I went with Nomad, as I wanted to start outside the city and sort of take it in as I approached later on, but then the game suddenly hurls you into this quick-cut montage of you getting established inside the city with your colleague. It’s pretty jarring - I thought a cinematic was glitching out or something at first - but I’d guess the other two start points have that as well, so something to consider if you wanted to start out in Dirtwater CA for the same reason I did.
Tim_N
4098
11 hours in and underwhelmed so far:
- The three lifepath intros are over so fast I wonder why they bothered. These things are usually gimmicks and amount to an occasional different thing you can say in a conversation, but I wonder why their marketing hype talked about it so much when there wasn’t much there.
- Bugs galore. As the latest example, I am trying to talk to Judy at Lizzie’s, which is closed, but when you talk to the bouncers they are supposed to let you in. They let me in and the door is open, but for some reason my character refuses to actually walk in to the club. Reloading doesn’t help either. This is just the latest of a string of bugs, the majority of which are only cosmetic but a fair few do affect gameplay.
- Half-baked mechanics that have already been discussed so no need to go over again.
I would forgive all of the above EASILY if the story and universe were engaging, but other than one of the main quests which was pretty good I have not really encountered any memorable or interesting side quests. I have tried to seek out side quests and done quite a few, but all of them just involve hearing someone squak on a phone, then going to a place and killing baddies, and then they squak on the phone again to say good job.
Where are the side stories? Where are the choices that feel like they make a difference on the world? The devs have talent and I know they didn’t just sit on their hands all these years, so I gather I am doing something wrong or this stuff will come later in the game, but I would like to know what/when.
I’m really impressed with the size and scope of the city. I’m sure it’s nothing compared to the GTA games or whatever, but I don’t play them, so it all feels new and exciting.
The urban density means they can make a small stealth zone just a short elevator ride away from the street level. I wonder if there are any creepy urbex areas like an old abandoned subway or something. Vaulting on top of tall structures covers some of that fun.
Timex
4100
I can only speak as a corpo, but for me the choice has been pretty cool. It has quite a large impact on conversations, if you want.
There are many.
Honestly though, my impression at this point is that these guys have managed to make the best GTA ever, on their first try. That’s what this game feels like to me… it’s GRA, but with infinitely better combat, and far better storytelling, in a much more interesting world.
I’m liking the game for what it does well (which is a lot) and happy to look past what it doesn’t. And I have no doubt that patches and mods will improve things significantly over time. CDPR is good like that.
Cyberpunk is the first game that DOES NOT RUN WELL on my current gaming PC. And, holy crap, tweaking the graphics settings has gotten WAY more complicated lately. I can get it smooth but I can’t seem to completely get rid of a hitching, stuttering effect that is getting in the way of my enjoyment. I’m starting to dream of a brand new rig and, once again, I have CDPR to thank.
I think the three different beginnings will come in handy down the road when I get a new PC and want to start a new game. It’ll be cool to have a fresh entry point.
Literally everywhere. Just, amazing shit, everywhere. I’m constantly being blown away at how good this game is.
On hard? Because on hard an assault rifle or shotgun will often 1-shot or 2-shot you. SMG or pistol will drop you in 3-4 hits. And yes, I’m dressed like a friggin’ clown to maximize my armor. I have the Body perk “Invincible” (lol) maximized. I also have the Blades perk that gives +30% armor while moving. Am I moving when I stop in front of them to swing my blade? I don’t know, but it usually doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t help that I’m playing with a controller because my wrist told me I’m playing too many damn vidya game and to F off.
Oh for sure, 95% of the time I kill enemies with guns because melee is suicide. Even though I have zero gun perks. My sniper rifle can hit for 9k, though I suppose that’s with the Sniper perk.
I’m mostly stealth. Found a boss that was just impossible for me. Its regen was an added bonus. After around 15 deaths I finally figured out I could just stealth by it without fighting it. Good thing.
I’m doing pistols / mantis blade. Works really nicely. Can melee 2-3 people no problem. 10 people well just asking to die before you even get to them.
There’s a perk you can pick up to heal 20% after a melee kill. Sometimes easier to just stab people than eat food to heal because man I hate that inventory screen.
For guns I’m using a silenced big revolver (good base damage). Stack on the perks and I can one shot people on headshots from stealth. The other weapons I cycle on whatever feels fun - sniper, assault rifle, etc. Smart guns are really good against those drones.
Oh right, silenced guns are a faster way to stealth. It got old to sneak up to people and break their necks.
Tim_N
4105
Wow I must have terrible luck. I have done at least a dozen side missions and all of them were pretty bad, none of them even featured face-to-face conversations with other people. Will keep playing!
Scrax
4106
Are you out of Act 1 yet? That’s where the side quests actually open up. All those other events are gigs and other mini-combat scenarios that are just talking heads.
That’s so weird. So many of my side missions have such great interactions with the NPCs.
MrTibbs
4108
CDPR issued an apology for the state of the game on last-gen ports, and are offering console refunds until Dec 21. Two big updates are also planned for January and February 2021.
kerzain
4109
I have 100% faith they’ll turn it around. Yea, it had a buggy launch, but these guys have proven they’ll do what it takes to put things right. I fondly remember the Witcher 1 Enhanced Edition update being given out free to owners of the game. And they’re also doing free next gen upgrades for Witcher 3, which compares nicely to other studios that won’t. They seem to care about the long term quality of their products, and I’ve no doubt Cyberpunk will be awesome by the time I upgrade my console.
And while it sucks for current gen owners of the game simply trying to have a good time, hopefully the promised refunds work out for them if the future technical fixes are too far off.
MrTibbs
4110
Oh, for sure! They certainly have a background of supporting their games well past the initial release and I feel they’ll deliver on that promise, though it’s a shame this one has been so rocky. That said, given everything else that’s occurred in 2020, this is very small potatoes, and despite being rather tempted and already making space on my precious SSD, I’m absolutely fine with holding off for a while.
Those are gigs. Cyberpunk’s equivalent of question marks from Witcher 3. Those are not actual sidejobs. But, I enjoyed doing the gigs too. Usually there is something interesting in those too. For example, I visited a ripper doc randomly, getting some cyberware. I asked him where he gets his highend parts, he tells me his suppliers want to be anonymous. Few hours later I did a gig in which I found out that this guy actually gets his cyberware from kidnapped and murdered people and I could confront him about it and he ran away, bastard. So there is one less ripperdoc for me to visit.
Good on CDP for the apology and refunds, but they still fucked up hard and never should have shipped lastgen in this state. Their reputation will take a deserved hit from this.
oh… so… this is what the graphics is SUPPOSED to look like.
Ah hell. I’m gonna actually have to stop playing and wait for the major patches in January / February, or straight out til March when my PS5 (supposedly) arrives.
I had a friend visit yesterday,took a quick look at the screen and said “what are you playing? looks really old”.
The graphics are BEYOND crap on PS4, especially going over to CP from Ghosts of Tsushima, which looked a.ma.zing. It really does look like I’m playing some perfectly fine RPG… on a PS3. So that, together with the millions of bugs I’m experiencing, just takes the edge of the experience. Which is sad, cause I got to Act II, pushing through these flaws, and really loved the game.
Just a “little” disappointed they didn’t take the time to make the game run better on the consoles that the majority of people playing on consoles only have access too.
Well then. Til next year! Enjoy your Night Life perusing people =)
Quaro
4113
If you rush the main story to get to Act 2 as quick as possible, are all the sidequests that you skip in Act 1 still there? I am a teeny bit spoiled in that I know the new character is introduced at the beginning of Act 2, and I know that character can chime in during random unrelated sidequests. If going right to Act 2 doesn’t actually skip and side content, it seems like it would be better to wait and dig into the side stuff after that character is introduced?
kristina
4114
They’re all there. I didn’t do any of the gigs or sides, and I still have them all there in Act 2.
I think a lot of them are meant to be done in Act 2 as well.
I do like how things interconnect. It’s not a true open world/emergent sort of thing, but there is enough cross-talk to keep it interesting. I was looking for something for a side quest that took me to a scav den, and in searching for the whatzit I needed I stumbled on a ripperdoc selling high-end cyberware. In another, I was doing a gig (I think, maybe a side) to pick up a package, when in the ensuing gunfight I got a notice that I had completed another completely separate gig, a “kill the foozle” mission, because said foozle wandered into the firefight and bought it.
TurinTur
4116
I have done all the named gigs before reaching Act 2! But that’s me being OCD-ish in my progress.
