Hi fellow Cyberpunk lovers and (hopefully) devs,
After spending the past 2 weeks playing the game for 15+hours a day, i've come to know and love Night City and the amount of work the devs have spent in creating such an immersive world. However, I just have a few key suggestions that I feel would take the game to the next level (and a few things that notably damped by excitement and love for the game), that would have otherwise been rated a 10/10.
1) Increase the level cap to 75 and/or allow re-spec of attribute points.
There aren't enough attribute points to go around.... crafting is a really important attribute tree in the game to upgrade your iconic items to legendary status -but that can't be achieved when you put points in your vital combat attributes (e.g. you want cold blood and blades to be maxed out for melee, and some points in athletics for durability). It's kind of frustrating and a bit too limiting in my opinion.
2) Map suggestions
The map in the game looked a bit messy and leaves room for improvement.
Please add a way to filter the map via legend (e.g. I want to see all ripper doc locations, or all junk shop locations)
Add a way to set waypoints to places that aren't roads/locations - it was weird to me that I couldn't place custom map waypoints wherever I wanted.
Change the icon for buying cars so as to not confuse it with undiscovered location.
3) Car customization, vehicle purchase system and possible garages?
The cars in this game are beautiful but it's such a shame that you can't customize the cars you purchase. I was actually quite surprised there wasn't a feature to add decals, or to change paint jobs at a mechanic. Feel like it would add another layer of depth to the game which would be enjoyable (and another cash sink)
And as innovative of a system as the buying cars at certain locations is, it's frustrating that I can't buy every car/motorcycle in the game at a certain spot like a car shop. I would like to 'peruse'.
The addition of more car models would be refreshing too. After playing the game for 2 weeks, i'm a tad bit bored of the range of vehicles - adding 2-3 more to each class would make the car collection feel more complete.
4) Re-do the cop/crime system
I found it quite strange that I could kill a civilian in an enclosed room and a crime would be reported. I would prefer a witness system similar to that of Red Dead Redemption, where there needs to be a witness for a crime to be reported, and killing all witnesses means the no crime reported.
In addition, something feels incomplete about the cop combat system. It would be cool if cops were weaker, but had more vehicles like helicopters and mechs that would appear if you reached 4 stars. Fighting the cops in this game feels lame and discouraged. I want to be on the edge of my seat, slicing down cops as Maxtech is on my ass. I felt like Need for Speed Most wanted did it really well.
5) Revamp street-cred
At the current point, it's just another requirement similar to XP that limits you from buying certain cyberware etc. When im maximum street cred, it doesn't feel like it changes my interaction with the NPCs around me, or how wanted I am by the police.
Also, change the scaling of street cred - 50 street cred sounds horrible. Make it a scale of 0-1000, which could very well play in into a multiplayer expansion (if the game eventually heads that way)
5) Allow customizing character look later in the game
Self-explanatory. Also a way for us to view our character without using the mirror/photo button. And a way for us to view our weapons like in CS:GO.
Also an idea to customize weapon look - neon katanas and so on. Also cyberware mods should make a visual difference on the respective cyberware. E.g. thermal blades on mantis blades should visually be seen as thermal blades.
6) Allow joining of groups/gangs and related missions to keep the game going on
After finishing almost every single gig and quest in the game, the game feels empty. It would be really swell if I could live the dream and join Maxtac as a mantis blade wielding law enforcement lieutenant, or join the Valentinos and go for drug-money exchanges.
In this way, players can join a group and "grind" for more money/rewards, and also see their influence on Night City as a chosen Valentino/NCPD officer etc. You could also add a way for players to see the state of which Night City is in, perhaps a chaos vs order indicator, and see how their actions affect the keeping of Night City.
7) Option to remove strong attack animations
It's frustrating to be locked in the string attack animation of Mantis blades as enemies around alerted and shooting me from every angle. Even though the animations are cool, it negatively impacts the ebb and flow of melee combat - which is otherwise very satisfying. (can't tell how happy I am with the blades and cold blood tree - makes me feel like a killing machine.
Possible addition to melee gameplay: could add more special attacks like grab and stab multiple times (no im not a psycho), or parry and strong attack with katana to spin slash, or crouch and strong attack to chop off the dude's legs clean.
8) Quality of Life update suggestions
- Currently no sound effects for the "craft" button.
-Crafting menu looks messy and unattractive - would be nice to have a revamp visually for clarity
- Currently no sound effects for glass breaking.
- Add ability to increase dodge distance and enable dodging forward or diagonally in reflex tree. Similar to some of the enemies being able to teleport around - I want to be able to do that.
9) Fix the bugs
I mean its no secret that the game is chock full of bugs that would have otherwise made for a very nice gaming experience.
- Moving from water to land - sometimes the character gets stuck and you cant do anything but load up a save
-Audio issues in the game: NPCs not talking and mouths not moving, random loud car sounds blaring even though there aren't any cars around
- Even though its fun to exploit, remove the crafting and money exploits (vending machine, selling painting, crafting epic grenade out of 2 common materials) and compensate via increase money gained by around 15%
- Car getting stuck in terrain. Can be fixed by adding car reset button
- Braindance bugs - feels very frustrating when im stuck in a brain dance and have solved all the clues but am unable to exit.
- Vending machines not dispensing after a while (totally didnt discover this because I was trying to get components)
Conclusion
As "negative" as this post is, i've been super hooked on the game and my complaints/suggestions only come for a place of love for the game and cyberpunk culture. I believe that with enough development, it could make for one of the best games of the decade