The illusion of time pressure

[Silanda]

I think that there shouldn't be any specific mention of a time frame in V's demise nor so much prodding with a notion that there is not much time left.

Not only does it get old but it makes you think you shouldn't be doing the side quests, in a way.

For example, Vik shouldn't say you only have a few weeks left, only that you will eventually die and should generally be more hopeful of a solution or at least of V living a good life with the time he has left... This way you feel like you still have the option of investing time in the quests, especially at the start.

Of course, it should become more and more bleak but give V a bit of slack?

I think I agree. To avoid the ludonarrative dissonance problem it should have been stated that the relic will kill V, but it will likely take some time.

This is a pretty common problem in CRPGs and open world games though.

"Portals to hell have opened across the land and only you can close them!"
"Yeah, cool, I'll be right on it when I've become the arena champion and head of the thieves guild. Six months, maybe?"

 

[CKiely_73]

I hate "time pressure" in games, real or otherwise.

When it is real like it is in Pathfinder it is annoying, when it is fake like it is in CP2077 it is lame.

 

[mewpokemon]

V also does go all "the time is nigh" when having the malfunctions too. All of them, even from the get go. The voice acting is overboard on it IMHO but it is otherwise quite good.

I agree that saying "maybe a year" would have been much better and everyone chilling out about the inevitable a bit more.

 

[Kysali]

The time pressure is pretty rediculous in all honesty. It was what killed everything after act 1 for me.
Nothing you do you can really enjoy, because the game constantly yells at you to hurry up.

Meanwhile the game is clearly not made to have you rush through the main storyline.
But I had the same issue in the witcher. I did barely any sidequests in TW3 because I was constantly told, that I have to hurry up, cause first Yen needed to be found, and she could be in trouble, and once she was found, Ciri had to be found.

I cant interact with the world on my own terms, cause everything happens under the umbrella of "You gonna die soon" So where a Skyrim basically is like "Here you should probably do this, cause its important I guess, but I am not your mom, do what you want" this game basically says "Do not do anything but the main quest, your very survival depends on it"
Which absolutely kills my mood to explore the world.

That the game also has the audacity to not let you play on after the final mission is the worst part though "Oh you won the final mission? Here is a cool jacket, but you have to reload before winning, cause else how are we gonna make you feel bad for playing side missions, huh?"
Sorry, but thats just terrible writing. It was okay in TW3, but already annoying. But its just absolutely terrible in this game.

I mean, from a story telling perspective its even worse. Because you start this game expecting a fun and cool story. And the game baits you into believing in that in act 1. Just to after that slap you in the face and mistreat you for wanting to have fun. "Oh you wanted to become a night city legend? Well too bad, you are already dead, have funbleeding and puking, when ever you meet someone cool, or do something interesting!"

Sorry, but no. This decision kills the story entirely for me. And not being able to actually win kills the game. I am not even eager for DLC, cause ofc they can only really let them play before the end of the main quest. So what does it matter anyways.

 

[romeos_ra]

I also find it extremely annoying that I'll always get a phone call when I get near a side job, a phone call which I cannot ignore or hang up on and the fixer or person on the other side of the line typically throws in a "better hurry on this" yet I come back to the side job multiple game days later and it's all still there, just waiting for me like the first time I left Jackie at the Delamain before heading out to hit Arasaka tower. I think he was there a good game week before I met up with him to do the job, not sure how he survived standing in the same spot with no food or water.

Speaking of phone calls, why is every single call unavoidable yet when I call other people outside of missions they almost never pick up. It's like I'm forced into some kind of weird social contract where nobody respects my time or privacy, yet I'm forced like a slave to be completely attentive to them whenever they call with no reciprocation.

 

[BiggusD1]

Someone remembers first Fallout and water chip problem? It was so well done 20 years ago

 

[Cloud7]

There is alot of illusion in this game.

- The illusion of choice,
- The illusion of urgency,
- The illusion of influence,
- The illusion of customization,
- The illusion of Time (sleep for 30 ingame days nothing happens)
- The illusion of relevance, (V does not matter every NPC could have become Johnny)
- The illusion of immortality (Mikoshi at it's best)
- The illusion of survival.
- The illusion of RPG elements,
- The Illusion of immersion.

Kinda makes you wonder how this game does not have illusion in the title......

 

[romeos_ra]

There is alot of illusion in this game.

- The illusion of choice,
- The illusion of urgency,
- The illusion of influence,
- The illusion of customization,
- The illusion of Time (sleep for 30 ingame days nothing happens)
- The illusion of relevance, (V does not matter every NPC could have become Johnny)
- The illusion of immortality (Mikoshi at it's best)
- The illusion of survival.
- The illusion of RPG elements,
- The Illusion of immersion.

Kinda makes you wonder how this game does not have illusion in the title......

When I see all of the matrix throwbacks and references it makes me wonder if is isn't going to come out that you are actually in some kind of simulation world which runs on old tech with buggy software - it would explain away all of the stupidity that occurs in this game like cops appearing out of thin air and people jacking off (i mean disappearing) when they sense a threat which is why they vanish right before your eyes. Meanwhile Johnny is really just an AI construct within the simulation which tries to "wake you up" but in your altered reality you think he is trying to kill you.

 

[Cloud7]

When I see all of the matrix throwbacks and references it makes me wonder if is isn't going to come out that you are actually in some kind of simulation world which runs on old tech with buggy software - it would explain away all of the stupidity that occurs in this game like cops appearing out of thin air and people jacking off (i mean disappearing) when they sense a threat which is why they vanish right before your eyes. Meanwhile Johnny is really just an AI construct within the simulation which tries to "wake you up" but in your altered reality you think he is trying to kill you.

Ladies and Gentleman in 5 Minutes (just assuming) someone came up with a way better plot for all of cyberpunk and Johnny Silverhand....... i leave you at that.

 

[lelxrv]

This fake time pressure thing was in Witcher 3 too. Probably not enough people pointed at immersion-breaking aspect of that so it relocated to CP77.

 

[IskrasFemme]

There is alot of illusion in this game.

- The illusion of choice,
- The illusion of urgency,
- The illusion of influence,
- The illusion of customization,
- The illusion of Time (sleep for 30 ingame days nothing happens)
- The illusion of relevance, (V does not matter every NPC could have become Johnny)
- The illusion of immortality (Mikoshi at it's best)
- The illusion of survival.
- The illusion of RPG elements,
- The Illusion of immersion.

Kinda makes you wonder how this game does not have illusion in the title......

Games are, in principle, illusory, except for the so-called 'bad luck', which involve material things other than games, the others fall under the logic of illusion. Nothing is real, by the way, it has a huge warning on all game screens, movies, novels, etc ... about ...

 

[Wiggleroom]

The 'Hurry, it will all end SOON!!!' cliché plot is rampant in games. Usually nothing happens until the player character shows up, even if it was a five minute deadline.

In games where there is an actual time limit it instead usually kills the game through making it stressful and not enjoyable.

The issues are in the writing, as always, if you need a time-sensitive mission, then chain that sequence into a series of missions you cannot take a walk away from. Stop writing these kind of plots. Maybe eventually we will see something like that, who knows.

 

[Cloud7]

Games are, in principle, illusory, except for the so-called 'bad luck', which involve material things other than games, the others fall under the logic of illusion. Nothing is real, by the way, it has a huge warning on all game screens, movies, novels, etc ... about ...

True but so is life. What we call reality is what the majority of ppl perceive as real or what we all agree on is real. Yet my reality compared to the reality of a millionaire are sure as hell not the same thing. Same with someone on a drug infused trip. I bet that someone sees things that are real to him but not to us xD

But i fully agree on what you said ^^

 

[IskrasFemme]

True but so is life. What we call reality is what the majority of ppl perceive as real or what we all agree on is real. Yet my reality compared to the reality of a millionaire are sure as hell not the same thing. Same with someone on a drug infused trip. I bet that someone sees things that are real to him but not to us xD

But i fully agree on what you said ^^

[...]

About time, pressure - it's a script decision. Like it or not, something else. I, in particular, don't like it. Luckily it is optional, that is, I will have to advance the campaign so that it affects me to the point of wanting to end the game. I think it's a bad script and quest management decision, but that's just my opinion. I would make a game where you suggest to a player: 'finish this and leave ...'

I still don't understand why the directors of the game made that decision ... and, honestly, I don't know if I have a lot of patience to understand them (more) ...

 

[StarfleetCommand]

I hate when games do this, especially RPG's. Bethesda pulled the same shit in Fallout 4.

Post automatically merged: Dec 22, 2020

Maybe the time pressure is to keep you from playing long enough to corrupt your save files. lol

 

[IskrasFemme]

I hate when games do this, especially RPG's. Bethesda pulled the same shit in Fallout 4.

Post automatically merged: Dec 22, 2020

Maybe the time pressure is to keep you from playing long enough to corrupt your save files. lol

Have a topic about this (eventualy corrupt save file) in teecnical. A minority - restricted to one platform - presented this. I have 154 hours in game, near 70k in my inventary... no one insue (PC).

 

[Cloud7]

[...]

About time, pressure - it's a script decision. Like it or not, something else. I, in particular, don't like it. Luckily it is optional, that is, I will have to advance the campaign so that it affects me to the point of wanting to end the game. I think it's a bad script and quest management decision, but that's just my opinion. I would make a game where you suggest to a player: 'finish this and leave ...'

I still don't understand why the directors of the game made that decision ... and, honestly, I don't know if I have a lot of patience to understand them (more) ...

At this point i think no one understands. It is like they took the 2018 build, which looked more fleshed out as the released version and decided to rewrite the entire story for unknown reasons and cut 50% of the game away to finish the deadline once they realized that you can't make such a huge project with major changes in 2 years or less. Nothing about this decisions make any sense.
And i fully understand why the devs are that mad. The more i dig in the game around the more stuff i find that is still there yet wasn't finished for release.

 

[emrehan98]

It's a common problem with both of their game (The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077)

Spoiler: Cyberpunk 2077 Spoiler

In Cyberpunk, you have to hurry because the chip is killing you.

Spoiler: The Witcher 3 Spoiler

Ciri is missing, it feels weird to hang out when you supposed to rescue/find her.

Unfortunately there is not much to do about it. This is what it is.

 

[overhyped2077]

The Illusion of Choice is even worse though.

 

[Witzzard]

Well my gripe would be that you could at least migitate the urgency.

Spoiler: How to mitigate, spoilers towards what happens.

As people have written - in the next XX months you'll die - instead of weeks; is one simple way.

The other way would be using the Street-Cred system with Viktor going "Well kid, i don't want to give you some false hope. Then again hope is all we got, right? Maybe someone else might know something. Good Street Creds might open up some doors for you, maybe even one leading to a working treatment...". As to frame the farming of quite unimportant jobs as something a bit more helpful in the bigger picture.
And in the end, having each door opening not helping wouldn't really differ from following the main paths of the story.