Dear CD Project Red Cyberpunk 2077 developers,
I, like many others, have been blown away by the spectacle of your latest trailer. Not only did we get a glimpse of the Cyberpunk 2077 world, but we also got to truly see the vision you had for the world. The world you've painted is beautiful but dangerous, ugly but elegant, full of life and death in each set piece you've created.
Now then, gameplay looks phenomenal, but gameplay encompasses multiple different areas. Guns, mods, and the UI look great and while I do have questions like if there will be options to change colors for the UI, I think my primary concern is the gameplay revolving the story.
First was the dialog options.
From what I saw with the Dialog options, most of the options were fairly dull. While I don't mean to compare a demo to a complete game, I still could not help but see inklings of "Mass Effect 3" when it came to your dialog. I saw "Yes" options, "No Options", and then inquire options, similar to how many of the dialog options in Mass Effect 3 ended up becoming. That being said, it has been known that Bioware was rushed so, knowing your patience when it comes to releasing games, the comparison is not fair. What is fair, however, is the comparison to your previous series, The Witcher.
In your Witcher series, Geralt was a man with little words, but a lot of personality. Geralt was great and the sparse dialog choices make sense for your game. Unfortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 is NOT about another Geralt. The dialog options seemed very limiting when in the thick of things and while there was choice in how to deal with missions (Such as with the option of taking guns out of people's hands or doing things while talking and the like), the dialog seemed to surround itself on a set idea of who V happens to be. From the dialog alone, I felt like I knew V. I felt like V already had a history. It was well written; simplicity is beauty.
But I don't want to play V. I want to MAKE my own V.
The dialog has set her down a path as a spunky and foul mouthed character. What if I wanted to play someone who was more soft spoken and cruel? What if I want to play a psycho that makes people feel jittered. What if I wanted to be a literal rockerboy with a more "I wanna live for the music"? There seem to be no dialog options for that.
Secondly, I had issues with the perception of choice.
Given the microcosm of what you had shown, there are definite options that lead to player choice. How one plays the game seems quite expansive, especially in how to deal with encounters. What seems to be troubling is the perception that seems to pervade this choice. Giving players option in choosing to shoot the man in the head vs talking the man down seems very scripted. Why do I need to interact with the man at all?
You provided the story bit where V needed to go through hoops and ladders to eventually grab a mila-tech robot. You provided quite a lot of deviations in the quest, but while the choices all seem interesting, they all seem to feel flat when it comes to providing actual choice. Sure, we can decide how I get the bot, or if I make friends with the gang, or if I make the corp-rat lady take a bullet, and all that, but does it really change anything?
In the end, it still seems like there's going to be the "main quest" of V's tale, a quest that I ultimately cannot change. Granted, this was a very extensive slice. I have never seen a demo that truly made me feel this giddy. Then again, cynicism reminds me of other games that promise me infinite possibilities. Like the ultimate story for V, is the choice just an illusion? What does it matter if I piss of Corpo's or the gangs. You mentioned depending on what happens in quests, we change the world, but does having a Corp security squad hunting me down any different from getting attacked by street gangs. Or, say, we go into a mission and someone doesn't like me or won't work with me due to a past choice I made. It's still not a change because I still have to play the mission. I have only been provided a deviation, a small twig that will inevitably still stem down the same path. No change has truly been made.
Ultimately, I love this gameplay trailer. I may have given a lot of options/ideas of characters, but ultimately, I already know I want to be someone that wants to rise high in the corporate ladder. My thoughts, however, keep me from truly buying the mention of choice and "changing the world of 2077" or "making your own V" are these little ticks that seem to indicate that all that's being done is surface level. I worry that Cyberpunk 2077 will fall short in the story department and the gameplay revolving around it.
Hopefully someone from the dev team will read this. I mean no harm, no hate or ill will. I love what you've done and I hope that my words will have something that may resonate and help you for the future.
Thank you
From,
A Concerned and Well Meaning Fan
Addendum: I feel like I'm saying nonsense
I, like many others, have been blown away by the spectacle of your latest trailer. Not only did we get a glimpse of the Cyberpunk 2077 world, but we also got to truly see the vision you had for the world. The world you've painted is beautiful but dangerous, ugly but elegant, full of life and death in each set piece you've created.
Now then, gameplay looks phenomenal, but gameplay encompasses multiple different areas. Guns, mods, and the UI look great and while I do have questions like if there will be options to change colors for the UI, I think my primary concern is the gameplay revolving the story.
First was the dialog options.
From what I saw with the Dialog options, most of the options were fairly dull. While I don't mean to compare a demo to a complete game, I still could not help but see inklings of "Mass Effect 3" when it came to your dialog. I saw "Yes" options, "No Options", and then inquire options, similar to how many of the dialog options in Mass Effect 3 ended up becoming. That being said, it has been known that Bioware was rushed so, knowing your patience when it comes to releasing games, the comparison is not fair. What is fair, however, is the comparison to your previous series, The Witcher.
In your Witcher series, Geralt was a man with little words, but a lot of personality. Geralt was great and the sparse dialog choices make sense for your game. Unfortunately, Cyberpunk 2077 is NOT about another Geralt. The dialog options seemed very limiting when in the thick of things and while there was choice in how to deal with missions (Such as with the option of taking guns out of people's hands or doing things while talking and the like), the dialog seemed to surround itself on a set idea of who V happens to be. From the dialog alone, I felt like I knew V. I felt like V already had a history. It was well written; simplicity is beauty.
But I don't want to play V. I want to MAKE my own V.
The dialog has set her down a path as a spunky and foul mouthed character. What if I wanted to play someone who was more soft spoken and cruel? What if I want to play a psycho that makes people feel jittered. What if I wanted to be a literal rockerboy with a more "I wanna live for the music"? There seem to be no dialog options for that.
Secondly, I had issues with the perception of choice.
Given the microcosm of what you had shown, there are definite options that lead to player choice. How one plays the game seems quite expansive, especially in how to deal with encounters. What seems to be troubling is the perception that seems to pervade this choice. Giving players option in choosing to shoot the man in the head vs talking the man down seems very scripted. Why do I need to interact with the man at all?
You provided the story bit where V needed to go through hoops and ladders to eventually grab a mila-tech robot. You provided quite a lot of deviations in the quest, but while the choices all seem interesting, they all seem to feel flat when it comes to providing actual choice. Sure, we can decide how I get the bot, or if I make friends with the gang, or if I make the corp-rat lady take a bullet, and all that, but does it really change anything?
In the end, it still seems like there's going to be the "main quest" of V's tale, a quest that I ultimately cannot change. Granted, this was a very extensive slice. I have never seen a demo that truly made me feel this giddy. Then again, cynicism reminds me of other games that promise me infinite possibilities. Like the ultimate story for V, is the choice just an illusion? What does it matter if I piss of Corpo's or the gangs. You mentioned depending on what happens in quests, we change the world, but does having a Corp security squad hunting me down any different from getting attacked by street gangs. Or, say, we go into a mission and someone doesn't like me or won't work with me due to a past choice I made. It's still not a change because I still have to play the mission. I have only been provided a deviation, a small twig that will inevitably still stem down the same path. No change has truly been made.
Ultimately, I love this gameplay trailer. I may have given a lot of options/ideas of characters, but ultimately, I already know I want to be someone that wants to rise high in the corporate ladder. My thoughts, however, keep me from truly buying the mention of choice and "changing the world of 2077" or "making your own V" are these little ticks that seem to indicate that all that's being done is surface level. I worry that Cyberpunk 2077 will fall short in the story department and the gameplay revolving around it.
Hopefully someone from the dev team will read this. I mean no harm, no hate or ill will. I love what you've done and I hope that my words will have something that may resonate and help you for the future.
Thank you
From,
A Concerned and Well Meaning Fan
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Addendum: I feel like I'm saying nonsense
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