The more I think about this topic the more I ponder.
Back in 2012 when 2077 was revealed as the next CDPR IP project, in a small room with a small crowd they had thisup on the projector.
In January 2013, a teaser trailer was released and announced for PC
Pre-production began when CDPR finished Witcher 3 Blood and Wine DLC (2016), with like 50 people
June 2017, the
preliminary designs were stolen and threatened to be released to the public.
2018 Pre-alpha shown at E3, gamescom etc and eventually to public.
E3 2018 PlayStation 4 and Xbox One announced as added to list of release platforms, E3 2019 the additional gameplay trailer and so forth with the addition of Keanu as Johnny Silverhand (Keanu himself said they only approached him in 2018) Announced release date.
CD Projekt Red partnered with Digital Scapes in October 2018 to craft additional tools.
then Nvidia in June 2019 to achieve ray tracing in real time.
and QLOC in January 2020 for quality assurance and Jali Research for the lip sync.
- So as CDPR ( I cant remember who atm, posted as much on twitter last delay) said lots of very last minute systems were tossed together late in development, literally only
2 years of development in its current states or current plans, not to mention the lip sync and ray tracing. Since Johnny became a co-protagonist and so forth with the story and dialog revolving around that, how much had to be changed to even fit that in.
Next gen consoles were only announced in 2019 and they had only just added the old ones in 2018. The game obviously has gone through several rewrites, revamps and direction changes in its development history..not that that is unusual for any iterative process. But the game overall has had only 2 full years of development in its current state. How much of the design from 2017 or 2016 still exists or was used at all?
Not the UI, lifepath or character sheet which can be seen from 2018 compared to the video just released, and with Johnny only being added as a co-protagonist in 2018 (at least with Keanu at the helm) what was the original plan and how much has changed just due to that.
But with the promise above plain as day....nothing more or less.
So
1. Yes they more than likely did this in spades just from what they have shown so far.
2. Remains to be seen, but also highly likely.
3. Probably as best as they could for a video game, still mixed on what they have done to the source mechanics myself.
4. No, sadly only 2 (roles) classes and mixed ability of the two does not a varied selection make no matter how many skills or abilities there are. Skills and perks are not classes.
5. Also seems so, probably way more than they have shown already but even the glimpse and teases have been very numerious more so in the recent clip of the cyberware equipment UI page and weapons trailer.
6. This remains to be seen on December 10th and...... beyond, because CDPR DLCs are usually crazy involved as well.
In the end many argue that the game has been in development for 8 years, when it has not been and it doesn't take much to find the facts that it hasn't been.
But from 2016 to 2018 there was at least that first bit to create that 48 minute gameplay trailer for E3 and playable pre-alpha that press played, then to now with the most recent gameplay and everything in between.
Enduring all the vitrol, the hate ..the spite, the jealousy...of the internets usual vocal minority. The fans giving views and likes as if they were candy at halloween. The crunch which of course everyone has hated and the internet took offense too, but literally won't care about till they hear the word next time (mostly).
Yet here we are , copies shipping....stores about to get their displays and so forth ready and the various other things that are going on as the day closes in.
Despite the release date delays (Which given that in 2017 when CPPR recieved funds from the Goverment to fund 2077, the release date was stated unofficially as 2019...) really doesn't matter in the end.
The promise above, the FIRST actual promise that could be controlled by CDPR has held up almost fully with one slight design changed the rest remains to be seen.
In the end it is only a game not life or death and really there are more important things in life
But everything is fine.....life goes on.
.....
......
.......
(Made you read a wall of text)