So I’m early on in Act 2, and it seems like I’m at a pretty good point in the story to go off, explore, and do side quests or goof off for a good dozen hours or so, without feeling like I’m rescuing kittens from trees in the face of the impending end of humanity.
Can anyone who has progressed further speak to whether there is much content in the world gated behind main story progress? I assume there will probably be side quests that don’t open up until future acts, but beyond that, is most of the world and mechanics/upgrades open at this point?
There are only two acts in the game. The prologue is Act 1. The rest of the game is Act 2.
KevinC
4441
Weird, I know I’ve failed things (or rather, didn’t get the bonuses) because I killed people instead of using non-lethal means. I wonder if that’s a bug with the psychos.
It felt like there were a lot more acts, but they just don’t give a pop-up. For example, how the loading screen changes as you progress. Seemed like every time it changed it was a new act.
Huh. I had just assumed if they’re using an act structure, there’d be at least three. Still, good to know.
In the north industrial area, there is warehouse, here
with a free perk point and some rare components.
Yeah, I think there are more than two discrete acts in the game, but CDPR either forgot to delineate them with the title cards, or they chose not to for whatever reason. It’s weird.
jpinard
4446
Is there a reason to hold off moving past Act I? Like doing tons of dude quests and stuff? Or do you just slow yourself from getting really good stuff?
I don’t believe you miss out on anything by finishing Act I, and there seems to be a decent amount of stuff that opens up.
Yeah, beeline Act 1. Once you get past it, stop doing main story quests and enjoy the city.
@KevinC Yea I was referring to the fact you will need to defeat enemies in open combat in this game. There are a couple bosses that you can’t just sneak up behind, hit F twice and win. You’ll need to dump a lot of damage into them one way or another be it through guns or hacks or melee. You don’t need to actually “lethal” them. Also, the Cyberpsychos either intentionally or unintentionally don’t die to damage that would be lethal to normal enemies. It might be a bug, it might be a feature. To kill them you need to attack them again after they are down, which just cheats you out of some credits.
@jpinard As far as missing out on great stuff, rewards seem dropped according to your level, not the enemy level. There are a few storyline related unique weapons but frankly the best melee weapon I ever found was just a random purple Machete with +73% crit chance and +94% crit damage built in. I don’t know who did the itemization for this game but those numbers are way too high.
And lastly as a PSA, having played to level 52 I can safely say that Mantis Blades are terrible and you shouldn’t use them. The legendary ones aren’t level scaled and quickly become obsolete, but even if that wasn’t the case, Katanas and Machetes are infinitely better because they don’t lock you into constant grappling animations where you get shot at and can’t defend yourself during. I can literally one shot anything on Hard except some of the Cyberpsychos (they take 2 hits) with a single heavy attack with my machete and never get locked into a dumb animation. Bout 22k damage a crit, but with crit chance at 100% non crits aren’t even a thing.
jsnell
4450
This prompted me to go and visit the upgrade tab for the first time in the game, since I had no idea it was there. (Just remember a reference to upgrading iconics).
It seems like an odd system. Your loot gets obsoleted so quickly that I don’t understand how spending consumables to boost any equipment could make sense.
The crafting economy just makes no sense in general right now. Calling it half baked would be generous.
Edit: Someone else pointed out that the best perk in the crafting tree is the one that lets you keep mods after you disassemble items. Other than that there isn’t much of a use for it.
KevinC
4452
I haven’t used them much but I felt this way about the projectile launcher from what little I’ve used it. I don’t know what it scales with (if anything), but it basically just seems like shooting a slow-firing weak bullet with an explosive radius around it. Very unsatisfying.
This is why I pick up these games on PC, though. Hopefully this is something that modders can address.
Oh yea, I’ve got faith that stuff like this will be fixed but I do think it’s worth mentioning for now just to save someone on the forum some grief using extremely suboptimal choices like I initially did!
KevinC
4454
Yeah I really appreciated it myself. I was considering going that route if I do a new playthrough so the heads up was very helpful. Now I know not to bother for now!
I imagine the crafting, especially the upgrade system, was conceived as a way to allow you to continue to use your iconic or legendary weapons as you level up. But it’s done so poorly, and costs so much, that it doesn’t work.
Everyone is rushing act 1, while I am trying to find a jacket I like to compliment my skirt in game.
You’re setting yourself up for disappointment.
Don’t worry — you’re not alone!
