The decision makers at CDPR took a lot of criticisms about a lot of things, but I will always praise them for the guts they had to produce a story like this, a story with barely any parallels in gaming.
Think of all the weight and pressure that was put on this game, think of all the expectations, people were already imagining The Witcher 3 meets GTA. How easy would it have been to take the easy road and just appease them? Just make it slightly goofy, us able to conquer Night City for our own enjoyment.
They could have done that, play it safe, but instead they made Night City a character itself, they wrote characters we fell in love with and didn't hesitate to let them fall to the monster that is Night City. They got Keanu Reeves, a legend, to play a legend rocker boy and then wrote V a legend in the making with two different actors, and somehow managed to make V go from animosity towards the crazy rocker boy to the point she/he was willing to give their body to him. Not only that, but they weaved so many incredible smaller story arcs into it all. Someone greenlit that, someone had confidence in the talent the studio had to pull it off and they did, boy did they pull it off!
I've replayed the game yet again in 1.3 and I'm yet again left reeling by the experience. I've been playing video games since 1996, I've experienced it all. All the legendary games, the rpgs, jrpgs. shooters, adventures, quests, you name it, I've played it. I've grown desensitized, I've seen it all, I thought I could no longer be moved by a game, I thought I've just seen it all, but here I am being shook by a game in 2021. A game some people will have you believe is fundamentally broken and has no redeeming qualities, yet it's the one game in the last decade that has managed to make me really emotionally invested.
This game is, to me, the benchmark for storytelling in video games. When people ask what kind of story a video game is capable of telling, this is the game that should be given as an example. There are many great stories in gaming, but nothing has hit me as hard as this one and if this writing team is allowed to continue I can only imagine what awaits us.
Bring on the story expansions!
Think of all the weight and pressure that was put on this game, think of all the expectations, people were already imagining The Witcher 3 meets GTA. How easy would it have been to take the easy road and just appease them? Just make it slightly goofy, us able to conquer Night City for our own enjoyment.
They could have done that, play it safe, but instead they made Night City a character itself, they wrote characters we fell in love with and didn't hesitate to let them fall to the monster that is Night City. They got Keanu Reeves, a legend, to play a legend rocker boy and then wrote V a legend in the making with two different actors, and somehow managed to make V go from animosity towards the crazy rocker boy to the point she/he was willing to give their body to him. Not only that, but they weaved so many incredible smaller story arcs into it all. Someone greenlit that, someone had confidence in the talent the studio had to pull it off and they did, boy did they pull it off!
I've replayed the game yet again in 1.3 and I'm yet again left reeling by the experience. I've been playing video games since 1996, I've experienced it all. All the legendary games, the rpgs, jrpgs. shooters, adventures, quests, you name it, I've played it. I've grown desensitized, I've seen it all, I thought I could no longer be moved by a game, I thought I've just seen it all, but here I am being shook by a game in 2021. A game some people will have you believe is fundamentally broken and has no redeeming qualities, yet it's the one game in the last decade that has managed to make me really emotionally invested.
This game is, to me, the benchmark for storytelling in video games. When people ask what kind of story a video game is capable of telling, this is the game that should be given as an example. There are many great stories in gaming, but nothing has hit me as hard as this one and if this writing team is allowed to continue I can only imagine what awaits us.
Bring on the story expansions!
