Yes, the game has issues. Undoubtedly those issues are made much worse on last gen consoles. However, my own experience has been quite good on PC. I'm on a 6 year old graphics card and can play fine with most settings at ultra and few either on high or medium, though granted at the time it was a beast of a card so not like it's a mid-tier 6 year old card. Obviously not an RTX card so can't speak to how that works. Biggest gripe I have is the nonsensical use of hardcoded keybinds that really don't make a lot of sense to me at all, but here's hoping that will be addressed by the devs in an early patch.
Like everyone I've seen plenty of items on the ground in weird places that make them unlootable, and while that is annoying, it's never been an important item. Seen crowd NPCs walk into the ground once, found it humorous. Little quirks here and there that I trust will be fixed. On the whole, seen less weird stuff happening around Night City than I have in any Bethesda title, and I've put over 3k hours into FO4 alone so clearly weird things happening doesn't stop me from enjoying a game.
Going back to the first gameplay demo footage I can say that yes, there are somethings I really wish were in the release game. The character model for V used in that demo did look better, and frankly the lighting in the character creation section looked better (why is there a greenish tint in the released game), and admittedly taking out that first scav by sticking him in the freezer and shooting him under the water to keep it quiet looked a lot cooler than what we ended up with.
During character creation up at the top it says that looks are everything in Night City, yet the lack of item previews in shops or the ability to give an item the appearance of another item really does put a hamper on the idea that looks are indeed everything. And on the topic of character creation, why are we not able to change V's physique even a little bit? I get playing an obese character wouldn't really make sense in V's line of work (even if it would be hilarious), but being unable to change muscle thickness or hip width does hamper replayability a bit. Even though its an FPS game, I certainly enjoy going into photo mode and snapping cinematic shots of myself and some variety in shape would be nice. Last thing I want to comment on about character customization is how disappointed I am with the choices for piercings. Why can't I have some simple small hoop earrings on both ears. Why are there like no symmetrical options? You can customize pube hair but can't even get some basic jewelry looks going.
Moving on I want to just say that I really do enjoy the game. I'm not a fan of the sex ads everywhere but I know it's part of the cyberpunk genre and the devs have truly done a wonderful job of creating a dystopian future setting and bringing it to life. The scale of the world is well done I think and the ability to customize your origin is a touch I always appreciate in games. I've enjoyed the gameplay a lot and playing on Very Hard I'm having a blast trying to be stealthy and using hacking to my advantage. The weapons and clothes have a nice variety of looks, though I do wish we could customize paint jobs and fabric prints ourselves. The various cars and bikes you can buy are great looking and I love the variety, and while driving can be a bit touchy I'm getting the hang of it the more I play. I'm avoiding fast travel and making a point to drive around the city, only ran over a few people so far.
I've made it to Act 3 so far but have no finished the main story. From what I've done I'm enjoying the narrative a lot and have found it to be rather interesting and engaging. Combining it with the gameplay aspects I mentioned above I'd say the overall package of the game is rather solid and I've already sunk about 60 hours into the game, so I'd say the game has been a success for me.
It's easy for me to pin point areas of the game I'd like to see improved because overall they are a lot fewer in number and really don't subtract from my overall enjoyment of the game. Seeing them improved would ensure this game be one of my long term games for the next decade, as they would enhance my replay enjoyment a good deal, but for my first time through the game they aren't taking the fun out of the game for me.
On steam I gave the game a rating 9.5/10. I've put about 30 more hours into the game since that review and at this point I stand by my rating. The game is a lot of fun and it's clear to me that when you've been working on a title for a long time you're bound to disappoint people who have built up their own image of what the game will be like. I think to some extent people were just too hyped up for this game and it was never going tick all the boxes for everyone.
I will end by saying thank you to the development team for your hardwork and I know you've got a lot more you'll be doing for the game in the coming months.
p.s. The marketing team responsible for misleading fans on the quality of the game on last gen consoles, as well as placing the limits on what reviewers could share, should be fired. Not just because of how they've made customers feel but because of the financial hit they've cost their company. Hopefully they'll know better for the next company.
