So finished my first playthrough and thought I'd give my impressions of the game. SPOILERS INCLUDED
1. V's character arc
On this playthrough I went with a corpo path because I'm a huge fan of GITS and felt that would be the closest I'd get to replicating that experience. While it's too soon to say whether the character of V will be cemented in anyone's Top 10 list of lead characters the voice acting and dialogue was well done. In fact where V fell short for me was in not having more interactions. Having your fixers and various NPC's a phone call away removes some of the potential for interesting dialogue. I know it makes more sense in a technologically advanced setting vs something like the Witcher where you have to ride long distances to see specific characters and engross yourself in conversation before an important mission is triggered. It would be cumbersome to do this for every mission in Night City of course but I think a better balance can be found to provide V more opportunity to feel like he's earned his reputation.
Dialogue choices have been discussed to death here so I won't get too much into that, from what I gathered some players felt there weren't enough consequences for certain choices and if that can be improved on then I welcome it. In my experience playing the game it felt those choices were focused more on the main story branches rather than various side quests/Gigs which I suspect is why this has several endings. I guess it's a question of whether we would prefer less options for the ending and more for side quests which will be a matter of personal preference from player to player.
2. Main Story
The main story is likely familiar for those who have loved the genre before this game (Bladerunner, Armitage, GITS etc) but for me this was the first video game adaptation to accurately capture the essence of cyberpunk so it was refreshing. The seeds planted throughout, especially towards the end have laid the foundation for exciting possibilities in future games. Sadly I chose to return to earth with the little time I had left but this still leaves the story open for V potentially being saved or opting for a new body. Having recently watched Altered Carbon it's easy to think this is something new but body swapping tech has existed in the cyberpunk genre since the 80's and 90's and will certainly make for some interesting nd divisive dialogue.
I was unsure how I would feel about Johnny Silverhand, least of which because of the celebrity voice cast, but I'm happy I was pleasantly surprised at how much I grew to like Johnny. Being a corpo I crossed him at every chance though so he probably wasn't too happy with me lol One of the things I liked about Silverhand was almost always having a character to play off, often with open world games it's incredibly boring as you go through the motions either grinding or doing missions especially those that are slower paced....looking at you RDR2. Silverhand added an extra layer of interaction that you didn't think you needed but you miss when he's not there, whether you agree with his rebellious "take down the corpos" stance or not.
3. Conclusion
All in all, I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I forgot to add but it's been a hell of a few weeks and this certainly made the pandemic bearable. The game was a great experience but it certainly could have been even better, likely a delay by a year would have allowed the devs the time to sort through the bugs and polishing. The decision to not do that definitely warrants criticism. That said, hopefully they'll take away meaningful feedback and this will be the Witcher 1 of the franchise with each sequel better and more grand than the last.
1. V's character arc
On this playthrough I went with a corpo path because I'm a huge fan of GITS and felt that would be the closest I'd get to replicating that experience. While it's too soon to say whether the character of V will be cemented in anyone's Top 10 list of lead characters the voice acting and dialogue was well done. In fact where V fell short for me was in not having more interactions. Having your fixers and various NPC's a phone call away removes some of the potential for interesting dialogue. I know it makes more sense in a technologically advanced setting vs something like the Witcher where you have to ride long distances to see specific characters and engross yourself in conversation before an important mission is triggered. It would be cumbersome to do this for every mission in Night City of course but I think a better balance can be found to provide V more opportunity to feel like he's earned his reputation.
Dialogue choices have been discussed to death here so I won't get too much into that, from what I gathered some players felt there weren't enough consequences for certain choices and if that can be improved on then I welcome it. In my experience playing the game it felt those choices were focused more on the main story branches rather than various side quests/Gigs which I suspect is why this has several endings. I guess it's a question of whether we would prefer less options for the ending and more for side quests which will be a matter of personal preference from player to player.
2. Main Story
The main story is likely familiar for those who have loved the genre before this game (Bladerunner, Armitage, GITS etc) but for me this was the first video game adaptation to accurately capture the essence of cyberpunk so it was refreshing. The seeds planted throughout, especially towards the end have laid the foundation for exciting possibilities in future games. Sadly I chose to return to earth with the little time I had left but this still leaves the story open for V potentially being saved or opting for a new body. Having recently watched Altered Carbon it's easy to think this is something new but body swapping tech has existed in the cyberpunk genre since the 80's and 90's and will certainly make for some interesting nd divisive dialogue.
I was unsure how I would feel about Johnny Silverhand, least of which because of the celebrity voice cast, but I'm happy I was pleasantly surprised at how much I grew to like Johnny. Being a corpo I crossed him at every chance though so he probably wasn't too happy with me lol One of the things I liked about Silverhand was almost always having a character to play off, often with open world games it's incredibly boring as you go through the motions either grinding or doing missions especially those that are slower paced....looking at you RDR2. Silverhand added an extra layer of interaction that you didn't think you needed but you miss when he's not there, whether you agree with his rebellious "take down the corpos" stance or not.
3. Conclusion
All in all, I'm sure there's a ton of stuff I forgot to add but it's been a hell of a few weeks and this certainly made the pandemic bearable. The game was a great experience but it certainly could have been even better, likely a delay by a year would have allowed the devs the time to sort through the bugs and polishing. The decision to not do that definitely warrants criticism. That said, hopefully they'll take away meaningful feedback and this will be the Witcher 1 of the franchise with each sequel better and more grand than the last.