Topic: Cyberpunk 2077 OT

@Th3solution I'm a bit further along than you, probably about 15 - 20 hours now, but just wait until you get to the section I did last night where I got to play as Johnny Silverhand for a good long time. I wanted to go to bed but basically was locked into this sequence and it wouldn't allow me to save it until I'd finished the entire section. It was one hell of a rollercoaster ride though and I guess helped me to understand where all the characters fit in a bit more.

I'm actually enjoying the open world sections but I think being as I've played a few really good open world games recently it's really obvious to see where this misses the mark a bit. The side missions so far have been fairly mediocre, the inventory management becomes a bit of a pain where I quickly hit the overweight mark, plus trying to sort through which weapons are any good is a bit annoying. The city is fairly vibrant in places though and I like the Bladerunner like concept of the place.

The gunplay is also quite satisfying although I've forgotten a lot of things from the combat training I did so I do end up just bursting in all guns blazing and just hope that I've got enough ammo. I have found a pretty cool katana though that I've been using a bit for some close combat and to save some ammo.

I'm enjoying it enough to want to finish it at this point though and hope that it will get better still.

@render I love that section - how overpowered Johnny's gun was and the way he reloads it, felt like a badass.
I've just had a 'romantic encounter' with meredith stout which I didn't have in my first playthrough based on my choices - that was quite an eye opener.

@MatthewJP Yeah I know what you mean, I think they did a good job of making you feel that way in that bit. Meredith Stout though... interesting 😆. I think the boat has sailed for me on that option with what happened at the end of an earlier mission but it does feel like Mass Effect in the sense that you are always flirting with someone.

@Th3solution sorry to hear it’s not quite clicking with you. The only real encouragement I can give you is that it is a big game (I personally put about 150 hours into it though mileage will vary greatly here) and it does get better as you go. I grew to appreciate Johnny a lot more and there are some great missions and characters to discover, even some inspired genius (Skippy). Hang in there! 😄

@render @MatthewJP Yeah I’m on Meredith Stout’s $%!+ list and she’s telling me to watch my back on text messages so I think the ship has sailed on creating any romantic relationship 😂

But as far as the overall game, I’m not sure I’m going to stick with it. I’m going to play for another session today and see how it goes. I agree the side mission content seems really mediocre and so I’m mostly mainlining it now, but even then, I just don’t really have a lot of interest in this world and it’s characters. I can barely understand all the slang they use in conversation, much less all the background narrative threads. Maybe that’s a ‘’me” problem rather than the game, I don’t know. I had a similar lack of investment in the Witcher 3 storyline, so perhaps I’m just not on CD Project’s wavelength.

And I agree the combat mechanics don’t flow very well, despite all the tactics you can use. I know you can stealth, use tech hacks, melee, etc but I end up just going in guns blazing too. The gunplay is… okay, I guess. But again, FPS is not my forte.

On the positive side, I like the driving, the vehicles are fun and I especially like speeding around on the motorcycle. I also like how the map is pretty clear about where to go next to advance your mission, so it’s hard to get too lost.

But in a nutshell, the game feels neither fun nor narratively compelling, so I’m not sure I want to spend much more time with it. If it doesn’t grab me today, I might just trade it in since it is now worth more credit than what I paid for it last month, so I’ll actually make a couple dollars off the game. 🤷🏻‍♂️

@Th3solution Shame the game has not clicked with you, but it is probably best to move on to another game if you are not enjoying it.

Personally after over 100 hours with the game I thought it was fantastic game, and one of the most immersive experiences I've had.

@Jimmer-jammer Sorry, I think you and I simul-posted, but you can see my comments above. I will try to got through a couple more story missions and see if it grabs me. I can’t help but feel that the game would be significantly better if it had fewer skill trees and cleaner combat mechanics, streamlined the content, and was third person. 😅 Of course by then it would basically be Horizon or Ghost of Tsushima.

@JohnnyShoulder I’m pretty close to abandonment, which I hate to do but we’ll see.

@Th3solution “Of course by then it would basically be Horizon or Ghost of Tsushima.”
😂

At the end of they day, if you’re really not enjoying it, there’s no sense in carrying on. Not like you didn’t give it a fair chance!

If it helps with the skill trees at all, it’s best to approach them with a surgically specific weapon type in mind. This will inform your play style. Pistols, shotguns, sniper rifles, melee… - these all follow very distinct upgrade paths. The way things stack, upgrading makes a massive difference on the fun factor of moment to moment gameplay.

@Th3solution it's interesting that the driving is something that's stood out for you as a positive, when I think it's pretty unanimous across the board that it sucks pretty bad in this game 🤣

@Jimmer-jammer I have thought about the fact that I’m approaching the upgrading and skill point assignment completely wrong. With the Souls games I know it’s a rookie mistake to try to be too well-rounded in spending your upgrades, but in most RPGs it works fine to spread out your skills and points. It looks like Cyberpunk is closer to the FromSoft formula of specializing and “picking a path and sticking with it”. Unfortunately I’ve been pretty haphazard in my leveling.

@Fragile I’ve been lucky lately and haven’t consciously abandoned any games due to complete lack of interest. I’ve had some I’ve dropped off because something shinier catches my attention and drags me away but I’m typically still enjoying the game and plan to go back. In the case of Cyberpunk, I think it’ll be one of the few that I’ll intentionally quit. (Unless it compels me in the next 2-4 hours)

@MatthewJP 😂 that’s ironic. I think I like the driving because the adaptive triggers are well used there where you get resistance on the accelerator and the brake, and you can even feel the trigger subtly jostle when the gears shift and when the tires peel out, etc.

@Th3solution Not every game is for everyone, it happens to us all when we bounce off a game for whatever reason. For every game like Cyberpunk for you there will be another Returnal or Nier Automata.

@Jimmer-jammer I think me and you are one a similar wavelength with this game. I really enjoyed the side missions where they start off as something quite small and insignificant but can turn out to be something much grandeur in scope.

Cyberpunk 2077? That's certainly a switch in gears after beating Last Of Us Part 2 @Th3solution 😄 (Congrats by the way for that)

I didn't think much of it either when I played it last year so definitely don't worry about dropping it. As someone who completed it and saw all the major endings it ain't worth it in my opinion. Not at all lol

I'll have to chime in and say the driving was pretty terrible for me too... Though you seem to be describing the Dualsense features more then the actual feat of driving the car 😉

I don't recall the skill trees being that interesting (especially visually as that whole screen looked incredibly dull) or complicated though. Most of it was just very generic do 10% more damage with such and such or this hack can now affect another enemy from what I remember?

Combat was... kinda uninteresting. I used hacking a fair bit alongside gunplay but there was something about it that didn't really gel with me and I don't mind first person at all but... Yeah.

Felt like I did the same thing every encounter and getting new weapons and armour... never felt like I actually upgraded anything ya know?

Can't say the slang was that hard to follow though... Though it did annoy me.

I liked some characters (Jackie, Johnny & River)... loathed others. Really didn't like Fem V either.

Pretty sure it was you who I mentioned it too even cus of the voice actress being Makoto from Persona 5 and noticed that Akechi (River Ward) and Futaba (Misty) were in here too lol

Thought the story was kinda pants and way too short, felt your choices really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things (The Meridith stout thing is just a one off booty call for example) and really didn't like the endings bar one.

So yeah... Ya ain't the only one to not enjoy it 😅

@HallowMoonshadow Glad to hear I’m not the only one, and I appreciate your thoughts on the game.

I gave it one more dedicated session yesterday evening and although there are moments that I find slightly compelling, overall I felt like playing it was a chore. I finished one more of the mainline quests (the one to rescue Evelyn) and at the end, I just didn’t really care about her nor even understand what’s going on. I should have really been moved by what happened to Evelyn, and clearly the game intended me to have some strong emotions there, yet I simply was apathetic at the whole thing. And again, it might be just a stark contrast from the huge focus on characterization and relationship development coming right from TLoU2, but I think CDPR has done a lousy job of building compelling characters. Outside of Jackie, probably my favorite characters have been the two bartenders I’ve chatted with 😅. I can see a glimmer of hope with the Johnny-V interactions being a fun idea, but it’s still a lost opportunity so far.

The final straw was after finishing the Evelyn rescue it opened up another main quest line and I was just like, ‘ugh, I don’t want to do that’ and so it sealed the deal. After running around carjacking all the different cars and creating a little mayhem in the streets for 30 minutes, I decided to stop.

It convinced me too when I quit out of Cyberpunk and immediately booted up my partial playthrough of Mass Effect and immediately began enjoying it. Despite the gameplay being much more basic by comparison and the voice acting being even cheesier with the side characters, there’s a special sauce with ME that Cyberpunk is missing.

Now I need to just decide what I’ll trade it in for. 😄

At least ya gave it a good ol' try or three and found it wasn't for you @Th3solution rather then just dismissing it outright.

I did feel bad for Evelyn if that is who I'm thinking of...The one who sets up the heist to steal the chip? but I did actually have a sort've similar reaction to another character...

Least you'll make a pretty penny for trading it in... Silver linings and all that

Admittedly there's also nostalgia there for you in regards to Mass Effect right? At least I'm assuming you've played it or at least one of 'em in the series before... I think I'm the only person who hasn't touched that series in the slightest 😂

@HallowMoonshadow I have played ME2 and ME3 back on PS3. This is my first foray into the first ME. But yeah, it’s all very similar and familiar, although I am doing a Fem-Shep Renegade approach, so it’s different from my original Bro-Shep playthrough. There’s some jank to the game and slightly antiquated systems at times, but it holds up. Nostalgia carries the game slightly but it’s pretty good on its own merit. If you have any interest at all in Sci-Fi third person shooting Western style RPGs then it’s worth a go at the series. Infinitely more bland of a presentation than Cyberpunk, but surprisingly good ‘for its age.’

Speaking of nostalgia and not to get the thread too far off topic, while playing Cyberpunk I kept feeling like this reminded me of Skyrim, only set as a shooter in the future Sci-Fi / dystopian Blade Runner world rather than a fantasy based medieval setting. Strangely, I adored Skyrim back in the day and I don’t know why Cyberpunk feels hollow by comparison, since it’s clearly a much better realized world. I don’t know if I’d be as enamored with Skyrim if I played it now, though. I’ve never played any Fallout games either, which is probably also a similar style of game.

@JohnnyShoulder Absolutely! Some of those threads could be much further explored in future expansions too. I’m really quite excited to see where they go.

I finally got going with the game today and am as far as the first braindance.

The game looks utterly stunning but I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed with everything that’s been thrown at me. I also have absolutely no idea what is going on at the moment; it kind of feels like I’m watching a TV series where I’ve accidentally skipped an episode.

@Thrillho Yes, this. I’m glad I’m not the only one, maybe I’m not too crazy. Most of these thoughts are outlined above, but I understand where you’re coming from. Many people have been really complementary about the game but I just couldn’t get past the weird and at times nonsensical narrative flow and difficult to follow dialogue.

I understand the game is supposed to be futuristic and I can appreciate that they made it feel like language, vernacular, and culture had evolved, but I never felt like I had a solid grip on what was going on. As a consequence I couldn’t feel invested in the characters or even in V’s plight. So I gave up after about a handful of hours (maybe 6-8 hrs? iirc) I did have fun running about the beautiful world, but it wasn’t enough to keep me.

Glad that a lot of people have enjoyed it though.