CDPR needs to fix the story along with the Bugs etc or this game has a chance of being dead by spring.
The story for as wonderful it is, full of feels, humanity, darkness, rage, hope, and finale. Is not meant for this game in the way it is presented and its really hurting the game as I personally know a lot of people who have stopped playing the game upon completion of the story and I have read 10s of 1000s of comments on various forums, youtube reddit etc expressing the same feeling. The story in the way its written does not match with the world provided. This is a story meant for the last of us or mass effect game structure and world, It is not meant for an Open World RPG as the way its written right now, but it can be saved.
The difference between Witcher 3's story and Cyberpunk is drastic, polar opposites. They needed to find a middle ground. The major difference between the stories is the sense of URGENCY. In Witcher the urgency is finding Cirilla, but that is always secondary to other arch's of the story, because the main story expands into more than that. The story expanding is what bogs/slows down the game, so in that sense yes maybe the Witcher story is too long for some because it is not as URGENT as Cyberpunk. In 2077 as soon as the world opens up and you get the chip, you are told by Vik you got a couple weeks to live, that upticks the URGENCY of this game 100x over Witcher. So from the start your sucked into the story because of what your told, then you have this constant reminder popping up in Johnny Silverhand to remind you of the urgent matter. So from what my friends tell me and I read all over the place, a lot of people are just playing the Story and related side quests due to the urgency of the situation and are saving most of the side content for after beating the Story. Those people beat the story and are feeling hollow or depressed (mainly the people who don't get the AZ ending) and can't go back to playing the side content as none of it makes sense from an RPG perspective, but the other issue is none of it makes sense from an RPG perspective during the story either due to the stories urgency. The slow down moments of this game are nullified by the story and the situation, so in Witcher when you get bogged down by the slow down moments start do a bunch of random quests or a bunch of main quests offered to you in different pacing the urgency leaves the game and the game slows down. In 2077 the slowdown moments are told to you, wait for fixer or whomever to contact some person then contact you back etc. Those moments aren't that long 10-20 mins before the fixer or whomever calls back. So the story really doesn't slow down it always stays URGENT.
The other issue with the Witcher 3 story feeling too long was 2 things. Extra Filler like when you finally go get Cirilla- You go on a long boat right to get to the starting point, then you follow that light/Cirilla's soul on another boat right that includes harpy attacks, ,once you make it to the island you get into a couple fights while following the light, then you get to shack and then snow whites bodyguard tells you to go find his mates...in 3 locations. That questline had too much BLOAT, that long boat ride from the start should've been shortened or taken out, the 3 dwarfs you go find should've all be in one location you could've had them all end the same way in one location. Things like that could've helped the story of Witcher 3 for the people who thought it was too long. The other issue with Witcher is Fast Travel, they needed more (which they went over board for 2077 cause of it) Too much of Witcher you are traveling on horse back from point A to point B for a quest, some of those rides are 7-10mins maybe longer, but they add up and it adds time to your story and they can cause a little boredom or frustration.
CDPR you can save this game, I know you guys can not and probably will not retcon the story or ending. But a couple voice edits can save this game/your company and slow down the URGENCY of the quest line. All you need to do is have Vik say you got a couple months to live or you got 6months to a year and take out any references to the couple weeks live, you need to slow down the main questline because its already dark and with 6 of the endings being real finale (I've seen the DLC speculation, that is fine but it doesn't help the situation NOW) is not giving the game much replay ability. That way you can't actually Role Play the game. I'm afraid if you don't, this game will be dead in a few months and you guys will have a good chance of going under since you guys are one of these companies that doesn't pump out games yearly or quarterly. There is just as much negativity about the story out there as there is about the bugs and glitches and crashing. You need to save the game now or not many are going to care about the DLCs they will have moved on to better games by then.
I was expecting little less than Witcher 3 story for this game and it feels like you sold me the Blood & Wine DLC as the main game and gives off a real bad impression of your company imo. You guys just come across as a GREEDY gaming studio since releasing this game.
