Cyberpunk 2077 PREVIEWS - links & discussion

[gregski]

Link to latest previews of the game by various media will be posted in this thread. OP will be updated as more previews emerge.

PC Gamer - https://www.pcgamer.com/i-love-being-a-cyber-samurai-and-other-revelations-from-playing-15-hours-of-cyberpunk-2077/

IGN - https://www.ign.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-the-final-preview

Gamespot - https://www.gamespot.com/articles/we-played-16-hours-of-cyberpunk-2077-and-the-best-part-was-the-people/1100-6484603/

Gamesradar:

Gamesradar article: https://www.gamesradar.com/16-hours-with-cyberpunk-2077-and-i-never-want-to-leave-night-city/

GameInformer:

GameInformer article: https://www.gameinformer.com/video/2020/11/20/cyberpunk-2077-latest-preview-keanu-reeves-guns-galore-and-driving-woes

GameInformer interview with composers: https://www.gameinformer.com/2020/11/19/sitting-down-with-the-composers-behind-cyberpunk-2077s-soundtrack

IGN: 11 burning questions answered: https://www.ign.com/videos/cyberpunk-2077-11-burning-questions-answered

 

[Sardukhar]

"Night City is dense and stunning, and this mammoth RPG is packed with a multitude of mechanics to explore and a copious amount of choice in doing so. As with any game this ambitious and broad, some parts do shine brighter than others (and the frequent bugs in this still-in-development build made me glad it didn’t launch today as previously planned) – but once Cyberpunk 2077 kicked off in earnest, it clicked, and now I just want more. "

Bugs, check.

Mammoth, check.

Ambitious, check.

WANT MORE. Check.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

From IGN.com

Cyberpunk 2077’s quest log is a big messy list, and figuring out which of your many quests to pursue next is a hassle for a few reasons: there’s no indication of the XP, money, items, or Street Cred a quest will reward; no sense of how difficult a quest will be beyond a vague “Danger” descriptor like “Moderate,” “High,” or “Very High,” when an actual level number would have let me decide if I should try to punch slightly above my weight or not; and there's little convenient way to tell what’s near you beyond tracking a quest and then tabbing over to the incredibly busy map to see if the waypoint is close by.

The guy is complaining but I actually love it. It decreases the math effect of "OMG, I'm lvl 13 and the quest is 15, I can't do it!"

More immersive, way more. I hope CDPR doesn't listen to journos too much. They stil have time to change it, and it scares me.

On the other hand, what we all feared: bullet sponges.

combat itself is probably one of Cyberpunk 2077’s weaker points. It’s certainly not bad, but if you’re playing this like a straight FPS then you’ll probably be disappointed. The most jarring thing about it is that enemies have a surprising amount of health, often acting as bullet sponges that can take multiple point blank shots to the head before going down for good. This led me to prefer sneaky takedowns where I could manage them, but stealth on its own doesn’t have a ton of depth beyond finding the right moment to crouch walk up behind someone – though using Quickhacks to scout out enemies and set up those opportunities was a lot of fun.

I don't get why CDPR don't give us some customizable difficulty (with sliders) like TLOU2. We could've decreased enemies' sponginess by ourselves (no mods on consoles).

One last thing that should be noted is that seeing this game in action for myself makes me glad CDPR opted for another delay (as much as it sucks that this peek only whet my appetite for more). I played through a streaming service with the host system running it on a PC with an RTX 3080 GPU, and while it ran buttery smooth performance-wise, there were a ton of bugs

OF COURSE, a ton of bugs.
From PC gamer

When Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced, I was expecting a futuristic Witcher. But it's really nothing like CDPR's other big RPG. It is, essentially, an open world immersive sim, encouraging experimentation and letting you solve problems in creative ways. Some missions are more straightforward—talk to this person, kill this person, travel here, deliver this, and so on. But these are frequently broken up by big sandbox moments, like this warehouse raid, which really let you dig into V's abilities and get imaginative with your weapons and implants.

This is very good. There's also a nice description of some katana perks I'm not copyng here because of possible spoilers.

This isn't a bold new leap for the medium, or a game that will redefine the RPG genre. It's an incredible, detailed, lavish thing, with a level of fidelity and reactivity most developers could only dream of. But it's more like a refinement of things we've seen in other games up to this point, rather than something that slices the rulebook up with a katana and totally rewrites it.

This confirms my initial impressions. I hoped for something better, but I'll be fine with a great game. Maybe they'll be braver next time.

The article from gamespot is just a huge uninformative spoiler I refuse to read.

 

[lelxrv]

I'm glad it's closer to immersive sims than Witcher games (PCGamer mentioned Human Revolution specifically). And thus I'm absolutely not surprised there's a ton of bugs. This kind of game freedom comes at price, especially considering the scope.

 

[Syware]

Yes, the previews! Will take a while to digest all of these.

 

[Garrison72]

The comparisons to Human Revolution have me salivating. Exactly what I wanted to hear. Everyone mentions the bugs and UI. Man I hope they can get that shit ironed out by release. Very promising feedback overall.

 

[gregski]

The comparisons to Human Revolution have me salivating. Exactly what I wanted to hear. Everyone mentions the bugs and UI. Man I hope they can get that shit ironed out by release. Very promising feedback overall.

Something CDPR were never good at. Witcher games were buggy at release and had problems with UI/UX. Same here. I wish they learned their lessons and improved that aspect at least, bugs are expected anyway.

On the other hand, all the other stuff gets praised, even the combat - which I expected to be the weakest point of the game.

The previews so far read like a 7.5/8 out of 10 game at least, which is not too bad.

 

[Lucian06]

So it looks like all Attributes are linked to Dialogs.

 

[Bealdor]

Huge preview on German gaming website Gamestar.

Said preview will be public for only 20h and 77mins until they make it available for Premium users only.
So I'm trying to get most bullet points translated for everyone.

Introduction

Spoiler

- Game starts with an introductional video, telling the player about all the various city districts
- There'll be a transitional video explaining what happened in the 6 months after the end of the origin story part
- Loading screen infos won't recap the story progress like in Witcher 3, but give more background infos depending on the chapter the player is currently in
- The game features a Kodex similar to the Mass Effect games

Story & Presentation

Spoiler

- Story is great, mature and keeps the game together very well
- Has the same issue as all open world games. It suggests a time pressure that isn't really there because you can ignore it as long as you want to do side quests or just free roam through the city
- Animations are glorious, facial expressions are great but not on TLoU 2 level
- German synchro really does the game justice and has some popular voice actors
- Relationship with Johnny Silverhand is (in)tense and he is present most of the time in various ways
- Johnny's character is described as "angry, cynical, an asshole"
- Relationship to Johnny becomes more complex and interesting throughout the game

Quest & game mechanics

Spoiler

- Overwhelming amount of side quests available right after the end of the prologue
- Basically no filler content. All quests have a meaning and are more complex/interesting than they appear when you accept them
- There's some "soft" level gating between districts/zones through high level enemies. Exact enemy level is not shown. Deadly enemies are marked with a red skull above their head.
- Most (but not all) quests are marked on the map.
- Bigger side quests can impact the main story. It's not mentioned by how much though.
- CDPR don't shy away from tackling "difficult" stories like suicide, rape, (child) murder, etc.
- Overall theme is very dark. Not for fans of happy ends
- Cyberpsychos are mostly random bossfights in the open world
- There some are obvious but also some really subtle decisions you can make (sometimes even unconciously) that impact the main story and side quests.
- Subtle decisions can be an issue because you don't know it was even there and you can actually miss the hidden replay value, making the game feel more linear than it actually is.
- Additional dialogue options you missed to unlock are not shown greyed out but are completely invisible. Same goes for background (Corpo, Nomad, Streetkid) specific options.

Character Progression

Spoiler

- The amount of mechanics can be overwhelming
- There's a "normal" character level, street cred level, Hacking tools, implants, crafting, etc.
- Perk points can be respecced for money, attribute points can't (at least in the 15h he played).
- Street cred level unlocks side quests, trade offers, advanced implants. No additional attribute or perk points.
- There's lots of "RPG" infused into the game.

Combat

Spoiler

- Melee feels surprisingly good. Not as good as Sekiro or Ghost of Tsushima but definitely much better than Skyrim.
- Gunplay feels great, but it's not a shooter. Headshots aren't instant kills. You can feel the RPG mechanics behind it.
- There are 3 types of guns. Normal, smart and tech.
- Smart guns have auto aim, tech guns can shoots charged shoots (hold shoot button).
- Guns can be modded. Mods can be looted or crafted (probably also purchased).
- Enemy AI is solid. Enemies are reacting and attacking as you would expect. Some occasional bugs though.
- Stealth game feels similar to Deus Ex. Stealth attacks are one shot kills/knockouts even on high level enemies.
- Scanned and marked enemies can be seen through walls.
- Hacking and stealth gameplay goes hand in hand.
- Time goes into slow motion when you're trying to combat hack an enemy

Crafting

Spoiler

- You can craft basically everything. Guns, clothes, mods, usable items
- Clothes have armor and run speed stats and can be modded.
- You can craft on the go. No need to find a workbench or go back to your apartment

Game World & Graphics

Spoiler

- You can get in conflict with the police but it never escalates as much as in GTA.
- Same for NPCs. The game world reacts more static to the player, not as dynamic as GTA.
- There are no stealing mechanics like in Skyrim.
- You can kill all NPCs except kids.
- Game world is very detailed and atmospheric.
- Fast travel is similar to Witcher 3.
- Driving feels mediocre to ok. It feels far from realistic, expecially the crash physics.
- Graphics are great, even without RTX.
- You can not see your character in reflections or regular mirrors for performance reasons, only in special mirrors that you can interact with.

Controls & UI

Spoiler

- You can hide almost all UI elements, except for the quest marker of your currently actively followed quest which will always be visible.
- Mouse + Keyboard controls are feeling good but are a bit overloaded at times (too many button/key presses needed)

Conclusion

Spoiler

- Game is for you if you're a fan of great stories, Deus Ex, RPGs and like atmospheric game worlds
- Game is not for you if you're a fan of "realistic" mechanics, like happy ends, love Rockstar games, racing games or expect a FPS.
- If you want to compare it to a single game then it feels closest to Deus Ex.

Money quote:

If you put a Tech-Shotgun to my head and forced me to compare it to another game I'd say:
Cyberpunk 2077 comes closest to Deus Ex. Only bigger, with better presentation and even more branched out storylines, with more detail, more role playing, more open world. It's the Deus Ex we've always wished for.

Edit: Fixed some typos and added Controls & UI section
Edit2: Added money quote

 

[jt4gov]

You can't see yourself in reflections. That's kind of disappointing. Far from deal breaker, but still

 

[Rawls]

Edit: Fixed some typos and added Controls & UI section
Edit2: Added money quote

Thanks for the translations! Much appreciated!

 

[OverlordTenjgoku]

cool

 

[gregski]

- Additional dialogue options you missed to unlock are not shown greyed out but are completely invisible. Same goes for background (Corpo, Nomad, Streetkid) specific options.

 

[Bloodartist]

"When Cyberpunk 2077 was first announced, I was expecting a futuristic Witcher. But it's really nothing like CDPR's other big RPG. It is, essentially, an open world immersive sim, encouraging experimentation and letting you solve problems in creative ways. Some missions are more straightforward—talk to this person, kill this person, travel here, deliver this, and so on. But these are frequently broken up by big sandbox moments, like this warehouse raid, which really let you dig into V's abilities and get imaginative with your weapons and implants. "

This sounds very good.. To say its an world immersive sim. I'm also happy of the "streamer mode", since it probably allows me to avoid altogether the trash artists on the soundtrack.
(EDIT: The actual score sounds great - its the artists that they have chosen for their "radio" I have EXTREME issues with.)

- Has the same issue as all open world games. It suggests a time pressure that isn't really there because you can ignore it as long as you want to do side quests or just free roam through the city

This is one of the pet peeves of mine. I hate it really. Its really annoying for result-oriented people like me. But at least its the same in all RPGs.

- Perk points can be respecced for money, attribute points can't (at least in the 15h he played).

This is worrying if stat points can't be respecced, since its the one thing I'm most unsure how to handle, and they have a big impact on gameplay as shown above in the dialogue option post.

REMINDER: I see reviewers complain about "bullet-sponginess" of enemies, this can follow from two reasons:
1. Level-based progression, the bane of gaming. You are shooting high-level enemies.
2. If enemies have weak points which you can shoot for huge damage, it makes sense for them to be bullet-spongy when shot anywhere else.

- You can not see your character in reflections or regular mirrors for performance reasons, only in special mirrors that you can interact with.

I don't think this is for "performance reason". Its because in normal gameplay the V model does not exist. For this reason, I have doubts that there would be a "photo mode".

 

[CyberBrett]

I will bring this vid over here to X Box X footage @737.

 

[pinoko]

Interview with Marcin Przybyłowicz, IGN Japan exclusive:

*Some of you might feel kinda sluggish due to the simultaneous translation, so I'll leave timestamps for each question just in case:
0:30, 2:10, 5:14, 9:21, 15:45, 22:28, 24:15, 31:20

So I'm trying to get most bullet points translated for everyone.

Huge thanks for great summary!

 

[lelxrv]

I don't think this is for "performance reason". Its because in normal gameplay the V model does not exist. For this reason, I have doubts that there would be a "photo mode".

Then what generates shadow?

 

[BabalKabak]

You can't see yourself in reflections. That's kind of disappointing. Far from deal breaker, but still

Thinking about that, I've seen what RTX can do with the reflections in the latest Watch Dogs game, thinking that "technically" we could see oneself on reflective surfaces in CP77 with RTX without problem : it would require a physical "self" behind the camera to effectively reflect something.

Seeing how people talk about how they picked which surface to reflect makes me fear that they used the old technique of mirror reflections, in which behind the mirror it was just a copy of the physical map. With RTX on they could get rid of any dev trick and gain performance in this matter.

Post automatically merged: Nov 20, 2020

Huge preview on German gaming website Gamestar.

You are the MVP, biggest thanks for the info.
Also in general, I'm glad that FINALLY we get some chunky info about what's the actual gameplay !

 

[jt4gov]

Thinking about that, I've seen what RTX can do with the reflections in the latest Watch Dogs game, thinking that "technically" we could see oneself on reflective surfaces in CP77 with RTX without problem : it would require a physical "self" behind the camera to effectively reflect something.

Seeing how people talk about how they picked which surface to reflect makes me fear that they used the old technique of mirror reflections, in which behind the mirror it was just a copy of the physical map. With RTX on they could get rid of any dev trick and gain performance in this matter.

I'll be curious how this is handled a year from now with the next gen patch or if it's going to be left as is. Vampire V confirmed.

I know a lot of complaints I've seen in regards to the FPP is not seeing the created character, so this will be a blow to those people. I wonder if they will put thoughts into an idle camera or a way to force the idle to seen the created character.

 

[BabalKabak]

I'll be curious how this is handled a year from now with the next gen patch or if it's going to be left as is. Vampire V confirmed.

I know a lot of complaints I've seen in regards to the FPP is not seeing the created character, so this will be a blow to those people. I wonder if they will put thoughts into an idle camera or a way to force the idle to seen the created character.

Hmm. I don't get it... how can one character be unable to show when all the other characters are ok ? Real mystery for me It makes me remember Elite Dangerous when I fell for paid cosmetic DLCs but I went mad when I realized that I just couldn't admire my character doing anything with it, just sitting in the cockpit and never leave the place.

(note to my post : mods please I'm NOT complaining and don't worry I won't go further in this sensible topic ; I'm mostly curious about dev challenges with graphics and such, forced to admit that some features still present a challenge nowadays as it seems, and RTX technology may be considered as a solution. Thanxxx)