My Experience of Cyberpunk 2077 after 50 hours in the game - My disappointment, suggestions, and things i just loved. [Spoilers]

[Keylhan]

Hi, i just want to talk about my experience about the game, because... I feel like i really NEED to talk about it.

I played for 50hrs, did all the endings, played the game, started to do a bunch of side quests, but something just... Really disappointed me. During the whole campaign, the world was... Even while i was waiting for quests, doing side quests - Fucking alive. It was the more living game i saw during most years, and surprised me in every way - Bugs apart, i just loved the writing, got me to tears, smile, laugh, or even got me angry, i got touched by the game and more immersed than every other game, for a long time.

But one thing, one fucking thing disappointed me - Once you've done the campaign, the game just... Dies? It just don't feels alive anymore. When you go see again some npc's with who you had some wonderful adventures... They're just empty shells. You can talk to them again, yes, but it's three lines of dialog. Not even a chance to go in a bar, bring them to do something, like, maybe a mission as a follower? Go and kiss the one you loved? Or even... I don't know, just hang out? I just liked to call some characters sometimes, to get news, have new dialog, but really fast, i saw that when V just stops, or when V runs out of things to do... The world waits for him. And what happens if he don't have any more things to do? The world will just wait, indefinitely.

Was wondering if CDPR thought about a daily quest system, something like that, or even, like, interactions with some characters, because... After this insane story, everything that i loved, that filled my heart with a blast of emotions - I just felt empty. I just felt that the world was empty, and that nothing else would happen - Worse - That i can't do anything. I'm just surrounded by empty shells, that soon or late will just stop interacting - I went to see someone again, won't spoil the name, where, or when, but basically

I wondered if, instead of calling from my phone, talking directly would do anything - Three lines of dialog. The same. Lines. It just... Disappointed me. For an world that lives that much, that had so much effort put into it, to look alive, living without V, that we can interact with, where we have a meaning, some kind of value - Just seeing it become empty, frozen...

It disappointed me, and made me sad - I'm just stuck in the sadness everytime i play now, since everything i did is just... Thrown in the bin. Once it's done, it's just done, and no way to just talk again to anyone, except if i load a save, a while ago - So, i'm just putting this here, in case someone reads it, and really home CDPR will do something about it, add some kind of interaction, or give some life to the game once the campaign is done.

Was a really nice ride, but now... It's empty, and really disappointing. It's just like an ice cream - You eat it, and then, you're thirsty.

About the bugs, the only ones to really address fast are the visual ones - I ran into no bug, except for visual ones - They just stopped my immersion, had to load back sometimes, but was kinda fine, just annoying, coulda get me more immersed, but... I'm sure you'll be able to manage the bugs.


For everyone that read this, all along... Thanks, and i really mean it. Don't know why, but it means a lot for me, this game got me in the feels, and got a real impact on me. Sooo, if you care about it too, and if you cared about what i said - Just thanks.

 

[Sild]

Haven't finished the story yet, but reading about your experience with the post-main quest line, it's exactly how i've felt when i did the same in The Witcher 3, pre Blood and Wine. Difference is, in that game, i think after the main story, most of the established NPC's were also gone, so it felt that much more emptier. Regardless, it's something that happens whenever we finish anything truly touching, like a good book or tv series. It's a testament to it's greatness.. that ability to linger on in our thoughts to such a degree.

 

[Suhiira]

Personally I'll save the main quest line for last.
Because I assume the game will not react to you much once you complete it.

Now my questions is, are the side missions all hand crafted thus limited in number or are some procedural?
I get the impression the NCPD ones are procedural thus will be unlimited.

 

[Draconifors]

Moved to Cyberpunk forum, edited title to add spoiler warning (was so long that had to remove some of original title).

 

[Lauro_Soto]

Hopefully they add more content later one , for now im hoping to take the game slowly ... and play it trough the 3 life paths.

 

[TorsenSlider]

It was the more living game i saw during most years....

Friend, can you tell me ... when did you feel the city was alive? I think I play with open world.

Haven't finished the story yet, but reading about your experience with the post-main quest line, it's exactly how i've felt when i did the same in The Witcher 3, pre Blood and Wine. Difference is, in that game, i think after the main story, most of the established NPC's were also gone, so it felt that much more emptier. Regardless, it's something that happens whenever we finish anything truly touching, like a good book or tv series. It's a testament to it's greatness.. that ability to linger on in our thoughts to such a degree.

That the moderators only antendais the posts that praise the game. I find it VERY CONCERNING, if you think that the game's only problem is bugs ... you have a VERY SERIOUS problem. I have nothing to say about the adventure, I think it's great. But the rest of the game is a real disaster. The open world is the worst seen in years. You have some very worrying failures of ideas and mechanics. Right now the game is an Uncharted, Last of us or Tomb Raider, with a hollow city without life or anything to do, which only serves to turn from one mission to another. You must redo a lot of things. IT'S TIME TO LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY !!! STOP KISSING YOUR CHEEKS !!! YOUR SHARES HAVE FALLEN 41% IN THREE DAYS !! Are you aware of what that means? I don't think it's time to pat on the back.

 

[IskrasFemme]

I dont read much, spoiler, BUT, im doing all the secundary quest first to dont finish the game before 2021 :3

 

[xLonexxWarriorx]

On your topic of the ending I can agree, hopefully they make one canon and continue the story and let you play on afterwards.. cyberpunk isn't the kind of game where you just reload the last save before the final set.. especially with certain endings that leave you on big cliffhangers... IT's honestly annoying, I hated it with the witcher 3 and I hate it here.. too bad CD Project Red will never say anything on it.. but man.. the ending honestly ruined what was a great game.. at least to me

 

[Gaudium007]

What bothers me is the lack of simulation and interaction in the world not the bugs really.

 

[Vortigernrex]

As a game designer, there are definitely design issues here. I've been a big fan of the Witcher series (though that also has a few issues believe it or not), but this game has some glaring narrative design problems (not going to talk at all about technical bugs here). The design issues mostly come down to the order in which some things are done. This is a notorious problem in Open World designs, which is why most sidequests are normally gated and segmented (they only unlock once you have met a number of preset conditions). This game spams them all (seemingly based on street cred scores). This means you can get quests generated at any point in the narrative (which is why in some quests Johnny is already friendly and others he's just coming around from not killing you. His development arc is all over the place, which breaks the narrative since he is so pivotal. The vast swarm of sidequests generating means you cannot focus on a plot as you're constantly being spammed by questgivers (I wish I could turn off my phone ... just like real life). Quest log is so crowded now, and more are coming in, that I've been forced to ignore all sidequests in order to keep a bit of narrative focus. Having so much content has made the game a bit unwieldy - and honestly prevented the developers from having enough polish time for the game. It would've been better to have made a smaller, more streamlined game with strong, focused narrative and enough side content to keep the city interesting and encourage exploration, and then add chunky new side content in DLC content packs going ahead. I also find the narrative and dialogue is very on-rails: you don't really have much choice (few either-or dialogue branches). NPCs react pretty much the same to you no matter what you say, and there isn't much meaningful dialogue variety. This is an expensive thing to implement (because of voice line recordings) but a roleplaying game with minimal dialogue agency is not very great. To test this, play through a dialogue twice and choose radically different options and see if the game changes much. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to. For this to work, key NPCs need to have 'attitude values' scripted in, which adjust based on player choices, and spawn or block off dialogue branches. I don't see this happening yet - or if it is, there is so much content, these subtleties are getting lost. All this said, I do love the individual content developed (there are some great designers and level builders who worked on this), but the whole scope is undermining the quality of these individual contributions. A more focused, purposeful design would've made this game way better. It is going to take quite some doing to smooth out the wrinkles and it will always be limited as a roleplaying game.

 

[Keylhan]

Haven't finished the story yet, but reading about your experience with the post-main quest line, it's exactly how i've felt when i did the same in The Witcher 3, pre Blood and Wine. Difference is, in that game, i think after the main story, most of the established NPC's were also gone, so it felt that much more emptier. Regardless, it's something that happens whenever we finish anything truly touching, like a good book or tv series. It's a testament to it's greatness.. that ability to linger on in our thoughts to such a degree.

Yes, but still, that doesn't change the issue - The post-campaign is just... Heavily empty. Still, there's some secondary quests, but... Meh.
At least an little interaction with your romance characters or friends could be cool, like, hanging out, kissing the one you loved, or, well, shit like that - Even games like SRIV or GTAV did that.
IMO, CDPR still has a bunch of work to make their game really "next-gen" or as good as they expected it to be - I was close from an negative review just because of that post-campaign, it's just like
I didn't have enough.
Cyberpunk 2077 is just like a muffin : You eat it, then you're fucking thirsty. And there's nothing you can drink.

Spoiler: SPOILER : Which campaign needs another part in my opinion

And, to be honest, i really found that the Panam Campaign needs some additionnal content, or to be longer. I really fucking wanted to see Alaska, and have more time with the Nomads - I fucking loved the Aldecaldos, and it broke my heart that, well, once you're done with their quests, they're just an empty shell. One quest line, then, no little missions, no daily thingys, nothing like this - Basically all empty shells, you can talk to everyone, yet, no other options of dialog sometimes, no way to hang out, you just have three lines, or one depending on the characters. The only one that was different was the flat "Hi, V" from Panam. Oh, it wasn't even a choice in the dialog. Just sad, left me more empty than when i finished this campaign. It's just as if the world stopped living.

I dont read much, spoiler, BUT, im doing all the secundary quest first to dont finish the game before 2021 :3

Yeah, sorry about that, i tried to spoil as less as i could, i don't even see where i spoiled, but... Sorry about that ^^', anyways, have fun in Night City !

Friend, can you tell me ... when did you feel the city was alive? I think I play with open world.

That the moderators only antendais the posts that praise the game. I find it VERY CONCERNING, if you think that the game's only problem is bugs ... you have a VERY SERIOUS problem. I have nothing to say about the adventure, I think it's great. But the rest of the game is a real disaster. The open world is the worst seen in years. You have some very worrying failures of ideas and mechanics. Right now the game is an Uncharted, Last of us or Tomb Raider, with a hollow city without life or anything to do, which only serves to turn from one mission to another. You must redo a lot of things. IT'S TIME TO LISTEN TO THE COMMUNITY !!! STOP KISSING YOUR CHEEKS !!! YOUR SHARES HAVE FALLEN 41% IN THREE DAYS !! Are you aware of what that means? I don't think it's time to pat on the back.

I mean, the game IS alive in my opinion - You can just roam in the city, and, well, see shit appening, people taking care of each other sometimes, some gunfights, things like this, some little dialogs, won't spoil some little missions that you can find by just moving around in the map - But basically, the game is alive. The only issue about this "Living" part is just when you run someone over, basically, the police magically appears

Spoiler

(And no, drones coulda been included in the lore, but the teleporting cops aren't included in the aerial space of NC if they don't use a drop ship)

or sometimes things just disappear magically.

On your topic of the ending I can agree, hopefully they make one canon and continue the story and let you play on afterwards.. cyberpunk isn't the kind of game where you just reload the last save before the final set.. especially with certain endings that leave you on big cliffhangers... IT's honestly annoying, I hated it with the witcher 3 and I hate it here.. too bad CD Project Red will never say anything on it.. but man.. the ending honestly ruined what was a great game.. at least to me

Same for me - The ending left me empty, and kinda ruined the game. Too short, and too open for me - I was close from putting a bad review just because of this - Anyways, for me, they shouldn't make one ending canon, but make DLC's (and not little ones) to give more content to each ending that you can do - There's not that much.

What bothers me is the lack of simulation and interaction in the world not the bugs really.

Same here - Most of the bugs are minor, but, as i said - Empty shells. Fucking empty shells scattered around in the map, once you've done some quests. The characters you loved - Say bye to them, they're just dolls now. They could at least add one option to act with them, like a kiss, hang out in a bar, go for a ride, talk for a bit, things like this, or, maybe, make some content later - Who knows, i really hope they'll do something about that lack of content.

As a game designer, there are definitely design issues here. I've been a big fan of the Witcher series (though that also has a few issues believe it or not), but this game has some glaring narrative design problems (not going to talk at all about technical bugs here). The design issues mostly come down to the order in which some things are done. This is a notorious problem in Open World designs, which is why most sidequests are normally gated and segmented (they only unlock once you have met a number of preset conditions). This game spams them all (seemingly based on street cred scores). This means you can get quests generated at any point in the narrative (which is why in some quests Johnny is already friendly and others he's just coming around from not killing you. His development arc is all over the place, which breaks the narrative since he is so pivotal. The vast swarm of sidequests generating means you cannot focus on a plot as you're constantly being spammed by questgivers (I wish I could turn off my phone ... just like real life). Quest log is so crowded now, and more are coming in, that I've been forced to ignore all sidequests in order to keep a bit of narrative focus. Having so much content has made the game a bit unwieldy - and honestly prevented the developers from having enough polish time for the game. It would've been better to have made a smaller, more streamlined game with strong, focused narrative and enough side content to keep the city interesting and encourage exploration, and then add chunky new side content in DLC content packs going ahead. I also find the narrative and dialogue is very on-rails: you don't really have much choice (few either-or dialogue branches). NPCs react pretty much the same to you no matter what you say, and there isn't much meaningful dialogue variety. This is an expensive thing to implement (because of voice line recordings) but a roleplaying game with minimal dialogue agency is not very great. To test this, play through a dialogue twice and choose radically different options and see if the game changes much. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to. For this to work, key NPCs need to have 'attitude values' scripted in, which adjust based on player choices, and spawn or block off dialogue branches. I don't see this happening yet - or if it is, there is so much content, these subtleties are getting lost. All this said, I do love the individual content developed (there are some great designers and level builders who worked on this), but the whole scope is undermining the quality of these individual contributions. A more focused, purposeful design would've made this game way better. It is going to take quite some doing to smooth out the wrinkles and it will always be limited as a roleplaying game.

Can agree with you, ESPECIALLY FOR THE FUCKING PHONE (stfu delamain), but yeah, forced to drop some side quests cuz spammed, i mean, i agree generally, just don't agree on one thing - Your background and what you do can change all the things that happens. It won't change the whole story, but they'll isolately change the ongoing on the specific mission you're in. Even, depending on how you react with the 1st boss, it will change something later - Won't tell what, to avoid spoils. Or yeah, i'll put it in a spoiler just below

Spoiler

Indeed, if you kill Royce, the first boss, when you go later on a mission, a side quest, they'll remember the guy from All Foods that offed Royce, and you'll get in some trouble. And, tho, you can either fight Militech or the Maelstorms on the first mission, i know a friend did the mission drastically differently than me, because of his choices.

Basically, i agree with most of the people i Quoted here, except for one or two - But like, as i tried to say in my previous message, i just really hope that CDPR won't leave the game in that state, and at least make it really "next-gen" or do something great with it - Right now, i only see one solo game that ends once the campaign is done - And it's nothing really new. I really hecc'in hope they'll add some content through time, even if it's daily quests, dlc's every year - But this adventure shouldn't stop. All of this story is about getting the chip outta our hecc'in head, to get our life back - Our freedom back.

It's nice to have it back, but... It's better to have something to do with it. Like, really, it's what it misses. It's a fight for your freedom, but you can't have it. All you did is just in vain. And it's heavily disappointing. About the story, indeed. I mean, can't blame them for the story if it's how they intended it - But at least, if we're stuck in the "before ending", let us interact with the world, and keep doing things in it. I really don't want to forget the Aldecaldos, or other characters, like Claire as an example - And it just disappointed me that we can't interact with characters, or even just go in a bar, sit, and ask for a specific drink, and drink it without going in the menu, buying it, and then drinking it without any hecc'in animation.

Spoiler

LET ME DRINK A FUCKING JACKIE WELLES !

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2020

Moved to Cyberpunk forum, edited title to add spoiler warning (was so long that had to remove some of original title).

Oh, and, thanks ! x)

 

[TucoPacifico1980]

On what difficulty did you play and which platform?

 

[Joao241]

Man, I totally understand.

I can relate to you, as i felt the same, after finishing the game the very first time i felt really sad. And same as you, i needed to let it out, speak to someone, let some steam off. With this pandemic, i spent a lot of time enjoying the game, really immersed in it, exploring the quests, enjoying the lore. I had to unplug from my PS4 and gaming in order to grasp some reality and let the sadness go.

I can agree on the same basic issues, every day i played the game crashed at least 4-5 times, there were a lot of bugs, but i really didn't mind i really enjoyed the game, the story, the lore. My PS4 handled it like a champion i would gladly pay again for this game.

When i first finished i even skipped the credits to save me some suffering. Congrats to the developers while playing the ending, they achieved making me feel frustrated, they totally did it. It was so immersive that i really felt desperation, frustration, the willingness to connect to anyone in the story.

I felt as sad as i felt when i finished a great book. What's next? I loved Witcher 3, and the expansions... They kinda leave it open as you finish both of them. In Cyberpunk 2077 i felt how the loop was closed, and i felt a loss. Same as you, kinda wanted to throw the game off... why to play again for missing content, the loop was already closed.

To save me some anguish i went into youtube to find out the other endings and give me some hope, maybe i made the wrong choice, i forgot to do something, etc..

Same as some posts before:
- Don't close this universe, it's a pity if with the endings it's gone.
- If you give us interaction commit to it. If i go to a bar, i want to experience a drink not to buy a drink and that's it. If there's a restaurant, crap do some animation, make me enjoy some sushi or ramen.
- If i'm going to have a relation to an NPC give me more. I would put useless sms crap and scenarios.
- I dunno why you can "customize genitals" yet it doesn't affect anything in the game. You could have invested that time elsewhere.
- NPC's all around the world needed more interaction.
- Paths needs more relevance.
- Quoting Tolkien and Bilbo Baggins, "like butter scraped over too much bread"

It seems you opened a wonderful universe and we're forced to close it and end it to provide a product.

I can just say, i loved the game. There are a LOT of areas of opportunity, yes, nevertheless i loved it. I really hope this game is expanded and this universe grows, it has a lot of potential.