This game is always going to be this game, for better and worse
March 6, 2023 11:56 AM Subscribe
There Is No Saving Cyberpunk 2077 By Luke Plunkett [Kotaku] “We were now free, two years after the game’s nightmarish release, to convince ourselves that this was no longer the same game it had been at launch. Two years of work had righted the ship, given people what they wanted. Cyberpunk 2077 was good now. But was it? I, along with most of you, had played it in 2020 and thought it was terrible. How much could really have changed since then? With a bunch of time to kill on a recent vacation, and to address my own simmering curiosity over the shape the game was in, I spent a few weeks working my way through Cyberpunk 2077, front to back.”
We also got the Netflix series from it, so there's that.
posted by Spike Glee at 12:15 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
posted by Spike Glee at 12:15 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
CP2077 really vindicates my policy of waiting until big AAA games are on sale for 50% and have a few patches under their belt. I enjoyed it. Certainly there were some shaky parts of the main plot - I definitely agree with the article that it feels like it's railroading you along past side content that is actually really good!
Also, I was disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to nuke a certain building at the end.
posted by allegedly at 12:21 PM on March 6, 2023 [14 favorites]
Also, I was disappointed that I didn't have the opportunity to nuke a certain building at the end.
posted by allegedly at 12:21 PM on March 6, 2023 [14 favorites]
Came across a song from the Cyberpunk 2077 OST today while Ukraine-scrolling.
posted by art.bikes at 12:21 PM on March 6, 2023
posted by art.bikes at 12:21 PM on March 6, 2023
I'm playing for the first time on a PS5 with the 1.61 update. It's absolutely gorgeous in ray tracing mode. The detail throughout night city is astounding. There's so much lore and little stories to read and discover and it's mostly interesting and well written.
The skill trees are deep and there are different ways to play and create a character that suits the way you want to play. I feel like this one is going to warrant multiple playthroughs.
I think I got it for around $20, a steal.
posted by HumanComplex at 12:25 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
The skill trees are deep and there are different ways to play and create a character that suits the way you want to play. I feel like this one is going to warrant multiple playthroughs.
I think I got it for around $20, a steal.
posted by HumanComplex at 12:25 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I don't think I can be arsed to play through the whole intro & orientation again. So I'll likely stick to never buying another CD Projekt Red game, the fucking crooks.
posted by biffa at 12:26 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by biffa at 12:26 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I'm really bummed that it's first person and has no third person option. I LOVED Witcher 3. But I just can't do the FP thing.
posted by sid at 12:34 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by sid at 12:34 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm just here to point out in that the linked article about No Man's Sky second life after relentless work post-terrible-launch is almost four years old, and Sean Murray has continued to work relentlessly on the game in the intervening four years.
I put about 150 hours into a new save between November 2022 and now, and it is a spectacular (IMO) experience. You can pursue a well-written (if sparse, and existentially disturbing) main plotline, or just explore cool space planets with horror worms and butterflies and groovy plants, or fuck off entirely to farm, or spend all your time blasting evil sentinel robots and having space battles, or start a trade economy with freighters and merchant frigates, or do multiplayer and take on collective missions, or whatever else you want to do, really. No Man's Sky is cool.
posted by Shepherd at 12:37 PM on March 6, 2023 [27 favorites]
I put about 150 hours into a new save between November 2022 and now, and it is a spectacular (IMO) experience. You can pursue a well-written (if sparse, and existentially disturbing) main plotline, or just explore cool space planets with horror worms and butterflies and groovy plants, or fuck off entirely to farm, or spend all your time blasting evil sentinel robots and having space battles, or start a trade economy with freighters and merchant frigates, or do multiplayer and take on collective missions, or whatever else you want to do, really. No Man's Sky is cool.
posted by Shepherd at 12:37 PM on March 6, 2023 [27 favorites]
CP2077 really vindicates my policy of waiting until big AAA games are on sale for 50% and have a few patches under their belt.this is the way. Don't bother doing launch day. Give it two years for the Game of the Year Edition with all of the DLC and bug patches to be dropped and then put in your time. Phantom Liberty isn't even out yet so I'm still holding off and waiting.
Arguably video games are the sort of good that is always worth buying later and on sale. The quality of the game always gets better after the release and putting it on sale doesn't degrade the value in any way. Until then, there's the other AAA games from two years ago to finish playing.
posted by bl1nk at 12:48 PM on March 6, 2023 [9 favorites]
I'm really bummed that it's first person and has no third person option. I LOVED Witcher 3. But I just can't do the FP thing.
I'm the exact opposite, and I really wanted to play Witcher 3, I just don't click with the controls. I followed Cyberpunk since they first announced production and was beyond excited. My favorite games are the Deus Ex series!
Unfortunately I really disliked the tone and bounced off of the first few hours. I wonder if I just don't click with CD Projekt Red- It's the tone more than anything but there's also a disconnect to the movement.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:50 PM on March 6, 2023
I'm the exact opposite, and I really wanted to play Witcher 3, I just don't click with the controls. I followed Cyberpunk since they first announced production and was beyond excited. My favorite games are the Deus Ex series!
Unfortunately I really disliked the tone and bounced off of the first few hours. I wonder if I just don't click with CD Projekt Red- It's the tone more than anything but there's also a disconnect to the movement.
posted by kittensofthenight at 12:50 PM on March 6, 2023
I played it for the first time abut 4 months ago on a PS5. It worked OK (had to restart a few times) but otherwise was smooth. Parts of it looked amazing. Some of the directed cut scenes were the best I've ever seen. Some areas were wildly imaginative. Some of the side quests were indeed moving and well put together as the article mentions.
But the game play was sorely lacking. The gun fights were just OK, and never felt good. I did a lot of Quick Hacks (which is the game's spell casting). None of that ever felt like I was doing "cyber punk stuff"... it all felt like I was doing a very limited array of spell casting from a fantasy game.
The loot just spills out everywhere, dozens of worthless guns and stuff that are meant to be sold or disassembled for crafting. Crafting felt completely tacked on. You can do it anywhere... disassemble 15 guns and make improvements to 6 other guns as you walk down the street. It just felt so disconnected from the "virtual experience" the game was trying to give. I realized at one point I had about 28 gun scopes in my inventory. You have to keep crafting to get better at crafting, and then you sell stuff literally anywhere. Any store will buy anything. The prices are just fixed. And there's even drop boxes just sprinkled around where you can dump loot in exchange for money. It was so weird. Same thing with quests. "Go get the Thing from the bad guys and bring it to the spot on the map"... the spot on the map is a damn mailbox-thing where you just dump the Thing you had to get to finish the quest.
The map is full of garbage items all over the place. Dozens of different food dishes you can pick out of the trash and eat. All of them have the exact same buff. Thee's two different kinds of liquid junk items, booze (which de buffs you) and water, soda, etc which gives you a mild time based buff to abilities. They created like 2 dozen varieties of these buffs and de buffs, but they're all the same.
So much still feels unfinished. The city is extremely empty. Almost no traffic. Generic people walking around, but never that many of them. You can pass by small groups of creeps that you can kill or knock out for a reward (automatic reward for killing or disabling them).
Even the great side quests have odd parts that feel like they were planned to be fleshed out at some point before running out of time. An example: for the Wasteland people, at one point you drive a sort of floating tank vehicle that can shoot with a turret. This aspect of game play goes on maybe twice in the entire game. You clear out enemies and then it's over. Never get to drive the tank again.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. It's an unfinished game. They bit off way, way, way more than they could chew. I got it on sale for less than $15. I'd say it's worth about $12.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:52 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
But the game play was sorely lacking. The gun fights were just OK, and never felt good. I did a lot of Quick Hacks (which is the game's spell casting). None of that ever felt like I was doing "cyber punk stuff"... it all felt like I was doing a very limited array of spell casting from a fantasy game.
The loot just spills out everywhere, dozens of worthless guns and stuff that are meant to be sold or disassembled for crafting. Crafting felt completely tacked on. You can do it anywhere... disassemble 15 guns and make improvements to 6 other guns as you walk down the street. It just felt so disconnected from the "virtual experience" the game was trying to give. I realized at one point I had about 28 gun scopes in my inventory. You have to keep crafting to get better at crafting, and then you sell stuff literally anywhere. Any store will buy anything. The prices are just fixed. And there's even drop boxes just sprinkled around where you can dump loot in exchange for money. It was so weird. Same thing with quests. "Go get the Thing from the bad guys and bring it to the spot on the map"... the spot on the map is a damn mailbox-thing where you just dump the Thing you had to get to finish the quest.
The map is full of garbage items all over the place. Dozens of different food dishes you can pick out of the trash and eat. All of them have the exact same buff. Thee's two different kinds of liquid junk items, booze (which de buffs you) and water, soda, etc which gives you a mild time based buff to abilities. They created like 2 dozen varieties of these buffs and de buffs, but they're all the same.
So much still feels unfinished. The city is extremely empty. Almost no traffic. Generic people walking around, but never that many of them. You can pass by small groups of creeps that you can kill or knock out for a reward (automatic reward for killing or disabling them).
Even the great side quests have odd parts that feel like they were planned to be fleshed out at some point before running out of time. An example: for the Wasteland people, at one point you drive a sort of floating tank vehicle that can shoot with a turret. This aspect of game play goes on maybe twice in the entire game. You clear out enemies and then it's over. Never get to drive the tank again.
I could go on and on, but I think you get the picture. It's an unfinished game. They bit off way, way, way more than they could chew. I got it on sale for less than $15. I'd say it's worth about $12.
posted by SoberHighland at 12:52 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
It's my understanding in CP2077 that you create your own character? You're not stuck with some gruff dilf with an attitude problem? (I understand that some people are fine with that. I'd rather not.)
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:52 PM on March 6, 2023
posted by seanmpuckett at 12:52 PM on March 6, 2023
You know what, did the game end up as what was advertised? No. But was it gorgeous and fun? I thought so. I got a solid 90 hours of enjoyment out of the experience.
For the record, I played it on Stadia (there were dozens of us, dozens!) and it was reasonably playable from the beginning and got better with the patches. I ended up getting my money back when Stadia folded, but honestly I would have rather let them keep the money and so I could keep my saves and the ability to play the game.
posted by NormieP at 12:53 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
For the record, I played it on Stadia (there were dozens of us, dozens!) and it was reasonably playable from the beginning and got better with the patches. I ended up getting my money back when Stadia folded, but honestly I would have rather let them keep the money and so I could keep my saves and the ability to play the game.
posted by NormieP at 12:53 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
cars don’t appear in the world so much as they’re dropped, still rocking on their suspension as your character first spots them.
That really charms me. I'd play a game with that kind of world.
posted by doctornemo at 12:56 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
That really charms me. I'd play a game with that kind of world.
posted by doctornemo at 12:56 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
This review kinda sounds like it says "yeah CP2022 is okay now"? Given how bad the initial reviews were, that sounds like it was "saved"?
Really this review reminds me of nothing more than this review of Kingdoms of Amalur that convinced me to get it. A decent game with moderate bugginess, a complicated development history that meant it was really not quite fully-baked, a generic crap main quest, and some really interesting sidequests that you may never discover if you only do the main quest. I had a lot of fun putzing around Amalur's generic fantasyland one long grey winter; if I had a stretch of time coming up that I wanted to fill with a video game and wasn't still working my way through Horizon Forbidden West, I'd be tempted.
posted by egypturnash at 12:57 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Really this review reminds me of nothing more than this review of Kingdoms of Amalur that convinced me to get it. A decent game with moderate bugginess, a complicated development history that meant it was really not quite fully-baked, a generic crap main quest, and some really interesting sidequests that you may never discover if you only do the main quest. I had a lot of fun putzing around Amalur's generic fantasyland one long grey winter; if I had a stretch of time coming up that I wanted to fill with a video game and wasn't still working my way through Horizon Forbidden West, I'd be tempted.
posted by egypturnash at 12:57 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
No Man's Sky is cool now, but when it was first released, it was pretty ... meh. Which still puts it ahead of Cyberpunk 2077 at release, which was just a godawful disaster. I'm one of those idiots who pre-ordered the game instead of waiting for it to stabilize and so, by the time it did stabilize, I was pretty much done with the game. Even modding the game doesn't extend it enough to keep it replayable.
I will say that the one bright spot in all of this is that I think Cyberpunk 207 finally cured me of ever pre-ordering a game or even purchasing anything on release day.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 1:03 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
I will say that the one bright spot in all of this is that I think Cyberpunk 207 finally cured me of ever pre-ordering a game or even purchasing anything on release day.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 1:03 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
It's my understanding in CP2077 that you create your own character? You're not stuck with some gruff dilf with an attitude problem?
You're stuck with a gruff man or woman* with an attitude problem, but their appearance, skills, and abilities are up to you. But it's a heavily story-driven, dialogue-driven game like Zero Dawn or Witcher.
*Sex and gender are complicated? You can pick stereotypically male and female bodies, and a male or female voice, and a penis or vulva or nothing. IIRC most npcs respond to the voice you chose and potential love interests respond to your general body type. Pretty sure romanceables aren't responding to your junk as I've had them make out with junkless player characters.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:11 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
You're stuck with a gruff man or woman* with an attitude problem, but their appearance, skills, and abilities are up to you. But it's a heavily story-driven, dialogue-driven game like Zero Dawn or Witcher.
*Sex and gender are complicated? You can pick stereotypically male and female bodies, and a male or female voice, and a penis or vulva or nothing. IIRC most npcs respond to the voice you chose and potential love interests respond to your general body type. Pretty sure romanceables aren't responding to your junk as I've had them make out with junkless player characters.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 1:11 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
The whole sex and gender thing in Cyberpunk 2077 is confusing as hell, mainly because it's totally pointless. The game is primarily about the usual RPG murder-hobo things and sex-related bits of the game are pretty underwhelming (which sort of makes sense, given that restricting it to 18+ is impossible). You can mod the game considerably (there is a non-surprising amount of genitalia mods out there) but really, at the core, the game is just a big ol' hack n' slash with cyber-trimmings.
There just isn't a point to being an innie, an outie or anything in-between in this game.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 1:34 PM on March 6, 2023
There just isn't a point to being an innie, an outie or anything in-between in this game.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 1:34 PM on March 6, 2023
cars don’t appear in the world so much as they’re dropped, still rocking on their suspension as your character first spots them.
Can I still play the game in it's original bugged-as-shit state? I remember being amused by the trees falling over and uncoiling and all the T-posing when watching some people play on youtube.
For the right price glitch art can be fun. Whatever it cost at launch probably not so much.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:42 PM on March 6, 2023
Can I still play the game in it's original bugged-as-shit state? I remember being amused by the trees falling over and uncoiling and all the T-posing when watching some people play on youtube.
For the right price glitch art can be fun. Whatever it cost at launch probably not so much.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:42 PM on March 6, 2023
The main thing I heard about this game when it came out was how transphobic it is, but this article doesn't say anything about that. Did they improve that any?
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by vibratory manner of working at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
I hated the first part of the game, but ended up in a guarded truce with it. Basically: the story is good, sometimes great. The gameplay sucks.
More precisely, the main quest is meh; what Plunkett says about it is right on. The side quests, however, are really good. (So long as you can adjust to a certain Slavic melancholy. Almost all the stories go badly.)
The gameplay is almost all guns, and little peashooters at that, and the enemies are all the same. I wanted, y'know, cyberpunk. Your spells, er, quick hacks, are limited and don't help much. And the levels are too small to provide good stealth options.
posted by zompist at 2:05 PM on March 6, 2023
More precisely, the main quest is meh; what Plunkett says about it is right on. The side quests, however, are really good. (So long as you can adjust to a certain Slavic melancholy. Almost all the stories go badly.)
The gameplay is almost all guns, and little peashooters at that, and the enemies are all the same. I wanted, y'know, cyberpunk. Your spells, er, quick hacks, are limited and don't help much. And the levels are too small to provide good stealth options.
posted by zompist at 2:05 PM on March 6, 2023
CP2077 really wasn't that bad at launch on PC, though you needed a robust tolerance for bugs and visual oddities. The police system was fairly bad, and it needed lots of tweaks, but the 'disasterous' part was strictly last gen consoles. It ran, and you could play it, and it was fun.
posted by Sebmojo at 2:35 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
posted by Sebmojo at 2:35 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
CP2077 really vindicates my policy of waiting until big AAA games are on sale for 50% and have a few patches under their belt.
I totally agree with this and think it is what we all should do. And yet, and yet, I am going to keep my pre-order for Tears of the Kingdom. Don't let me down Nintendo!
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:35 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I totally agree with this and think it is what we all should do. And yet, and yet, I am going to keep my pre-order for Tears of the Kingdom. Don't let me down Nintendo!
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:35 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I seem to recall going full hacker in my second playthrough and I would not describe that route as "limited" -- you can roll up in your car outside a building and basically kill everyone in it before you even enter with the right combination of skill choices. My first playthrough was more guns oriented and yeah, in that case the skill points you put into guns and not hacking are going to serve to make your hacking abilities more limited. This should be unsurprising.
posted by axiom at 2:43 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by axiom at 2:43 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
sex-related bits of the game are pretty underwhelming
The *sex* related bits are cringey; you "win" one of the four relationships when you bang them in an eye-rolling skinemax cutscene. But the relationship stuff is mostly well done; a lot of the game is spent talking to one or another of the four romanceables, Johnny, or Takemura about stuff that happened and future plans and there's enough outright just bullshitting with them that by the end of the game they matter.
Also the game has one true victory condition: Ainara Alvarez lets you call her Abuela. I am ride or die for this shit.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:22 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
The *sex* related bits are cringey; you "win" one of the four relationships when you bang them in an eye-rolling skinemax cutscene. But the relationship stuff is mostly well done; a lot of the game is spent talking to one or another of the four romanceables, Johnny, or Takemura about stuff that happened and future plans and there's enough outright just bullshitting with them that by the end of the game they matter.
Also the game has one true victory condition: Ainara Alvarez lets you call her Abuela. I am ride or die for this shit.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:22 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I absolutely loved CP2077 and I got it at release. I think the thing that made the difference is that I had no expectations, I barely knew the game even existed before release so I had no idea about the 8-year hype cycle. And I played on PC so I didn't get more bugs than any Bethesda game so it was fine.
While the main story is fine, some of the sidestories are amazing, and Cherami Leigh absolutely kills it as the voice of V.
Curiously enough I then tried to play Witcher 3 since everyone loves it and bounced hard. I just couldn't bring myself to care about Gerald.
posted by simmering octagon at 3:24 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
While the main story is fine, some of the sidestories are amazing, and Cherami Leigh absolutely kills it as the voice of V.
Curiously enough I then tried to play Witcher 3 since everyone loves it and bounced hard. I just couldn't bring myself to care about Gerald.
posted by simmering octagon at 3:24 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Your spells, er, quick hacks, are limited and don't help much
That's not my experience with 16-20 INT, either the netwatch netdriver or tetratronic rippler, and a full set of legendary quickhacks.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:34 PM on March 6, 2023
That's not my experience with 16-20 INT, either the netwatch netdriver or tetratronic rippler, and a full set of legendary quickhacks.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:34 PM on March 6, 2023
like vibratory manner of working, I was also surprised this article had nothing to say about the other controversies surrounding the game's advertising at launch (them.us)
I went looking for more recent coverage and only turned up a few links from 2021, but still they were thought provoking:
My character was trans in Cyberpunk 2077, but the world wasn't (PC Gamer)
The problem is that the world itself is incredibly binary. It features clearly defined gender norms, with clothing, hairstyles, makeup, and plenty more still fixed and gendered.
...the sole piece of trans representation is Claire...the game's biggest bright spot in this regard; she's voiced by a trans woman, you learn about her transition in a realistic way, and her story is separate from her transness. But Claire feels like the exception which proves the rule: she's a trans person as we know transness in 2021, and feels dropped into the world rather than being a part of it. I'm glad Claire's there, but it doesn't change the fact that transness as a concept is non-existent in Night City.
Indya Moore loves playing Cyberpunk despite its ‘borderline transphobia’ (Pink news)
Everyone hates me for playing Cyberpunk because it’s borderline transphobic but I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s a reflection of the world, that’s what video games are.’
I was also surprised there was no mention of Orientalism and anti-Asian or anti-Japan xenophobia, but I guess maybe that just comes with the cyberpunk territory. But it doesn’t have to be (Polygon)
There are pieces of modern cyberpunk media that use the tropes of the genre, and the fears associated with those tropes, to great success and without falling into Orientalism or the xenophobia that accompanies it.
If cyberpunk is going to survive, it has to drop the racism (Input)
The trick then, according to these developers, is for modern cyberpunk games to actively engage with present-day tyrannies — ”bring cyberpunk up to the present,” as Faulkner suggests — to avoid the pitfalls of techno-orientalist tropes.
indie games mentioned in these latter links:
Umurangi Generation (previously)
Solace State
Chinatown Detective Agency
Love Shore
not mentioned but I would add the queer punks over at Null Signal Games who are squatting on Netrunner into this list
sorry I kinda got carried away
posted by okonomichiyaki at 3:36 PM on March 6, 2023 [10 favorites]
I went looking for more recent coverage and only turned up a few links from 2021, but still they were thought provoking:
My character was trans in Cyberpunk 2077, but the world wasn't (PC Gamer)
The problem is that the world itself is incredibly binary. It features clearly defined gender norms, with clothing, hairstyles, makeup, and plenty more still fixed and gendered.
...the sole piece of trans representation is Claire...the game's biggest bright spot in this regard; she's voiced by a trans woman, you learn about her transition in a realistic way, and her story is separate from her transness. But Claire feels like the exception which proves the rule: she's a trans person as we know transness in 2021, and feels dropped into the world rather than being a part of it. I'm glad Claire's there, but it doesn't change the fact that transness as a concept is non-existent in Night City.
Indya Moore loves playing Cyberpunk despite its ‘borderline transphobia’ (Pink news)
Everyone hates me for playing Cyberpunk because it’s borderline transphobic but I’m like, ‘Dude, it’s a reflection of the world, that’s what video games are.’
I was also surprised there was no mention of Orientalism and anti-Asian or anti-Japan xenophobia, but I guess maybe that just comes with the cyberpunk territory. But it doesn’t have to be (Polygon)
There are pieces of modern cyberpunk media that use the tropes of the genre, and the fears associated with those tropes, to great success and without falling into Orientalism or the xenophobia that accompanies it.
If cyberpunk is going to survive, it has to drop the racism (Input)
The trick then, according to these developers, is for modern cyberpunk games to actively engage with present-day tyrannies — ”bring cyberpunk up to the present,” as Faulkner suggests — to avoid the pitfalls of techno-orientalist tropes.
indie games mentioned in these latter links:
Umurangi Generation (previously)
Solace State
Chinatown Detective Agency
Love Shore
not mentioned but I would add the queer punks over at Null Signal Games who are squatting on Netrunner into this list
sorry I kinda got carried away
posted by okonomichiyaki at 3:36 PM on March 6, 2023 [10 favorites]
I played it on PC at launch, and even though my computer at the time had no right running it, I didn't have any of the tech issues plaguing console users. However I think the biggest reason I enjoyed this game when so many others seemingly could not, wasn't so much the game itself, which is certainly flawed, bu I think it came down to expectations. I enjoyed Witcher 1, 2, and 3, so I knew I was going to buy Cyberpunk, and when I know I will buy a game, I do my best to avoid as much news about it as I can. Which was not easy since the ad campaigns and gamer self-hyping was probably the most I'd ever seen for any game. People would sit in comment sections over the most mundane article posted about the game and just endlessly one-up one another on ideas they thought would be mechanics in the game.
Some people really seemed to be expecting something revolutionary, a game they'd be playing over and over and never getting bored or running out of new content to stumble on or to emerge from it's systems, some really expcted to be living a second life in this game. Much of this is to blame on marketing, but I think even in the absence of such an aggressive advertising campaign, sometimes announcing a game at all is enough for some folks to start speculating themselves to the moon in back in what that game will be or have.
In contrast, I expected what I got from Witcher 1, 2, 3. Janky RPGs with wonky mechanics and bugs, but ultimately interesting quests and story that will help me overcome the flawed or sometimes cringeworthy gameplay and string me to the end and with caveats be able to recommend the game. Witcher 3 was there first title I felt I could just tell anybody who plays games "Witcher 3 is good, play it" without having to explain or warn them about anything else. Far from perfect, but the issues are much easier to forgive overall. I expected Cyberpunk to be a janky RPG like Witcher but with first person and a new setting, and I feel like that is exactly what I played and enjoyed.
Many of the "broken" things in the game just meant I had more fun, my melee-no-kill build was incredible, I was able to kill even the final boss in 1-2 punches depending if I did a charged punch or maybe used a good melee weapon for fun. The armour system made me all but invincible in the face of fire, letting me duck and weave and jump and slowmo knockout entire buildings worth of goons, with some quick hacking along the way to spice things up and be more efficient. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay mechanics and there were a lot of great sidequests and stories and characters. I enjoyed my time in their dystopia and did just about 100% of the content the game had to offer.
The most cursed thing about Cyberpunk is because of the disastrous console launch, you'll basically never be able to discuss this game without also addressing that initial reaction and release. Actually -- I take that back, forever is way too strong of a word, there will be a time where it's mostly forgotten. I know because Fable was the most disappointing letdown from expectations-to-release I ever experienced, it was a complete bummer, everybody felt almost betrayed, lied to, a mean prank played, it was hard to talk about what was in the game because all you could think of was what it wasn't. But these days... it's kind of a beloved near-classic to some folks, they loved it and the sequels (that I never even considered touching after that feeling of playing Fable on launch day after a year of looking forward to it). I've seen folks fondly reminisce about the game, think stuff I thought was a bullshit rugpull, were unique or cool mechanics they cherished and want to see remade or iterated on again. I have to admit, they've even made me reconsider playing it again. I won't buy it twice, but if somehow I get the chance to play it again I'd give it another shot having forgotten much of what it was meant to be in the first place.
posted by GoblinHoney at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
Some people really seemed to be expecting something revolutionary, a game they'd be playing over and over and never getting bored or running out of new content to stumble on or to emerge from it's systems, some really expcted to be living a second life in this game. Much of this is to blame on marketing, but I think even in the absence of such an aggressive advertising campaign, sometimes announcing a game at all is enough for some folks to start speculating themselves to the moon in back in what that game will be or have.
In contrast, I expected what I got from Witcher 1, 2, 3. Janky RPGs with wonky mechanics and bugs, but ultimately interesting quests and story that will help me overcome the flawed or sometimes cringeworthy gameplay and string me to the end and with caveats be able to recommend the game. Witcher 3 was there first title I felt I could just tell anybody who plays games "Witcher 3 is good, play it" without having to explain or warn them about anything else. Far from perfect, but the issues are much easier to forgive overall. I expected Cyberpunk to be a janky RPG like Witcher but with first person and a new setting, and I feel like that is exactly what I played and enjoyed.
Many of the "broken" things in the game just meant I had more fun, my melee-no-kill build was incredible, I was able to kill even the final boss in 1-2 punches depending if I did a charged punch or maybe used a good melee weapon for fun. The armour system made me all but invincible in the face of fire, letting me duck and weave and jump and slowmo knockout entire buildings worth of goons, with some quick hacking along the way to spice things up and be more efficient. I had a lot of fun with the gameplay mechanics and there were a lot of great sidequests and stories and characters. I enjoyed my time in their dystopia and did just about 100% of the content the game had to offer.
The most cursed thing about Cyberpunk is because of the disastrous console launch, you'll basically never be able to discuss this game without also addressing that initial reaction and release. Actually -- I take that back, forever is way too strong of a word, there will be a time where it's mostly forgotten. I know because Fable was the most disappointing letdown from expectations-to-release I ever experienced, it was a complete bummer, everybody felt almost betrayed, lied to, a mean prank played, it was hard to talk about what was in the game because all you could think of was what it wasn't. But these days... it's kind of a beloved near-classic to some folks, they loved it and the sequels (that I never even considered touching after that feeling of playing Fable on launch day after a year of looking forward to it). I've seen folks fondly reminisce about the game, think stuff I thought was a bullshit rugpull, were unique or cool mechanics they cherished and want to see remade or iterated on again. I have to admit, they've even made me reconsider playing it again. I won't buy it twice, but if somehow I get the chance to play it again I'd give it another shot having forgotten much of what it was meant to be in the first place.
posted by GoblinHoney at 3:43 PM on March 6, 2023 [3 favorites]
I totally agree with this and think it is what we all should do. And yet, and yet, I am going to keep my pre-order for Tears of the Kingdom. Don't let me down Nintendo!
You have to treat Nintendo as an exception for this, because if you wait for Nintendo to drop their prices, you're going to be waiting a lot longer than two years. They know people are still going to buy Zelda and Mario Kart at full price five years later, and they know that no-one else is going to make a better Zelda or Mario Kart in the interim.
posted by Merus at 4:46 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
You have to treat Nintendo as an exception for this, because if you wait for Nintendo to drop their prices, you're going to be waiting a lot longer than two years. They know people are still going to buy Zelda and Mario Kart at full price five years later, and they know that no-one else is going to make a better Zelda or Mario Kart in the interim.
posted by Merus at 4:46 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
every single one of these discussions is a few people going 'lmao cyberpunk what a comical disaster' followed by loads of responses saying 'I played it and it was good to great'. Every one, lol
posted by Sebmojo at 4:55 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Sebmojo at 4:55 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
You have to treat Nintendo as an exception for this
On the price front I'd agree, which is why I figured I'd pre-order it. It won't be on sale for ages and my son loves BOTW so we're going to get it eventually so we may as well get it when it comes out . On the bugs/quality front I don't know. I heard there were performance issues with the latest Pokemon games. My son got it for Christmas and he enjoyed it but some of the staff at the local comic shop were talking about it a couple of weeks ago and they were complaining about it a lot. I asked my son about it later and he said it was fine but there's probably a different set of expectations between an 8 year-old who only plays on the Switch and someone in their 20s who probably has other game systems as well.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:56 PM on March 6, 2023
On the price front I'd agree, which is why I figured I'd pre-order it. It won't be on sale for ages and my son loves BOTW so we're going to get it eventually so we may as well get it when it comes out . On the bugs/quality front I don't know. I heard there were performance issues with the latest Pokemon games. My son got it for Christmas and he enjoyed it but some of the staff at the local comic shop were talking about it a couple of weeks ago and they were complaining about it a lot. I asked my son about it later and he said it was fine but there's probably a different set of expectations between an 8 year-old who only plays on the Switch and someone in their 20s who probably has other game systems as well.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 4:56 PM on March 6, 2023
I had a very different experience than some with this game. I thought it was quite good, though a bit unfinished in a few places. Not much replayability, though there is some given the varying endings, but when I pay half price I'm not too fussed about that. I wasn't a huge fan of it being first person only, but I was able to get used to it again and the world is downright beautiful at times. It plays super well on GeForce Now and is just crazy good looking at night on the Ultimate tier with the graphics maxed out.
There is no metric by which I'd call it a bad game. I'm definitely looking forward to the expansion.
I can see how one might be underwhelmed if you speedrun through it, though. While I think the main story s stands up fine on its own, there is a lot of side content that is both engaging and adds to the experience simply by letting the main story marinate for a bit. It's all a lot more impactful when you slow down a bit.
All that said, I also played Control recently and liked it better. Its story was less affecting, but more interesting. Plus it was nice to play something that had all the AAA bells and whistles but was still a linear, curated experience that you don't get from choose your own adventure open world RPGish games. Maybe I've just missed them, but that seems so rare these days.
posted by wierdo at 4:57 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
There is no metric by which I'd call it a bad game. I'm definitely looking forward to the expansion.
I can see how one might be underwhelmed if you speedrun through it, though. While I think the main story s stands up fine on its own, there is a lot of side content that is both engaging and adds to the experience simply by letting the main story marinate for a bit. It's all a lot more impactful when you slow down a bit.
All that said, I also played Control recently and liked it better. Its story was less affecting, but more interesting. Plus it was nice to play something that had all the AAA bells and whistles but was still a linear, curated experience that you don't get from choose your own adventure open world RPGish games. Maybe I've just missed them, but that seems so rare these days.
posted by wierdo at 4:57 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
Am I the only person who liked No Man's Sky at release? And honestly feel like the additions since then have been ok, but fundamentally it's the same game it's always been, just with some of the rougher systems cleaned up? (That said I don't care at ALL about base building so that whole part of them game just seems pointless. I really just want to get in my spaceship and fly over a 70s sci-fi book cover or two for a half and hour to relax.)
posted by aspo at 5:17 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by aspo at 5:17 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
I finished CP2077 maybe 6 months ago after the next generation console patch was released, and yeah, it was fine, more or less? I mean there was sort of a creeping accumulation of rendering faults as the game wore on, more people walking in midair and such. Honestly I think my biggest problem was that the city felt less populated than GTAV's Los Santos - a 2013 release. So many long dead stretches of road with no vehicles. Maybe one or two blocks with reasonably high numbers of NPCs, but huge chunks of the city where there's nobody else all the way out to the horizon. I'm surprised that never got fixed - it felt _weird_ to be in a megacity without a megapop. I just picked it up again on digital at half off so I don't have to chase my (also half-priced) disc around, I want to try giving a melee build a shot next time, but I'm not sure how the hell anyone gets through the early survivability curve if they aren't hiding behind cover. But yeah, the side missions were almost more interesting than the main story which only seemed to exist to justify big set pieces.
posted by Kyol at 6:11 PM on March 6, 2023
posted by Kyol at 6:11 PM on March 6, 2023
And nah, aspo, I'm with you - while I appreciate all the work they've put into No Man's Sky, it has gone from a nice kind of zen-like exploration game where you stumble on random words and start to understand what's going on to a huge mega game with all the base and empire building features every minecaft-era gamer could possibly want which... Eh, not my interest. On the other hand I think I got it for maybe $9 at the nadir of its sales appeal, so I got my value out of it.
posted by Kyol at 6:14 PM on March 6, 2023
posted by Kyol at 6:14 PM on March 6, 2023
NMS recently introduced an amazing amount of difficult-tweaking, as well as some default settings if that seems overwhelming, which feels like a perfect expression of another of Fizz' recent posts. The Expeditions are nice bite-sized explorations of recent patch notes, a fun way to dip in and play what amounts to a leitmotif (which, considering the intrinsic game narrative, is kind of elegant).
re: CP2077: it has a LOT of problems, but first and foremost it continues the sins of every "cyberpunk" derivative, which is that it skims off the aesthetics of Gibson's works without engaging with any substantial amount of the ethos. It's all guns and hacks and post-WWIII and women sex workers/dolls and Japanese megacorps, fetishizing tropes from the 80s without reflection. Fucks sake, the game lifts directly from the Sprawl for its acts! Heist to break out an AI, appropriation "voodoo" (literally), and then letting the AI loose. CP2077 is its own parody, and it's not self-aware enough to know it (which is its own bitter irony -- and, hah, dovetails with NMS in a kind of amazing way, bringing this comparison into some kind of meta-harmony).
Also, Keanu Reeves' character is a shithead, we hear way too much from him, and he's not a skilled voice actor.
posted by curious nu at 7:08 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
re: CP2077: it has a LOT of problems, but first and foremost it continues the sins of every "cyberpunk" derivative, which is that it skims off the aesthetics of Gibson's works without engaging with any substantial amount of the ethos. It's all guns and hacks and post-WWIII and women sex workers/dolls and Japanese megacorps, fetishizing tropes from the 80s without reflection. Fucks sake, the game lifts directly from the Sprawl for its acts! Heist to break out an AI, appropriation "voodoo" (literally), and then letting the AI loose. CP2077 is its own parody, and it's not self-aware enough to know it (which is its own bitter irony -- and, hah, dovetails with NMS in a kind of amazing way, bringing this comparison into some kind of meta-harmony).
Also, Keanu Reeves' character is a shithead, we hear way too much from him, and he's not a skilled voice actor.
posted by curious nu at 7:08 PM on March 6, 2023 [2 favorites]
Am I the only person who liked No Man's Sky at release? And honestly feel like the additions since then have been ok, but fundamentally it's the same game it's always been, just with some of the rougher systems cleaned up? (That said I don't care at ALL about base building so that whole part of them game just seems pointless. I really just want to get in my spaceship and fly over a 70s sci-fi book cover or two for a half and hour to relax.)Nope, me too. I loved all the 70s airbrush paintings like Jim Burns and Angus McKee, and this game was like stepping into those worlds. I was in heaven. The addons have been great but I really liked the original game and how alone you felt in the universe.
posted by aspo
posted by Billy Rubin at 7:31 PM on March 6, 2023
I played it on my PC upon release and it was a gorgeous-looking game with some outrageous bugs. I remember driving in a car and it just kept flashing into a pixelated mess, or something. But it was entertaining in an MST3K kind of way.
I also tried No Man's Sky upon release and found it really dull. I will give both of them another shot, it's been a few years.
posted by zardoz at 7:42 PM on March 6, 2023
I also tried No Man's Sky upon release and found it really dull. I will give both of them another shot, it's been a few years.
posted by zardoz at 7:42 PM on March 6, 2023
CP2077: it has a LOT of problems, but first and foremost it continues the sins of every "cyberpunk" derivative, which is that it skims off the aesthetics of Gibson's works without engaging with any substantial amount of the ethos.
My feeling is that the ethos in Gibson's work is part of the thing you'd have to jettison to update it; it's very neoliberal in its outlook, with his cyber-'punks' dealing with the oppressiveness of the system by finding a place in it rather than carving out a space for themselves, society be damned. I think it is fine to treat it mostly as a cool aesthetic at this point; it wasn't like it was 'punk' to begin with, and I suspect that trying to update it would increase the tension between the 'cyber' and the 'punk' to its breaking point. (I also think that punk has got a little bit of regressiveness in its DNA.)
posted by Merus at 8:10 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
My feeling is that the ethos in Gibson's work is part of the thing you'd have to jettison to update it; it's very neoliberal in its outlook, with his cyber-'punks' dealing with the oppressiveness of the system by finding a place in it rather than carving out a space for themselves, society be damned. I think it is fine to treat it mostly as a cool aesthetic at this point; it wasn't like it was 'punk' to begin with, and I suspect that trying to update it would increase the tension between the 'cyber' and the 'punk' to its breaking point. (I also think that punk has got a little bit of regressiveness in its DNA.)
posted by Merus at 8:10 PM on March 6, 2023 [4 favorites]
I played it at launch on PC and enjoyed it a ton, especially the side quests. I recently replayed it after upgrading my PC and being able to play it ray traced at 4K on a big TV really adds to the experience.
As everyone mentions the combat is weak but its just so pretty and atmospheric I don't really care.
posted by zymil at 10:32 PM on March 6, 2023
As everyone mentions the combat is weak but its just so pretty and atmospheric I don't really care.
posted by zymil at 10:32 PM on March 6, 2023
Johnny is always a serious ass at first, but like the rest of the main story, he may just change based on your choices. Hell, you can even put him back in his prison if you want. Maybe I like 2077 because I got lucky in my playthrough and because I didn't play it until 1.61.
One thing I really liked about the game is that it in no way fetishizes the dystopian hellscape of the world. It very much read to me as a warning.
posted by wierdo at 11:07 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
One thing I really liked about the game is that it in no way fetishizes the dystopian hellscape of the world. It very much read to me as a warning.
posted by wierdo at 11:07 PM on March 6, 2023 [1 favorite]
My feeling is that the ethos in Gibson's work is part of the thing you'd have to jettison to update it
Agree! I thought we had a decent conversation a few months ago about this. I wish I felt like this game tried to do this at all.
I think it is fine to treat it mostly as a cool aesthetic at this point
Mmm.. I think that every aesthetic also carries politics and a philosophy with it, so I don't know if anything can be "just" an aesthetic.
posted by curious nu at 4:40 AM on March 7, 2023
Agree! I thought we had a decent conversation a few months ago about this. I wish I felt like this game tried to do this at all.
I think it is fine to treat it mostly as a cool aesthetic at this point
Mmm.. I think that every aesthetic also carries politics and a philosophy with it, so I don't know if anything can be "just" an aesthetic.
posted by curious nu at 4:40 AM on March 7, 2023
I'd been wanting a game like this since I read my first Shadowrun role playing game book. I played the Genesis game obsessively. I have put close to a hundred hours into the isometric games. And here finally, was a first person cyberpunk game. Sure, I wouldn't get my elven rigger and the corporations had the wrong names, but I finally got to play in an 80s cyberpunk world. Fully fleshed out, with chrome replacing flesh, and corporations superceding nations.
And it was ok. It wasn't the game I built in my head as a 12 year old. That game could never be created. But it also wasn't much more than Grand Theft Auto with a cyberpunk coating. I played the hell of if it, modded it extensively, and really enjoyed the side missions. The main quest tried to be existential and moving, but given the character I was playing and the body count they left behind, the dissonance (both ludonarrative and other) killed that aspect.
I hope that a BIG AA/AAA fight the corporations, damn the man, take solace in the community of the downtrodden type game gets made again. There's clearly an appetite for it. And I hope that they learn from the mistakes of this one, and make the world more dynamic. In cyberpunk worlds, justice explicitly goes to the highest bidder and the cops barely care about the little people, especially as they're just another corporation now. I celebrate what I got, but dearly wish I'd have gotten more than stealy wheely automobiley with cyberware and Keanu Reeves.
posted by Hactar at 4:42 AM on March 7, 2023
And it was ok. It wasn't the game I built in my head as a 12 year old. That game could never be created. But it also wasn't much more than Grand Theft Auto with a cyberpunk coating. I played the hell of if it, modded it extensively, and really enjoyed the side missions. The main quest tried to be existential and moving, but given the character I was playing and the body count they left behind, the dissonance (both ludonarrative and other) killed that aspect.
I hope that a BIG AA/AAA fight the corporations, damn the man, take solace in the community of the downtrodden type game gets made again. There's clearly an appetite for it. And I hope that they learn from the mistakes of this one, and make the world more dynamic. In cyberpunk worlds, justice explicitly goes to the highest bidder and the cops barely care about the little people, especially as they're just another corporation now. I celebrate what I got, but dearly wish I'd have gotten more than stealy wheely automobiley with cyberware and Keanu Reeves.
posted by Hactar at 4:42 AM on March 7, 2023
I didn't find the city very interesting at all, except for the area in the southwest with the mall, which felt appropriately anarchic.
There were some parts of the main story I liked, but when I think about doing it all again and having to go through all those conversations and cut scenes and Johnny segments again.. Ultimately I just have to face up to that I think "Johnny Silverhands" is a dumb name, and a dumb character, and I just wish he wasn't in the game. I just don't want to encounter him ever again.
posted by fleacircus at 7:34 AM on March 7, 2023
There were some parts of the main story I liked, but when I think about doing it all again and having to go through all those conversations and cut scenes and Johnny segments again.. Ultimately I just have to face up to that I think "Johnny Silverhands" is a dumb name, and a dumb character, and I just wish he wasn't in the game. I just don't want to encounter him ever again.
posted by fleacircus at 7:34 AM on March 7, 2023
I feel like gamers have this thing where they focus on a studio releasing buggy games too quickly and focus so much less on the economic forces that drive games to be released in shitty, buggy form. If you hate how buggy games are at launch then try figuring out how to support Quality Assurance as a department in a game studio. QA is treated so shittily in the games industry in both their pay, incorporation in development workflows, and generally as a tenet in software development. But the thing is, QA will always be treated shittily because there's no way to organize gamers that could ever amount to the same kind of pressure that, for example, a SaaS company would get from their million-dollar client in years-long contract negotiations for a piece of software that doesn't work super well (and even then there are a lot of horror stories). If you want actual change in these types of things, donate to a game workers union. Anything else just seems like a whole lot of pointless whining.
posted by paimapi at 8:26 AM on March 7, 2023
posted by paimapi at 8:26 AM on March 7, 2023
Isn't the other option to stop buying from companies with a poor record on quality control?
posted by biffa at 9:52 AM on March 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by biffa at 9:52 AM on March 7, 2023 [2 favorites]
I also didn't play it until well after launch. I had to wait until I got my hands on a PS5, which in hindsight probably saved the game for me. By the time I played it, there were a few bugs but nothing game-breaking.
And I really enjoyed it overall. I have major criticisms of it, but certainly didn't experience it as the massive technical or artistic disaster in a lot of the reviews. Actually, I found it to be pretty amazing despite its faults. I really do wonder what the critical reception would have been if most reviewers played it in the state that I eventually played it in.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:29 PM on March 7, 2023
And I really enjoyed it overall. I have major criticisms of it, but certainly didn't experience it as the massive technical or artistic disaster in a lot of the reviews. Actually, I found it to be pretty amazing despite its faults. I really do wonder what the critical reception would have been if most reviewers played it in the state that I eventually played it in.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 1:29 PM on March 7, 2023
I played CP2077 from a couple days after release. I think I bought it after the first bug patch. I played on PC and didn't have any more problems than a typical Bethesda game. It really shouldn't have been released on last-gen consoles. Still, I didn't run into very many of the horror story bugs. Sometimes cars would have collision errors at max distance and I would see them fly up in the air, which I found hilarious.
I also didn't follow any of the pre-release hype, so I hadn't built it up in my mind to any particular degree. I did, however, play the CP2020 RPG back in college, which this is based on. They did a lot of connecting to that, and the flavor carries through.
I really enjoyed the game. As noted in the article, and mentioned by others above, it helps a lot if you do the side missions and don't just go through the main storyline. Some of the best content is in the side stuff. I suppose after my years of gaming, I don't really understand why people wouldn't do side missions. Most RPGs over the years have been designed such that you do some side missions in each area to level up your skills and get equipment along the way.
I played through once on each of the different classes, with a different combat focus for each. First run I went with guns, second I did netrunner, and third I went melee with Sandevistan mods. I also tried to make different choices with each character, so I could experience the story in different ways. I have over 330 hours in the game, because I thoroughly explored as much as I could. I squeezed as much enjoyment as I could from the game, and personally I feel like I got my money's worth out of it.
every single one of these discussions is a few people going 'lmao cyberpunk what a comical disaster' followed by loads of responses saying 'I played it and it was good to great'. Every one, lol
This has been my experience on the internet at large. There seem to be a lot of entitled gamer bros who act like CP2077 ran over their dog and punched their grandma in the face. They're still toxic and SHOUTY about it two years later. It's weird.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:24 AM on March 8, 2023
I also didn't follow any of the pre-release hype, so I hadn't built it up in my mind to any particular degree. I did, however, play the CP2020 RPG back in college, which this is based on. They did a lot of connecting to that, and the flavor carries through.
I really enjoyed the game. As noted in the article, and mentioned by others above, it helps a lot if you do the side missions and don't just go through the main storyline. Some of the best content is in the side stuff. I suppose after my years of gaming, I don't really understand why people wouldn't do side missions. Most RPGs over the years have been designed such that you do some side missions in each area to level up your skills and get equipment along the way.
I played through once on each of the different classes, with a different combat focus for each. First run I went with guns, second I did netrunner, and third I went melee with Sandevistan mods. I also tried to make different choices with each character, so I could experience the story in different ways. I have over 330 hours in the game, because I thoroughly explored as much as I could. I squeezed as much enjoyment as I could from the game, and personally I feel like I got my money's worth out of it.
every single one of these discussions is a few people going 'lmao cyberpunk what a comical disaster' followed by loads of responses saying 'I played it and it was good to great'. Every one, lol
This has been my experience on the internet at large. There seem to be a lot of entitled gamer bros who act like CP2077 ran over their dog and punched their grandma in the face. They're still toxic and SHOUTY about it two years later. It's weird.
posted by Fleebnork at 7:24 AM on March 8, 2023
Yeah, I wonder if there have been any deep dives on how much the push for last generation compatibility hurt them in the end. Like, if it had always been targeted for nextgen and PC, would it have been better off at release, or were the bugs in parts of the engine that had nothing to do with streaming and rendering performance? Because I don't know - I spent maybe 30 minutes on my base PS4 after getting started on the PS5 (after the NG release patch, so _fairly late_ in the post-release dev cycle) and I was still seeing textures failing to load and other related performance issues that I never really noticed on the PS5. And certainly looking at the patch notes, there were a lot of quest breaking bugs, but I don't know how many of those were meme-fodder.
Fundamentally I'm sort of envious of Cyberpunk lore fiends - judging by TheSphereHunter's review back in the day, it was a real treat for people who knew the ramifications of some of the missions, who had played them in the TTRPG and got to play it as a fleshed out mission in a AAA game. Me, I was a Shadowrunner back in the day, although I don't remember much of the lore at all any more.
posted by Kyol at 7:35 AM on March 8, 2023
Fundamentally I'm sort of envious of Cyberpunk lore fiends - judging by TheSphereHunter's review back in the day, it was a real treat for people who knew the ramifications of some of the missions, who had played them in the TTRPG and got to play it as a fleshed out mission in a AAA game. Me, I was a Shadowrunner back in the day, although I don't remember much of the lore at all any more.
posted by Kyol at 7:35 AM on March 8, 2023
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Very glad I didn't get the game at its disastrous launch. It was broken. But I think it's quite solid now. And novel, and ambitious, and gets a lot right.
posted by Nelson at 12:11 PM on March 6, 2023 [7 favorites]