I'm on my second playthrough now, and a fair way through it (level 22 I think). What I'm asking about is "what are people's play styles" and what have you found to be interesting/fun ways to approach the game?
As with a lot of RPGs, well-made characters often end up being one-trick ponies. That is, they approach every group of enemies with the same basic precepts and lean heavily on their core competencies. That can make the game a little repetitive and grind-y the longer you are doing the same thing again and again. So, the main thrust of my question is "what play styles have made the game interesting and more enjoyable for you"?
For example, in my first playthrough, I played a streetkid Sandevistan-using Pistols/Revolvers Solo. Whilst I did use a bit of stealth I had virtually nothing invested in Cool or its perks (only the 20% stealth speed boost one). The character's use of stealth was really about observing & marking all of the enemy positions before launching an all-out assault. It didn't matter that enemies had spotted me because by the time my bullet-time had worn off, I was the last thing standing. I also had mantis blades fully up and running so for smaller clusters I could use those instead.
My second playthrough I'm playing a more classic corpo Netrunner style character. That's very much about taking out all of the enemies with quickhacks (often via cameras if available) without being detected, then casually strolling through and collecting the loot from their corpses. Although this netrunner is very strong I rarely feel under threat (like, I've not used a conventional weapon since about level 10). Also, pretty much the exact same tactic works in every single scenario. I very rarely need to swap my quickhacks out (sometimes I put in cyberware malfunction or cripple movement if I'm facing a boss). The usual loadout of short circuit, synapse overload, contagion, ping and (now I have 5 slots) cyberpsychosis is doing me just fine.
So - that 2nd playthrough is an example of a play style that's stronger than my first playthrough but actually IMO a little less fun because the same old tricks kill virtually everything in the game with very low effort required.
What other styles are popular? And what's fun?
As with a lot of RPGs, well-made characters often end up being one-trick ponies. That is, they approach every group of enemies with the same basic precepts and lean heavily on their core competencies. That can make the game a little repetitive and grind-y the longer you are doing the same thing again and again. So, the main thrust of my question is "what play styles have made the game interesting and more enjoyable for you"?
For example, in my first playthrough, I played a streetkid Sandevistan-using Pistols/Revolvers Solo. Whilst I did use a bit of stealth I had virtually nothing invested in Cool or its perks (only the 20% stealth speed boost one). The character's use of stealth was really about observing & marking all of the enemy positions before launching an all-out assault. It didn't matter that enemies had spotted me because by the time my bullet-time had worn off, I was the last thing standing. I also had mantis blades fully up and running so for smaller clusters I could use those instead.
My second playthrough I'm playing a more classic corpo Netrunner style character. That's very much about taking out all of the enemies with quickhacks (often via cameras if available) without being detected, then casually strolling through and collecting the loot from their corpses. Although this netrunner is very strong I rarely feel under threat (like, I've not used a conventional weapon since about level 10). Also, pretty much the exact same tactic works in every single scenario. I very rarely need to swap my quickhacks out (sometimes I put in cyberware malfunction or cripple movement if I'm facing a boss). The usual loadout of short circuit, synapse overload, contagion, ping and (now I have 5 slots) cyberpsychosis is doing me just fine.
So - that 2nd playthrough is an example of a play style that's stronger than my first playthrough but actually IMO a little less fun because the same old tricks kill virtually everything in the game with very low effort required.
What other styles are popular? And what's fun?
