Gameplay Reveal — 48-minute walkthrough

[trevizanzan]

I have already reviewed the gameplay dozens of times, and I remain more and more fascinated!
I would like to give a suggestion.
Premising that I like to play games in English, or in any case in the original language (I find that the dialogues and dubbings are of much higher quality than other languages)...
in The Witcher 3 I would have many times been able to pause the dialogues to be able to read better all the conversations...
in Cyberpunk I would like very much to have this possibility ... maybe to be able to pause during the various "briefings" to be able to make a better point of the situation.
But, since we are talking about a game where technology is never enough, why not have a sort of implant that records all the conversations made / heard with the various characters and transcribes them into a sort of file in our memory in order to be consulted at any time?
I would really like to have this option!
What do you think?

PS: the songs i've heard are amazing!

 

[Akaiyro]

[...]Games can be designed to offer players choices on how they wish to play. If players want a brutal experience that keeps the pressure on, they can up the difficulty, stick to basic weaponry, and avoid using "overpowered" techniques or gear. If they want a more casual experience or don't feel like constantly reloading / retrying, they can lower the difficulty, grab more advanced weaponry, and look up hints and tips online. It's up to them, not to us.

Yeah, I agree with this! ^
I remember following this guy on youtube, "epicnamebro"; he used to do all sorts of "crazy" challenges (such as going naked all the way to the end of the game with a non-upgraded weak weapon) to increase its difficulty.
I also think that Dark Souls isn't much of that hard game some articles makes us believe; it just punishes badly the player when he makes a mistake, but it also reward the player with a sweetroll everytime he get things right; and learn the right moment to do stuff. Done saying that, I freaking enjoy the Souls franchise mostly due to that!

[...]Most of the spells in DS automatically seek out their targets. Archery uses auto-lock on and tracking. Even melee automatically keeps the target focused with a button-press.

There are also the "Jolly Coop" phantom NPCs (and players) one can summon at almost every boss fight, if the player wants to enjoy the game on his personal style; not approaching it in the same "brutal challenge" way others enjoy doing.

Pray, let's us all just agree that both of the players described above are true gamers on their personal way; the squirrels said it, we gotta listen to 'em!

 

[SigilFey]

I also think that Dark Souls isn't much of that hard game some articles makes us believe; it just punishes badly the player when he makes a mistake, but it also reward the player with a sweetroll everytime he get things right; and learn the right moment to do stuff. Done saying that, I freaking enjoy the Souls franchise mostly due to that!

Agreed! I would argue that the "brutal difficulty" is mostly advertising. The formula is undeniably challenging, but truly...I find the ArmA games, titles like Europa Universalis, or Chess to be far more difficult. DS is simply a unique approach to a very old-fashioned style. I've had just as much or more trouble with old platformers, twin-stick shooters, and bullet-hells from the '80s and '90s, and it's inherently the same formula:

"The game will try to overwhelm the player with visual and auditory stimuli, requiring attention to detail and quick reflexes, then force the player to repeat the stage until they learn the level layout and attack patterns."

Bubble, rinse, repeat. However, DS does this by slowing the overall gameplay down to a crawl and mixing some RPG and fighter mechanics into it, offering various playstyles that...actually make everything easier in the end. Now, I can customize my character to be faster, slower, more tanky, ranged vs. melee, all of which allows me to play to my strengths instead of being forced to do it the game's way. Dark Souls mostly requires patience. It avoids the "instant gratification" and "constant rewards" systems that many games rely on to keep players interested. But in the end, it's sort of impossible to lose in DS. Unlike the older formulas, by replaying the same areas, your character will continuously grow stronger and stronger, making subsequent attempts even easier. You will always be able to get back all of your souls, refill consumables, or find a way past each obstacle. (Unless you run out of patience. They're certainly not games that all players will enjoy.)

I do enjoy them, though! It was the indirect storytelling that appealed to me the most -- such a great idea! And I find the unique move-set for every weapon to be a phenomenal mechanic.

 

[Rawls]

titles like Europa Universalis

My redpoint is mostly because you referenced this game.

 

[Snowflakez]

My redpoint is mostly because you referenced this game.

Let's play CK2 some time, Rawls. You still haven't taken me up on that.

I didn't like Dark Souls, and the controls are the primary reason why. I can deal with poor controls if other aspects of the game are good (the world, environmental and enemy variety, fun stories), but Dark Souls' universe did not grasp me. Maybe it's because the story was too obscure. I like to discover stuff as much as the next guy, but in a game as ub3r hardcor3 as Dark Souls, I feel like going off the beaten path punishes you more often than not.

By contrast, in Breath of the Wild, for example, that game could also be pretty dang hard. Much easier once you get some equipment, but the early stages are nearly impossible to go through flawlessly. I died again, and again, and again, and again... Not just in fights, but when climbing a tower because a wizard was shooting lightning at me, or from falling off a cliff because an octorok shot a coconut into my face, or because I'm simply an idiot and thought it would be smart to wake a sleeping giant.

However, I loved the game because if I got stuck on a challenge, I could go do something else and come back later, and I always felt 100% in control of my character - no clunky rolls, no horrendous jumping.

2077 seems poised to fall into camp number two here, rather than the "Dark Souls like" experience. Much like the Witcher 3, the world is much more compelling to me, and it seems you'll have lots of stuff to do other than a particular encounter that's giving you troubles. Not to mention the immersive sim-like "multiple solutions to a problem" thing.

 

[Rawls]

Let's play CK2 some time, Rawls. You still haven't taken me up on that.

I don't really do multiplayer much. Mostly because time limitations make me an unreliable group participant. I do love that game though. I think I have more DLCs for it than any other game I've ever purchased. Maybe the Mass Effect Trilogy could equal it if you added them all together.

And something about the demo ... watched it really closely to get a good idea where everything takes place. Looks like it's gonna be a pretty big world. I just wish we could get some more info on how netrunning works in practice.

 

[Snowflakez]

I don't really do multiplayer much. Mostly because time limitations make me an unreliable group participant. I do love that game though. I think I have more DLCs for it than any other game I've ever purchased. Maybe the Mass Effect Trilogy could equal it if you added them all together.

And something about the demo ... watched it really closely to get a good idea where everything takes place. Looks like it's gonna be a pretty big world. I just wish we could get some more info on how netrunning works in practice.

Fair enough.

I was also inspecting the demo pretty closely, and the world is indeed huge, but it comes down to how much of the floorspace will actually be explorable. Did CDPR have to make trade-offs, or did their larger team let them essentially just take the Novigrad/Velen area and add a huge city to it without many compromises?

As for netrunning, I actually don't like what we've seen so far. It looks... weird. Visually unappealing. I'm also hoping we get more info on how it can be used in situations aside from applying quick hacks. Can we disable security systems ahead of time? Can we turn them to our advantage? Turn off lights or cameras? Turn off ventilation and pump sleeping/poison gas into a room to take out baddies?

 

[Akaiyro]

Agreed! I would argue that the "brutal difficulty" is mostly advertising.

Yeah! I once read an article/news reffering to DS as "the hardest game", or something close to it.
Here now I think that, maybe it's because games seems to be more "easier" nowadays, and it might've made DS shine as "the really hard game". However, as you said, there are some gems from the '80s and '90s that were quite more the challenge. (There's even this 'not so old' "I Wanna Be the Guy" game, that for me is way more hard than DS, lol)

-
Anyway, I believe a game's difficulty setting (includind CP2077) should be balenced in a way that it keeps the game a challenge, but still accessable for all players. I think that one of the ways for it to be achieved is by including toggle options for most things such as: life regen, aim assist, HUD elements and game mechanics, as the ability to see enemies through walls; along with the normal "hard, medium, easy" difficulty options, but with settings that doesn't simple increase/decrease enemie's life pool; but changes their AI and how they react to the player.

[...]DS is simply a unique approach to a very old-fashioned style. [...]However, DS does this by slowing the overall gameplay down to a crawl and mixing some RPG and fighter mechanics into it, offering various playstyles that...actually make everything easier in the end. Now, I can customize my character to be faster, slower, more tanky, ranged vs. melee, all of which allows me to play to my strengths instead of being forced to do it the game's way.

"Various playstyles, customizable characters, and be able to play to one's strengths"... Now this is something I really wanna see in Cyberpunk 2077!
Ever since DS happened to me, I now try to play most games on a higher difficulty setting; and The Witcher 3's "Death's March" for me was, at least a bit, like what I had in DS.
The beginning was a bit painful with some 'hitkills' here and there; but it didn't took long 'till I had a good spare of dwarven booze, high level potions, bombs... oils, and a good upgraded Quen.
Preparation was a key thing that made me rely more on the support items.
And I plan to do the same with Cyberpunk 2077!

 

[sv3672]

I was also inspecting the demo pretty closely, and the world is indeed huge, but it comes down to how much of the floorspace will actually be explorable. Did CDPR have to make trade-offs, or did their larger team let them essentially just take the Novigrad/Velen area and add a huge city to it without many compromises?

If I guessed it right, the entire area on the metro map is almost twice as large as Skyrim (see this picture, or the same map in better quality without a Skyrim overlay). Which, while smaller than all regions of TW3 combined, would be enormous for a fully urban environment. The gameplay demo (and much of the trailer) was in only one of the districts, the small colored dots on the map show the approximate (guessed) places of the locations visited throughout the demo.

But there will most likely be a fair amount of variation in the environments and their density. Which probably decreases from the city center towards the outskirts, so the really crowded and visually impressive area is only a minority of the entire map, and what the demo has shown is somewhere between the two ends. Also, much of the SW region might be water.

 

[gart6]

Hi CDPR. I have an idea how to make your game more interesting: let me talk with nps, whose language is not known to my character, by using dialogue tree, that transleted into HIS language. If i know his language IRL, i will talk to him by using his language. If i dont know his language IRL, i will need to find an implant, that changes the language of dialogue tree into language, that is known to me.

 

[helios969]

Really impressed with what I saw...particularly given we're still probably 15-18 months out from release (whole lot of time to polish). I liked fem-V and the RP possibilities teased. Like others I found the combat fairly vanilla but have faith it'll come together before release to at least satisfying (I'm sure there will be some surprises). I would love some martial arts incorporated but maybe that's too tough to implement with everything else. Regardless super excited to get my hands on this game.

 

[gogmeister777]

Happens in quite a few cities in real life, too.

My comment about many (not all) games making nights hazy wasn't only referring to cities, it can happen even when your character is out in the middle of nowhere. There is sometimes way too much light and even in the distance you can make out the horizon clearly standing out in some kind of hazy fog. I assume that most of the time it's for practical reasons like actually enabling the player to see where they're going, which is a fair enough goal

Like I said, it's just my personal preference and I'm not criticising CDPR's artistic vision. This type of thing is usually modded quite quickly so I'm not worried.

When I remember my time in Paris the memories of the nights where the sky really contrasted with the lights about me always springs to mind. Even when I'm browsing pics of city scapes on the web, I almost always find those kind of images more striking. I liked how dark most (not all) of the nights were in Deus Ex 2000 too.

Looking at the end of the trailer, the sky is kinda grey with an almost slight hint of brown/red/orange so maybe the sun was in the final stages of setting.

No problem either way though, the trailer looked great and my only concerns are based on things we couldn't actually see. Like how many ways there are to complete a mission and how much our decisions will really change how things play out and effect the npcs around us. It's those rpg elements that I'm excited for from CDPR.

 

[sv3672]

To me, it looks like the entire sky has a brownish color at night, but the glow in the distance seems to be from the city, since before entering All Food, the sun was already close to setting, and the light came from the opposite direction.

Spoiler

 

[Snowflakez]

To me, it looks like the entire sky has a brownish color at night, but the glow in the distance seems to be from the city, since before entering All Food, the sun was already close to setting, and the light came from the opposite direction.

Spoiler

View attachment 10977173

Man, the sky looks like sh*t in that picture. Literally. And that's not a bad thing.

 

[SigilFey]

Overall color is largely up to a player's monitor, GPU, and settings. True -- every game is made with specific color ranges, but what a player actually sees on their end can be skewed by a pretty incredible amount. A monitor's color temperature setting alone can change a rich color range with deep shadows and vibrant hues into a washed out field of of over-exposed textures that leaves an image feeling flat and lifeless. (I remember a lot of people complaining that Blood & Wine's new graphics looked like a psychadelic migraine submerged in a yellow lake...and yet on my screen, I was looking at buildings painted in evenly balanced color patterns and a soft, almost fairy-tale-like golden hue. Needless to say, a little tweaking with monitor calibration and digital vibrance settings, and viola.)

Granted, sometimes people simply don't care for a design, and nothing wrong there! I just encourage players to ensure they're seeing games as intended first. There are a lot of free calibration tools online to ensure your monitors are displaying as accurately as possible. This one is great:

http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Just ensure you're doing this in a dark room for the calibration itself. After that, turn lights on (whatever your usual gaming setup is) and tweak to tastes.

 

[sv3672]

Unless there is something wrong with the screenshot itself, it should indeed be a brownish color, it averages to about 18% red, 13% green and 10% blue. But the air in Night City was not supposed to be the cleanest, so it may very well be normal. "Dirt and filth confirmed".

 

[KakitaTatsumaru]

Let's add an auto dodge/attack to dark souls. Lets add an autojump to old Mario games for the people who can't jump. Let's just automate every thing while we are at it. Alternatively we can stop rewarding incompetence, you know, kind of like every single game used to be designed. We should probably move past the "even losers are winners" mentality. You asked, I provided.

Who said Twitch Games gamers are more gamers that Intelligent Games gamers?
Cyberpunk is no less an RPG than it is a action game, and Roleplaying mechanics to represent character immersion are at least as much legit as action.

 

[Snowflakez]

Unless there is something wrong with the screenshot itself, it should indeed be a brownish color, it averages to about 18% red, 13% green and 10% blue. But the air in Night City was not supposed to be the cleanest, so it may very well be normal. "Dirt and filth confirmed".

Yeah, that's why I said it's not a bad thing. It looks like absolute garbage, as it should. Hopefully it clears up some fears for people who think it will all be bright and sunny.

 

[D34THGU4RD]

10/10 for this game! BUT,if there was a online multiplayer added then it could be much more fun!!!

 

[Mebrilia]

A bit late but here is my impression.

Visuals and ambients:
You nailed it so much detail all around colorful and i can see a lot of influence and 80 vibe all around, the crowd system is majestic and i hope the interaction with the world will be in depth and also outside questing.

Graphic:
Loved it. Maybe someone would complain is not exactly photorealistic but i do favour less graphic and more content than amazing graphic and then you see blood splatters disappearing in front of your face.. (i am watching you witcher3).

Visual Chosen:
Because it must be sayd. One of my fear was that the first person were bad done in prospective like the majority of the fps around. Deus ex HR,Doom,Dishonored you name it, still there is a lot to tweak some animation of interaction are missing and i would love to see way more many animations all around.

Now disclaimer... I know this will probably get upset the team but i have to write it.

What i strogly dislike:
I am not sure what this is when i watched the demo what i saw is just another carbon copy of a generic AAA shooter. Sorry but one of my main concerning about the visual chosen were gameplay related most.
FPS tend to have the same game mechanics over and over again. And on what i seen Cyberpunk 2077 have all of them.

*Regenerating health
*Health Bar
*Healing Inhalator (stimpack)

Also apparently cyberpunk 2077 will have leves.

In the end to keep it short and avoid all the polemic by a long time fan of the pan and paper setting.

The game looks like an amazing potrayal of a Cyberpunk videogame the graphic the little detail the art direction is amazing.

However when the gameplay kick in well sorry but is not cyberpunk at all just a generic shooter with lite stat and skills and all the "Features" that comes from the most generic fps around.

*This combat system just take the lethality of the setting and trow it outside of the window.
*Is flashy and too much hollywoodesque just like i feared
*Levels don't and never belong to cyberpunk (Using the pnp progression system would had given this title more a Cyberpunk feel and less Themepark shooter)
*The conversation system look clumsy there is not much variety on dialogues V seemed pretty defined.
*The character customization is not "in depth" is not "You will create your character from the ground up" because cosmetically talking is just preset and V is a defined character so defined that apparently have also a Defined age."
*Auto Dialogue
*Lack of skill related checks during dialogue.

And that's about it. I am sorry i wanted to like it really but this while a fantastic FPS in cyberpunk salsa in my opinion is not enough faithful to then pen and paper.

I know that is an ALpha and things are subject to change i hope the team will have an open mind and consider my feedback.

A kiss Monica.