Well, devs stated some things that ended not being true either by being changed during development or other reasons (like perceived fun).
And actually yes, V is less defined than Geralt as you can choose how V looks and a little about it's background, but that's it.
You'll still be doing things not because you wants to, but because V wants to. You'll still be spending time with people you don't know nor you care about, because V does.
I personally think as V as just a step in the good direction, but by far not a persona I create and even less my avatar to immerse myself in another world.
Except Geralt already had largely pre-defined abilities in swordmanship, signs and alchemy. Yeah, you could improve those areas as you wanted in the character progression but they were still all both usable and effective. All three were also still the underlying design of the character abilities.
Being able to freely progress your character toward some combination of solo, technical or hacking related skills is a pretty big difference. Even if at first glance, based on existing information, it still looks like a simplified progression system I'd say the signs point toward a more player definable character. And, those areas may not have been presented as a finished product yet.
Even the choices presented in terms of dialogue and narrative in TW3 were clearly based around the defined character of Geralt. You had choices here or there and could change the game result based on those cumulative choices but every decision could be argued as fitting with this defined character, in some capacity. I see no reason to expect CP2077 will have less freedom in this regard. I'd anticipate it having exponentially more because V is effectively a placeholder.
How V looks and the background is it? Come on.... Background itself is huge. I'll reserve commenting on the appearance elements for... reasons. Regardless, insinuating we're getting a rehash of a heavily defined character in CP2077 is a pretty big stretch. I can understand raising issues with the game but sometimes I think people are just trashing it in various areas because existing information makes them feel it's not setting everything up exactly as they desire. It's not a good look.
In any case, most of this is... off-topic. It has very little to do with a voiced vs silent protagonist. I wouldn't be surprised if the above gets modded because of it. Alas, I felt obligated to refute the notion V is Geralt with the ability to customize his/her appearance and background. It's a gross oversimplification.
In regards to a voiced protagonist somehow infringing on the ability of the player to express the character as they see fit... I just don't see it. That viewpoint certainly isn't wrong. I just don't understand why it's a huge downside to getting some type of feedback from the character. The player can choose to pretend how their character feels or thinks whether there is a voice behind this feedback or not. More importantly, those feelings and thoughts have zero game play implications unless the 1's and 0's behind the game say they do.
You
will be locked into pre-programmed choices in dialogue. You could have two choices, five choices, two dozen choices. The fact remains you're imprisoned within the game because, unlike in PNP, everything cannot be changed on a whim. I see no reason the various choices in dialogue and conversation cannot be voiced in a reasonably way where, given the selection and circumstances, the auditory response from the character makes sense. To me it's a better alternative to picking a text selection and getting nothing back from it. Even if it may not perfectly align with how I
think the character should respond.
I will say those comments depend on the implementation. I'd view it exactly as I would being presented with choices where the actual results don't line up with the text selection verbatim. The mechanics here are fine. Provided the actual response and selection match appropriately. Yes, sometimes they do not when this approach is used. I wouldn't fault the concept there. I'd fault the execution. AKA, whomever made that "translation" screwed up if the option you pick gives wildly unexpected results.
I'd view voice overs the same way. The solution there with a less defined character is to carefully match the auditory response to the text selection so it "fits". As in, no matter what you want your character to be it would make sense for that auditory feedback to exist for that choice when it's selected. Again, based on the circumstances surrounding the choice. Difficult to pull off, sure. Impossible to pull it off well enough? I'd dispute that.
