CDPR that's known specifically for their RPG writing. Sigh..
CDPR couldn't even stick the landing with this over-hyped, over-promised, and under-cooked/under-delivered game. I excused the bugs. I excused the cut content pre-release and even the dissipation of third person combat and third person cover system. I (mistakenly) excuse'd the jarring shift in marketing as it pertained to the game's official classification, from "open-world RPG" to "open world action-adventure game." But after finally reaching the ending to this severe let-down, I have come to the conclusion that my tolerance to bovine defecation has reached its limit.
This is atrocious writing on any level no matter how you slice it. Film? It's bad writing. Novels or literature? It doesn't even come close to reaching anywhere remotely near the cusp of nuance or prose of either the former or the latter. I have found better writing on the walls of bathrooms.
Why would you make six or seven endings that all basically amount to death? It's bad enough that CDPR has seemingly not learned a shred from The Witcher 3, as all of the abilities I acquired during gameplay were just passive stat bonuses. But to go from the absolute brilliance of The Witcher 3 to whatever unholy orgy of misery that is comprised of these "various" endings is just astonishing.
As disappointed as I was with the combat, the progression system, the nonexistent role-playing mechanics, absurdly basic NPC AI, I still found myself enjoying the game immeasurably. There are kernels of brilliance everywhere, and I had fun slicing people up with Satori despite the process consisting of nothing but mashing the right trigger button. But how do you pull a Mass Effect 3 this hard? This game is like watching a Coen brothers film. No matter who you root for, you're gravely mistaken in doing so, as they have a more miserable and shorter lifespan than a Game of Thrones character.
The nihilism that saturates every facet of this game's narrative and subsequent endings is practically suffocating, and I am honest to God sick of this disgustingly-rising trend that has permeated video-game stories since at least 2012. I didn't enjoy RDR 2 for that precise reason, and I didn't enjoy Mass Effect 3 especially for that reason. The former became a tedious slog in Chapter 5, as the game malformed into this twisted, overly-depressing Consumption Simulator™ rather than the fun wild west romp I was expecting to enjoy upon purchase.
These video-game writers seem to equate the maudlin with "depth" and the saccharine to inherently "immature, akin to a Disney production." Both forms of logic are heinously fallacious. Something that is so heavy-handed in its tragic atmosphere doesn't necessarily equate to writing that could be considered deep, well-written, or poignant. Just as saccharine endings aren't necessarily diabetes-inducing or full of pandering. Not only do I vehemently disagree with RDR 2 having an appropriate ending, I'd argue that games like RDR 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 take themselves entirely too seriously.
Speaking purely from an RPG standpoint alone makes these solemn seven endings a collective farce. What happened to choice with impact? Impact is not found among what are essentially a bunch of homogenized flavors of "It's all pointless, where is your God now?" Variety is the spice of life (and of RPGs) but CDPR chose to dump a whole bottle of red hot sauce on the dish.
With these endings, my disappointment has come full circle. I was kind of looking forward to a repeat play-through or postgame despite my many misgivings involving the gameplay at its core, but now my mind is made up. What were you thinking CDPR?
If you can't provide the player with a playable product, interesting gameplay, fun combat, varied sidequests, deep RPG mechanics, optimized graphics and performance, or even promises touted before the game dropped, then you sure as hell better provide them with reaffirmation. Congratulations, you failed four out of those five promises. You know which ones I'm talking about.
This is atrocious writing on any level no matter how you slice it. Film? It's bad writing. Novels or literature? It doesn't even come close to reaching anywhere remotely near the cusp of nuance or prose of either the former or the latter. I have found better writing on the walls of bathrooms.
Why would you make six or seven endings that all basically amount to death? It's bad enough that CDPR has seemingly not learned a shred from The Witcher 3, as all of the abilities I acquired during gameplay were just passive stat bonuses. But to go from the absolute brilliance of The Witcher 3 to whatever unholy orgy of misery that is comprised of these "various" endings is just astonishing.
As disappointed as I was with the combat, the progression system, the nonexistent role-playing mechanics, absurdly basic NPC AI, I still found myself enjoying the game immeasurably. There are kernels of brilliance everywhere, and I had fun slicing people up with Satori despite the process consisting of nothing but mashing the right trigger button. But how do you pull a Mass Effect 3 this hard? This game is like watching a Coen brothers film. No matter who you root for, you're gravely mistaken in doing so, as they have a more miserable and shorter lifespan than a Game of Thrones character.
The nihilism that saturates every facet of this game's narrative and subsequent endings is practically suffocating, and I am honest to God sick of this disgustingly-rising trend that has permeated video-game stories since at least 2012. I didn't enjoy RDR 2 for that precise reason, and I didn't enjoy Mass Effect 3 especially for that reason. The former became a tedious slog in Chapter 5, as the game malformed into this twisted, overly-depressing Consumption Simulator™ rather than the fun wild west romp I was expecting to enjoy upon purchase.
These video-game writers seem to equate the maudlin with "depth" and the saccharine to inherently "immature, akin to a Disney production." Both forms of logic are heinously fallacious. Something that is so heavy-handed in its tragic atmosphere doesn't necessarily equate to writing that could be considered deep, well-written, or poignant. Just as saccharine endings aren't necessarily diabetes-inducing or full of pandering. Not only do I vehemently disagree with RDR 2 having an appropriate ending, I'd argue that games like RDR 2 and Cyberpunk 2077 take themselves entirely too seriously.
Speaking purely from an RPG standpoint alone makes these solemn seven endings a collective farce. What happened to choice with impact? Impact is not found among what are essentially a bunch of homogenized flavors of "It's all pointless, where is your God now?" Variety is the spice of life (and of RPGs) but CDPR chose to dump a whole bottle of red hot sauce on the dish.
With these endings, my disappointment has come full circle. I was kind of looking forward to a repeat play-through or postgame despite my many misgivings involving the gameplay at its core, but now my mind is made up. What were you thinking CDPR?
If you can't provide the player with a playable product, interesting gameplay, fun combat, varied sidequests, deep RPG mechanics, optimized graphics and performance, or even promises touted before the game dropped, then you sure as hell better provide them with reaffirmation. Congratulations, you failed four out of those five promises. You know which ones I'm talking about.
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I don't even know what I'm more mad about. The false advertising on player choice, or how they did V so dirty. They literally lied and are still running bad ads.
True, but if you look at how many players got the achievements for at least one ending, that are not too many. A lot of console players can't even get to the end right now. I think this topic will become much, much bigger once the game's performance is better
Yea it is miles better at beeing GTA. I get that. i think they just tryed to combine to menny types of game into something that isent really good at any of it. If the ai wasent shit it would be a much better GTA clone, If the story wasent singeltracked and they added an interacteble city it would be a better RPG and so on. I doubt they will try to do everything of those things they can do. Im guessing they will go for the fix bugs then make more content in quick missions and better wepons so on. Doubt they will spend much on deepining the story and so on tho.
You can find it in the info about the Unification War; the NUSA roughly around 2020 lost its status as a Superpower, but it is largely implied with all current lore that the NUSA are still the Top-Dogs technologically and Militant wise, and are steps ahead of Arasaka in terms of technology.
In current/recentish lore, the NUSA under it's current president Rosalind Myers nationalized Militech forces (around 2069) and declared war on the Free States. Arasaka supported the free states by giving them weapons and security advisors, but the free states were under a lot of pressure. The NUSA force was prevented from invading by then councilman Lucius Rhyne the mayor who dies at some point in the 2077 game.
A different source - a community podcast:
So if there's any one that can save V, it's the NUSA. Which I've no doubt is where the plot is headed. And given that V takes the fight to Arasaka of all people.. the NUSA are going to be interested. They want to be back in full power.. Corporate opposition prevents that. People like V are very valuable.
To be fair, I've never actually finished the game. I barely have any achievements despite having 92.9 hours (and gaining). I got spoiled, and spoiled myself further. Most of my time, was wasted on characters who were destined for a trash ending - who I subsequently deleted. I won't ever play a nomad now, unless they fix these endings. Soulkilled? Nah, I'm good.
Really, I think the only playable background currently is corpo. Even then you have to hard RP for a not as bad ending (not soulkilled). You can't even be evil in this game, only neutral/neutral, so it's extremely difficult even then.
Same and i refuse to play the ending. Or ill do the suicide one if i feel i must. and im not even sure even if they fix the glaring falsehoods they said in all promo and other stuff ill come back. i dont feel like waiting 6 more months for something that just might not come. and i get that it isent easy to say what there plan is and communicate with us. But hiding in a hole isent helping either. the backlash is still there.
I think they serve their purpose fine. I know there might not be happy endings, but there are definitely brighter ones:
Bad endings: Everything you unlock through main story missions, so Arasaka and suicide
'Bad' endings: Almost all that unlock through Rouge and Panam: V in cyberspace, Johnny takeover & bad secret ending
Neutral/Good endings: Good secret ending & leaving with the Aldecaldos
That's how I'd rate them, roughly, in my mind.The Aldecaldos route is basically Arasaka, but better for V in almost every regard: You have 6 months regardless, but you don't waste weeks in orbit, keep your relationship, don't cause an Arasaka dystopia (Yorinobu takes over, kills Hanako) and if you choose to become an engram you are merged with Alt behind the Blackwall - "free" - not stored away, without rights and at the mercy of Arasaka. Shame Smasher does his thing with Saul's head though.
Secret ending is neutral/good because that's the true 'Become a NC legend' ending.
Yes you're probably dead in 6 months, even in the 'good' endings, but it is somewhat left to player interpretation in those. Is it likely there is some kind of cure for V? No, but those endings also don't show V in a wheelchair, brain deteriorating away - we're shown V driving into the sunset in one and V going to start a legendary heist in the other.
I feel lucky to have played a corpo destined for the Arasaka ending first. It gave me hope to play a second time with a Streetkid for a better ending. Right now, I just don't play anymore. Why force myself through bugs when I cannot get immersed right now anyway? I just wait until they (hopefully, but I think they will) fix it (most likely with an expansion). Then I can still have content I haven't played right now. (Like the Panam quests, wanted to save those for my Nomad playthrough, lol)
Only keep your relationship if its Panam or Judy, so only good for men or lesbians. Again nothing against that, but if you get that, I want something positive for me as well
Whats really pissing me off is that the endings could have been the middle, where your lifepath really comes into play. Corpo could have joined the Arisaka again and became the right hand, the fixxer, the evil m-fucker that i envisioned when i heard about the game. Full of high tech implants and so on. but no just die here or get 6 moths you dont even know about.
I don't really get it why everyone thinks Aldecado ending is happy one. Alt pretty much seals the deal with V dying and replacing with copy and overexplains the soulkiller. Another thing, the goal of V really missmatches with the ending, never it was really mentioned that V wants to leave the city (unless I missed it). And the fact that you go out with your lover and supposedly new family to Arzinow or whatever just to die in 6 months of agonizing death and leave them alone without you? Yeah, in my head, this is a really sad ending pretending to be good ending.
But what the hell do I know, I'm just a random pleb, no idea what CDPR is thinking with this. We might get conclusions or we might get fuck all.
They could have made so much more with it. its just fricking depressing
Anyway, just found pure gold
Finally CP2077 is actually making me laugh.
Finally CP2077 is actually making me laugh.
In the end you're dealt with a shit hand. You have a say in how V deals with the cards he is dealt, but have no agency in which cards the world deals you.
Unfortunately V is clipped about 20% in the game and the rest is you living on borrowed time and what you do with it.
In each case I'm convinced that the tarot readings in the nomad end are positive and that V likely lives in this ending. While it's an odd way to convey the message, the tarot readings you get are all 100% accurate if V dies or gives up his body to Johnny.
Unfortunately V is clipped about 20% in the game and the rest is you living on borrowed time and what you do with it.
In each case I'm convinced that the tarot readings in the nomad end are positive and that V likely lives in this ending. While it's an odd way to convey the message, the tarot readings you get are all 100% accurate if V dies or gives up his body to Johnny.
Describes the game and the whole year of 2020 accurately.
Yeah, I'll probably get as close to 100% the game and/or just not do the ending, then shelve it for a pretty lengthy amount of time. Unless they can give me a reason to come back and replay it, I doubt I will, for awhile.