I think people tend to forget that […] this game is an RPG first and foremost. - Miles Tost, Senior level Designer.
Now keeping this quote in mind... and all the marketing over the last two years, as someone who
only based my expectations off things that were shown in the
gameplay trailers as actual possible gameplay options/possibilities, the game is fine. I have around 50 hours. This post is NOT about the technical/performance issues. that deserves its own thread and there is plenty of them.
But Lets face it, this is not the RPG a lot of us hoped for and were marketed. it appears that a lot has been removed and the world interactivity and AI just feels bland.
I have been somewhat a fanboy over the last few months and had very strong faith in CDPR, but I'm certainly not a blind follower... This game has let me and a
lot of others down in the RPG side of things. They either got overwhelmed with their original plan and scrapped elements to make the date, or its due to them settling for a more cinematic experience halfway through and went with the "Action/Adventure" tag that it is now touted as.
Feel free to add anything else that I've missed or that other games (some over a decade old) have done or done better. And
REMEMBER ... “How I would sort of summarise this is…
I don't believe these are ridiculous requests or expectations for an RPG. Because after all... it is first and foremost an RPG after all..
- Character creation = Huge let down. don't deny it. and this isn't even me having huge expectations. Basic RPGs have had greater variety. No body sliders even JUST for things like making your character thinner, fatter or more jacked? I mean c'mon. Even GTA SA let you get jacked. it seems like they really focused on trivial things to build hype(looking at you genital customisation), rather than meaningful stuff that really lets you make your character an individual and like yourself.
- Where is the consequence to decisions? the life paths practically converge into the same story, and most quests end the same/similar way to if you load back and go with different choices/dialogue options. i feel literally no weight in my decisions and dont feel like i need to think before making one.
- Which brings me to missions not having Variable outcomes/very similar endings. it seems as though the Maelstrom mission with an apparent "7 different outcomes" was the only of this nature and was made simply as marketing hype to say "our game is an RPG and missions have different endings!!" i mean Deus Ex excelled in this regard. i actually had to think about how i executed the mission as it may bite me in the behind down the track.
- Getting new Cyberware is Severely underwhelming. Changing out bodyparts and literally giving up parts of your humanity and body is like swapping out a mod on a gun. *click* and thats it, only cutscenes we got were for the Palm and eye upgrades which were part of the story. Cmon, not even a small cut scene that then fades to black?
- Street Cred means nothing but more to buy. there is no reaction to your supposed legendary status in the game world. gangs still shoot you on site when they should be terrified of you in a John Wick kind of way. Skyrim, Fallout and Mass Effect NPC's react accordingly if youre a good or bad person, accomplished certain legendary feats/quests etc. you truly make a name for yourself in those games.
- No lore friendly/interactive Fast travel? god even just being able to walk onto the trains and keeping it basic would have been nice.
- No Barber? No Tattoo parlour? Give me a break. No change to your character after leaving the character creation is a joke. for a game that is all about creating your own merc and body modding being so prevalent in NC, it does not feel that way.
- No colour modding of your clothing. Found a cool Trench coat? No worries! but you've gotta have it in Fluro pink!!!
- No Finishers/animations in combat??? it has really cool things like the ground cracking when you fall from height (really cool but buggy too) but cant add finishers to combat? only ones I've seen is 2 with Katana and JUST 1 with Mantis blades and that is it. Skyrim, The Chronicles of Riddick (Old AF now) even The Witcher 3 had combat finishers with Weapons and hand to hand combat. especially with Melee and hand to hand combat being such a big thing, you'd think they'd have added this
- Where are the mini-games? Wheres the BD's? its a story continuation tool and thats it. i mean what happened to going into a bar and doing some cool mini activities those kinds of places?
- The "wait" function does nothing but change the position of the sun lmao. actually try it. nothing changes in front of you or in the world full stop, it just moves the sun and lets you start a mission a tad sooner.
- Cluttered Mini-map and general world map that strait up gives you everything without barely needing to explore to clear map fog and show whats there. this comes across as an attempt to hide the fact the city is not interactive and CDPR don't trust their game enough to keep you interacting with the world if you take attention away from standard missions.
- Where is the Adult content? there are barely any options for Joy toys (abysmal tb), no drugs? i dont need this stuff but the option is nice and adds to the atmosphere.
- The absolute lack of romance options, it seems they went for quality over quantity perhaps but cmon, Dragon Age, Mass effect etc had more. truly disappointing
- You cant interact with people aside from the Vendors, you cant even sit down at a chair and take in the world? NOTHING is interactive.
- Key Bindings are a disgrace. I'm sure most of you already know this. how many times have you ruined stealth because of that dodge mechanic?
- Dynamic world my a**. Mass numbers of NPC’s doesn’t make your world alive. Having them do unique things and responding to the world accordingly does. No ambulance for the injured, no fire trucks for fires, Police... don’t even get me started on the disgrace that is the Police AI.
They specifically stated in the 48 minute deep dive there would be a silly amount (cant remember the number but was close to 1000) of Hand crafted daily routines for these NPC's. There is not.
- No police chases? Police Spawning out of thin air? Maxtac spawn out of thin air with No AV's like the teaser? again dont get me started on the Police system, my god how embarrassing.
- NPC’s in general just don’t react to you accordingly Depending on what you do. shoot in an Open area? no worries! everyone crouch!. It really does seem like CDPR really settled on having quantity of NPC’s over quality. I’d turn down the NPC crowd density in an instant if it meant greater variety and enabled better AI for more a more “alive” city.
- Police rarely say thank you for intervening and SAVING their lives in gang shootings.
- No karma/good & bad system, meaning a lot of choices mean Jack all especially when it comes to the way NPC's react to you i mean even Fallout characters reacted to you accordingly if you were a bad guy. Your characters “character” is borderline predetermined
- The clothing system is broken. Cowboy hates, Short denim shorts and Corset's end up being your best armour, while an Arasaka bullet proof vest is useless. Really takes you out of the world.
Yes I know you can upgrade clothing to keep the stuff you want to be the best, but some Transmog would be nice
- Gear has no levels? I'm sorry but have i missed something? unless you are under the required level you cant see what level the gear actually is and its super annoying. it would be nice to be able to just take a glance at something and see if its a lower level and Bam scrapped.
- Cant pick up thrown knives.... god man..
As I said, I have around 70 hours now and enjoy it. But if I were expecting it to be the RPG and "
Truly special game" that CDPR claimed they had... boy am I disappointed. It seems they got caught up in their own hype and thought "omg the public is going insane over rumoured Genital customisation put that in put that in!" but forgot that you still need the basics. I'm sorry but this game doesn't really do anything new.
Honestly it seems the Mini-map (and larger world map) is cluttered with random quests and icons just to distract the player from the fact the world feels empty of anything other than set missions (that any game has in open worlds). most games don't show these until you're close to them and sometimes even fog out the map. but all this seems like an attempt to simply over saturate the players sense and give the illusion of content.
There are a lot more immersion breaking and disappointing mechanics I just cant be bothered to list but honestly the game truly does seem half baked and unfinished. It reeks of placeholders and things that have been cut last minute to make the game playable for release. Somewhere along the lines things changed from RPG to "Action/Adventure" and it was seriously streamlined. And don't be fooled, this has hurt it
badly. Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim and Mass effect remain untouched as immersive RPG's at this stage in
MY OPINION.
Cheers
I think people tend to forget that […] this game is an RPG first and foremost. - Miles Tost, Senior level Designer.
EDIT: I've attached a video that goes over a lot (not all) of the points my post brings up. summarised nicely. enjoy.
