pick the forced dialogue in the end. and this really sucks, because my character keeps saying things that i really don't want him to say. it feels very fallout 4 all over again, and that pisses me off. compare this to deux ex's last two entries where the player is offered multiple dialogue options straight from the start that all have different intentions and, more importantly, give the player a 100% view of what the hell they're going to be saying.
and speaking of which, it's that saying that bothers me. the delivery of the lines are just terrible. your main protagonist, should you choose to be male, sounds like a dumb yokel, and this is particularly funny if you start your background in corporate. he's not hick or anything, but he sounds like he's down a few braincells--there's one line in particular when he mocks his friend for "not being nice" and he sounds like a damn child. there's an encounter with an asian police officer too featuring some real poor English and some even poorer interaction with the player's friend that's just eyerolling. while we're on that topic, there's a part where you get in the car and your friend starts driving, and this... just horrible trap beat starts playing and i could not have frowned harder. i went into the options to see what the radio key was--F, or R, or something--and i mashed the hell out of it. a fruitless endeavor. trapped in the trap.
i said something about the writing, right? it's not really bad or anything--just boring and uninteresting. i won't go into this too much because it's unfair to just say something's bad and not elaborate, and i literally can't remember what any of the dialogue was. nothing memorable. also, any given scene just looks like a generic synthwave album cover. giving credit to deus ex again here, that game's developers saw the writing on the wall and were very forward thinking in their aesthetic compared to this, a vague idea of what cyberpunk looks like.
anyway, i want to end this talking about the gameplay--specifically the stealth, since that's what i cared about going in, what i built my character around, what i brushed up on in the tutorial, and what i set out to do, clearing the entire first mission with no deaths.
it sucks. here, i'm going to describe the process for you. i might mis-remember some exact keystrokes but the sentiment is the same: FIRST, you hit your crouch toggle key. oops, hold on, the crouch toggle key broke, so you have to go into the options, bind the toggle key to the other crouch, and then bind it back (you'll be doing this a lot, so get used to it). okay, what were we doing again? right, stealth. so, you crouch successfully, your first hurdle accomplished, and then you see some enemies. NOW, you have to hit tab and go into batman vision mode. now, you highlight enemies and mark them (with a different key, of course). why are you doing this? why aren't you just going in and sneaking?
because there's no. fucking. leaning. in a game. with fucking. stealth.
why is leaning important? because it allows you to take cover behind objects and peek to see where hostiles are and what they're doing. what's the alternative? you literally have no idea what direction someone's facing so you just bumble out from behind cover and get immediately spotted. therefore, your only solution is to have to highlight enemies so that doesn't happen. but then, this means you're having to spend the damn game constantly with these glow-in-the-dark villains, something that's a powerup or unlockable in games like dishonored or, again, deus ex. anyway, i'm getting off track, let's continue with the stealth process.
so now you've successfully highlighted them, and now you're ready to hunt. you sneak up from behind someone and press F. now you have them in a vague chokehold? it doesn't really... look right. anyway, now you have to decide if you want to kill them or knock them out, so you press F again or whatever the key is. a weird animation plays where your character looks like he's grasping at air, and then, congrats, he's on the ground. NOW, you have to look at the body and hold R to carry it. okay, now we've got to bring it somewhere. you go to a hiding spot and you press--what? what do you press? oh. oh you know. E. and congrats, you've finally achieved your first stealth takedown. now, just to sum it up, let's go through all the steps one more time.
you hit control, then you hit tab, then you hit your second mouse button, then you unhit tab, then you walk forward, then you press f, then you press f again, then you hold r, then you walk, then you press e.
i want you to imagine an exasperated AVGN face right now because WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?
i keep bringing up deus ex but holy fuck, in that game you just hold q, they're automatically being dragged, and then you let go and continue on. no need to highlight enemies either because the game goes in third person when you take cover. or hell, if you don't want that, dishonored lets you, in first person, you guessed it: LEAN. YOU CAN LEAN.
i don't really know where the story goes from here, and i don't know how the other backgrounds start, and i don't know how much more fun it is to play the game like an action hero--but i don't care. this was enough. now, i'll probably be back after a year or two of patches and updates, but for sixty dollars? you could do a lot, lot, lot better.
[EDIT: apparently you can lean! you have to specifically have a weapon out and then attempt to aim it while at a corner. seeing as i was playing as a stealth pacifist, i saw no reason to have a gun out at all. that's a good thing! there is definitely still way too many buttons for what should be a simple action. but this definitely makes this more playable, now. i'll update these first impressions with a fuller look if i continue on]
[EDIT 2: yeah it still sucks. play deus ex]