I'm sorry, but I'm not gonna lie, some of you in here sound straight up delusional with your expectations. Now, clearly, CDPR fucked up MASSIVELY with the release of this game, and the current state of it is disappointing as all hell, but even still, some of y'all need some perspective.
CDPR is a eurojank studio. Maybe not the jankiest, but it's still there. This is only their FOURTH major game, and their first was literally built off the back of a mod.
Even if most of the cut content was in the game, the game would still be a mess. This expectation that the experience as a whole would be on par with a linear game in terms of polish and balance is frankly absurd. The shooting was pretty much always going to be fairly subpar. The enemy AI was not going to be top of the line. The level design and options were never going to be as extensive as Deus Ex. The driving was never going to be as good as a dedicated racer. There were going to be abrupt endings to quests, some things no matter what were going to feel rushed or unfinished or "off". The pacing was likely never going to be perfect. There were going to be balancing issues and seemingly superfluous and half-baked systems/mechanics.
No matter what CDPR said, this game was never going to be released in as polished of a state as a Rockstar game, because CDPR is SIGNIFICANTLY less experienced than Rockstar as a studio (they're also smaller).
CDPR was NOT going to reinvent the wheel. The game was going to come out on last-gen systems, so that alone should have shut down any thought that this game was going to be a groundbreaking, next-level game, head and shoulders above ANYTHING else released that entire generation, as if somehow CDPR were able to tap into something that no other studio had had the ability to tap into and exploit to create a genre defining experience.
And yes, CDPR presented the game as such, but even still, if you had any sense at all you would not be so gullible as to take everything said at face value or as an absolute truth. CDPR is, for all intents and purposes, a young studio who were clearly still high off of their biggest success yet, one that performed well beyond anyone's expectations. They likely thought they could do pretty much anything at that point.
When something seems too good be true, especially when it comes to gaming, it is. Full-stop, it'll never look nor feel how it does in your head. That's simply the nature of it. Game programming is an incredibly complex process that has (significant) limits, and thus limitless ambitions will never come close to fruition.
CDPR could still turn this into a great game, maybe not necessarily the one people wanted or hoped for, but a great one none the less. Maybe not the greatest game of all time, but it doesn't have to be.
