First off: I have been playing this game on and off from release, yet never really experienced a lot of techical trouble (PC). So for me, with the addon it went from decent to good in terms of gaming experience. Also, after 2 years now I really don't care too much any more about broken promises and disappointed expectations.
But the one thing that really bugs me about the game is becoming stronger with every new feature that gets added: the game environment simply does not fit the character and their story. Which is really sad, because it would have been easy to fix that, in any number of ways:
- have us play a pre-story in which the character already gets around the city, and does all the exploring and gig work before the serious tragedy starts
- make the character discover the real issue with the relic over time, so Silverhand is just an inconvenience, an oddity, during the gig work phase
- give the story some upward turns instead of setting the clock right after the introduction, so phases of regular merc work life become excusable
That's just three right off the top of my head. The creative types can probably come up with a dozen more if you give them half the night and a bottle of wine to mull it over. And another thing: a level-based character progression system doesn't fit too well with an adult character and the short timeframe of the story. And especially not with a character desperately trying to save their personality from getting wiped out by a steadily progressing problem. Grinding out police calls and merc jobs to make money and gain XP? Give us the progress directly, say, in the form of cyberware and better weapons, and gatekeep the story with elements that can only be overcome by certain upgrades.
Big open world games are fine, and can be fun, but they don't go along well with a tragic story and especially not with a story that is supposed to create a feeling of urgency. They invite to explore, to hang around, to build something for the character. Next time, either let us win the game, or design something with a more concise, railroaded game world, maybe one with real, exclusive decisions that create replay value due to making character build choices matter regarding what quests we can finish successfully. Or at all.
Also, stop showering V. with shit, but denying them to reward themselves. V gets more than a dozen free cars/motorbikes, but cannot steal one they like (like the Shion convertible from one of the police jobs), despite being a professional killer and thief. V can build firearms from scrap parts, but has to patiently kill people to maybe find one with the colors they like. V can steal all kinds of clothes and spend hundreds of thousands of €$ on them, but cannot find a taylor or cobbler that would supply them with the look of choice. It's all so sadly counterintuitive.
But the one thing that really bugs me about the game is becoming stronger with every new feature that gets added: the game environment simply does not fit the character and their story. Which is really sad, because it would have been easy to fix that, in any number of ways:
- have us play a pre-story in which the character already gets around the city, and does all the exploring and gig work before the serious tragedy starts
- make the character discover the real issue with the relic over time, so Silverhand is just an inconvenience, an oddity, during the gig work phase
- give the story some upward turns instead of setting the clock right after the introduction, so phases of regular merc work life become excusable
That's just three right off the top of my head. The creative types can probably come up with a dozen more if you give them half the night and a bottle of wine to mull it over. And another thing: a level-based character progression system doesn't fit too well with an adult character and the short timeframe of the story. And especially not with a character desperately trying to save their personality from getting wiped out by a steadily progressing problem. Grinding out police calls and merc jobs to make money and gain XP? Give us the progress directly, say, in the form of cyberware and better weapons, and gatekeep the story with elements that can only be overcome by certain upgrades.
Big open world games are fine, and can be fun, but they don't go along well with a tragic story and especially not with a story that is supposed to create a feeling of urgency. They invite to explore, to hang around, to build something for the character. Next time, either let us win the game, or design something with a more concise, railroaded game world, maybe one with real, exclusive decisions that create replay value due to making character build choices matter regarding what quests we can finish successfully. Or at all.
Also, stop showering V. with shit, but denying them to reward themselves. V gets more than a dozen free cars/motorbikes, but cannot steal one they like (like the Shion convertible from one of the police jobs), despite being a professional killer and thief. V can build firearms from scrap parts, but has to patiently kill people to maybe find one with the colors they like. V can steal all kinds of clothes and spend hundreds of thousands of €$ on them, but cannot find a taylor or cobbler that would supply them with the look of choice. It's all so sadly counterintuitive.
