Disclaimer: As of writing I haven't yet finished the game so things I will say in here might not be accurate if they exist further along in the game.
First of all - I'd like to congratulate the entire Dev team for an amazing job well done!! It's been a long time coming and the game is finally out and I admire the labour of love!
I'm really enjoying the game so far and it's easy to see some of the influences that it's borrowed from - like Blade Runner and Akira!
That said - there are things I think the game could improve on - but this is just my opinion:
- More time exploring your background:
First and foremost I noticed that when you choose your background at the beginning of the game (in my case Corpo) - you don't really explore that background for very long.
I would've appreciated a longer introduction and a couple more missions that delved into what it meant to be a Corpo (or the other backgrounds) - what sort of life you lived and things you'd do.
I'm not saying it wasn't explored, but I would've preferred a bit more time with those backgrounds before opening up.
I also mention this because it seems that the only connection to your background after the prologue seems to be certain dialogue options.
- Combat Robot Companion:
I think it wouldve only made sense to add a combat robot companion given that you can already hack turrets as a way to tip the scale of battle.
- More flying car options:
As far as I know the ability to actually fly cars was removed sometime during development but I was a bit surprised that when you fast travel you are greeted with a loading screen. I suppose from a technical perspective that makes sense but I think there's a missed opportunity here that the illusion of using flying cars more in the game could've been utilised when fast traveling.
- Public Transport:
While on the subject of flying cars and fast travel - I was also a bit disappointed that when I was trying to track down a train for the first time to travel from A to B - and found a metro station - I was greeted with a fast travel screen rather than physically boarding a train.
Again I think this makes sense when you look at how this was dealt with in the Witcher but I also think technology and games are far enough along these days to allow for a physical public transport.
I also felt early in the game that it could use a taxi service.
- Cars which support recon drones:
I really think it would be great to implement cars that have a recon or combat drone attached that can be freely used.
I think because a lot of the game takes place in the city where it's hard / not really required to recon with a drone, it makes sense why it wasn't included but out in the Wasteland it would've really helped.
And it would just add to a more varied gameplay I think.
I do appreciate the scripted opportunities we got with recon drones though.
- Better immersion:
I don't really have very many examples for this but I found myself really immersed in this game to the point that I wanted to (instinctively) dry myself off after a shower and spend time eating at ramen shops. I felt that due to the current real life pandemic it was giving me great opportunities to enjoy things I otherwise can't.
The only problem: Dealing with food vendors will show me a shop screen rather than allowing me to actually eat food there and some shops don't even sell the food their store front is advertising.
...and I can't use my towel to dry off
- More Braindance:
Firsf of all - I love Braindance!
It's great!
However I feel it's also immensely underutilized.
I would've really liked to use Braindance whenever I wanted - to hack into people's BD freely and see what they've been up to.
Also - Braindance is often described in the game as something that people mainly use for...adult pleasures...and yet that opportunity is never really (freely) given to the player - which I would've liked.
- Jobs / Police
Again I think this game really excels at being immersive - which is why I think it wouldve been great to give us some job opportunities.
I understand why it's not in the game - it's not that type of game and the focus is on the story rather than doing mundane things - but at times I felt that this game just screams at giving the player the opportunity to be a NCPD police man or detective.
I still would've bought the game if it was all about solving crimes and living the life of a cyberpunk detective.
- Better Skill Tree / Opportunities
Unfortunately I don't really have any good pointers or improvements here but recently games seem to not really give us interesting skill trees for some reasons. I had the same issue with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - a lot of the skills in Cyberpunk 2077 feel a bit like "filler" skills to me.
Not all of them - but I definitely think there are issues when I choose to invest most of my points into "Intelligence" but then don't seem to put much points into its actual skill tree.
- More romance options
I was a bit surprised that there aren't very varied romance options in the game and also I had to look up how romance actually works - which is never a good sign when you have to resort to outside guides to explain how something works.
But in any case I would love to see more heterosexual and same-sex relationship options.
- More locations:
For the DLCs I would love to see some more locations outside of NC. There's several references in the game of Tokyo for example.
- Car customisation:
I heard this was scraped but I feel this is really unfortunate as it would've added a lot to the game I feel like.
- Trauma Team
Maybe I'm missing something but towards the beginning of the game there is a lot of details around Trauma Teams (how they come to your aid when you're near death and how there are different insurance tiers) and yet we never get to see that in the rest of the game.
I almost feel like the information around Trauma Teams set this expectation that it would be an active gameplay feature for players in the game.
- Darker atmosphere:
While some of the themes and missions were thematically quite dark, I didn't necessarily feel that way about NC. Yes there are literally shootings on the streets but for the most part the city is buzzling with life with people just populating the screen and walking around.
Thinking back to the Witcher 3 I feel like the atmosphere was slightly better handled there.
I feel like in the Witcher 3 you knew when you were walking into a shady ally or when poverty was plaguing citizens. (Especially when Radovid closed borders for example) - but in Cyberpunk I don't necessarily have that same feeling.
After playing for several hours the city becomes a bit repetitive and predictable.
I mean the same could be true for Witcher 3s location so I'm not really sure how to address this but it's just something I noticed.
It would've been great to see a better sense of how corporations suck the life out of lower poverty citizens.
And I know in some areas like the abandoned buildings of Pacifica it aims to do that but I would've liked to see that more widespread.
- Minor UI Improvements:
I would highlight completes quests in green and failed quests in red for additional visibility.
I also noticed that every time you go into your quest journal all the categories are always expanded, rather than remembering which ones were collapsed.
First of all - I'd like to congratulate the entire Dev team for an amazing job well done!! It's been a long time coming and the game is finally out and I admire the labour of love!
I'm really enjoying the game so far and it's easy to see some of the influences that it's borrowed from - like Blade Runner and Akira!
That said - there are things I think the game could improve on - but this is just my opinion:
- More time exploring your background:
First and foremost I noticed that when you choose your background at the beginning of the game (in my case Corpo) - you don't really explore that background for very long.
I would've appreciated a longer introduction and a couple more missions that delved into what it meant to be a Corpo (or the other backgrounds) - what sort of life you lived and things you'd do.
I'm not saying it wasn't explored, but I would've preferred a bit more time with those backgrounds before opening up.
I also mention this because it seems that the only connection to your background after the prologue seems to be certain dialogue options.
- Combat Robot Companion:
I think it wouldve only made sense to add a combat robot companion given that you can already hack turrets as a way to tip the scale of battle.
- More flying car options:
As far as I know the ability to actually fly cars was removed sometime during development but I was a bit surprised that when you fast travel you are greeted with a loading screen. I suppose from a technical perspective that makes sense but I think there's a missed opportunity here that the illusion of using flying cars more in the game could've been utilised when fast traveling.
- Public Transport:
While on the subject of flying cars and fast travel - I was also a bit disappointed that when I was trying to track down a train for the first time to travel from A to B - and found a metro station - I was greeted with a fast travel screen rather than physically boarding a train.
Again I think this makes sense when you look at how this was dealt with in the Witcher but I also think technology and games are far enough along these days to allow for a physical public transport.
I also felt early in the game that it could use a taxi service.
- Cars which support recon drones:
I really think it would be great to implement cars that have a recon or combat drone attached that can be freely used.
I think because a lot of the game takes place in the city where it's hard / not really required to recon with a drone, it makes sense why it wasn't included but out in the Wasteland it would've really helped.
And it would just add to a more varied gameplay I think.
I do appreciate the scripted opportunities we got with recon drones though.
- Better immersion:
I don't really have very many examples for this but I found myself really immersed in this game to the point that I wanted to (instinctively) dry myself off after a shower and spend time eating at ramen shops. I felt that due to the current real life pandemic it was giving me great opportunities to enjoy things I otherwise can't.
The only problem: Dealing with food vendors will show me a shop screen rather than allowing me to actually eat food there and some shops don't even sell the food their store front is advertising.
...and I can't use my towel to dry off
- More Braindance:
Firsf of all - I love Braindance!
It's great!
However I feel it's also immensely underutilized.
I would've really liked to use Braindance whenever I wanted - to hack into people's BD freely and see what they've been up to.
Also - Braindance is often described in the game as something that people mainly use for...adult pleasures...and yet that opportunity is never really (freely) given to the player - which I would've liked.
- Jobs / Police
Again I think this game really excels at being immersive - which is why I think it wouldve been great to give us some job opportunities.
I understand why it's not in the game - it's not that type of game and the focus is on the story rather than doing mundane things - but at times I felt that this game just screams at giving the player the opportunity to be a NCPD police man or detective.
I still would've bought the game if it was all about solving crimes and living the life of a cyberpunk detective.
- Better Skill Tree / Opportunities
Unfortunately I don't really have any good pointers or improvements here but recently games seem to not really give us interesting skill trees for some reasons. I had the same issue with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint - a lot of the skills in Cyberpunk 2077 feel a bit like "filler" skills to me.
Not all of them - but I definitely think there are issues when I choose to invest most of my points into "Intelligence" but then don't seem to put much points into its actual skill tree.
- More romance options
I was a bit surprised that there aren't very varied romance options in the game and also I had to look up how romance actually works - which is never a good sign when you have to resort to outside guides to explain how something works.
But in any case I would love to see more heterosexual and same-sex relationship options.
- More locations:
For the DLCs I would love to see some more locations outside of NC. There's several references in the game of Tokyo for example.
- Car customisation:
I heard this was scraped but I feel this is really unfortunate as it would've added a lot to the game I feel like.
- Trauma Team
Maybe I'm missing something but towards the beginning of the game there is a lot of details around Trauma Teams (how they come to your aid when you're near death and how there are different insurance tiers) and yet we never get to see that in the rest of the game.
I almost feel like the information around Trauma Teams set this expectation that it would be an active gameplay feature for players in the game.
- Darker atmosphere:
While some of the themes and missions were thematically quite dark, I didn't necessarily feel that way about NC. Yes there are literally shootings on the streets but for the most part the city is buzzling with life with people just populating the screen and walking around.
Thinking back to the Witcher 3 I feel like the atmosphere was slightly better handled there.
I feel like in the Witcher 3 you knew when you were walking into a shady ally or when poverty was plaguing citizens. (Especially when Radovid closed borders for example) - but in Cyberpunk I don't necessarily have that same feeling.
After playing for several hours the city becomes a bit repetitive and predictable.
I mean the same could be true for Witcher 3s location so I'm not really sure how to address this but it's just something I noticed.
It would've been great to see a better sense of how corporations suck the life out of lower poverty citizens.
And I know in some areas like the abandoned buildings of Pacifica it aims to do that but I would've liked to see that more widespread.
- Minor UI Improvements:
I would highlight completes quests in green and failed quests in red for additional visibility.
I also noticed that every time you go into your quest journal all the categories are always expanded, rather than remembering which ones were collapsed.
Last edited: