The more I read comments, the more obvious a common thread becomes - players do not want to read. Spending the time to read all shards and messages gave me so much insight into the evolution of Night City and the general history of the world it resides in - the places, the people, their desires and fears, motivations for starting a war with the press of a button or the lack of any will to keep living in a brutal world where the line between real and virtual is imperceptible.
I cannot put a hand to my heart and swear that what most people coming to this thread to complain about is not there. It is. Missions become repetitive. Storylines end abruptly with little to no resolution. But the journey, what you can hear NPCs talking about along the way and see written on their computers, is so rich and satisfying. And that comes from a man who hasn't touched a book in almost two decades.
What I'm trying to say is: Stop and smell the f***in' roses! You will be occupied until the next patch, until the next DLC, expansion etc. And you will (hopefully) understand where so much time and passion was poured during the last couple of years.
No you won't, that's the problem. A good majority of the shards you find in Night City are duplicates and triplicates and even more. You can do a full playthrough in what... 45-70 hours, and take another day to read the shards. Then what.
The other issue here is that many players bought a computer game, whether an RPG or an Action game, they didn't go and buy a book. I could buy the entire Cyberpunk PnP games for the same price I bought this game for, and still be reading them all.
I really enjoyed my first playthrough, shard reading and all, but after that it kind of fell flat. The more I played, the more glaring the issues became. The real clincher was when I completed the game, went back to do another ending, and practically got the same one.
I couldn't get half the clothes that are in Night City. Just today I went to a clothing vendor and said "I really like that dress". Can't find it anywhere. The cars are minimalist at best, and the cyberwear, other then your hands, doesn't change you looks at all, and there are so many better cyberwear looks in game it's not even funny. Then there are missions, entire side missions, that end, and then go no where.
Big example is the Peralez side mission, It just ends on a cliff hanger. I thought I missed something, but apparently not. They just either cut it out, or never finished it.
The more I play the more I can see some really cool things that are in game, that as a player you just can't find and enjoy it, or things you wanted to finish, so many things, more things that a hundred dlc and expansions could ever complete, and you just can't.
That's my entire thought process on playing it again... I just can't.
If I could refund it now, after 100 hours of game play, I would. There's zero reason to keep it in my library anymore, at least for another year or two.