Game longevity - much shorter than expected!

[Satori88]

This game as we know now was in complete development hell there was no "people complained that the witcher 3 was too long" its just bullshit, they needed another 2 years to actually complete the game they promised. Instead of owning up to that they decided to make stuff up so they can justify a mainstory that is half as long as Witcher 3s. In fact its even less then half, Witcher 3 was 45-50h and cyberpunks is around 20h. But its highly replayable! As we know now that is also not the case, you are being railroaded into the streetkid and Johnny show if you like it or not.

20 hours mainstory holy hell CDPR this is definitely not something you planned the Witcher 1 and 2 had longer mainstories! The whole thing with the title drop after the first act is another atempt to disguise the short mainstory. Damn this is just the prologue, its like white orchard! Nah fam you have another 15 hours of mainstory and then thats that. If it was highly non linear mainstory then and only then they could justify that short length.

 

[eLmeFist0]

How can you have a single playthrough in Cyberpunk last 1000 hours?
After all missions are done there is nothing left to do in the game.
No random encounters, no new dialogue options with NPCs.
No way to replay completed missions without starting a new game.
No new game+ feature with harder difficulty or higher level cap.

Also because all encounters are scripted and player choices have very limited impact, replay value is low.

I have 300 hr in cs go.
How can anyone play a singleplayer in one go for more then 100 h is beyond me.
I get bored of a single player game after 40h even if its as good as witcher 3 or gothic 2.
I could not play Watch dogs legion, Assassins creed valhalla, Godfall for more then 10 hours acumulated. I got so bored.
Only mediocre games lately.

 

[jchavezriva]

Seriously who the hell asked for a shorter story? And why did cdpr even listen to them?

Worth mentioning though, making it long through fetch quests like sometimes happened in the witcher games is no good either.

 

[futureishere]

1st playthrough - it was nice. Story was engaging for the first time and i enjoyed it.

2nd playthourgh - i was done after maybe 2-3 hours. Its just all over again, same thing. Nothing is different. I dont know how people can force themselfes to do 2 or 3 full playthroughs with all side quests.. Also while normal difficulty was too easy the very hard was super hard for me. I was a netrunner with monowire and i got usually 1 shot killed. So combine this with a story that you already know and gameplay was just unpleasent. Take a diablo for egzample, you can play it again and again, its always fun. Different character, different build, same story yet its different and fun. Even entering harder difficulty provides more fun game while here its done terribly. After 2 weeks of playing Cyberpunk 2077 i quit and im not coming back. They screwed up with this premature rushed launch but hey, money counts. Guess its what happens with every company in this industry once they get big.

 

[dar981]

I have 300 hr in cs go.
How can anyone play a singleplayer in one go for more then 100 h is beyond me.
I get bored of a single player game after 40h even if its as good as witcher 3 or gothic 2.
I could not play Watch dogs legion, Assassins creed valhalla, Godfall for more then 10 hours acumulated. I got so bored.
Only mediocre games lately.

We are in lockdown, I was in no rush to get to the end of the game. I like exploring. The game has given me a sense of freedom for a few hours. Not being able to go go out, go to the gym, ride my bike etc. Helps pass the time. I paid $100 for the game. I want to enjoy it. I have never played witcher 3. I do agree legion was a let down. It took me ten years to finish skyrim. I am now just starting my 2nd playthrough. I am more prepared compared to the first game. Now i can really enjoy the game even more.

I actually picked cyberpunk over watchdogs legion. I still think it was the right decision.

What is the rush?

 

[I_Willenbrock_I]

Seriously who the hell asked for a shorter story? And why did cdpr even listen to them?

Worth mentioning though, making it long through fetch quests like sometimes happened in the witcher games is no good either.

Witchers fetch quests were more entertaining though.

 

[CyberpunkRoslyn]

Many of us feel the same.

Hopefully CDPR realizes this and makes bigger side stories. One in particular was the clouds side story with Judy. Second was the side story with Elizabeth Peralez. That could have been a second campaign by itself. Silverhand referenced that there are rouge AI's out there. Who knows where this could have gone and what their attentions were. Maybe CDPR could have taken us deep underneath Night City in DLC content to find out who is behind the neural hacking of Elizabeth Peralez and her husband. This would have really been the point of the game where you have a choice to SWITCH LIFEPATHS. CDPR hinted that you don't have to stay committed to one lifepath. Helping Elizabeth and her husband could have offered V the option of entering the CORPO lifepath. Only difference is; you'd be doing a noble act in helping Elizabeth fight this evil force. Now that they know they can't trust their security company; V would have a reason to call Merideth Stout and ask for a favor.

I wouldn't say that I'm a better story writer than CDPR; but I know how to utilize what is already. This would be rather easy for CDPR to do. Call the voice actors back and pick up; right where you left off.

 

[SpookyFX]

How can anyone play a singleplayer in one go for more then 100 h is beyond me.

LOL! Oblivion and Skyrim (PC) players have easy 300 to 1000 hours! And I am still playing Fallout 4 after more than 2000 hours!
On the other hand in the TES game you really do get to make your OWN character so I guess it makes it easier to get attached to them.

 

[Jack_point]

First playthrough - normal difficulty, done all side quests and NCPD search and destroy missions.

2nd playthrough - very hard game difficulty, rushed to the secret ending after missing it during first playthrough.
Didn't really feel like doing any of the side missions again.

3rd playthrough - didn't start "The Heist" yet and it's already feels forced.
Finding less and less motivation to play.

Honestly I expected more from CDPR.
After playing The Witcher 1, 2 and 3 for so long I was hoping to play Cyberpunk for a long time but it gets old fast.
Playing the Witcher 2 and 3 on hardest difficulty was challenging, there was a reason to find builds that work.
In Cyberpunk very hard game difficulty with max level gear any build works (melee / sniper / guns / net runner).
Because nothing is hard, there is no motivation to try different play styles or get better gear.

They claim the community asked for a shorter main story, but I really enjoyed the depth of The Witcher 3 and finished it 4 times (twice with all expansions).

Sure some players are looking for games that lasts under 100 hours game time but I was hoping for a virtual game world to spend significantly more time in.

Yup, loved the Witcher series and still play it, clocked in probably 5k + hours over 3 games so far, now waiting on the W3 remaster update.

 

[pndrad]

Here is my chart, as you can see the main story isn't very branching. Basically the only major changes the player can make to how the end plays out is to help Panam and Johnny, nothing else really matters. Now this only covers the main quest line, there should have been some side factions with their own quest lines. We have the Fixers, but their quest don't usually build to anything, it kind of feels like Skyrim's radiant quest system. Also the one that comes to mind, has a bunch of build up, doesn't have a very satisfying conclusion.(cyberpsycho)
If they had added in all of the branching paths I suggested the game's replay value would be extremely high, and they could have gotten by with a shorter story, but it's most likely to late for this.