(Following post will contain story spoilers about Red Dead Redemption 1)
Cyberpunk 2077 main story could be likened to to someone being told they have cancer, and two weeks to live.
Then, after two weeks, they die. That's it. That's the story.
What they do during those two weeks, doesn't matter. They can die by blowing their brains out or wasting away, doesn't matter.
The main story of CP2077 is about V fending off death, and failing at it. V doesn't die fighting the system, V doesn't die fighting the corps the way silverhand did, V doesn't die protecting someone else. V doesn't die for a cause.
V just dies. Without making much of a difference anyway. Theres very few situations where V even interacts with corps.
This doesn't feel the kind of cyberpunk story you want in your epic blockbuster game. It left me completely cold. The story isn't exciting, engaging or immersive, its just depressing.
Even losing V's life doesn't feel impactful, since at least I dont feel invested in it. The story is so short, no real connection can form between player and V. We aren't really even given the "life" part that V is about to lose. V knows death is approaching very early on, and its inevitable. And its truly inevitable: one of the endings pulls the rug out from under player with some star wars level immersion-breaking:
First doing what it promised would help, remove the chip - then says that V will still die because their "DNA is corrupted"? What absolute poppycock. That's not how DNA works, folks. Someone who wrote this didn't take many classes in biology. If V gets cancer, then say it. Its not "corrupted DNA".
Now I will compare CP2077 to a game that did the same thing right: Red dead redemption 1.
In it, the protagonist John Marston's end is also inevitable, but we don't know it as we play. Vast majority of the game we play free to do as we please; John has a really long mission to hunt people down, which we do. This part of the game is very long and immersive, it could be a game in its own right. We are not handicapped, we are not doomed. He fulfills the mission, everything feels fine.
He returns home to his ranch to live with his wife and son. Multiple missions we do farmer things, from herding cattle, to teaching our son, and so on and so forth. This is what it would feel like to have a normal life. This is the life we lose.
Until comes the day, that the government agent who originally forced John to do the mission, returns. He cannot let John the outlaw live, despite everything John did. Happens one of my favorite scenes in my 30 year career of playing video games. But it is only so, because the scene is a culmination of the whole game and everything that happened before it. On its own, the scene would be merely cool, not epic.
John opens the doors of the barn and stares down at an impossibly large number of gunmen. But the game teases survival right down to the last second. The time-slowed deadeye mode activates, like it would in a normal gunfight, making the player think "Wait, maybe I can still do this.. maybe its like all the other gunfights.." No. The task is impossible. John goes down in a hail of bullets.
That's what it feels like to go down in a blaze of glory. Not only did we intricately play out the life that we lost, we also played out the most glorious way to die.
Then the game doesn't just "end". Game immediately timeskips several years, to the now mature John's son, Jack. We now control him instead, and can continue playing just like before. There is even a way for Jack to get revenge. A somewhat hidden mission for Jack to hunt down that government agent. And let me tell you, there's been very few more satisfying missions Ive ever played.
Now comparing this to the story of Cyberpunk 2077, RDR1 story is told vastly better. Its not that much about the story, but also how is it told. CP2077 is only about accepting your inevitable end, and that doesn't make much of a story.
Cyberpunk 2077 main story could be likened to to someone being told they have cancer, and two weeks to live.
Then, after two weeks, they die. That's it. That's the story.
What they do during those two weeks, doesn't matter. They can die by blowing their brains out or wasting away, doesn't matter.
The main story of CP2077 is about V fending off death, and failing at it. V doesn't die fighting the system, V doesn't die fighting the corps the way silverhand did, V doesn't die protecting someone else. V doesn't die for a cause.
V just dies. Without making much of a difference anyway. Theres very few situations where V even interacts with corps.
This doesn't feel the kind of cyberpunk story you want in your epic blockbuster game. It left me completely cold. The story isn't exciting, engaging or immersive, its just depressing.
Even losing V's life doesn't feel impactful, since at least I dont feel invested in it. The story is so short, no real connection can form between player and V. We aren't really even given the "life" part that V is about to lose. V knows death is approaching very early on, and its inevitable. And its truly inevitable: one of the endings pulls the rug out from under player with some star wars level immersion-breaking:
First doing what it promised would help, remove the chip - then says that V will still die because their "DNA is corrupted"? What absolute poppycock. That's not how DNA works, folks. Someone who wrote this didn't take many classes in biology. If V gets cancer, then say it. Its not "corrupted DNA".
Now I will compare CP2077 to a game that did the same thing right: Red dead redemption 1.
In it, the protagonist John Marston's end is also inevitable, but we don't know it as we play. Vast majority of the game we play free to do as we please; John has a really long mission to hunt people down, which we do. This part of the game is very long and immersive, it could be a game in its own right. We are not handicapped, we are not doomed. He fulfills the mission, everything feels fine.
He returns home to his ranch to live with his wife and son. Multiple missions we do farmer things, from herding cattle, to teaching our son, and so on and so forth. This is what it would feel like to have a normal life. This is the life we lose.
Until comes the day, that the government agent who originally forced John to do the mission, returns. He cannot let John the outlaw live, despite everything John did. Happens one of my favorite scenes in my 30 year career of playing video games. But it is only so, because the scene is a culmination of the whole game and everything that happened before it. On its own, the scene would be merely cool, not epic.
John opens the doors of the barn and stares down at an impossibly large number of gunmen. But the game teases survival right down to the last second. The time-slowed deadeye mode activates, like it would in a normal gunfight, making the player think "Wait, maybe I can still do this.. maybe its like all the other gunfights.." No. The task is impossible. John goes down in a hail of bullets.
That's what it feels like to go down in a blaze of glory. Not only did we intricately play out the life that we lost, we also played out the most glorious way to die.
Then the game doesn't just "end". Game immediately timeskips several years, to the now mature John's son, Jack. We now control him instead, and can continue playing just like before. There is even a way for Jack to get revenge. A somewhat hidden mission for Jack to hunt down that government agent. And let me tell you, there's been very few more satisfying missions Ive ever played.
Now comparing this to the story of Cyberpunk 2077, RDR1 story is told vastly better. Its not that much about the story, but also how is it told. CP2077 is only about accepting your inevitable end, and that doesn't make much of a story.
He's probably writing angry tweets against capitalism on his new, shining MacBook pro in his Versace robe and wearing the newest Nike Airs 
