I got to about level 30 before I bailed for now. I still think the moment to moment gameplay is often very good, especially combat and environmental traversal/exploration, and the first time through the story beats are often interesting. Once you’ve seen some of the endings, though, there’s way too many scenes that either have you choosing bland dialog options or are totally non-interactive. Also, because the origin stories are so truncated–especially the Corporate one–I never really develop much of a connection with V. Johnny is mostly an ass, and while some of the supporting characters are well realized, in the end, I just can’t be motivated to care much.
Contrast that to, say, the “bad” ending of Witcher 3, which is super powerful; that’s a game where I cared about pretty much all the characters, and usually I’m a gamer who ignores story and characters much of the time.
I’m doing the same thing for now and I have to say it’s a lot more engaging in the beginning than hacking was. Playing full melee for now, but I’ll probably level handguns (or ARs) a bit as backup for sections where ranged is better, because I’m not sure throwing knives will cut it.
I’m also trying to immerse myself in the environment more, but I still can’t bring myself to read all those datapads that the game is littered with.
True, but there’s no shortage of Legendary everything in-game, I’m speccing pistols only and am taking on psychos with ease at level 15, with a white revolver.
Yeah, I actually managed to break the game already at level 13. 15 reflexes for the OP katana perks (more dmg on full enemy life, and more dmg for each % of hp missing), legendary Sandevistan from Vik (this thing is so busted), double jump leg cyberware. I’m just zooming around and clearing NCPD spots in 15 seconds, haven’t even done the mission with Jackie yet. Can’t say it’s not fun though :).
Athletics still seems to be a PITA to level, I thought that was fixed?
I was looking at the blade perks and noticed those two, I thought they seemed really powerful. Open with a stealth strong attack then just go ham and let the % climb, how long does it take to take down a psycho?
It depends on the mission, but I’d say about 10s? You can stunlock most of them with melee attacks, the only one I had ‘trouble’ with so far was the guy with gorilla arms who could block my attacks, but he didn’t even land a single hit on me.
I don’t think I’ll ever go back to hacking when you can just pop this bad boy and mow down everything in sight with your weapon of choice.
This is on very hard:
Can’t deny that it’s fun as hell though, I’m having a hard time thinking of another game that replicates the Ghost in The Shell cyber ninja gameplay as well as this one. I’m switching between katanas and gorilla arms now, I had no idea that they contribute to body skill checks! You get a whopping +6 to body for skill check purposes with the legendary version. I have 18 in body so this doesn’t benefit me much, but it’s good to keep in mind for future characters. Haven’t tried mantis blades yet.
I’m also chromed up to the gills now, it’s mental:
Got stuff like health on kill, max health when near death, second heart, 30% all cyberware reduction (mental), 35% all resistance, 10% reduced inc dmg, 300 flat armor, increased mitigation chance and strength, optical camo which is insane on its own but really shines with Sandevistan, 50% more health, 25% more attack speed, and of course the classic, double jump.
Going to be hard rolling anything but reflex/body in the future. Fun factor is off the charts.
I wondered if those mods were valid in those matches, one of the few side jobs I didn’t complete. I finally started blocking/dodging like I’m supposed to but ultimately couldn’t be assed to finish.
They are, Sandevistan too. I never tried cyberdecks back in my previous run but I think that one didn’t work. Apparently cyberware that is triggered under specific conditions (detection, etc) works too.
It’s painful how much untapped potential this game has on the gameplay front - at this stage I’d honestly farm it out to modders or other developers to fix the balance, because CDPR is clearly incapable of doing so, as evident by their last 3-4 games. The perks and synergies between them are so well thought out, but it all goes out the window when you can reliably one or two tap enemies with literally any weapon you choose to focus on. There is absolutely no point in picking up perks related to bleeding, stun, health on attack, missing health, or pretty much anything else for that matter, when you can just roll up to the encounter, pop Sandevistan (and optionally optical camo) and go to town on enemies, oneshotting everyone in your path. Stealth is optional for this mission = defaults to yes. Why in the hell would I bother making my way to the main computer in a mission to shut down the cameras when there is absolutely zero reason to doing so? All these options end up being completely pointless.
This is 100% correct. The NPCs often recommend stealth or, like Takemura and Panam, chastise me for not being stealthy. In actuality, on normal difficulty the enemies are dead within moments of detecting me. I increased the difficulty to hard just to have combat (which is a lot of fun!) last longer.
Two of my pet peeves in games are the NPCs nagging you to be stealthy, when it doesn’t matter one whit, and mandatory stealth missions where getting seen, even if you could kill everyone there with a pencil, means you fail and have to start over.
