I have not finished the MQ but have done a fair amount of open world exploration to realize that there's honestly not much depth to gameplay. Considering this is 2020 most of the gameplay features on offer are definitely barebones or poorly thought out which is a shame because The Witcher 3 felt like a fully realized vision even if it was not perfect, this game so far just feels like a cool idea rushed through production.
-Cybernetic Upgrades are extremely limited, there is barely any options for each slot. The augments that give you slow motion when performing certain actions or after falling under a certain health threshold feel like the only upgrades worth considering for the slots. Give us different damage resistances, different effects after being hit(recover RAM for hacking, boost of movement speed), give us invisibility cloaks, give us different scanner vision for different information. Why are there only 2 different leg upgrades? Give us more leg options, extra movement speed, extra dodge effects(increased dodge distance for example), make every slot be a difficult choice amongst the options.
-Enemies need variety, even if there are multiple archetypes they all feel too similar in how you approach the encounters. Make melee enemies tank more hits, lower their damage output so that you can make the choice between evading them or focusing them if they become too bothersome or dangerous in numbers. Make netrunners more dangerous/bothersome, have them jam your weapon, blind you, slow your movement, lower your stamina. Give us enemies that can go invisible, make scanning for these enemies with a thermal augment a thing. Give us more mechs and drones to fight against.
-Hacking is extremely shallow. Make quick-hacking a thing you can focus on from the start, give us more options for damage or de-buffing enemies, slowing them down, give us the option of blowing up electric devices to cause chaos and damage enemies. Let us cancel enemy hacking us by hacking them, and allow them to do the same to us. Let us hack drones and mechs to make them friendly. Make Breach Protocol more involved, have different bonuses and penalties you can get and give to the enemies alike(ex. No hacking in the zone for X amount of time/No weapons function in the zone for X amount of time) making Breach Protocol a tool to shape combat into our specific advantages.
-Melee feels disjointed, there's not much feedback when getting hit or hitting an enemy, the dodge sometimes is not enough to evade close range attackers and some enemies will just follow you with their attacks which just feels lazy and looks wrong. Give the melee system more depth, instead of having it be difficult just by making the enemy track you and hit like a truck. Make every weapon type have a chance to stun or stagger enemies depending on attack speed(the slower the weapon the faster the stagger kicks in).
-The game is full of junk items, junk has no reason to be in the game, it clutters inventory and environment without providing any real mechanic to the game, anything can be dismantled for crafting(common weapons and clothes are always available), make junk have different rarities instead and provide different materials depending on how rare of an item it is, otherwise just remove it from the game, it would do wonders for the pacing and exploration. It doesn't make sense for a cyber enhanced badass mercenary to be picking up ashtrays and basically trash from the floor. On the same note, most consumables are the same effect, add different effects to drinks/food/alcohol, give us a reason to search for the dinners and vending machines by making every food/drink give something unique and useful.
-So much emphasis on vehicles yet there's barely any gameplay related to them, you cannot hack them, you cannot shoot from them, there's barely any point to them being in the game, besides getting somewhere a bit faster, or stashing excess loot. its a shame and quite a wasted opportunity. Think how useful Roach was back in The Witcher 3, we were able to do combat on horse and shoot our crossbow.
Anyone else feels the same way, share your most wanted features/mechanics you wish they would add/refine.
-Cybernetic Upgrades are extremely limited, there is barely any options for each slot. The augments that give you slow motion when performing certain actions or after falling under a certain health threshold feel like the only upgrades worth considering for the slots. Give us different damage resistances, different effects after being hit(recover RAM for hacking, boost of movement speed), give us invisibility cloaks, give us different scanner vision for different information. Why are there only 2 different leg upgrades? Give us more leg options, extra movement speed, extra dodge effects(increased dodge distance for example), make every slot be a difficult choice amongst the options.
-Enemies need variety, even if there are multiple archetypes they all feel too similar in how you approach the encounters. Make melee enemies tank more hits, lower their damage output so that you can make the choice between evading them or focusing them if they become too bothersome or dangerous in numbers. Make netrunners more dangerous/bothersome, have them jam your weapon, blind you, slow your movement, lower your stamina. Give us enemies that can go invisible, make scanning for these enemies with a thermal augment a thing. Give us more mechs and drones to fight against.
-Hacking is extremely shallow. Make quick-hacking a thing you can focus on from the start, give us more options for damage or de-buffing enemies, slowing them down, give us the option of blowing up electric devices to cause chaos and damage enemies. Let us cancel enemy hacking us by hacking them, and allow them to do the same to us. Let us hack drones and mechs to make them friendly. Make Breach Protocol more involved, have different bonuses and penalties you can get and give to the enemies alike(ex. No hacking in the zone for X amount of time/No weapons function in the zone for X amount of time) making Breach Protocol a tool to shape combat into our specific advantages.
-Melee feels disjointed, there's not much feedback when getting hit or hitting an enemy, the dodge sometimes is not enough to evade close range attackers and some enemies will just follow you with their attacks which just feels lazy and looks wrong. Give the melee system more depth, instead of having it be difficult just by making the enemy track you and hit like a truck. Make every weapon type have a chance to stun or stagger enemies depending on attack speed(the slower the weapon the faster the stagger kicks in).
-The game is full of junk items, junk has no reason to be in the game, it clutters inventory and environment without providing any real mechanic to the game, anything can be dismantled for crafting(common weapons and clothes are always available), make junk have different rarities instead and provide different materials depending on how rare of an item it is, otherwise just remove it from the game, it would do wonders for the pacing and exploration. It doesn't make sense for a cyber enhanced badass mercenary to be picking up ashtrays and basically trash from the floor. On the same note, most consumables are the same effect, add different effects to drinks/food/alcohol, give us a reason to search for the dinners and vending machines by making every food/drink give something unique and useful.
-So much emphasis on vehicles yet there's barely any gameplay related to them, you cannot hack them, you cannot shoot from them, there's barely any point to them being in the game, besides getting somewhere a bit faster, or stashing excess loot. its a shame and quite a wasted opportunity. Think how useful Roach was back in The Witcher 3, we were able to do combat on horse and shoot our crossbow.
Anyone else feels the same way, share your most wanted features/mechanics you wish they would add/refine.