I'm quite glad to see that a lot of people give similar feedback to what I had in mind, actually makes me optimistic that CDPR might address those issues! I only want to highlight couple of things:
1. Bullet-sponge enemies. Exchanging blows looks more believable in fantasy settings, but when firearms are involved you expect a human to go down after 2-3 hits at most, not to chip away 5% of his "health bar" each time. Game tries to be very immersive (hence first person view, right?) but when combat starts it's like someone flipped a switch and it's no different to Borderlands/Destiny etc. Combat should rely more on preparation, tactics, other means of weaking enemies (hacking, getting allies to help, good timing and positioning etc) and the shootouts themselves should be fast, brutal and feel like super high risk.
2. Get rid of character levels. Content can be organically locked away by increasing difficulty in different ways that "their number is higher than your number". Certain skills and upgrades might be needed, areas may be heavily guarded so you either have to be super skilled or aquire enough guns and implants to be able to handle it, higher level security systems etc. Even the way GTA 4 did it with closing the bridge between two halves of the map is at least consistent with the game world and doesn't break immersion.
3. Backstory choices. I think that blank slate character would have been better so player can just imagine what they are about. Giving a couple options for backstory is actually limiting in a way. Either blank slate, of fully developed character with his/her own charm and personality. That is why Geralt worked so well. This point is very subjective though, and not as important to myself as the previous two.
4. When one of the gangsters got his legs shot off he started screaming in agony and the sound kept playing after his head got blown off! Inecxusable, 0/10, won't play.
5. RTX please, thanks!
1. Bullet-sponge enemies. Exchanging blows looks more believable in fantasy settings, but when firearms are involved you expect a human to go down after 2-3 hits at most, not to chip away 5% of his "health bar" each time. Game tries to be very immersive (hence first person view, right?) but when combat starts it's like someone flipped a switch and it's no different to Borderlands/Destiny etc. Combat should rely more on preparation, tactics, other means of weaking enemies (hacking, getting allies to help, good timing and positioning etc) and the shootouts themselves should be fast, brutal and feel like super high risk.
2. Get rid of character levels. Content can be organically locked away by increasing difficulty in different ways that "their number is higher than your number". Certain skills and upgrades might be needed, areas may be heavily guarded so you either have to be super skilled or aquire enough guns and implants to be able to handle it, higher level security systems etc. Even the way GTA 4 did it with closing the bridge between two halves of the map is at least consistent with the game world and doesn't break immersion.
3. Backstory choices. I think that blank slate character would have been better so player can just imagine what they are about. Giving a couple options for backstory is actually limiting in a way. Either blank slate, of fully developed character with his/her own charm and personality. That is why Geralt worked so well. This point is very subjective though, and not as important to myself as the previous two.
4. When one of the gangsters got his legs shot off he started screaming in agony and the sound kept playing after his head got blown off! Inecxusable, 0/10, won't play.
5. RTX please, thanks!