CDPR really dropped the ball on this one. With all these delays the last thing I expected was an unfinished game. How naive and wild was the original release date.
I'm probably 4-5 hours into the game (2-3 for other people given I spend half my time absorbing the world) and other than the duplicate phone hanging in the air twice, and a few textures here and there, I haven't seen any major bugs or crashes. The bigger deal imo is the downscaled graphics/fps which would be an issue for some. For example, I advised my brother to not play it now and hold out a few months longer. Whereas I knew I had to play this now. So it depends on you and your interest level.
One thing that’s become clear to me from playing the game is that the reviewers were playing the game in an entirely different way to the way I’m playing it. Clearly that’s not unexpected as they have to rush to finish the main story but there’s not a chance in hell I finish this game in 20-30 hours.
I remember GameStop saying how they didn’t really have much money or buy cars and cyberware which is blowing my mind a little as I’ve already made about 100k just from doing the side missions and looting. I’ve bought the mantis blades and a new 40k car and I don’t even feel like I’ve scratched the surface yet.
Thata always the issue with reviewing games of this nature, they are very hard to rush through.
About 12-15 hours into the game now, mostly done sidequests/main story.
Experience so far has been pretty positive, there are some strong areas in the game but I think that's ruined by some utterly awful bits.
I guess my blame for this mess lies with management trying to appease shareholders. Can't delay it any further because they miss out on the christmas boom and stock price takes a hit. So pressure was on to get it released for that 'boom'.
I do think over the years they've threw bits of content/promotion out to hype us up when as we can clearly see now, some of those elements aren't even in the fecking game or have clearly had bits cut from them (prologue cough cough) again, I all blame should really lie with management here.
Positives
*The location and design of the world is stunning and I'm still way off what some are experiencing with top end machines. Driving through night city, music blasting is bloody good fun.
*Characters and story have so far been very strong imo. I'm not that far in yet but I'm really enjoying it.
*The seamless transition between areas with no loading screens, talking to characters etc but also being able to just walk away from a character mid chat. I did that in a side mission earlier as I had a decision to make on whether I thought a person was lying. Walked away and explored the area further, found some evidence and went back. In the vast majority of games, you'd of had to of made a decison there and then.
*Gameplay wise: Gunplay is actually better than I was expecting. Hacking and stealth are enjoyable, I think that'll be my focus this playthrough.
*Quest areas for the most part have been great, fun to explore and lots of different ways to work your way around the objective.
*Choices: I'm not sure how much choices will affect things in the long run but it's nice to see dialogue options can make a difference. Sometimes, you can have someone join you in a mission that wouldn't of been possible if you'd said something else or not bothered talking to them. Can talk your way out of alot of situations, feck different people over.
Negatives
Bugs: most have been minor and not really affected gameplay or prevented me from doing anything unlike Valhalla on release which had multiple gamebreaking bugs. Police: comically bad Skills/Perks: I like the idea and It's definetly not the worst I've seen in a game but many of them are just 'stat' boosts and some trees don't really have anything exciting.. I think the hacking one is the only one that actually has a few perks that actually interest me. Been a few occasions where I've had multiple perk points/levels and I've just not been assed to use them because it's just a tad 'meh' Inventry management: I'm not a fan, it's a bit confusing and it's fecking painful when trying to sell weapons etc because you can easily sell what you've got equipped. Find it painful looking for upgrades when I have 60 weapons in my inventry Loot: I did enjoy the loot system at first but after a while it gets a bit bland, seeing items around is well done. I just don't feel that 'satisfaction' when you pick stuff up, it's just uhh what did I just pick up, oh lets trawl through all the weapons in my inventry to find out. Much prefer say dark souls system even if you're picking the same thing up, atleast you can clearly see what the item is. NPCs: terrible ai whether driving/just walking around the streets. Cut content: It's pretty obvious a lot of things have been cut from the game. I.e braindances, you can buy them from vendors but can't use them? This could have been the perfect way to find 'additional' quests or treasure hunts etc. The Prologues started so well, I've played two of them so far.. I think this is one of those things they had plans to add depth and management being management decided to market it and hype people up to boost stock prices and then in the end they had to cut it down, couldn't cut it out because it'd been hyped up and it was probably a last minute decison to cut it down. I could understand them being short if they actually had a decent conclusion rather than the
'Highlights video.. which was the same in both street/corpo and to top things off what happened to the characters that set me on the fecking misson in the first place? Can kinda guess in Corpo but streetkid?
*lack of random side activities. I know this isn't a big one but it does make a difference, Witcher 3 had gwent and it was very well fecking done.. this has... nothing? No Cyberpunk theme game with some depth?
Definetly some more positives/negatives I've missed
Overall, considering the hype it's disappointing. It's not terrible, it's actually pretty good fun and considering I struggle to get into a lot of games this has me extremely hooked.
Cdprojekt red have utterly fecked their reputation purely due to the utter shite they gave base console users and the decietful way they went about it would make EA proud. It's disgraceful and you can't defend it. I've played Horizon, God of war, Red dead redemption 2, Witcher 3 etc on base consoles and all of them looked significantly better. I thought people were exggerating when they were mocking the graphics for console users.. oh no.. it's worse than PS3/Xbox 360 GTA for feck sake.
They've definetly fecked their reputation built up over years, gone in an instant just to appease fecking shareholders.
PS: I've had my stadia premiere come today via DPD. Deal ends on the 18th, so definetly worth it.
One thing that’s become clear to me from playing the game is that the reviewers were playing the game in an entirely different way to the way I’m playing it. Clearly that’s not unexpected as they have to rush to finish the main story but there’s not a chance in hell I finish this game in 20-30 hours.
I remember GameStop saying how they didn’t really have much money or buy cars and cyberware which is blowing my mind a little as I’ve already made about 100k just from doing the side missions and looting. I’ve bought the mantis blades and a new 40k car and I don’t even feel like I’ve scratched the surface yet.
Thata always the issue with reviewing games of this nature, they are very hard to rush through.
How many hours are you in to hit 100k? I'm about 30 hours in and i'm trying not to finish the last arc of the main quest. I've done most of the major sidequests I think. I generally loot and sell weapons, armour + junk. I have 45 k atm but have also bought quite a bit of cyberware. Havn't bought any cars though.
How many hours are you in to hit 100k? I'm about 30 hours in and i'm trying not to finish the last arc of the main quest. I've done most of the major sidequests I think. I generally loot and sell weapons, armour + junk. I have 45 k atm but have also bought quite a bit of cyberware. Havn't bought any cars though.
I think I’m probably 20 hours in but I really haven’t done any main quest. Just been clearing areas and all the quests/police reports in an area. They pay quite a lot. I’ve also been doing all the quick hack/breach events which pay me £600+ per machine. There’s often 3-4 of those machines in a base.
Edit: just to clarify I don’t currently have £100k on my person as I’ve spent a fortune on cars and cyberwear. Think I have 20-30k currently.
fecking Knights of the Old Republic 2, with all its bugs and unfinishedness, managed to do this in 2005! Amazing that barely any game followed suit. It's what I missed the most on the Witcher 3 as well.
My PS5 arrived yesterday and, well, my experience of the game immediately improved a lot. Smooth 60 fps and quick loading screens. Got to the start of Act 2 and loving it now.
It isn’t revolutionary, admittedly, but the atmosphere is fantastic and so far I very much enjoyed both stealth and shooting.
A real fecking shame about the state of the release because yeah, the game deserved better.
I miss Gwent I'd have been happy if they just updated its design to fit this world and put it in the game
On the 'selling what you have equipped' thing: on console at least it's pretty difficult to accidentally sell an equipped item as the game throws up a confirmation window where you have to confirm with a different button.
How will they fix the terrible ai in this game? Will it be doable with a few patches? Seems like it won't be easy to fix. And it's easily my biggest complaint with the game so far.
How will they fix the terrible ai in this game? Will it be doable with a few patches? Seems like it won't be easy to fix. And it's easily my biggest complaint with the game so far.
I don't know enough about game dev to know how difficult it is but I doubt they're ever gonna get it even close to the level they promised of "over 1,000 unique NPCs that have their own unique daily routines."
Good. CDPR needs to be heavily punished for this abomination. What they did was a total joke and they should not get away with it.
Initially I thought that I might get the game back eventually, but I think that I will just skip entirely. feck it, a game that would have needed another year or work getting releases is such a feckup from a company who apparently does things the right way. I know that they have a lot of goodwill based on previous games but they just burned it all.
How will they fix the terrible ai in this game? Will it be doable with a few patches? Seems like it won't be easy to fix. And it's easily my biggest complaint with the game so far.
Anyone feeling like it's a little directionless try maining the story until Act 2. I feel like the world has opened up much more. I've spent the afternoon clearing out most of the side quests in Japan Town.
Doesn't this run on the same engine as Witcher 3? I feel like the AI in it's general behavior is exactly the same as it was in Witcher 3 and thus I doubt they're going to change anything major about it. It indeed bugs out a bit more, so I think that'll need to be adressed in patches but I wouldn't expect them to make the npcs change their general behavior much.
In all honesty though, if it was good enough for Witcher 3 to still be a great game, I think this will be fine eventually as well. It just won't match the expectations of many.
I still think that the overall story and gameplay are promising though.