Cyberpunk 2077 [PC, PS4, XBone] - out September 17 2020

[DjchunKfunK]

I was thinking a bit about this this morning, Cyberpunk reminds me a lot of the first Witcher game, there is a lot of stuff in it that is unpolished and it has antiquated answers to issues that other games have solved, the disappearing cars when you look away and then back again being a good example of this. It also made me think a bit more about the Witcher 3 and what I enjoyed about that game, it was the characters and the story, the combat and the gameplay elements were not that great but I put up with them because I loved the world and characters so much.

Cyberpunk I don't have that same connection with the characters, some of that is because I haven't built up a relationship with them over two previous games but another part of it is the fact the main character is first person and is more of a character that you are moulding and all the interactions feel different. Because of this the story doesn't have quite the same impact and it is left to the rest of the game to do a bit more heavy lifting than in the Witcher 3 and unfortunately in this regard it is only really good enough.

[Rusty]

Well, funny thing happened to me. Got the game on release day. Played it. Messed about with settings (It's on PC, have to go to settings first... natch) and played it solidly for hours.
I played it again when I had my son over and as he watched I finally got to the point where the logo kicked in, which I assume is when you just get out of the first area? About 20 odd hours in now.

However, I happened to see his friend playing it , he was streaming over discord, and thought his graphics looked better than mine. So I rechecked my settings...
I've been playing with low textures from the start.
Whacked them babies right up and wow the graphics are so much nicer I wondered why people though the graphics where good when they were mediocre...

[Solitaire]

That's Soli's point though... sure you can rush through it in a couple of dozen hours, but with a game like this, why would you do that? Seems like a waste.

As of tonight I've played 24 hours and just got to the point in Act 2 where you're let out into the city proper. I can easily imagine getting close to 100 hours out of this.

I think it could be less people rushing through the game and more that the game doesn't do a great job of pointing out the important stuff, the only side stuff that gets brought to your attention are the gigs which are pretty bog standard one and done things. You have to find the proper side quests yourself which is quite difficult when the map screen is filled with yellow exclamation marks and there is no way of knowing which are proper side quests and which are just gigs. So I don't think it would be a surprise if people have missed a lot of the side content and just played the main story quests.

I'm still not sure what you're trying to say. I paid $60 for this game, I'm gonna play all the content I see, even if it's just three mooks standing in an alleyway. I'm gonna dig around in the corners to find all the random stuff I possibly can. I'm going to jump down into the water and explore the dirty shores, then climb up the ladder and infiltrate the dockside barrios. The game has a main quest line, side jobs, gigs, random encounters. What parts are you saying are the "important stuff?" Because I think it's all important. It all adds up to the game itself. But people want to charge through the game to say they did it and have a 'review' up fourteen hours after opening day? Good for them, here's a cookie. In the meantime I'm going to enjoy the heck out of exploring everything the devs created.

[Snowy]

I think (but could be wrong) that DJ is referencing the lack of signposting. So far I have played mostly the main quests (at least I assume they are, I have 3 of them open). I then have a load of 'find the taxi' and 'beat folks up' side quests, and a handful of gigs. I am ignoring those that class as very dangerous as they tend to feature opponents who are way above me in level and who I can barely scratch. I have done a few 'crimes in progress' and gone to invetigate some yellow question marks but I think only one has resulted in some actual scripted activity and not just a quick fight.

The map is so huge and so packed with stuff, maybe is is just a case of people not troubling themselves to look it out. Personally I have a goal in mind, I want me some mantis blades, and just need the street cred (though not sure on the best way to earn it). I have just completed a step in the quest chain and am now trawling around to find something chunky but off the main quest-line to do.

I guess you are always going to get the equivalent of WoW players, you know, the ones who within a day of a new expansion are trolling around a capital at the level cap. I agree with you \Todd, they are missing out.

[Sly Boots]

I think (but could be wrong) that DJ is referencing the lack of signposting. So far I have played mostly the main quests (at least I assume they are, I have 3 of them open). I then have a load of 'find the taxi' and 'beat folks up' side quests, and a handful of gigs. I am ignoring those that class as very dangerous as they tend to feature opponents who are way above me in level and who I can barely scratch. I have done a few 'crimes in progress' and gone to invetigate some yellow question marks but I think only one has resulted in some actual scripted activity and not just a quick fight.

The map is so huge and so packed with stuff, maybe is is just a case of people not troubling themselves to look it out. Personally I have a goal in mind, I want me some mantis blades, and just need the street cred (though not sure on the best way to earn it). I have just completed a step in the quest chain and am now trawling around to find something chunky but off the main quest-line to do.

I guess you are always going to get the equivalent of WoW players, you know, the ones who within a day of a new expansion are trolling around a capital at the level cap. I agree with you \Todd, they are missing out.

Side gigs (yellow exclamation marks) are a great way of increasing street cred as they're relatively quick, you can also earn money fast as well, as in addition to the money for the job each site usually has a few terminals to hack to get creds... in one I earned over 10k.

I got the mantis blades and double jump unlocked before leaving the Act 1 zone.

[Wrathbone]

Is it like Witcher 3 where you spend dozens of hours doing side quests only to realise you're way above the recommended level for main quests, so you end up slaughtering the Big Bads in the main quests like they were made of paper?

I've no problem with that, as I always found it kind of funny how the most perilous situations narratively-speaking tended to be absolute cakewalks in reality, whereas a testy high-level drowner could still pummel Geralt into submission.

[Sly Boots]

Is it like Witcher 3 where you spend dozens of hours doing side quests only to realise you're way above the recommended level for main quests, so you end up slaughtering the Big Bads in the main quests like they were made of paper?

I've no problem with that, as I always found it kind of funny how the most perilous situations narratively-speaking tended to be absolute cakewalks in reality, whereas a testy high-level drowner could still pummel Geralt into submission.

Difficult to say, really, as none of the enemies have a level displayed as they do in the Witcher 3. I know there's a certain amount of scaling going on as the blueprints of the weapons and armour you can craft get stronger as you level.

I will say I've had no difficulty in combat at pretty much any time. My technique is to go in sneaky and pick off a few, inevitably get spotted and then go absolutely ham with my katana/mantis blades until everything around me is sashimi. A few good swipes and everything goes down pretty quickly. Which is pretty enjoyable, for me.

I've died a few times, but mostly because once shit hits the fan things on-screen can get a bit confusing, and I think I've been one-shotted by rockets or grenades I haven't seen coming. So enemies are pretty squishy, but in terms of taking damage so are you.

[Animalmother]

What's the actual shooty bit of the game like, everyone seems to rely on swords and whatnot rather than guns?

[Sly Boots]

What's the actual shooty bit of the game like, everyone seems to rely on swords and whatnot rather than guns?

Yeah, I mean, it's fine. But why would I shoot someone when I can go apeshit-crazy with a pair of muthafuckin' three foot blades sticking out of my arms?

[Animalmother]

Fair

[DjchunKfunK]

The point I was making was in response to people being incredulous that others had managed to complete the game multiple times by pointing out that the critical path is short and the game is bad at signposting anything else. I'm not making a judgement on others taking their time, play the game however you want.

[Solitaire]

Okay, understood DJ, thanks I wasn't being incredulous d/t them finishing the game in record time, rather that they would want to do that instead of enjoying all the content that they've obviously intentionally skipped.

I think it's fair to say this game is bad at explaining almost anything. I mean, it can be fun to explore and figure stuff out on one's own, but when it's almost *everything* that's not explained at all, no tutorials, etc, it can be frustrating because there's just so much going on, so many systems. I'm thinking about crafting here as a fine example of 'learn while you go' which I suppose makes the game have replay value, but dang. It feels like the devs had so much time to create all this stuff that they got away from the idea of explaining how it all works to 'the rest of us,' i.e., the players coming in cold. Forest for the trees and all that jazz.

Animal: Bladed weapons do tons of damage right from the start. The guns are all over the show. It does scale up nicely, the weapon combat, as an RPG should, imho anyway. At the beginning, everything is hard wrt guns. The katanas and tantos and whatnot all work way better for clearing out enemies. But get a power revolver with some critical strike abilities, stealth bonuses, etc, and you'll start dropping people quick. It gets way less clunky feeling as one traverses the perks and better weapons and mods and etc etc etc. That's where these dudes who power-run to the end of the game miss out on actual character progression, therefore are critiquing the game while missing out on that progression which makes the game what it is meant to be. If that makes sense?

I've forgone the mantis blades in favor of a rocket that shoots from my left forearm And though I've blown myself up a fair few times, I rather enjoy it. If I aim it right I can splash damage a couple dudes at once, or send a rocket straight at someone's face and they're toast. Also, using the scanner on potential enemies, before a fight occurs, does give a 1-5 star rating which I believe will roughly correspond with their strength relative to yourself, and for payment purposes. I might have that wrong, though, not 100% sure about it.

I'm racking up street cred like crazy with the NCPD missions, the gigs in yellow , random encounters, and whatnot. This is one reason either walking around or riding a bike and looking around a lot really takes over as the true gameplay. And as streetcred goes up, and other things, the vendors get better guns, clothing, etc, so have to make the rounds all over again. I feel like I could be doing this for 100-200 hours of actual game time before I even get to the Act II main mission! And the visuals... holy hell, there's so much to see. Every street corner is a screenshot. This is a phenomenal game that will only get better. I'll be playing this for years, no doubt about it.

[Paul]

I edited some variables in a config file and now it runs fine.

Some good game out of 2020. Woot.

[Rusty]

I love the gun play but too many times I've placed a headshot only for it to register as a miss. I don't know whether some under-the-hood dice rolls are happening but it's dang annoying. Especially if it results in the enemy being alerted as there appears to be no comeback from that.

However, I have now noticed, it could have been there from the start but i'm not sure, that I can see the amount of health my shot will take off. So I now wait until that shows the full bar gone then take the shot. But also the system has told me I'm not doing any damage and yet I still one tap the bad guy.... /shrug

Checking GOG - 47 hours in and no idea how far I am along in the story as I'm also just taking my time wandering round.

Oh, that reminds me, tried Vorpx with this and, whilst it's pretty unplayable as icons are out of whack and such, I've now managed to walk through the neon lit streets in VR

[Snowy]

My last day of work this year today and am looking forward to getting some more time with this. Can't quite work out yet if it is a 'not quite' for me or if the hooks are that subtle that I didn't feel them go in.

I also ride around on a motorbike like Todd, so will start collecting that street cred (a hilariously anachronistic term to have made it to 2077 ) and hopefully know one way or the other!