At its core, the game does a few things good, but too many things are somewhat mediocre. Cyberpunk for me is a diamond in the rough.
People with too low standards, are in their own way just as bad as those with too high standards. I don't think people understand this. People should have standards of some kind. Investors of all types have rights, whether you are big time investors, or just average people preordering.
What does history do right and wrong in gaming. People can make excuses and point the finger all they want, but if they fell short, they still fell short at the end of the day. It's not so much what they promised, it's more about doing a good job and showing love/creativity into whatever few things their game does offer. The main reason people compare cyberpunk to older games, is because you can always look at other titles to see what was done well and what wasn't, and how much creativity and love went into games. Yes no game can be perfect/have it all, but people are blindly defending too much. (to be fair people can blindly hate too much also)
Here is a list of my few disappointments.
1. Character Creation could have been a lot better. What they did have was nice, but it really felt like they took one step forward and two big steps back. Being able to change voice maturity would have been nice. I don't mind the main voice for female V, it just did not match my main character very well.
2. Lack of vehicle customization. I am not asking for deep customization features on par with what they showed in trailers, but they could have at least allowed players to change vehicle colors and whatnot. Also they made it seem like your vehicle was your baby. From easily stealing vehicles and vehicles they throw in your face, the value of my vehicle felt minimal.
3. The world is eye candy but feels empty. Stands that you cant really interact with and whatnot. I read a comment somewhere that said the world felt like "Move along nothing to see here" and I kind of agree. The missions/main story do help of course don't get me wrong, but the reality of its empty world hurts. Nice Initial taste but it leaves a bad aftertaste.
4. How engaging the overall AI feels in the world. Cops, Walking civilians, Driving Civilians, and gangs just feel poorly executed. I just wish the gangs/cops/civilians in the world felt more real.
5. Life path/choices are there, but they are too minimal. Was really hoping there would be more depth there. This was one of my main reasons why I pre ordered the game. I knew from day one, I wanted to play its corpo path. Unfortunately, I did not get my moneys worth on that end.
6. Forced to interact with mirrors to see your main V. It would have been nice to allow players on pc/next gen to disable that in settings, given how little the players sees your whole character in game.
7. The lack of mini games/activities. Not saying they need something like gwent but they can sure think of something creative that players could do in their world. A weight lifting mini game or a cool tarot theme card game, where you can play with misty for hours. In valhalla there is a game called olrog, it was really basic, but fun to sit and play with npc's around the world. In fact valhalla had 2 other cool mini games on top of that. I would even take a rock paper scissor game with someone if they allowed it.
8. Hand and knife combat is poor. I tried to use fist and knife combat in the game but it really felt lackluster. Would love to see improvements there big time. Fallout 4 was not the best but it did have some cool take down animations.
9. Third person mode. First person does make certain things better and that is true. I know nothings wrong with first person mode, but nothing is wrong with third person as well. They both have their ups and downs, I would like to experience what I like most. If they did a better job showing your V, It probably would not even be a big deal.
10. More/better vehicle stations, The radio in my opinion was not that great. I almost always turned it off.
11. No parkour Perk tree
12. How empty your apartment felt. I remember going to my apartment multiple times just to see if I got any computer messages, but nothing
I wanted to see them give players more incentives to enjoy your apartment. As example a ton of randomized showering/sleeping/mirror animations and whatnot. Things to do on your personal computer. Observer had a cool computer mini game if anyone knows/remembers that. This was one of the things that really annoyed me in Jedi fallen order, was the lack to do in the ship. I am sure people can think of creative things.
13. The main story/relationships did feel a bit short. I would not have had played about 55 hours and made 300,000+ eddies, if I rushed through the story. I know you can just delay/not touch the main story for ages, but lets be real, their main story/romance length is a bit under average. I really felt like they needed another act to smooth things out.
There is still hope.
1. Deal with most of their visual/audio bugs
2. Improve a good amount of quality of life things in their game. One example - Allow players to fast travel through their map without having to first locate and reach a fast travel point. This just saves a little bit of time/hassle.
3. Add new content to character creation - simple vehicle customization - Hand/knife combat and more
4. Making the AI/physics a much better experience
5. Thinking about reworking who you can romance
6. Quickly add small things from their trailers that is within their reach. Of course some features will take much longer and some may never be in the game, but I'm positive a few are 100% doable within a quick time frame. Example - adding feature to allow players to change appearance mid game. Does not have to be complicated, just go to a known fixer or your wardrobe. Be upfront and say that some features will not be on older gen consoles but only on next gen/pc.
7. Make a big announce as soon as they can, that they are not giving up. Let players know that they are trying to do whatever they can to make things right with those who rightfully felt disappointed. Yes we all know people can still enjoy the game for what it is, but we can not let anything and everything slide. What about certain pc players that had a little over 2 hours and now can't get a refund. They need to start being honest and reassure people.
Just those things alone would jump a 6 or 7/10 game by many to 8/10 or higher. I thought this game had its moments, I will give it that. Even though shallow, the game can be eye candy (depending on your hardware), gun play is pretty good and core parts of the story are good. The overall game at its current stage, objectively speaking is early access material. I wish them the best of luck, I really want to love this game objectively and not just in my own bubble subjectively.
People with too low standards, are in their own way just as bad as those with too high standards. I don't think people understand this. People should have standards of some kind. Investors of all types have rights, whether you are big time investors, or just average people preordering.
What does history do right and wrong in gaming. People can make excuses and point the finger all they want, but if they fell short, they still fell short at the end of the day. It's not so much what they promised, it's more about doing a good job and showing love/creativity into whatever few things their game does offer. The main reason people compare cyberpunk to older games, is because you can always look at other titles to see what was done well and what wasn't, and how much creativity and love went into games. Yes no game can be perfect/have it all, but people are blindly defending too much. (to be fair people can blindly hate too much also)
Here is a list of my few disappointments.
1. Character Creation could have been a lot better. What they did have was nice, but it really felt like they took one step forward and two big steps back. Being able to change voice maturity would have been nice. I don't mind the main voice for female V, it just did not match my main character very well.
2. Lack of vehicle customization. I am not asking for deep customization features on par with what they showed in trailers, but they could have at least allowed players to change vehicle colors and whatnot. Also they made it seem like your vehicle was your baby. From easily stealing vehicles and vehicles they throw in your face, the value of my vehicle felt minimal.
3. The world is eye candy but feels empty. Stands that you cant really interact with and whatnot. I read a comment somewhere that said the world felt like "Move along nothing to see here" and I kind of agree. The missions/main story do help of course don't get me wrong, but the reality of its empty world hurts. Nice Initial taste but it leaves a bad aftertaste.
4. How engaging the overall AI feels in the world. Cops, Walking civilians, Driving Civilians, and gangs just feel poorly executed. I just wish the gangs/cops/civilians in the world felt more real.
5. Life path/choices are there, but they are too minimal. Was really hoping there would be more depth there. This was one of my main reasons why I pre ordered the game. I knew from day one, I wanted to play its corpo path. Unfortunately, I did not get my moneys worth on that end.
6. Forced to interact with mirrors to see your main V. It would have been nice to allow players on pc/next gen to disable that in settings, given how little the players sees your whole character in game.
7. The lack of mini games/activities. Not saying they need something like gwent but they can sure think of something creative that players could do in their world. A weight lifting mini game or a cool tarot theme card game, where you can play with misty for hours. In valhalla there is a game called olrog, it was really basic, but fun to sit and play with npc's around the world. In fact valhalla had 2 other cool mini games on top of that. I would even take a rock paper scissor game with someone if they allowed it.
8. Hand and knife combat is poor. I tried to use fist and knife combat in the game but it really felt lackluster. Would love to see improvements there big time. Fallout 4 was not the best but it did have some cool take down animations.
9. Third person mode. First person does make certain things better and that is true. I know nothings wrong with first person mode, but nothing is wrong with third person as well. They both have their ups and downs, I would like to experience what I like most. If they did a better job showing your V, It probably would not even be a big deal.
10. More/better vehicle stations, The radio in my opinion was not that great. I almost always turned it off.
11. No parkour Perk tree
12. How empty your apartment felt. I remember going to my apartment multiple times just to see if I got any computer messages, but nothing
I wanted to see them give players more incentives to enjoy your apartment. As example a ton of randomized showering/sleeping/mirror animations and whatnot. Things to do on your personal computer. Observer had a cool computer mini game if anyone knows/remembers that. This was one of the things that really annoyed me in Jedi fallen order, was the lack to do in the ship. I am sure people can think of creative things.13. The main story/relationships did feel a bit short. I would not have had played about 55 hours and made 300,000+ eddies, if I rushed through the story. I know you can just delay/not touch the main story for ages, but lets be real, their main story/romance length is a bit under average. I really felt like they needed another act to smooth things out.
There is still hope.
1. Deal with most of their visual/audio bugs
2. Improve a good amount of quality of life things in their game. One example - Allow players to fast travel through their map without having to first locate and reach a fast travel point. This just saves a little bit of time/hassle.
3. Add new content to character creation - simple vehicle customization - Hand/knife combat and more
4. Making the AI/physics a much better experience
5. Thinking about reworking who you can romance
6. Quickly add small things from their trailers that is within their reach. Of course some features will take much longer and some may never be in the game, but I'm positive a few are 100% doable within a quick time frame. Example - adding feature to allow players to change appearance mid game. Does not have to be complicated, just go to a known fixer or your wardrobe. Be upfront and say that some features will not be on older gen consoles but only on next gen/pc.
7. Make a big announce as soon as they can, that they are not giving up. Let players know that they are trying to do whatever they can to make things right with those who rightfully felt disappointed. Yes we all know people can still enjoy the game for what it is, but we can not let anything and everything slide. What about certain pc players that had a little over 2 hours and now can't get a refund. They need to start being honest and reassure people.
Just those things alone would jump a 6 or 7/10 game by many to 8/10 or higher. I thought this game had its moments, I will give it that. Even though shallow, the game can be eye candy (depending on your hardware), gun play is pretty good and core parts of the story are good. The overall game at its current stage, objectively speaking is early access material. I wish them the best of luck, I really want to love this game objectively and not just in my own bubble subjectively.
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