I never wanted as much freedom compared to most.

[opengrip]

So hear me out... i see a lot of people in forums and comments complaining about the lack of freedom of choice in this game concerning story and while I do agree with a few things such as pointless dialogue checks being kind of... pointless...(outside of adding flavor and exposition) at the same time i never expected as much as a lot of people complaining... For me I based my expectations on witcher 3 which was the last major release from cdpr. I loved that game but at the same time the story there has a lot of similarities... its mostly linear with a few branching paths that eventually lead back to the same spots with slightly different conclusions. But you can't set Geralts back story, or decide to be evil, or fundamentally change the flow of the game. It still has a start different acts and a finale etc. So far in cp2077 i have personally enjoyed the quests and decision making etc.

Obviously I'm not blind to the issues or areas that could benefit from some major improvements but I personally don't think the story structure is one of them. I would even go as far as saying that I think the major issue was there change from following a set protagonist (geralt) to being more open ended. I don't find it takes away from my RP ability but instead enhances it to have it the old way. For example when I played witcher 3 i always tried to stay sort of neutral and always bartered for higher pay. I didn't complain about the games lack of freedom because i didn't want freedom i wanted to roleplay as a witcher. I think if this game would have focused on a more static V with the minimum of at least 3rd person cinematics and conversations people would have expected less for freedom and focused more on enjoying V's story and letting it unfold.

Overall I'm loving this game and i'm pumped for all the upcoming improvements. Bug fixes, balances to skills and systems, Ai overhaul, more 3rd person opportunities. As well as any other new or old content that didn't make it in time for official release. The world design is amazing and its one of the best looking games I've ever played so I definitely think its worth polishing the rough spots in order to get the game up to the quality we expected from the CDPR. I really do hope they are learning from all of this and if they pull it off instead of giving up that most people stay fans. We need them to pull this off...other companies need to have a higher standard... this is truly what we all paid for and supported.

 

[Krul2k]

The majority of complaints i've read are not so much about "pointless" choice as they are just simply it's not the game they signed up for nor shown, a point which even CDPR acknowledge by blatantly changing what CP2077 was described as (RPG) to what ppl actually got (action/adventure looter/shooter).

I can personally still RP alot of different characters through the game though ultimately they all go the same route how they take that route and how they interact person to person can change enough for my tastes.

Dialogue/writing i enjoy but im not blind to the complete lack of any effort present in how players approach it, choices on offer, tone of character and worst of all having the player character say complete paragraphs at times without player input ontop of having say 2 dialogue options resulting in V just saying the exact same thing.

I like the game and believe it will get better but its no rpg and would've been better served with zero dialogue options, a straight forward story with cutscenes and just options to either pick one npc over another to work with IE saul or Panam, Dex or Evelyn.

As a RPG it didnt offer enough, as a action/adventure looter/shooter it's kinda all over the place.

I like it, i continue to explore the world, characters and missions and believe it will be better come the time the devs have moved on, but im not blind to the faults, can still work with it regardless and still enjoy it.

Seeing how the devs approach it now will be interesting because without fail there "vision" has probably changed a few times but it's different now, the games released for good or bad and i for one am interested in what form now there vision takes

 

[opengrip]

The majority of complaints i've read are not so much about "pointless" choice as they are just simply it's not the game they signed up for nor shown, a point which even CDPR acknowledge by blatantly changing what CP2077 was described as (RPG) to what ppl actually got (action/adventure looter/shooter).

I can personally still RP alot of different characters through the game though ultimately they all go the same route how they take that route and how they interact person to person can change enough for my tastes.

Dialogue/writing i enjoy but im not blind to the complete lack of any effort present in how players approach it, choices on offer, tone of character and worst of all having the player character say complete paragraphs at times without player input ontop of having say 2 dialogue options resulting in V just saying the exact same thing.

I like the game and believe it will get better but its no rpg and would've been better served with zero dialogue options, a straight forward story with cutscenes and just options to either pick one npc over another to work with IE saul or Panam, Dex or Evelyn.

As a RPG it didnt offer enough, as a action/adventure looter/shooter it's kinda all over the place.

I like it, i continue to explore the world, characters and missions and believe it will be better come the time the devs have moved on, but im not blind to the faults, can still work with it regardless and still enjoy it.

Seeing how the devs approach it now will be interesting because without fail there "vision" has probably changed a few times but it's different now, the games released for good or bad and i for one am interested in what form now there vision takes

This is all fair and I don't disagree but witcher 3 didn't offer much difference in regard to RP as far as has they approached it and it was still considered a very successful RPG. I think the main issue isn't the lack of RP elements but instead the lack of polish around how they are presented and the lack of connection you have with the protagonist vs say Geralt of Rivia. In reality they just needed to flesh out the world more and have more integrations available to make it feel more immersive. And like I said if they wanted to give a lot more connection to the RPers they should have given some more 3rd person cuts for scenes... kind of like the e3 2018 trailer where they show v leaving the elevator before they save Sandra. More opportunity to check out your clothing and detailed character etc. Without that I feel a bit too detached.

 

[MojoBreaker]

Would it make difference if you could play as Silverhand from the start of the game to the finish ?

 

[Krul2k]

Geralt was/is a set person, always a witcher which brings all what that entails, always white, always male, always heterosexual and always talking the same way.

V can be male or female, hetero, LBGTQ, white, black, street kid, nomad, corpo etc etc yet regardless of all that your right, they offered nothing different from what Geralt was offered

 

[MojoBreaker]

Cyberpunk 2077 is like a super hot model wife you have, but she does stupid things and has an affair with different men. Yet you still like her.

 

[Krul2k]

Hey sharing is caring

 

[hulkman2456]

Fair enough to you. I'm not gonna say your wrong on that stance. But our reactions are based on what they said and promised. A lot of the games choices mean junk. You know what game that did this right, Mass Effect 2. That's where things mattered. It's their "where making an extensive character creator" lines in promotional material. Digging their grave with people.

 

[alebersam]

Geralt was/is a set person, always a witcher which brings all what that entails, always white, always male, always heterosexual and always talking the same way.

V can be male or female, hetero, LBGTQ, white, black, street kid, nomad, corpo etc etc yet regardless of all that your right, they offered nothing different from what Geralt was offered

Theres no difference with geralt and v, both are predefined characters. The only diference is that geralt have a lot of background after him (two games, seven books) and V is created for this game.

For a more close example you can compare V with shepard in ME series, yes you can choose gender, aparience, background and even a handful of choices but all of then limited to a close character.

And honestly, i like this aproach, a character with a persoanlity works better in a computer game because after all your options are always limited

 

[opengrip]

Fair enough to you. I'm not gonna say your wrong on that stance. But our reactions are based on what they said and promised. A lot of the games choices mean junk. You know what game that did this right, Mass Effect 2. That's where things mattered. It's their "where making an extensive character creator" lines in promotional material. Digging their grave with people.

Yeah I think its very fair to go hard on the marketing team from this game... they did no favors by giving people unrealistic expectations... but if you didn't see any trailers and judged the game with no expectations i think most people would enjoy the game a lot more. It is an upgrade in most ways over witcher 3 but is held back by even higher expectations of freedom and scope. Hopefully the patches can help flesh stuff out. But even if the game didn't get any patches ever again i would still rate this game higher than any other open world single player AAA title with the exception of rockstar. If cdpr work there asses off with patches and dlc it may eventually start to close that gap a bit but would need a significant amount of work to catch rdr2 as far as open world polish goes. Honestly I wish the 2 companies would Collab. Or maybe CDPR hires someone from rockstar to help with consulting. Rockstar really do have the best physics and AI though hands down which is a big reason i think this game feels so bad for most people. They are used to rockstar quality and this just isn't it in those rough spots.

 

[Krul2k]

Theres no difference with geralt and v, both are predefined characters. The only diference is that geralt have a lot of background after him (two games, seven books) and V is created for this game.

For a more close example you can compare V with shepard in ME series, yes you can choose gender, aparience, background and even a handful of choices but all of then limited to a close character.

And honestly, i like this aproach, a character with a persoanlity works better in a computer game because after all your options are always limited

Thats what im saying where the problem lies, its not a problem with Geralt because of everything said and its not a problem because of my likes and dislikes but in regards to the topic its a problem because its nothing CDPR said ppl would get.

If they said "hey you play as V, V is just like Geralt with a fixed background, gender etc etc" ppl would've been right ok no problem, but they never, instead they said you the player determine nearly everything about V, gender, orientation etc but importantly background and defining who they are, instead what ppl got was Geralt 2.0 with a touch of Shepard.

I dont have a problem with that im just adressing the topic and why ppl seem pissed

 

[arcsirc]

Would it make difference if you could play as Silverhand from the start of the game to the finish ?

wouldn't have bought it

 

[Yllana_Ardais]

actually I don't feel that people are pissed that they didn't get a completely blank slate charcter they can do what they want with. People seem to really like V. V really is like Shepard, they have core personality traits that make them interesting and that don't really change, but you can make different decisions. Most blank slate characters (like the Dragonborn or the PC from Dragon's Dogma or basically all Dragon Quest games) don't have any personality whatsoever and are to me completely uninteresting. The problem with V is, they choices didn't really pay off in the end and that is what people are mad about.

 

[SpookyFX]

Geralt was/is a set person, always a witcher which brings all what that entails, always white, always male, always heterosexual and always talking the same way.

V can be male or female, hetero, LBGTQ, white, black, street kid, nomad, corpo etc etc yet regardless of all that your right, they offered nothing different from what Geralt was offered

I would have preferred they pick ONE physical type (I have played men and women equally in my 30 years of games * ) and instead offered a plethora of MENTAL options for you to play the same BODY but very different personalities.

* edit: errr, 40?

I have friends that are:

Selfless
Selfish
Violent
Pushy
Non violent negotiators
Lawful
Honorable
The ones that never keep promises
Means to an End types (not lawless just some laws are not justified to be followed)

etcetera and etcetera

So V could have all the same people they interact with in the game, but HOW the player interacts it is given MUCH latitude because we are not so hog tied to programming the various ways they look or what the gender is.

The story and character can still get from A to B as the DEV needs, but how you do it would be up to you. Be aggressive and selfish with your ripper and you may get a better price but he will not inform you about his best equipment. Be nice to street people and not quick to start street combat and the police are not so rude/hostile to you. They may even come to your aid in a street fight sometimes. Always telling your contacts you don't have time for them and there is more time added to when they contact you and so on.

I have never played an "evil" character in my life in these types of games. I was EXCITED about doing it (playing selfish and quick to fight) for the first time in this game. Being able to pick a girl body with a mans voice was NOT worth giving up what I was lead to believe I could play based on the promotional material.

Still in the end I am getting the amount of entertainment I think I should get for the money I paid them. Hopefully in the future I will get a CDPR game more to what I was expecting. Or another great game like this one but please promote it properly.