Back when they announced it. I haven’t seen them use that in their marketing since. Given how the gaming industry works and this is a AAA developer, any hope that this would be finished was misplaced
Back when they announced it. I haven’t seen them use that in their marketing since. Given how the gaming industry works and this is a AAA developer, any hope that this would be finished was misplaced
Yep. In my opinion with any big open world AAA game in the last 10 years, unless you are really missing out on some social aspect it's really better to just play them 2 years "late" when it's all bundled up with its DLC/etc and 1/4 the price.
You underestimate the price people will pay to be among the first to talk about how they customized their genitalia in a video game.
Proud to be the Unofficial Secret Illegal Enforcer of Eyes on Final Fantasy!
When I grow up, I want to go toBovineTrump University! - Ralph Wiggum
Being part of a buggy experience can be fun. FFXIV had some great examples. When Heavensward dropped we had Sky Bear, a polar bear enemy that ended up in the sky for some reason. The community had a funeral for him after he got patched out. When Stormblood dropped we had Raubahn Extreme. There is a type of quest that is particularly demanding on the server (this one given by the NPC Raubahn) and because it was part of the main questline so many people were doing it on the first day that if you attempted it you would get kicked out of the instance and have to try again. Players started forming lines. It was a really cool moment of cooperation that you could only be a part of on the first day.
So what I mean to say is there is something that makes being part of the initial hype worthwhile. Although it doesn't appear to have been worth it for CP2077, I think I'll wait on this one.
I have problems with Cyberpunk that aren't related to the temporary existence of bugs and glitches.
Core game design in terms of RPG mechanics are honestly wank. It's such a weird looter-shooter type thing, but then it also has this old school "+0.3% Crit Chance" level up and perk system so that levelling up rarely feels in any way like building a character. There is a solid story-driven FPS action game here, but it's completely bogged down by these just crappy systems. I genuinely think the game would be better if they stripped the entire looter-shooter and perk system out wholesale.
Keep the crafting system; make your guns better by upgrading only. Gives your weapons a "you-ness". Strip the perks entirely, and add a little bit extra to the cybernetics. Build a character through body mods rather than meta percentage tweaking.
Enemies are functionally bullet sponges, which is just something I dislike in general for most games. I wish they had built out a Rock Paper Scissors system instead, where certain enemy types are better or worse against certain moves or weapon types.
Visual design is weirdly lacking, too. The game is gorgeous and it's so nice to be in, but the visual design for enemies means that you never really know what you're shooting at. You're just shooting at the black shape with neon bits that is standing behind or in front of a black shape with neon bits, and the only reason you're shooting there is because your HUD put a red marker above the black shape. Like, this is smurfing FPS 101: enemies need to be clear and distinct, or it's just a poor experience. This isn't unique to Cyberpunk, by any stretch, but it's still annoying to see.
Quin has neatly summed up my thoughts. It's alright. Good in places, great in a few too. Genre defining best game in the history of games? Ah, no. Even without the bugs.
Like Quin, I smurfing hate bullet sponge FPS games. It does absolutely nothing for me in this genre unless I'm fighting a boss. And make no mistake about it, though it has RPG elements to it, it's primarily FPS.
I got so bored of plinking away at normal enemies with headshot after headshot to slowly chip down their health bars that I cranked it down to easy. Even then, it takes 2 point blank shotgun blasts to the face to just regular goons to take them out. Maybe when I level up that'll not be an issue (although then I assume I'll be facing buff goons so maybe not) but it just feels so unsmurfingsatisfying in the here and now.
I'm one-shotting enemies left and right with my revolver on very hard and i haven't even invested in gun damage, so i can't say I recognize the bullet sponge aspect of things, except on bosses (though i've used my crappier non-lethal gun for those), which, well, they're bosses
Granted, that revolver has a silencer which increases headshot damage, and i specifically chose it for its high damage per bullet. Plus a couple of my stealth skills increase damage when stealthed.
Between that and my breach/quickhacking skills, I tend to annihilate everything before it even turns into an actual shootout. Though, on the occasion it does, I switch to an assault rifle and still don't really feel like my damage is small-time compared to their health.
All of this against enemies that are around or below my level, of course. I mostly avoid stuff above my level, and the one time I did a quest that was red at my level, I stealthed through it.
The next open world shooter in which stealth both exists AND isn't flagrantly overpowered compared to every other tactic will be the first
It's annoying because there are in-lore reasons that a person could be a bullet sponge, but it's not actually part of the gameplay.
We have Power weapons, which we know have bullets that can ricochet off hard surfaces. We have armour cybernetics, which we know can make characters big beefy bulletproof mothersmurfers. How sweet would it be if that was an entire enemy type that was visually distinct, so you rock up into combat and go "oh trout, my Power SMG isn't gonna do anything here! I need to switch up my tactics, or maybe rock out my Tech revolver and go for weak points!".
But no: dmg nmbrs go brrrrr
Reading all this criticism and I'm sitting here still wondering what it was that made people think this game was going to be so great in the first place.
Eh, plenty of people still think it's great despite the (valid) criticisms, like me. And no, Witcher 3 wasn't just great because of Witcher
And, also, the Witcher 3 isn't as great as everyone thinks it is! So there's that aspect, too.