Cyberpunk 2077 - PS5 and XSeries versions out now + major patch

[LaveDisco]

300 pages, and I'm wondering if I reached the point to play the copy I got for xmas at release... I'm up for a narrative adventure.

[JoeK]

35 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

300 pages, and I'm wondering if I reached the point to play the copy I got for xmas at release... I'm up for a narrative adventure.

Well, it’s definitely worth a go.

[df0]

Go for it, tis surprisingly good (and also not).

[ZOK]

40 minutes ago, LaveDisco said:

300 pages, and I'm wondering if I reached the point to play the copy I got for xmas at release... I'm up for a narrative adventure.

It’s widely acknowledged as Game of the Decade (double winner - 2011-2020 & 2020-2029) so you really can’t lose!

[Festoon]

What's up in the big world?

[glb]

Finally had some more time with this, so about 90 minutes in total. Corpo run, done the first mission with Jackie and a few other things.

 

I like it, but it hasn’t grabbed me enough yet that I’m itching to get back into it. Seen elsewhere the main story takes around 25 hours or so. Will aim to tackle that and if it sinks it’s claws into me and compels me to play a bit more so be it.

[Captain Kelsten]

9 minutes ago, glb said:

Finally had some more time with this, so about 90 minutes in total. Corpo run, done the first mission with Jackie and a few other things.

 

I like it, but it hasn’t grabbed me enough yet that I’m itching to get back into it. Seen elsewhere the main story takes around 25 hours or so. Will aim to tackle that and if it sinks it’s claws into me and compels me to play a bit more so be it.

I think the intro section, where you pick your background, is totally wasted. Past the first 20 mins or so it seems to make zero difference and makes it seem like a big waste of development time for very little impact. I went corpo and was so disappointed with how little it meant. 

[ZOK]

Well no, all the different paths give different dialogue choices throughout all encounters. Which is how the game develops its flavour.

 

Which you might also see as relatively little, but unless they somehow wrote three entirely different stories for the different character types is pretty much all you can realistically expect I think.

[Zael]

It reminded me a lot of Dragon Age: Origins. The background you choose has a huge effect on the opening bit then after that it just turns into a unique line here and there.

 

In both games after the initial high I never really felt like my background mattered at all really and certainly didn't really shape anything.

 

To be fair it's something a lot of rpgs struggle with. I think the game that does it best off the top of my head is Tyranny. It asks you to make a bunch of choices at the start and you'll be dealing with the repercussions of those choices all game. 

[df0]

This is the part of the conversation where you can choose the NOMAD answer because you chose the NOMAD background. And from my experience, it’s never the answer that progresses the conversation, it’s offered as an option sometimes to prentend your background has meaning.

[Kevvy Metal]

I've been playing this on and off since the PS5 patch, and - much like most open-worlds - I'm not sure if it's best to do the main story first, or later, or in-between. 
I'm past the intro-screen opening, and now attempting to do side-missions that are "moderate" danger, but get my ass handed most of the time 😕 

Is doing the main story the better idea?

[ZOK]

32 minutes ago, df0 said:

it’s offered as an option sometimes to prentend your background has meaning.

Yes, but what you are saying here makes no sense. Fleshing out your ‘role’ by offering different interactions based on that role is meaning related to your background, as this is an rpg - a role-playing game. So there is no pretending at all.

[K]

Yeah, I’ve found the life path helps me roleplay my character - ie choose what clothes to wear, which missions to pursue, which characters to romance, what approach to take in combat. So the V I’m playing through now is a nomad woman who secretly harboured a desire to work for a big corp, was a massive Samurai fan as a child, and whose younger brother was murdered by scavs.

 

None of that really changes the dialogue or the game’s story, but it changes how I engage with it and how I envisage the character. I used to love playing the rpg as a teenager, and while you don’t really have the same level of freedom here, I do like creating a character and seeing how that adds flavour and conflict to a scene. Like, when my V meets Meredith Stout, who is everything she wanted to be growing up, is she going to be overawed by how powerful and cool she is or is she going to be disappointed by how she’s driven by petty infighting? When she meets the Peralezes, is she intensely jealous of their lives, or is she slightly disdainful that they can’t sort their shit out on their own? When she meets Johnny Silverhand and sees him acting like a complete knob 24/7, is she disillusioned or does she come to like him even more? It’s a minor thing, but it helps me inhabit the world. It also means I never leave a single Maelstrom goon alive. 

[df0]

That's some replaying there @K

[df0]

1 hour ago, ZOK said:

Yes, but what you are saying here makes no sense. Fleshing out your ‘role’ by offering different interactions based on that role is meaning related to your background, as this is an rpg - a role-playing game. So there is no pretending at all.

I disagree with that slightly.

 

Take Mass Effect 3. Your chosen background is used by NPC's. It's nice to hear your choice is acknowledged by the game. Cyberpunk went much further by creating 3 completely different intro/tutorial sequences which took months to develop. Animation, sound design, voice lines, QA, camera direction. And for nothing more but a lengthy introduction sequence. After that's done it's dropped and your background only comes up when you choose it as an conversation option.

 

It seems like such a waste of time and effort.

 

[ZOK]

1 hour ago, K said:

When she meets the Peralezes, is she intensely jealous of their lives, or is she slightly disdainful that they can’t sort their shit out on their own?

Or for me, is V going to jump up and down on their tables and smash up their drinks bottles with a samurai sword?

 

Answer is invariably yes.

[K]

1 minute ago, ZOK said:

Or for me, is V going to jump up and down on their tables and smash up their drinks bottles with a samurai sword?

 

Answer is invariably yes.

 

Roleplaying as Gordon Freeman!

[ZOK]

3 minutes ago, df0 said:

I disagree with that slightly.

 

Take Mass Effect 3. Your chosen background is used by NPC's. It's nice to hear your choice is acknowledged by the game. Cyberpunk went much further by creating 3 completely different intro/tutorial sequences which took months to develop. Animation, sound design, voice lines, QA, camera direction. And for nothing more but a lengthy introduction sequence. After that's done it's dropped and your background only comes up when you choose it as an conversation option.

 

It seems like such a waste of time and effort.

 

I agree with this, but it’s all about flavour. We can all point at what would have been better if they’d done it, but would the game have been worse for leaving things like the intros out?
 

I think so. They’re ultimately unnecessary, but then so is modelling the most realistic bin bags yet seen in a video game. And they are part of what makes it so cool.

[df0]

I can't help by seeing the numerous bugs and issues (like the traffic you mentioned a handful of posts above this one) and think "maybe you should have focused more on polishing mechanics instead of spending resources on three different intro sequences". But hey, each to their own. Fun game regardless, looking forward to Cyberpunk 2078: Vendetta for V.

[ZOK]

50 minutes ago, df0 said:

I can't help by seeing the numerous bugs and issues (like the traffic you mentioned a handful of posts above this one) and think "maybe you should have focused more on polishing mechanics instead of spending resources on three different intro sequences". But hey, each to their own. Fun game regardless, looking forward to Cyberpunk 2078: Vendetta for V.

I also think ‘numerous bugs and issues’ is really stretching it - the traffic is the major one, but other than that the only thing that has ever irked me is the lack of variety in citizen dialogues, and they’ve upped that quite recently.

[Uzi]

Waves at Bethesda rpgs at launch 

[Mr. Gerbik]

4 minutes ago, Uzi said:

Waves at Bethesda rpgs at launch 

That's completely different, people forgive those.

[Floshenbarnical]

On 03/09/2022 at 17:43, df0 said:

Thinking of switching approach, am not feeling stealth in the slightest. I lack any stealth weapon that packs a punch, my best is a silenced pistol that does not kill via a headshot.

 

Seeing I find a ton of weapons, something tells me I should me more aggressive in Night City.

 

There's a weapons vendor who sells a crafting spec for a revolver called the Overture, if you can nail headshots with it and spec your character correctly you can delete people with it even while using a silencer. Or you can just chuck a knife at the back of their head.

 

On 07/09/2022 at 10:25, df0 said:

It's such a weird product. I completed Horizon 2 shortly after it launched and thought it was extremely bland: suffering from open-world bingo and sequel-itus. Highly polished but my goodness was I bored. I don't think I ever felt any sort of reaction to any of it, just sat through it all looking like 😐

Cyberpunk 2077 is much less polished, filled with bugs and general clumsiness, has content you can skip (crafting, the whole cyber implants thing) yet I am much more invested in it all. I think I prefer emotional peaks and valleys over a flat plain.

 

You can skip most of the mechanics unless you're playing on Very Hard. On VH you need every edge you can get. I'm constantly crafting and upgrading things - there are perks that mean crafted items are % better than purchased or found items, which is very helpful.

 

On 07/09/2022 at 10:39, Festoon said:

 

The political couple is a high point of the game. I wanted DLC about that.

 

Edit: It's so creepy and mysterious, and made me care.

 

Spoiler

The theory is that they or the AI or both will factor into the DLC - Mr Blue Eyes is suspected to be either an android controlled by the AI or an accolyte of the AI - he pops up a few times, is referenced by characters and NPCs, and you can see him watching from a balcony while you talk to Jefferson Peralez at the end of the questline ... He is in the DLC trailer. He is also in two of the endings for a second.

 

On 11/09/2022 at 11:50, LaveDisco said:

300 pages, and I'm wondering if I reached the point to play the copy I got for xmas at release... I'm up for a narrative adventure.

 

It's in my top 5 games ever. If you play it like GTA, you might be disappointed. If you allow yourself to get lost in the city on foot, and treat the major quests as suggestions, you'll have a much better time. Also, it's at its most atmospheric after dark in-game.

 

Personal thoughts on 1.6

 

- Transmog is great but it's unreasonable they don't have a transmog option for weapon skins or vehicles

- Ability to further customize your character at a ripperdoc is a godsend, because the lighting in the Creator is a bit misleading

- New quests are good, inc. the one you find at the entrance to the quarantined Megabuilding 4 (many fans suspect the DLC will involve the megabuilding, although I think that’s one of the canceled DLCs personally)

- Don’t really care for the new weapons, but I get very attached to my loadout in almost every game I play

- Enemies seem like they *might* be a bit tougher but I am in Heywood so it’s hard to tell

- The post-1.5 timeskip mechanic is still worse than the launch one

- Feels more stable

- Kind of a non-update

[layten]

6 hours ago, Mr. Gerbik said:

That's completely different, people forgive those.

Not now they have gone MS exclusive.

[Sane]

I'm about to finally start playing this. Reading all the impressions I think I will enjoy it a lot despite the flaws, they don't seem like huge issues to me. Looking forward to arriving in Night City. Any tips for a beginner? 

[ZOK]

2 hours ago, Sane said:

I'm about to finally start playing this. Reading all the impressions I think I will enjoy it a lot despite the flaws, they don't seem like huge issues to me. Looking forward to arriving in Night City. Any tips for a beginner? 

Don’t worry about the tutorial being garbage. Don’t worry about none of the systems making any sense. Wear clothes that you think look cool, rather than for the buffs they give.

[df0]

4 hours ago, Sane said:

I'm about to finally start playing this. Reading all the impressions I think I will enjoy it a lot despite the flaws, they don't seem like huge issues to me. Looking forward to arriving in Night City. Any tips for a beginner? 

Enjoy it, it's a fun experience. Great voice-acting, some excellent side quests.

[smac]

Takes a while to get going properly - the open world aspect doesn't kick in for quite some time. Give it some time after that before sacking it off. Enjoy just being in the city. Do the side quests. Don't spend a lot of cash on vehicles.*

 

-----

*But buy the bike. The bike - everyone buys that.

[FiveFootNinja]

Kicked off my journey for the first time last night with my Nomad V. Literally just got to my apartment after the tutorial/intro...

 

 

[Festoon]

1 hour ago, FiveFootNinja said:

Kicked off my journey for the first time last night with my Nomad V. Literally just got to my apartment after the tutorial/intro...

 

 

 

I'm the firestarter.