Wow I just realized how short this game really is.

[DiosGnosis]

This Side Job really hit home with me too, I think there's a lot of content in the game like this that people gloss over and don't take the time to appreciate. I'm curious how you played this one out? I was walking out the door after retrieving the raw footage, mission complete, but I just couldn't let it go ... the whole situation and people kept gnawing at me so ... I turned around and put a bullet in each of their heads. It felt good.

Breh... I did the SAME EXACT THING!!!

I couldn't let it go. And it actually shifted my play style for the rest of this current playthrough. I had intended on going the 'No Kills' route, angling for stealth and passive/non aggro mission completion where possible. After the game introduced this subplot, I kinda figured there would be more as I continued. I vowed in that moment, when I squeezed off the sweetest two rounds I've ever fired in a video game, that any other villains with proclivities matching these two perps would meet the same fate.

I gotta say, its been a joy breaking from the non aggro stance on the occasion gigs and side jobs provide extra heinous villains.

 

[Callidous]

"Short" is relative. Reportedly there are RPG games that can be finished in 5 of regular play without speedrunning. Compared to their own previous big title, however, it's clearly shorter. Personally, I was a little caught off guard by the timing of the ending, because when I was informed that I reached "a point of no return" I assumed I would be locked in to the main story for a while and there would be more later on, because it was still so early in the game. My bad.

Now, apparently CDPR have said they intentionally made the main story shorter, because in W3 there were so many people who played it who didn't get to the end. I guess I understand the reasoning, although I don't agree. In my opinion you shouldn't change the way you approach making a game for that portion of players who probably shouldn't have bought it in the first place.

But anyway. While I personally would prefer a longer main story, I don't think a shorter one is necessarily a problem. However it does exacerbate the fact how little choice you actually have during it. My main gripe with the main story is not the length or some artistic choice about themes or something like that, but that up to the finale there just aren't any choices that matter. There's one path and then you pick your ending. This also doesn't only apply to the main story, but also to the side missions. As a general rule, there's just one path until you make some decision at the very end.

 

[Willowhugger]

I was surprised the length of the main story. Surprisingly short.. The introduction was very robust and large, while the bulk of the main story seems to be lacking in girth and density.

With this, the amount of meaningful side missions and varietized gigs does add more to the picture... but i really hope they expand on the main story.

I think there is some issues with the pacing. The game is about the gritty nasty side of Night City and hundreds of awful noir quests about snuff, porn, prostitution, slavery, organ trafficking, murder, hitman actions, and more. This is where the life of V and his actions are defined.

I wonder if the game might have been better if they'd changed the time frame from being, "You have six months to live" BEFORE you do your quest and maybe say that V has a few years now.

 

[-Aeon-]

Whoever said that Witcher 3 story was long...... I hope he has a horrible day today.

 

[Charline_Keith]

Then why not take a short break from the game and come back to it with a fresh eye/mindset?
The first witcher game felt like it lasted forever. But instead of getting annoyed by it's lenght I simply finished the game in several sit downs. If I would have to choose an overly long game or too short, I'd always go for the overly long. I always will keep wanting more for my money's worth.

Post automatically merged: Dec 27, 2020

That still doesn't address the actual topic here.

The only thing I can consider on why people can't breaks is if they do what I do;

I have this horrible pattern:

**Start game** **Get burnt out on the game, don't finish** **Switch to new game** **Repeat** **Get urge for original game** **Start to play original but forget everything so restart save and start over.....hit about the same area and get burnt out again**

Now this is a ME problem, and I would never, ever, ever expect a game company to change a game based on that. However, we also live in a generation where if a character is killed off or the 'fans' don't like something they will 'riot' and 'complain' so I feel this might be a situation where companies (Not just video games) are placed in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.

In this case;

Putting in to much content?

People complain, not a lot you can do.

Adding in less content?

You can make DLCs, add on to the world, add additional stories. Might take a longer pacing -but- essentially both parties will end up getting what they want.

The only thing I have to wonder is how expensive the DLCs will become because I know the recently announced one is free -but- I don't expect everyone DLC to be free.

Post automatically merged: Dec 31, 2020

This Side Job really hit home with me too, I think there's a lot of content in the game like this that people gloss over and don't take the time to appreciate. I'm curious how you played this one out? I was walking out the door after retrieving the raw footage, mission complete, but I just couldn't let it go ... the whole situation and people kept gnawing at me so ... I turned around and put a bullet in each of their heads. It felt good.

I remember doing this and as soon as I walked in the room. I talked to them, got everything, went to leave and stopped turned around and shot the father because OOC I was completely sick with what was going on.

The whole River Side quest, I felt disturbed by the things I was seeing, not just the images but the feelings of everyone. I understood the first BD, the Second BD you actually felt bad for the person you were watching and than the third just made it feel even more twisted.

CP has it issues, -but- IMO the side quests were 100% better than the main quest and the side quests/News reports/NPC chatter you realized how screwed the world you were on actually was.

 

[DiosGnosis]

I have this horrible pattern:

**Start game** **Get burnt out on the game, don't finish** **Switch to new game** **Repeat** **Get urge for original game** **Start to play original but forget everything so restart save and start over.....hit about the same area and get burnt out again**

OMG! Same. As a gamer since 1985, I can think of a handful of titles (of hundreds played...) that really, Really, REALLY kept my interest and begged for completion. Many of those games were played in my youth. Quite simply, I had more time in which to play. However, our current 'wash - rinse - repeat' cycle with games, in my opinion, isn't all necessarily on us. Just jive with me for a moment.

Lets look at an average development studio, crankin' out solid titles, but no Triple A status to speak of. You have a young, hungry, and committed team, starving (sometimes literally) for the taste of their first YUGE release. Then it happens. Not everyone on the team is going to be able to handle success as well as others.

For some, that's all they wanted. One iconic win under their belts and they leave the team. Others may find themselves on the darker side of fame and fortune with newfound proclivities, or old ones they can fully drown in now that wealth has found them.

The rarity seems to be those that have a passion for exactly what they are doing. In this case, game development. I know its breathy, but I'm trying to make a point.

If everyone on the team isn't united under the same banner, you're gonna get 'cross mojination'. The lack of chemistry will inevitably spill over into the product, performance, routine, whatever that team is working on or toward. Ergo, the cycle of our gaming might not necessarily be entirely our fault.

Forget about the investors and the board of directors for a moment. What are the majority of us gonna do if we find that we just leveled up in life? From having no money in the bank to a 6 or 7 figure salary in a manner of months. Some us are gonna hit those finer wines and harder drugs. Lets be real. Hows that gonna pan out over the course of the next several years? As the team is working on their much anticipated follow up to their last smash hit, who's gonna slip?

Now, as I've stated, there are the rare occasional passionate people that love what they do, but look around. It ain't the majority. Most everyone is working to get by. Hardly any passion in sacking groceries and delivering for Bezos. Meh... It puts bread on the table. Roof over the head.

I know I'm kinda all over the place in this response, but if you haven't picked up on my drift, we're all people. We all have problems, fears, hopes and dreams. Some of us have addictions. Some of us develop the games you play, record the music you listen to, film the movies you watch. Hell, some of us are trafficking drugs, women and children, Heaven forbid. Might even be that a very few of us have our hands in all of the above (cough... ahem disnEEZEy.. a-chOO)

What I'm suggesting is that motive and intent play a part in how creations resonate with the rest of us here in creation. Was Orwell's 1984 a warning or a blueprint? Didn't know the man, so I can't speak to his motives or intent.

So at the end of this 'left field train of thought'... magic is real. It happens on rare occasions spontaneously, and sometimes it takes a while to work its wonder. It also returns to the users 3, 7 and 10 fold, based on their intent, motivations, and magic used.

Aaaand wow... I think I rang in the new year a little too hard ya'll! And I've been sober for 6 years!

 

[inekorain]

Yep, that's my biggest problem with the game.
I did like 3 missions with jackie then they killed him off.
DId two missions of the Hatians and wiped them.
Did like 3 missions for Takemura and I am at the last mission.
What in the world?

 

[anyawow]

Wow I just realized people complaining about the length of the game are a few cans short of a six pack. I have 90 hours in the game and haven’t completed the main story arc or the story arcs of all the major characters, let alone all of the gigs.

 

[Axreal]

As a prefix I’ve clocked in at about 150 hours and 100%’d the game. However, I’d be lying if I tried to claim this was genuine gameplay and not me artificially extending the game by fucking around or trying to min max certain things. The game is short, woefully so considering what was showcased and what we were led to reasonably (being the key word here) expect in the game. A huge amount of this is down to the fact that the game has little in terms of replay value. Outside of the Panam / Judy questlines there really isn’t much that affects the outcome of the game. It’s already a fact that playing corpo / nomad / streetkid makes no difference after about 5-10 mins because all 3 paths diverge into one (outside of a few dialog choices which amount to “yes” with a slant).

The idea that the game was shortened due to Witcher 3’s completion rate reeks of bullshit from a company already facing lawsuits over falsehoods with their investors and a proven amount of cut content. I will guarantee that if the executives hadn’t been hell bent on trying to get Christmas sales that somehow this content would have magically found its way back into the game just in time for release. I get it, people spent a lot of money on this game and if they’re having fun then more power to them. However, pretending the NCPD encounters, driving from point A to B and dragging out things for the sake of it is meaningful gameplay then I envy you because I just can’t set my standards that low.

The game could have and should have been so much more. The only reason it’s held my focus this long is simply because there is nothing else which interests me currently. I can only hope that the “free DLC’s” will flesh out the 6-month montage so that at least we have some of the world building and background promised to us.

 

[Krunnie]

*me on my 65th hour of game play and no where near done with the main story*

 

[mbrto]

i played 100 hours on my first playthough and enjoyed every minute of it

 

[iseeitake]

For me it’s not about the quantity but the quality. Being a “short” story is fine but if it’s captivating and keeps you wanting more then that is where it counts.

This is my opinion so YMMV. I find the story ok. I can’t pin point it yet but the main story isn’t a captivating as the Witcher and the character building is lacking. More cutscenes would be nice to help build the story. The side quest I’ve done so far aren’t that great. W3 side quest were like short story in itself and it was quality. I read that someone mentioned the story felt more like Johnny’s than it is your own. So far that is what it seems like. There are other thing about this game but I’ll save it. Once I have finished the game and played more side quest I could give better input.
This games plays like GTA with a mix of Deus EX. While both are entertaining games, none have a replay value for me. So far I don’t fine myself interested in the characters or the story.

 

[MojoBreaker]

The idea that the game was shortened due to Witcher 3’s completion rate reeks of bullshit from a company already facing lawsuits over falsehoods with their investors and a proven amount of cut content. I will guarantee that if the executives hadn’t been hell bent on trying to get Christmas sales that somehow this content would have magically found its way back into the game just in time for release. I get it, people spent a lot of money on this game and if they’re having fun then more power to them. However, pretending the NCPD encounters, driving from point A to B and dragging out things for the sake of it is meaningful gameplay then I envy you because I just can’t set my standards that low.

Agree with you.
I'm not gonna insult people who is saying Witcher 3 should be shorter because some folk didnt finish it. These people insulted themselves.

As i said before Witcher 3 is a big delicious cake, and one of the ingredients is it's length, If story length would be an issue Witcher 3 would be 7/10 game and sold maybe 2 mil copies at best. And never won any awards.

 

[Mystwarien28]

I guess everyone is different at how they approach these games. I have over 80 hours in so far and I'm 90%, 50% 40% on the Mains. I'm holding off finishing the main quest to finish all my side jobs and explore all the question marks, etc. on the map. I'm no where near finishing. I go into every mission/building and explore/loot EVERYTHING. I craft, I optimize my implants, I check out the stores, I check out new locations (today I met a Zen Master and had a nice diversion). So for the people who complain about the length of the game and are done in 20 hours, we are playing it VASTLY different from one another. I'm having a blast.