Your 3 CP77 ups and downs

[0248991]

Hey,
this one's simple. What are the elements you like and dislike the most about CP77? You can pick up to three. Try to keep them simple and focused.

Mines are:

The best:
- Emotional, inspiring moments in the main story and bigger quests, including atmosphere (music, animations, level design, writing, gameplay,...)
- characters - they're believable, well-written including emotions, fit their role in society. I like how deeply they're designed, including clothing, vocabulary, moods, dreams and goals,...
- research & usage of the lore - the design of the whole CP77 including design of NC, society & roles, buildings, gangs, cyberpunk themes, the colour palette,...In general, the authenticity of the whole game.

The worst:
- most of the secondary content (especially gigs) is either unfinished or straight-up gameplay-broken (linear, without choice and consequence)
- nitpick - I don't like those multi-missions like saving many of the Delamain cars (if there were less, like 2-4, it wouldn't drop the quality of the main "wild AIs" plot). And maybe fistfights as well - how about activating them one by one or something?

 

[Tarille]

Likes:

- Aesthetics. The world looks really cool, cyberware looks really cool.

My only qualm is vehicle designs feel a little lame... This is a futuristic neon world, where are the vehicle designs that look like they were drawn by a 13 year old? With added neon underglow and RGB all over the place? Like, some gonk who has his scalp made of literal chrome, with strange patterned eyes and cyberware lines over his body and he drives some pleb van from the mid-90's?

- Worldbuilding. The whole setting is pretty cool. Mercs, Fixers, Corpos, Nomads, Gangs etc. There's so much stuff going on to look into.

- Characters. With exception of a certain one armed rocker boi, the characters are well designed and written. They fit the world well and are nice to interact with. (Also, Judy is very pretty)

Dislikes:

- The Main Story. I'm just not a big fan of the whole "Johnny McDouchecanoe is taking over your mind" thing with the relic with the entire story being focused around trying to find a way to get the relic out. Since it feels like at times V's story takes a backseat to this other character that I'm not playing as.

In my first playthrough I honestly thought the Relic would be a temporary set piece and like at the end of Act 2 it'd be gone and I'd get back to V's story, but no. Relic lasts until the very end of the game...

- Side Content. It gets better in PL, but it's still a little awkward. The static NCPD dispatches, the whole shallow Fixer mechanic, the lack of dynamic change from doing anything (Improved in 2.1 with the occasional car chase but still pretty limited). It was probably at the mercy of time/resource restraints but still it's worth noting.

- Lack of customization/meaningful choices. There's simply not a lot of stuff to choose from. Weapons, clothing, cyberware... Very few options and even fewer that have noteworthy effects. Weapons feel kind of samey within their type, clothing mostly looks pretty drab, cyberware is mostly just passive stat increases... Even abilities and skills are often "You do this thing a bit better". Very little provides a change in how you can interact with the game (There's like what? Leg cyberware that can give you a charge jump/double jump and then arms cyberware that can give you a new melee weapon or grenade replacement? Oh and Optical Camo)

I was kind of hoping for something more like Deus Ex (OG). Where I can upgrade my legs to be able to jump 20ft into the air allowing me to access areas by jumping over walls and onto roofs, with me being able to travel around the world by leaping from building to building. Or maybe I upgrade my legs for speed, so I can run super fast and get like a Sandy effect letting me run past cameras and enemies before they can detect me, maybe I don't need a car because I can run as fast as one. Or maybe I mod my legs so I can walk on walls/ceilings, letting me climb whatever I want, get into great positions to sneak past enemies or take a firefight.

 

[Sarovas]

LIKES:

• Visuals - I just love how NC looks and how it feels to drive around at night, especially in the rain.
  
  
• Cars - I like how the vehicles offered are quite different from each other, giving V the chance to choose a car suiting her identity/playstyle. While the handling was not the best before 2.1, this certainly got a lot better (and also a lot more differentiated) with PL. The armored cars (especially the armored Outlaw - my god is that a beauty) are just amazing and definitely were a needed addition to the games mechanics.
  
  
• The fact that no matter what you do, NC stays a terrible place - I just appreciate it so much that there is no actual "happy ending" for the entire world. Sure, V can leave NC with Panam, which is often considered the "best" ending, but NC remains and will always be horrible. There is no way to "cleanse the city" or "save the world". Also, no matter what decisions you make - and this might be a dislike for many - you will always have to leave behind or disappoint someone. As a textbook people pleaser, that really grinds my gears - and it's perfect.

DISLIKES:

• The dialogue options - This might also be due to me playing in German, but the dialogue options given annoy me most of the time. The story is - at least to me - oftentimes quite complex and I feel like the abbreviated options shown during dialogue do not sufficiently reflect that. Sometimes, I choose an option which sounds like what I would like V to say but then turns out to go in a completely different direction. I often cannot adequately judge from the short sentences what exactly is meant, too. For example (PL spoiler ahead), at the end of PL, when you can choose from handing over Song to Reed or killing the latter, Reed asks what V is planning. There is a dialogue option saying "Sie stirbt", either translating to "I need to help, as she is dying" or "I want her to die". I was relieved when V said the former, but I was reluctant to actually choose this option. I also cannot really handle the fact well that V only has very limited information on what is happening before she has to decide on what to do. Sometimes, shards or files on computers nearby will help, but these are also useless most of the time. JS is never helpful, either. V has to listed to him giving his five cents to the issue at hand, without being even a tad smarter than before. Hell, even Misty laying me my tarot cards is more helpful than JS's constant passive aggressiveness.
  
  
• The main story - I have to strongly agree with @Tarille, the main storyline is too much focused around the Relic. Naturally, the tech is stunning and the backstory of Arasaka is thrilling. However, having JS stuck in my head from almost minute one is very limiting in building my own V. At least an ending which makes it possible to permanently get rid of JS (at least if one finished all other side content) would have been great. But being placed back to the point immediately before Nocturne OP55N1 is aggravating, as you never loose the parasite in your head (it is nice to be able to play multiple endings in one save, though).
  
  
• The clothing options - I get that in 2077, people dress differently, but the bulk of the clothing options provided is just straight up ugly. I do not want my V to be dressed as a Glitter addict, thank you very much. Also, whilst one has to appreciate the available color schemes and accessories, these somehow break the fourth wall for me. My V, e.g., is a classy but down-to-earth stealth mantis blade assassin. Why would there be eight different flashy bathrobe-like fur coats, but no variation of clean, decent-looking discreet trousers and jackets? And come on, the helmets available are 1. useless, since clothing does generally not grant any buffs anymore, and 2. making V look like an absolute lunatic.

 

[Agent-94]

Pros

• Major Sidequests such as I fought the Law, Dream On.

• Phantom Liberty because CDPR made an effort to make it feel less rushed than the main story and gave the player genuine moral dilemmas.

• Graphics: naturally

Cons

• Pacing of the main game: the Relic slowly killing like a cancer is enough: don't tell me I have two weeks to live and then give me a setting that takes about a month to complete. In addition: too many quest triggers overlap, adding to the false sense of urgency (Takemura and Panam are especially prone to interrupt when you are doing other major quests). It can either be an open world game that encourages exploration or a linear game with an urgent plot, but not both (Phantom Liberty is, once again, a step in the right direction).

• Lack of smaller romances/one night stands like The WItcher. Male romance characters (RIver and to a lesser extent, Kerry) also seem shoehorned in compared to the females.

• The clothing is disproportionately biased toward the kitsch style. I just do not see my corpo dressing up like a streetkid, especially when she is driving around in a Rayfield Caliburn or (as of 2.0) Herrera Weiler. There needs to be more neo-militaristic options. And the vast majority of the pants are baggy, which works against a V who wants to show off her figure.

• Cyberpsychos: not really a criticism, but what CDPR did with the Adam Smasher fight should be done for all the psychos and the time and place of their appearance should be more random. After a certain amount of time, you should have to save (or recover) the psycho from Max-Tac (
  Spoiler

  I really enjoyed the attempt to free Songbird from captivity
  ).

 

[Bartinga2077]

"YOUR 3 CP77 UPS AND DOWNS"​

"Hey,
this one's simple. What are the elements you like and dislike the most about CP77? You can pick up to three. Try to keep them simple and focused."

Positives

- I just love the general mechanic of Cyberpunk. How it works, how it triggers jobs and gigs. It really makes the game in its own right. The game's graphics takes one's breath away. The whole city looks and feels like real.

- I love the vastness of Cyberpunk. There is literally a truckload of content in it that ensures hundreds of hours playtime. There's always something to do in the game.

- I just love the game's driving mechanic. I've never experienced anything like it. All vehicles look, feel and drive like real. It's amazing.

Negatives

- I gravely dislike the fictional character Johnny Silverhand due to him gravely deterring my game experience.

From what I understood he was to be perceived as a (pleasurable) entertainment, but to me, he was nothing but an exponentially grave disturbance throughout my entire gameplay, a nuisance that constantly ripped me out of the story, causing me nothing but unrelenting agony.

- "Dislike" is not exactly the right word but, I find it very unfortunate that the choice was made to offer 1st person perspective only for such a great game like Cyberpunk. The game could have looked, felt and experienced differently if it could be played from a different perspective.

- Am disappointed that no flyable vehicles were offered for players to use in the game. Pretty sure it would be beautiful to see the city from above. Could also serve to traverse the city in a heartbeat, and complete the many hustlers quickly and affectively with weaponized flying vehicles.

 

[0248991]

Could also serve to traverse the city in a heartbeat

When I was imagining how CP77 could look, I was thinking about public places and services used by the public every day - like shopping malls, metro/railway stations, street shops and stands, how streets would look, etc...

NC is pretty massive, and it takes quite some time to move through it for me. Fast travel feels cheap and I always crash or get lost while driving.
So I am thinking - what about some super fast real-time matter of transport? Like...underground hyper-loop...?
It could work well with streaming the game data, as a player wouldn't see out of it.

Also, it could have stations in such public places - literally inside a mall, city hall, library, megabuildings,...
This could make the game look more steampunk - maybe there would be some hardware to cool down the thing, vent out hot air/steam,...
Imagine having a literal railway station with at least two platforms inside a building

 

[Tarille]

This could make the game look more steampunk

I'm not sure that's the theming a game literally called CYBERPUNK is going for. Surely, it's design is based on the Cyberpunk theme?

 

[AlienSpaceBats]

Positives:

World design - NC is at times breathtaking to see and be in.

Immersion

Performance (voice actors, etc.)

Negatives:

Story - I really don't appreciate playing an RPG where meaningful decision-making is taken out of my hands. As soon as Johnny showed up I felt like my V was along for the ride in someone else's story and was just some poor gonk at the wrong place and the wrong time.

Lack of customization options for the player - many examples exist in game right now (alternative colours for cars, visually customized/painted weapons, clothing, cyberware, hairstyles, tattoos and piercings that are available to nameless NPCs but not the player). On the CC screen it literally says "In Night City, Looks are everything" yet 3 years later these options are quite barebones, considering the setting.

 

[-Nailes-]

Positives;

The universe; The city, the way things work, the aesthetics of the world. I can even just drive through Night City and stare at what happens around me.

Gigs; I like that there are many missions that I can pick up whenever I like, some of which are connected(Like stuff with Jotaro Shobo), You can do those gigs in whatever way you like; sometimes the fixer wants stealth but you can still just run in and shoot, it just means you get less payout. The locations feel real and there are nearly always different ways of handling them. Sometimes different outcomes (I like the All Foods quest best)

characters; many feel very unique with their own styles and their own backgrounds. I dont think I have to explain why Judy or Jackie are special.

Negatives;

Main Story; Its partially because there is a tendency to have urgency questlines nowadays in many games, usually with the player dying or someone they knew being in a pickle and needing urgent rescue. Its a bit over done nowadays and doesnt really work in an open world game. V is dying but here is a map full of stuff you'll want to do in order to become the living legend you dreamed of.
The fact that the story is mostly just written for you and although there are some variations, The main story doesnt allow for a lot of deviation. Up until PL, the end was always more or less the same. Headcanon allows for some people to believe that there is a happy end, but the ending was and still is designed to be sad. Unfortunate for a game that has so many endings.

Lack of customization; You cant change cars. So although you can buy 20 different vehicles, but a handful will always be the best and the ones you drive. And you cant even change the colour.
Its somewhat similar with clothing. I think my main gripe is that there is no shop where you can just buy whatever you like. The handful of shops have a limited selection. If what you see doesnt fit your nomad or corpo V, tough luck. Especially early on its green pants with a yellow hoodie and blue shoes or something like that.

 

[Sarovas]

You cant change cars.

This. I was literally just driving around NC thinking that this game urgently needs a vehicle customization mechanic. It is just so frustrating to see various versions of the cars you own without being able to match the style. Obviously, a tuning option like in GTA V would be fantastic too. Both could easily be implemented in connection with the new El Capitan vehicle missions. For example, you could spend the coupons you get from him in his brand new workshop in Santo Domingo, where he helps provide jobs for people. Maybe you could even help expand his business in other districts. The more I'm thinking about it, this could be a whole little storyline!

Am disappointed that no flyable vehicles were offered for players to use in the game.

This could also be an option in the workshop, maybe as the final reward for helping with opening up a shop in every district. Anyway, access to a flying vehicle would be dope.

 

[cp2x77gamer]

+:
design: it is just perfect. buildings, clothes, cars, everything.
story: a story of dumb thugs with almost no good people, but it is good.
everything: i love almost everything in this game. except:

-:
traffic: cdpr should hire guys who worked on traffic in mafia (2002) and test drive 4 (1997). no speed limits, random spawns, etc etc.

leveling: lvl 1 clothes gave 6 armor, max lvl - 300 armor. why? weapons, cyber stuff etc are the same. there is a lot of ways to do this less drastically. as it was done, for example, in the "horizon zero" game: some additional options and +20-50% bonuses. it is enough.

customization and craft: cdpr could make something like a 3d-printer at v's home, where players can craft or upgrade their weapons and other extremely complex cybernetic things. the game also lacks car (and weapon) painting workshops. all this was done by modders. why?

also, it is funny that female v sits the same way wearing pants or skirts and dresses. lol

 

[ExSteam]

Negatives
- Jackie Welles leaving us so early....I still get leaky face no matter how many times I see that part
- More Lizzy Wizzy, just not enough of her and I felt there was something brewing under the surface with her character
- Very Hard wasn't very hard. I came from playing 4x strategy games for many a year and as my first rpg with combat in more than 10yrs I found it to be somewhat easy.

Positives
- The story sucked me right in, all the stories of Night City. I didn't want to put it down. 732 hours played and still going. The sad parts, (and there are many) still bring a tear to my eye.
- The voice acting. OMG so good. From Mr Hands, to Rogue, female V, Songbird to name a few.
- Phantom Liberty, took a great game and made it even better. I loved playing a netrunner and want to experience the Militech Canto but what V has to do to get it isn't an option for me. Birds are meant to fly free and sing.