I have been waiting for this game since moment you have announced it. I have been an active member on the Cyberpunk 2077 forums since 2013. We would often discuss how the game should be, what features and mechanics it should have, what areas it should cover and so on. We would discuss endlessly, knowing you, CDPR would read them and consider them, even if you don't reply. I am not expecting a reply to this either, I just hope you guys still care enough to read it.
So I pre-ordered the game the second it was possible. I didn't even wish to imagine I would be in any way disappointed with it. And for the most part, I don't regret it. But I can't help but be a little disappointed with it. Not because of bugs, glitches and whatnot, I fully expected those. I can't say they are completely wrong, but people who tend to complain about these things seem to forget how buggy the most other highly rated games were at the time of their release. (Some even require fan patches to be fully enjoyed because devs seem to ignore most bugs.) Even though some of them are hardly excusable, given enough patience bugs can be dealt with. What I am really disappointed about is the story bits. It really feels like at some point during development you forgot you were making an RPG game. Even in Witcher games with their preexisting characters had choices that mattered, yet in Cyberpunk 2077 there only seems to be the illusion of choice instead. Even the prologue and endings reflect this. None of the choices we make during the prologue matters. Same events will occur no matter what we do, regardless of our choices. Which would be excusable since you are setting up a story, if only the prologue wasn't so long. It is the same way right up to the endings, of which there appears to be seven of them, yet all of them tastes the same. Which is what got me really upset, seriously, what were you people thinking? Haven't you learned anything from the previous games you made? Haven't you took any notes from the whole Mass Effect 3 controversy? I am half expecting you to shout things like "vocal minority" and "artistic integrity" at this point. I will not be giving away any spoilers, but same "bad thing" we were trying to avoid the entire game appears to happen in every ending regardless of our choices. It is just bad RPG design. Again, I will not give away any spoilers, but you can't say "you can't avoid it because this is how the story goes", if there are no real choices and same bad thing will happen regardless of what we do, it makes the entire game pointless. You might as well take the whole RPG part of it out of the game and put the whole game on a rail. Of all the things you could copy, why did you copy the endings?
But again, this issue is not limited to the prologue or ending. I am pointing those out first to prove a point. Of course, there are choices in the game, just nothing that significant. Even compared to Witcher games. In CP77 most of the time only real choice you get is to do the mission or not. But sometimes even that choice isn't real. I tried to refuse a mission once only to see it appeared in my Journal as "well maybe I will check it out" anyway. I just rejected it for Gods sake. Only choice I get is to reject it and I am not even allowed to do that.
Also, I hate the false sense of urgency in this game, mainly because it doesn't work at all. You are expecting me to have fun and do side missions while that certain bad thing is happening to me? It was the same with Fallout 4, you were supposed to have fun, build stuff and do side missions while you should be searching for your son instead. It simply doesn't work, whole urgency goes down the drain and the entire thing feels incredibly hallow instead.
Romances proved to be disappointing as well, we were promised to have multiple options and they were all going to be fleshed out characters. This proved to be false. As far as I can tell, there is only one option for each sexual orientation and that's pretty much it. You could at least make all romanceable characters bisexual so we could have more than one choice, but no. I can't even count some characters because even if you can have a fling with them, they are usually gone forever after that.
Which brings me to another point. Some characters which should have been more important just appear and disappear forever, you can only see them once or twice and never again. They are interesting enough to be more relevant characters and should have been way more significant during the story, maybe even romanceable characters or companions. It is just a wasted opportunity.
As for other, non-story related issues:
Not to mention it feels like at some point during development you just cut large chunks of the game. Not with a scalpel, but with a chainsaw. Most places that were supposed to be enterable is not, some places you can only visit once, some stuff you can only do once or twice (and on a rail) and there are some stuff that were on the teasers/trailers that are not in the final product. Without going into the detail, you can't talk to most vendors, sit and do stuff on most places or do any of the things you we supposed to be able to do in an open world game like this. I have no doubt some of this content will appear as free DLC's, but I am afraid a significant portion of it will be lost and never see the light of day, which is upsetting at best.
Lastly, some basic customization to weapons and vehicles is a must. We should at least be able to change the color of it. It is ridiculous really, there are places in game that work on cars, but our character is unable to visit them. We can't even choose the color of the stuff our character crafts personally. If the blueprint say it is pink, it will be painted pink, because apparently "V" has to fallow the instructions to the letter even if he/she doesn't like the color of it.
Final words: I still love the game. I am still playing it. I am only pointing out these issues hoping you will fix them.
So I pre-ordered the game the second it was possible. I didn't even wish to imagine I would be in any way disappointed with it. And for the most part, I don't regret it. But I can't help but be a little disappointed with it. Not because of bugs, glitches and whatnot, I fully expected those. I can't say they are completely wrong, but people who tend to complain about these things seem to forget how buggy the most other highly rated games were at the time of their release. (Some even require fan patches to be fully enjoyed because devs seem to ignore most bugs.) Even though some of them are hardly excusable, given enough patience bugs can be dealt with. What I am really disappointed about is the story bits. It really feels like at some point during development you forgot you were making an RPG game. Even in Witcher games with their preexisting characters had choices that mattered, yet in Cyberpunk 2077 there only seems to be the illusion of choice instead. Even the prologue and endings reflect this. None of the choices we make during the prologue matters. Same events will occur no matter what we do, regardless of our choices. Which would be excusable since you are setting up a story, if only the prologue wasn't so long. It is the same way right up to the endings, of which there appears to be seven of them, yet all of them tastes the same. Which is what got me really upset, seriously, what were you people thinking? Haven't you learned anything from the previous games you made? Haven't you took any notes from the whole Mass Effect 3 controversy? I am half expecting you to shout things like "vocal minority" and "artistic integrity" at this point. I will not be giving away any spoilers, but same "bad thing" we were trying to avoid the entire game appears to happen in every ending regardless of our choices. It is just bad RPG design. Again, I will not give away any spoilers, but you can't say "you can't avoid it because this is how the story goes", if there are no real choices and same bad thing will happen regardless of what we do, it makes the entire game pointless. You might as well take the whole RPG part of it out of the game and put the whole game on a rail. Of all the things you could copy, why did you copy the endings?
But again, this issue is not limited to the prologue or ending. I am pointing those out first to prove a point. Of course, there are choices in the game, just nothing that significant. Even compared to Witcher games. In CP77 most of the time only real choice you get is to do the mission or not. But sometimes even that choice isn't real. I tried to refuse a mission once only to see it appeared in my Journal as "well maybe I will check it out" anyway. I just rejected it for Gods sake. Only choice I get is to reject it and I am not even allowed to do that.
Also, I hate the false sense of urgency in this game, mainly because it doesn't work at all. You are expecting me to have fun and do side missions while that certain bad thing is happening to me? It was the same with Fallout 4, you were supposed to have fun, build stuff and do side missions while you should be searching for your son instead. It simply doesn't work, whole urgency goes down the drain and the entire thing feels incredibly hallow instead.
Romances proved to be disappointing as well, we were promised to have multiple options and they were all going to be fleshed out characters. This proved to be false. As far as I can tell, there is only one option for each sexual orientation and that's pretty much it. You could at least make all romanceable characters bisexual so we could have more than one choice, but no. I can't even count some characters because even if you can have a fling with them, they are usually gone forever after that.
Which brings me to another point. Some characters which should have been more important just appear and disappear forever, you can only see them once or twice and never again. They are interesting enough to be more relevant characters and should have been way more significant during the story, maybe even romanceable characters or companions. It is just a wasted opportunity.
As for other, non-story related issues:
Not to mention it feels like at some point during development you just cut large chunks of the game. Not with a scalpel, but with a chainsaw. Most places that were supposed to be enterable is not, some places you can only visit once, some stuff you can only do once or twice (and on a rail) and there are some stuff that were on the teasers/trailers that are not in the final product. Without going into the detail, you can't talk to most vendors, sit and do stuff on most places or do any of the things you we supposed to be able to do in an open world game like this. I have no doubt some of this content will appear as free DLC's, but I am afraid a significant portion of it will be lost and never see the light of day, which is upsetting at best.
Lastly, some basic customization to weapons and vehicles is a must. We should at least be able to change the color of it. It is ridiculous really, there are places in game that work on cars, but our character is unable to visit them. We can't even choose the color of the stuff our character crafts personally. If the blueprint say it is pink, it will be painted pink, because apparently "V" has to fallow the instructions to the letter even if he/she doesn't like the color of it.
Final words: I still love the game. I am still playing it. I am only pointing out these issues hoping you will fix them.