After the recent Pawel Sasko posts of the RETROSPECTIVE of CP2077 QUESTS, this got me really thinking the extents of their works & also game/level design team on how Cyberpunk 2077 can be considered as Immersive Sim game or not. I just wanna know what this forums community think about it & HOPEFULLY it will help the devs for further future development, IF THE DEVS ACTUALLY READ THIS THREAD LOL
Immersive sim, is difficult to categorize I think, because I guess people have different takes on that.
But from how I understand the term, I would say that some parts of the game really feels like this.
To mention those that to me boosted this feeling:
- People calling you on the phone or sending you SMS's at random times and obviously scripted times, I think this did a lot in terms of giving you a feeling that the world was alive and the other characters were doing stuff while you were doing your things. Sure it could have been implemented better with a call back button etc.
- The stuff with Jackie felt really cool as well, that not all the missions were simply go here shoot that etc. But that you had to do some more relaxed story things, like going to visit Vic etc. Something they did with Jack and Vs relationship, given how little time he actually have in the game really worked.
- To some degree just driving around NC added to this as well, especially in the beginning, when you could see how the city changed depending on area. That the city layout were as you would expect from a city, with stairs going over each other and not always in the most convenient way.
- I like the idea of the apartment, but unfortunately it was not utilized as well as it could.
- Interacting with the main characters was cool.
Things that broke it for me and suggestions:
- The monster camps. In the beginning when you first saw them it was ok. But later it really reminded me of MMO camps.
- The extremely poor AI on police and normal NPCs, including traffic.
- That food, drinking and even to some degree romance and one night stances weren't better integrated into the game. For instance giving different buffs for relationships, one night stance or whatever.
Having to probably eat and drink at one of the countless shops with animations. I don't like the 30s - 60s food/drink buff thing that games do, its really annoying. I would have preferred buffs to last much longer, maybe 6 - 8 hours in game time, maybe less for drinks. But having to browse through 30 different food/drink items doesn't work for me. Getting a debuff if you didn't eat/drink etc.
- Don't know if its part of the CP universe, but I think it would have been cool if you should fill gas on your car, could take it to a paint shop, get it repaired and upgraded at a mechanic. And if you completely destroy it order to get it towed etc. This would add some cool interaction to the world I think.
- To just throw it all under one point, the almost complete lack of interaction with the game world. I think this could have been much better. Like funny minigames at the bars, either games were you could play for money, dating games, dance competitions, dart, billiard, cards or maybe a place where you could get information for certain quests by manipulating people, getting clues for special items or implants you could find etc. But something that integrate them into the game and give them purpose.
- The almost complete lack of choice matters, this was probably the worse.
- Hardly any skills for none combat stuff or lack of "social" skills.
- The very poor integration of lifepath.
- That fixers just magically call you whenever you enter their area or they "accidentally" know when you are at one of their quest points. And in general I think there is a bit to much hand holding. NC is such a cool place which makes you want to go explore and just experience the city. But being made aware or told where almost everything is and you just running from point A to B to solve them, I think could have been done better, by simply letting player discover them for themselves. And would add more replayability.
- The dialog system is horrible, in regards to the color system, which almost completely remove all excitement in dialogs, because you know which you can say without any issues and which will push the story. This breaks immersion a lot and makes you far less interested in what they are saying, so that was a real shame. They should simply have kept them all one color and randomized the answers, again for more replayability and would make wonders if choice actually mattered. So this is also my biggest issue.
- That gangs seems completely unaware or not caring about you killing them in the 100s, and that there in general is no interaction with them.
- The extremely poor use of BDs, its such a cool concept but very badly utilized.
- That you can't change your body in a CP setting, where you are constantly reminded of people doing this and style matters etc.
Conclusion
Some parts really work when it comes to immersive sim/gameplay, but unfortunately there are also to many things that ruins it or are simply missing. Even if immersive gameplay weren't their intention, I still think a lot of these things should have been there regardless.