The way i look at decisions in 2077 is that you are inconsequential to night city. Everything will go on whether you were there or not. Sort of as a way of saying yeah you're name gets around but you're stint in night city is so short that you don't get to see the effects of your choices.
I'd be more accepting of this if they didn't hype up how much our choices would matter. If they just said "Yea we have a bunch of side quests with multiple different outcomes" at the start then it wouldn't have grown into a bigger problem. But they made it seem like we'd be able to change stuff regarding the main storyline, which to be fair there are some but not to the degree they advertised.
Weirdly, I consider the failed marketing promises as 1:1 representations of the lies and promises told to Night City citizens. So yeah, the marketers who lied IRL suck, but they made it more immersive for me at the end of the day. Kind of a copium take, I know. But corpos are the same, IRL or IG.
@@SolidSnake240 I think that would be impossible in a region such as Night City and NUSA, the actions you make in the game are so unfathomably small relative to everything else happening outside of the story that even if you do something extremely significant it wouldn't really matter. Purely from a storytelling perspective. From a promises perspective, they did underdeliver, I would have liked to be able to control zones similar to San Andreas.
You really put into words with the experience I had with this game. It is really good, but when you remember what it actually could be and the promises, I feel a bit sad. Night City is a phenomenal setting that deserves an in depth RPG experience.
@Nykkynn Your explanation seems a bit unconvincing when there are other games that have achieved much more. It's about having talented developers and using the right engine. CD Projekt Red insisted on using their RED engine for so long, but now they've finally switched to Unreal Engine. Many of their long-time staff left because the new direction of CDPR seemed to prioritize profit over quality. You mention computer specs, but a 3090TI can run any game. The real issue is CDPR's reluctance to leave behind the PS4 and Xbox One to focus on new consoles. It's disappointing when a game like GTA5, which came out in 2013, can still outperform Cyberpunk in terms of NPC behavior, a living world, and police mechanics.
It really does especially with how rich the lore is the sandbox is so dense and intricate too I've never seen a game where the futuristic buildings actually looked like a twisting complex conglomeration of a jungle I love just walking through it. Let's hope CDPR learned their lesson and delivers on the sequel
@@dilwalecricketwhenever you make this claim you give an example so we can have a debate because I don't think you've thought about your point very much at all
To me, Cyberpunk has become my own personal 'Skyrim/Minecraft' in which dispute multiple playthroughs i just dont get tired of it and get lost in the world. Fortunately, I joined the Cyberpunk hype ~3yrs before release after finishing TW3 so i was excited but had almost little expectation thinking it would be just 'cyber GTA'. CDPR really did overshoot with the marketing of this game, and I genuinely do believe that they thought they could create that world they originally sold us. Hopefully for Orion they know their limits and strengths now and actually make a game worthy of the original Cyberpunk idea. They have the storytelling on lock now they just need that game design fleshed out. Cyberpunk 2077 is such a beautiful mess, I love it.
to me, the game does feel like a "cyber gta" but I love gta so it made me love this game as well. it's on par with gta 4, details and everything for me. (the best gta game in terms of gameplay and story)
I dont think they were necessarily lying in the advertisement. What they were selling is genuinely what they wanted to create. They just didnt have the time and resources to give us the masterpiece they had sold us on, and were fully intent on providing.
*Sigh* Here is my rough timeline/cycle with this game: -Bought into the hype heavily by 2018 or so. -Purchased and played day 1 on PC. Didn't have any game-breaking bugs and fell in love. -Beat the game, put it down for a few months... *Play other games* -Come across a video essay on why Cyberpunk was good from fans. -Get lured into my 2nd playthrough. -Played a good chunk of the endings this time. *Play other games* -Learn of a mod to play the game in VR with my new Quest 2 headset. -Nearly destroyed my GPU at the time (2070 super) but played the crap out of it in VR (and only played the game in VR since). *Play other games* -Find another video essay on why it's good again around 1.5 and watch "Edge Runners." -Upgrade my GPU to a 3090. -Start adding mods to the game. -The pain of adding mods to the game. -Finish 2-3 more playthroughs. *Decide to stop playing until PA releases (after the official announcement)* -New playthrough again after 2.0 releases. -Keep playing into PL release. -Fall in love with the game AGAIN. -Stop playing until the VR mod is patched to work. *Play other games* -VR mod gets fixed. -Start another fresh playthrough and get blown away by PL again in VR. -More modding. *Play other games* -Watch another video essay on why the game is great and get pulled back in. -More mods. -2 more playthroughs and explored all PL endings. *Get pretty deep into Fallout 4 VR after the show* -Watch another video essay entitled "I shouldn't love Cyberpunk 2077." -TBD Honestly, it's only been about 3 weeks since I wrapped up my last playthrough, but I'm already starting to rush through the rest of the Fallout 4 main story to get to another 2077 playthrough, lol. I'm fairly sure 2077 is just my comfort game at this point
Great video, thank you. One thing I've noticed as a change in game: After you intercept the A.V. with Panam, it takes about 2 in-game days for the advertising sky-beams to be turned back on, as if your EMP actually damaged something.
Okay, so first of all, I think there is something that a LOT of people miss when they say things like "how can CDPR release such a buggy mess when they've been releasing games so good as TW3?" Well that's kind of the thing : they didn't really change anything from their way of working. The Witcher 1? Delayed and was a buggy mess at launch, got fixed a little with patches. Very small audience through, so not a huge deal and overall for their first game it was pretty good. The "Enhanced Edition" would fix most of the major bugs and problems the game had. The Witcher 2? Well again, it was delayed, and when it was released it was an absolute mess. Bugs, but most importantly performance issues, to a point that even today, there is some settings that you straight up can't run properly because it melts even an RTX 4090. But still, quite a large improvement over TW1, and again, most of the major bugs and problems would be fixed in the "Enhanced Edition". Then came The Witcher 3, which was a much larger game than both TW1 and TW2 combined... When TW1 was more of a passion project where writing wasn't all that important (and they tried to include as much as the things from the books as possible as they didn't know if they could make a second game at all), and TW2 was a corridor game with a much stronger focus on a more serious writing, TW3 was a full open world taking the strong writing cues from TW2... and it was a huge success. BUT. The audiance that saw the game on launch day were mostly people that liked TW2, or got hyped up by the E3 trailers and such. There was a massive graphics downgrade from the trailers (actually created a small scandal at the time). The game was poorly optimized, the then very popular (and powerful for the day) GTX 970 couldn't really play the game at 60fps, there was a lot of game breaking bugs with softlocks that didn't allow you to finish quests, there was a lot of bugged dialogue, bugges NPCs, bugged elements of gameplay, the interface was a complete mess... But there wasn't such a massive audiance to see it. TW3 very much built its player base with the release of the two DLCs, and (much) later in late 2019 when the Netflix Witcher show dropped its first season : that's actually when the game hit its peak player count. Just like other CDPR games had been delayed 2 to 3 times, was a buggy mess at launch with really serious issues (I remember I had a 30GB patch every 2 weeks for a solid 3/4 months after the release to fix bugs), and most of the issues with balancing, interface etc were fixed with the DLCs that overhauled most of the rough things that TW3 had. And a LARGE portion of people discovered that game after it was patched, almost 5 years after release. That gave CDPR a MASSIVE amount of confidence in the heart of players. So when Cyberpunk was announced, everyone thought it would be a masterpiece day one. As someone that has been there for every CDPR game since 2007, I saw the patter coming back : the game was delayed, again and again I was 100% certain of what was coming next : a buggy poorly optimized mess. And so it came. I played the game day one, and finished it before 2020 ended. Bugs, poor performance, but no completely game breaking bugs, and overall a better launch experience than The Witcher 3 for me. But this time, there was a LOT more people to see it, and the downfall came. So how does a studio that releases a game as good as TW3 goes from greatness straight in the ground? Well, simply by getting extremely lucky nobody was really there to see their fuck-up in every other game they released. It's not that Cyberpunk was suddenly bad, more like it had no chance of being good day one. Second, on the narrative aspect of Cyberpunk and the illusion of choice it gives you compared to what TW3 had to offer : I think that there is a radical change of message in Cyberpunk that should be acknowledged : In TW3, you have a "choice" in everey quest that will impact the world. But at the same time, you're an ultra rare and badass monster killer that regularly talks to equally rare magicians, or politicians such as kings, jarls, duchesses... You legitimately have an impact on the world because you interact with the important people of history with a capital H. That is shown very well in the very last segment just before the end credits : you get Jaskier narrating what happened after the ending quest, and most of it is geopolitics : what happened to the Temeria, to the North, to Nilfgaard, to the Skellige islands, and the rulers of those lands, as well as the main characters. You have a choice to do in pretty much every quest because you have the ability to make such a choice, and actually influence the situation. In Cyberpunk, the scope is much smaller : you get to speak with the "rulers", but they influence you more than you influence them. Whatever you do in the story, you will not be able to change Night City, or the rest of the region or the world. What you can change (and that is reflected in the end credits) are the people around you : your friends, your family, the people that you met along the way. You were never meant to be able to do anything and have a huge impact : that wouldn't fit the world at all. Cyberpunk is a game about having a terminal illness and dealing with that : some will try to survive by any means necessary even if that means selling your soul, some will try to leave a mark on the world before they go, even if it feels empty, and some will try to focus on what they think is the most important : the bond they creat with their family or their close ones. The message of the game is substantially different than The Witcher 3, and I think that trying to compare quest designs is a little bit meaningless in a way. If in the Witcher you will be able to convince someone not to do something because of your witcher status, or some magic, in Cyberpunk that person will still do what they intended to do and you find yourself with the illusion of choice : you never had one to begin with. The side quests are also reflecting that. I can see how that feels a little dissapointing, but really : TW3 and CP2077 really are not the same kind of game, even if they look like it from the outside. Also I DO NOT agree with the "it has shown developper that you can push out a turd as long as there is enough hype around it". This is a very common comment made by Cyberpunk's detractors today saying that we shouldn't love the game because of what it was on release. To me, publishers and devs should look at it this way : if you release a product as bugged and broken as Cyberpunk, it will require several years, and a team of devs as skillful as CDPR (no less!) to be able to turn that game from a failure into a success and regai the trust of people for when you will make another game. That is NOT enabling studios to release unfinished products, and if they're just a little smart, they should see that the message of all of this is the exact opposite.
cyberpunk has far more layers of grey than witcher ever will. You have to change your perspectives to extract the hope out of the story and it absolutely shows the hypocrisies of the people who play the game when it comes to their own values/beliefs. Like a mirror. Something witcher is far less capable of doing. Despite being a dark fantasy, witcher does not push that darkness as far as cyberpunk does. That "illusion of choice" whatever that means is not relevant here because you will never save the world, but can only save yourself. Characters will not simply act entirely one way because you tell or want them to. Which makes more real than not.
It makes sense that Geralt has more impact in the world he lives in than V. Still, even with a smaller scope, with less important people to interact with, there are moments when V could have changed things. Like when Evelyn try to convince V to do the heist without Dex. You can call her after this conversation and nothing will happen. Not even a single dialogue. The only thing you can do about this is tell Dex she can't be trusted and he will give you a higher porcentage cut of a heist that never pays out and don't have any alternative endings or choices whatsoever. I mean, I love this game. But what if I could save Jackie? What if I could kill Dex myself? I think it should be totally possible and believable having these choices. Just as you said, you can change the people around you: your friends, family and the ones you met along the way. So why is this not available in the game? This is my frustration with Cyberpunk 2077. I really love this game, I spent more than 400 hours playing it. Still...there is something missing.
Literally the only comment I've seen acknowledge that this is pretty much a pattern for CDPR. if you bring up TW3 disastrous launch most people won't even know what you're talking about or just call you a hater lol. I do have to push back on the last portion of your point in that I feel like it does enable these companies to keep doing this cuz now they'll think "well we'll just fix the game later and people will forget about the mess of a launch it had." They don't respect gamers at all.
What about that mission with River. Don't know if it rains for everybody buy it was raining during my playthrough. Man it felt like a movie. That shit was gangster 😎
12:10 At the end of the game it does change if you tell the mayor or not, if you do you’ll see him paranoid about everything around him questioning even the smallest things but if you hide it from him you’ll see him chill and relaxed even tho it’s morally wrong to hide how the ai is taking over his decisions you make him not suffer cuz he can’t really take it off his mind
"Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" is how I would describe this game, even after all the updates. It's really not worth paying for unless it's on sale.
That’s harsh. Choices are harsh, and not as good as they should be. But the story, writing, graphics, and gameplay is very fun generally and better than most open world titles today
Let's hope. At least, just a glimmer of hope, that the developers will take into account all lessons learnt from 2077/Phantom Liberty and go all out with the sequel. Looking forward to post 2030 release, hopefully we are all still alive, nuclear war has not happened, BlackRock aka Arisaka has not taken over the world, and banks haven't got rid of cash eddies. Despite all it's flaws, Cyberpunk truly is a glimpse into a very possible future world our grandchildren will live in.
Can V make a difference in NC? Sure... If you go in as a mass murderer and kill all the gangers hanging out in alleys, etc. and come back later you find the citizens have taken over those areas and are having peaceful interactions with each other and exhibiting much less fear and not wandering around like zombies, in utter hopelessness. The best thing about CP is the stunning beauty of the City itself, walking up the catwalks that go over the streets below is an adventure and amazing if you do it, but often we stick to just accomplishing missions (NCPD or GIGs for Fixers or Main story missions and side quests). Sure there is no variations in outcome because of choices in general, but I noticed that Act 1 had much more variations my fav example is the All Foods mission where there are 3 possible drastically different combat paths to complete it, but they ran out of time apparently and Act 2 and 3 failed to deliver that, but brought that back at the end of Phantom Liberty (Reed of SoMi). As far as immersion goes it was a complete failure at launch, watching NPCs walk thru cars, buildings etc. apparently the Red Engine couldn't identify assets borders and stop one asset from occupying the same space as other assets (something any player created map in Far Cry, GTA5, or using Real Engine to create a map, can easily do). And just think about CDPRs interest in immersion when you play 2.0 and its updates that when you go to pick up weapons off gangers they are suddenly worthless as "broken" while a second before you were getting shot/stabbed with those same weapons, you mind is like "WTF?". The reason I like playing CP 2077 is that the story is fantastic, the graphics are stunning, and the playground (NC) is great. ITs a looter/shooter and not really an RPG. Most video games seem to be purposed to make sure you get it after finishing the game that "nothing you can do, will change anything" and that is demonic, because the truth is, in reality, we can change everything by our intent to do so. CDPR kept trying to re-invent interest in the game by changing things (re-rolling loot box items with each new playthru, changing weapons, trying a "balance" a game that is not a PVP and no other game studio has ever "balanced" a single player game, and using Modders stuff to fix the issues that are top on the list for their customers (police interaction, adjusting enemy strength to match the players, etc). Gamers are unrealistic in their expectations that because I am hiding behind a large bolder I can get shot but do get shot, not thinking of how they would program the game to not take that into account. Its extremely difficult to replicate reality, but if it was reality then facing off against 3 enemies would find you dead, if you dont believe that, go play paintball with a bunch of 12 year olds and find out, but we wish to be invincible.
Now currently I’m on my 4th play through and in all honesty I get HELLA guns from dead bodies typically if I kill a whole room of people maybe 2 or 3 will have a broken gun, and in all honesty it does make sense with how much melee is involved in the game. But yes the red engine was never meant for a first person game and in all honesty that’s very clear to see from the launch of the game. I fucking love the red engine though I’m devastated the next Witcher is gonna be on unreal
I'm planning of making my own cyberpunk rpg game, but it'd be far into the future before I could do it. The inspiration was also similar things as you talked in this video. It's coincidently that it's like you talked from my mind. Though I'm still not up to the challenge of making "dynamic world" like we hope, but my first milestone is to make the live-in world of cyberpunk. Like selling meatballs to make small income and enjoying the life of poor but low risk.
"I love what it _could be_ more than what it _is!"_ "Cyberpunk 2077 is a lie! A lie that I continue to love - but a lie nonetheless.." Well said, buddy. Well said..
I feel like the Cyberpunk aesthetic is shaping up to be the defining feel of the 2020s The 80s had neon and synth, the 90s had grunge, the 2000s had oversized everything and post-9/11 paranoia, the 2010s were party party. The 2020s are the worst aspects of the last 40 years combined
Oh boy, I disagree with you on becomming the same merk. I have 4 full playthrough and my 4 V's modivations and behaviours were really different in therm of world outlook, behaviours and aspirations and their endings reflected that a lot. My corpo swine was a narcisistic jerk with hyperviolent tendencies and ended up frozen in space alone, hoping for a day he would be healed but would be litteraly owned by Arasaka, My nomad was a happy go lucky toxic positive dreamer hoping to find a cure in the desert, my street kid started as a jaded sociopath but found her humanity in meeting other people, seeing their suffering and ultimately giving to both her chance at survival not once but twice to her friends so they can have the best chance at life themselves (sending Songbird to the Moon and giving her body to a changed, mellow and humane Jonhy), and my first playthrough, probably the most impactful one cut her quest short after failing EVERYONE, from not attending Jackie's funeral to not saving Takemura or the nomads, and always was in conflict with Jonhy to the end. All those four playthrough felt completely different to the point that I could stick completely different psychopathologies and philosophies to them.
I just finished the game 2 days ago, I didnt encounter glitches or bugs, well not major things at least and that's probably because I discovered the game late. Still I must say that even if I just finished the game Im still here, looking for videos, reading through stories, reading people's comments because Im still totally inmersed in the cyberpunk world, it's been a while since a game hit me so hard and the last time I've played such a good story was the trilogy of mass effect, and I guess I can understand your complaint because in any other game you are the absolute baddass savior of the whole F** world or even the savior of the Universe you are the Biggest GOAT of everything all the time, but really cyberpunk and night city just crushes you, and not just you everybody in the game, even Johnny with all his megalomaniac complex he realizes that everything he did and gave his life for, was for nothing, he bombed the arasaka tower and sure was a big heist just to discover 50 years later that the Corp was still standing strong and they just basically rebuilt everything that was destroyed 😆 So sure, this game can be very depressing and yet is so addictive, about the bugs I can share my experience that I didnt find major problems, but if you are one of those Trigger-Happy that wants to be treated like the king of the hill all the time, and loves the recognition of being baddass, this game is not for you, but if you enjoy good stories, plot twist, deceptions and conspiracies then go for cyberpunk 100% because is super enjoyable.
Your lucky that you just had a fresh experience with it. I think the immersion and lore is really great especially mister blue eyes and the alien conspiracy infact the mission where you investigate the politicians apartment to find a company spying on them was my favorite mission. If you haven't yet watch the edge runners anime
What I love about cyberpunk it's reminds you the players that they are force's in game that are more powerful than you, like when v constantly hides run away from Osaka, like when v can't resolve the AI who are controlling the politician and his wife, games like Skyrim Dragonborn or Fallout by the time you reach a certain point your the chosen one, your the most powerful, everything his handed over to you because your the chosen one, every faction your the chosen, but in cyberpunk you were supposed to die like anyone else, it's the chip in your head keeping you alive and killing you at the same time, v is not special, the character simple a pawn in somebody game , ( but the Witcher 3 was still the game of the generation)
I've always loved the Cyberpunk genre--starting in my childhood with the scene in Star Wars Episode 2 where Anakin and Obi-Wan are in the underbelly of Coruscant tracking the assassin, to various books, to the aesthetic--even my favorite looking city in Starfield is Neon, which is heavily Cyberpunk influenced. That said, I haven't bothered to play the game yet as I wanted to wait for CDPR to fix it (I saw the launch and we all know how that went lol). With it being on Steam sale ATM and me finally moving to PC, I'm going to pick it up and give it a shot. Can't wait to experience this game.
You see an advertisement about a delicious dinner, you go to the restaurant, they reassure you the dinner is delicious so you pay for it beforehand, and sit. You get starters and like them, maybe not much, depends on the cook. But then they just keep serving you snacks and starters and every other customer and employee acts like this is normal. The promised dinner never comes. You complain and ask for your dinner, but everyone is like "what? you don't like what they served you?" It doesn't matter, I was here for the fucking dinner. Where is my dinner?
disagree with how this analogy went. More like after a lot of hyping, the dinner arrived but it fell short of what was promised. The sauce was bland, the meat was overcooked, drink was luke warm instead of cold. Oh but what's this? you started seeing maggots in your steak, the drink wasn't the one you ordered, the sauce was spoiled. So people were outraged, restaurants refunded the customers, others started leaving and yelling on the way out. After some time, the restaurant started issuing public apologies. Gave out free meal coupons, fixed themselves up. Sure, the food they served now wasn't like the one they advertised before but they had a certain charm to their dishes that made you start to like them again. Of course there are those that liked the maggots but we just lump them up with weirdos.
Completely agree mate. I really enjoy this game, but I have sour feelings due to the underdelivery and over marketing we got. The fact that choosing your own path boils down to 30 minutes of play time and some dialog choices is so lazy and unforgivable. It's like it's there just so you can sell it through marketing. I'm glad the devs put so much work into CP77 after release, but after 3 years, the caimpaign is still super short and V's impact on everything is underwhelming.
I can describe my whole experience with this game as follows: you find a coupon that promises to give you three apples: one is red, one is yellow and one is green. Excited, you turn in your coupon but only receive one apple: the red one. Frustrated, you complain. Your voice is heard, and you receive an additional apple: the yellow one. But you are still missing one. You complain again and this time you receive no apple. You are stuck with two. You eat your apples. They are delicious. So much that you wonder just how good the green one would have been.
I was underwhelmed at the game when it launched but I reckon the current game after all the patches, updates and the phantom liberty dlc it truly is one of the best games out there nowadays and I would take it over the likes of starfield, far cry 6 and what not any day
More like you see an advertisement about a delicious dinner, you go, they reassure you the dinner is delicious, you pay for it, you get starters and like them, but then they just keep serving you snacks and starters and every other customer and employee acts like this is normal. You complain and ask for your dinner but everyone is like "what? you don't like what they served you?" It doesn't matter, I was here for the fucking dinner.
I love this game post 2.0, logged over 300 hours. But I cannot deny that at some point we were promised an RPG, and the finished game is "action-adventure with RPG elements". Great video
I think the bottom line is, that video games will never rival life. Even in 20 years. There will still be "something wrong" with the immersion. You may have to accept that this is the level of immersion a game, can provide... It's probably a blessing. One thing aside from immersion is simply art. The art of the game is beautiful, and to enjoy that may be better than immersion. The truth is you don't want anything more immersive that what cyber punk is right now. You say you do, but trust me you don't want it. Any more immersive and you'll find yourself spending way more time in game. Maybe even in a relationship. And you don't benefit long term from that. So count it as a blessing, you get beautiful art. Would you really want the Mona Lisa climbing out of her painting, maybe pulling you into it. You wouldn't. The immersion of this art is enough. Food for thought. It would simply be way to distracting for real life. As Adam smasher says in edgerunners "can you really afford to be distracted at a time like this" :).
I started playing in July last year when I first got a PS5, was my first next gen experience. . . First week I played 110hrs. Was hooked from the Sandra Dorsett mission when the cool music kicks in, loved all the side missions and gigs etc. . . This is my best gaming experience of my life. Last time I had this much fun was when GTA: Vice City released and I was 12 😂❤
This game brought the spark of joy i had back when i played Halo Reach. The game experience, the chaotic journey of Cyberpunk updates, and persistently playing this game has been unforgettable. This definitely can’t be replicated. I hope I’m here for the sequel. Good video fam🔥
It absolutely needs ng+ and mods on console. The experience with those two changes will be night and day. The future of the cyberpunk genre has unlimited potential.
Cyberpunk is like coffee, it taste bitter but I love it. I disappointed at the buggy mess and missing features but I can't stop playing it, making photo modes, modding and listen to it's music for hundreds of hours.
corporate greed, marketing managers being idiots, crunch and deadlines, feature creep and wrong decisions, hype.... and more i love the game, i love the premise, i love the genre, and yet i feel like cyberpunk 2077 is nothing more then smoke and mirrors wrapped in shiny neon paper, a huge missed opportunity i dont know what happened, i dont even care about who was responsible for all of it, i just wanted it to be something more, the anime gave a glimpse in what it could be the DLC gave us something better a good story, a mediocre game at best, a pretty sure but horribly boring and static world with RPG part being just stats, and the absolute stupid decision to cash on graphics to melt your pc WHY WHY would that be a core decision god fucking dammit..... it could have been so good.... and yet here we are
I never had that experience. I only learned about the game online a few months before its release, and I never watched any of the marketing material, so I only get to see the game for what it actually is rather than what it could be, and what it actually is is pretty good
So the thing about takes like this, _(and I promise I have no wish to be hostile towards the uploader over it. It's all love.)_ is that while there is merit to some disappointments brought on by some internal design shortcomings, especially after such an explosive hype fest years back, is that these topics always seem forget or maybe even purposely dismiss the fact that Cyberpunk 2077, is the first of its kind for CDPR developers. It wasn't just an attempt to re-create a "Witcher 3" experience, with cyberware and futuristic buildings, like it's merely a simple cosmetic makeover. Cyberpunk actually runs very deep in features, lore and options unique to it's own universe. How they even managed to get it this far, is beyond me. CDPR devs have come forward stating that venturing in this area was absolutely different from their experience with the Witcher games. Witcher 3 and RDR2 are always used as a prime example of what Cyberpunk 2077 should have been, by common detractors, with no regards to the fact that both Witcher and RDR also have a legacy built with their prequels, before reaching to their magnificent statuses. So I personally find it a bit unfair to not consider this fact, even despite _TimePlayer_ stating how Phantom Liberty has actually improved the experience as an expansion to Cyberpunk. Why is Phantom Liberty such an improvement? Because CDPR now has a paved roadmap and did much like with what they did with the Witcher chronicles. They upped the experience. It wouldn't surprise me if the next sequel to Cyberpunk "Orion" ends up being the "Witcher 3" status of the Cyberpunk series. It seems to be CDPR's trend in growth over previous experiences and that's why I personally support their efforts. That's not to say I wasn't impressed with CP2077 as is, because I definitely am. I adore this game.💙 It's a technological marvel in it's own right and it sits right up there on my top 10 games to play in 2024. Yeah, Cyberpunk as a game, could have had so much more to it, with varying choices affecting reputations and outcomes affecting everything in its world. But again... considering the factors above, I think CDPR has done a phenomenal job (once the game was actually repaired and PL dropped) of creating a new exciting series within their small but very noteworthy catalog. The dev team at CDPR are very passionate and that's clear as day. We've learned of how distraught they were when the game released with so many problems, because it was still not ready to go live. It was a historical disaster in gaming, despite selling millions of copies. But they didn't give up and that's gotta mean something to some of you, if you can relate with the human condition. Much like many others, I too faulted CDPR _(and they did as well)_ for choosing to oversell features they didn't even know would be possible to accomplish, in the set time frame they originally had to work with. They had multiple delays and even then, certain features couldn't be met. _(not talking about the illusive made up promises certain detractors have claimed, which actually originated on Reddit by an unknown user, that were later debunked)_ . All because they _(the higher ups at CDPR)_ wanted to impress their shareholders, which the rest of us got to see and speculate in awe. It was reckless and dishonest. But does this mean Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn't be loved and enjoyed for what it is today, though? Absolutely not. Even without certain elements included, the game is still a beautiful and content rich development. I find it odd to question and philosophize on why you shouldn't love this game, when you indeed are enjoying the game. I've already burned 450 hours into it myself and I still can't put it down. First full play through, finishing all the quests, gigs and found many hidden gems without the use of mods. The story was deep, filled with intrigue, emotional scenes and a uniqueness that can only be expected in a futuristic world. Some very heartfelt tragedies that had me thinking about them for days. Extremely detailed _(down to the thread!)_ outer worldly fashion sense, music that really pushed the culture shock to unexpected levels _(US Cracks)_ , aggressive advertisements exposing public desensitization and predatory monetary corruption. Phenomenal high rise structures that swallow you whole, which you can actually explore _(with the right cyberware)_ , some very comical moments and of course.... SEX. lol I mean.. I can go on and on... Night City is truly an amazing experience with so many layers to it. It's good to discuss our disappointments and wonder what if things were different, but try not to spend too much time dwelling on the negatives, choom. Especially when you know deeply, you can live with the positives just fine. I am confident, it will only get better. _(I really hope this doesn't age like milk)_
Cyberpunk is not that type of world. We aren't supposed to change it in any meaningful way. If you think you are you missed the point. At it's heart the entire genre of cyberpunk is futuristic noir. It's been that way since Gibson sat down at a typewriter and codified the building blocks of the genre. The entire opening act of Cyberpunk 2077 is a riff on Neuromancer's main plot, building a team and an impossible heist. One of the endings for the game is a direct reference to the ending of Neuromancer's main plot. No one "wins" in Cyberpunk. No one changes the world. The ending of every Cyberpunk story is death, a bad ending, or a questionable ending. That's the genre. What the genre also is is the world it takes place in. If you go back and read several old noir novels what you'll figure out is that the city it takes place in is the main character. Not you. Not any of the people you interact with while reading. Not even the people at the top. The city is an amalgamation of all the stories happening inside of it. Big and small. All happening at the same time. There's no overarching quest to save things because there's no definition of what saving the place means. It's too chaotic with too many people pulling in too many directions. What Cyberpunk 2077 does better than any other game I've played is sell that part of noir. That side of cyberpunk. All the competing interests. All the highs of what a city can offer and the lows it can sink to. All the weirdness. Our grand quest is our own story touching on other peoples. We aren't in it to save people or build an empire. We're in it to survive. Same as them. Just what we need is different than what they need. Some will help us, some will hinder us, but everyone is self interested. We're a small part of their story, not the other way around. None of them want to be saved by us, even the best of them. Even if we did change the city no one would thank us for it. Such a monumental shift would upset their plans, their stories. Ask yourself. Honestly. With everything you did in that 80 hour playthrough, of all the quests you did, and all the things every interest needs. How in the world could you possibly save it all? Truly change or make an impact on it in any meaningful way? All the different factions want wildly desperate things which in some ways conflict with each other. Even the ethically good factions are in some ways in conflict with each other over what they want. There's no monsters. No big evil trying to destroy the world. Just people who want different things coming into conflict with each other. We're railroaded into Arasaka by the quest but there's several other world superpower corporations in Night City we only tangentially see and they all have big huge world important plots going on inside them. They all oppose Arasaka because they all oppose each other. Arasaka isn't even the most powerful corporation in Night City, it's just the one we see the most of.
I fell in love with it day one because I saw the potential and I’m glad I stuck through because it’s one of my favorite games I really want to it reach its potential in a sequel
I played day 1 I was super hyped and while I soon realized it was buggy af I still loved it and finished the game twice, my friend finally got it like a month ago and is loving it that convinced me to play through the game a 3rd time and I still love it so to anyone that tried it when it launched and got pissed about the unfinished bugfest or still haven’t played I implore you to give it a shot it’s truly a captivating experience (btw female V with Judy is peak and Panam is annoying/lame)
I started playing end of 2023 and now have over 250 hours in the game and bugs and glitches are few and far inbetween, I didn't encounter any major ones, the only one that I've sometimes seen is dead bodies kinda flexing in ways they shouldn't. That's it. Great job on fixing the issues!
I loved how in Witcher 3 the ending might depend on a decision you made 20 hours back, or it might be a seemingly trivial choice like making a funny remark with deadly consequences. Also, in Witcher 3, you could eavesdrop a conversation and you might end up on an epic quest if you follow through. CP is missing these, I think. By the way, I remember the developers promising 'verticality' (I suppose they meant parkouring). I still love the game though and it is addictive as hell. B
Am I alone in thinking like this supposed promise that players would be able to change every aspect of Night City through our choices, never really occurred? I brought the game on day one but I certainly didn't come into it with such an expectation. What I recall from the trailers and prelaunch material, was that it was pushing a narrative that the world and characters were intriguing, immersive, etc. I was looking forward to a well written story in a fascinating world. I think it largely delivered on that - although I'd say that the open world never felt as immersive as, say, RDR2 or a Bethesda game. But still, I'm a little surprised that there was this expectation of narrative-changing choices being in the game.
Alot of what was hyped up was brought on by reddit incels. I forgot what they said but some reddits were hyping up the game before launch telling people about all these mechanics or aspects that CD didn't promise anyone. Gaming companies are a huge problem in the community but so is these new gen gamers. People don't want to research and don't care about the truth they just care about what they desire to be right. They get what they want to be true and the actual truth mixed up. It's bad.
Most “promises” were never actually promised in the first place, nearly all were just rumours created by over hyped fans. Someone on the internet had a theory, that theory got spread around and got blurred and misinterpreted which later turned into a fact that came out of CDPR’s own words when it was never even uttered by them in the first place, this happens with nearly every game but it happened with cyberpunk to such an extent because this game was practically the second coming of Christ in the eyes of most people so every aspect of the game was exaggerated and over hyped to extremes that no other game had ever seen. A lot of issues with this game were because of CDPR but the gaming community also had a role to play in this games failure of a launch because they created their own narrative for this game with false evidence, an idolised image of the final game in their head that was built on the lies of their own making.
The market value of the CD project red share in mid '20 was over 100€ and still more than 70€ in november of said year. It's now somewhere around 30€... It did recover from the initial shock of the release and the anime and effort of the devs helped but still the company lost a lot of trust and money. So it's just not true that the disapointment didn't had consequences. It did pretty strong ones even and long lastings ones too.
I'm honestly excited for the next game. This had problems with a great story abd is now improved with an excellent DLC. It truly feels like a different world but also based on the real life problems in ours. A great universe.
I think part of the "nothing you do fundamentally changes the world" issue is actually part of the Cyberpunk RPG game world and to a lesser degree the genre in general. MIke Poudsmith who created the RPG the game is based off of said something to the effect of "It is not about saving the world, but about saving yourself." A city where you have fast food joints named after literal communist revolutionaries is a statement about how even revolution is chewed up, spit out and commoditized in Night City. Not even a Marxist revolution would leave a dent on this place. Heck even the guy who wanted to be the new Jesus was turned into nothing more than a reality TV spectacle. So making a name for yourself and getting a drink at the Afterlife is the best you are going to get.
I want to add as well that phantom liberty ending DOES change night city. Most of where v and Jackie grew up doesn’t even exist anymore yea we don’t get to see much of the city after which is a bummer but seeing a night city being controlled by militech sounds like a great sequel
I feel like the lack of choice and change does match the theme though. One of the key concepts of the cyberpunk genre is that you can’t impact the world, that at the end of the day, you can only save yourself. Admittedly, their should be more choice, especially when it was advertised, but I found the unchangingness of the city somewhat immersive (especially living in a city myself, where I also have no way to change anything)
You have an influence on the people around you though. Idk, don't give my protagonist the ability to delete people from existence and then go "BUT DYSTOPIA!" when it comes to influencing things.
I had more fun and playthroughs in Fallout 4. The chaos just made interactions with enemies, looting, stealth etc so much more memorable and unique. Kind of like the first Halo, where every enemy encounter resulted in cinematic like chaos and different outcomes.
This is weird and I'm usually on the opposite side of this argument. Choices should always have consequences in games otherwise don't bother giving choice. This is probably just my brain adjusting reality so it can fit its narrative but I love the illusion of choice in CP2077 and that no matter what you do, pursuing this path of glory and climbing up in the world will always give you false flags of success and eventually beat you back down to the reality of Night City. I love how hopeless and suffocating the world is and yet in that pursuit is such an amazing journey and story that many avenues and optional opportunities show up, an overwhelming amount in fact that some people never even touched the optional Judy/Panam/Claire/River stories. Never uncovered the cursed shit in the collectible shards and connected background work on cyberpsychos and essentially just a fleshed out world. I love how punishing and tragic someone living in Night City is. Spoiler warning, I especially love the ending where you become noone again in Night City after losing your cyberware capabilities and all your friends have moved in 2079. It's a reminder that each and every playthrough is the tragic truth for every citizen of Night city. It might look like you're climbing for a good while but at some point, that city will make sure you're reminded that you don't belong at the top but on the concrete, curbstomped against the walkpath and shot like the dog that you are. Either way, I completely understand people thinking it's dogshit because for a long time, I also thought the game was dogshit. I just really wanted to love it and now I do. Currently have 453 hours.
Wanna know what still blows my mind? 4 years ago, I would have never imagined this game would run on a handheld like the Steam Deck, but here we are only 4 years later.
The only thing i dont like, and still feel burned by, is the fact i waited 8 years for it. I finally get it it's broken. Then they say they have fixed it as much as possible on ps4 and its still broken. So your telling me i have to either buy a new console or get a gaming pc to play it? That doesn't sit right with me
The game was redesigned. It was originally designed for past gen consoles. They were in the middle of development when they got word that a new gen was coming out, so they redesigned the game for new gen. In which left the past gen game essentially broken. The good thing is new gen is becoming cheaper and more available.
I just finished getting the platinum trophy for this game. I loved the story so much but certainly felt a lot of the flaws you discussed. Did anyone else have issues with the way driving feels in this game?
Perfect summary of the game. You put into words what I had trouble putting into my own thoughts. I had trouble pinpointing why I love the game, yet why it feels lacking in many aspects. Now I know!
Cyberpunk is one my favorite games of all time while still being one of the biggest disappointments. The game itself is awesome but it could be legendary.
Phantom Liberty made me realize how much the base game is lacking impactful choices. That expansion gives me hope that the next game will be able to capture that choice and consequence that made The Witcher 3 so great.
Disagree with some of the points on reflection however I really appreciate the point that “I love the game but I love what it can be”, which sucks because what Orion can he is a necessity, I love cyberpunk and I feel that taking away the CDPR logo doesn’t actually mean it doesn’t feel like one of their games because he’ll these characters and arcs in this and phantom liberty echo W3 and its dlc, what I want is this team to meet the potential that is very much achievable, it just needs directional and a game built on quality and not big words
People still keep talking about bugs and glitches and graphics and shit. Is this the end for RPGs with actual meaningful choices? Baldur's Gate 3 says no... But I don't know. This game advertised it's "branching paths and choices with consequences," even a couple months before launch and yet, this blatant lie is never talked about.
The first act of Cyberpunk when Jackie is still alive plays like a solid demo of a promising game but after that part is over its all downhill from there.
Wasn't this what Johnny Silverhand was talking about? The dystopia of a world that does not change, nor grow. A world kept sterile and unchanging by the powers that be. A world in which the individual is insignificant and cannot affect any change, for better, or for worse.
I love this game so much. It’s the city for me, there is no game that has made feel the way it does, a feeling when your arrive to a new country for the first time. I wish they would keep building on this city but I know that would be the case
CD Projekt Red never hyped the game as much as people said. People expected it to be a second life but in a Cyberpunk universe, something that was never promised It was always marketed as an action RPG with choices, literally the only valid criticism about this game was the bugginess when it released
Agreed. The game shouldn't have launched undercooked, but because of that event I think that's where some of the strangest "BUT WHERE IS X"!?!? comes from. I pretty much got what I expected even if it took years to realize that vision. Beats the 2018 demo.
I cant care less about some "broken promises", if cyberpunk still the best game i can play right now. If someone dont like something , you can alway play starfield , ubisoft games and something like that
CP2077 is top5 favourite game of mine. Me and my friend had played it since phantom liberty launch and i had zero problems. All around glorious game, story, character, city (gtfo GTA) really well done. I have all the confidence that sequel will be even better. The only problem I have that we never got that Trauma Drama (4 people extraction shooter) multiplayer element in those Megabuildings, but i gues we all know it's coming in sequel.
Thank good i'm sane enough to think i still have the personal responsibility and choice where i spend my money, it's basically voting power. And my hobbies are literally mechatronics, electric and electronics, drafting mechanical systems, 3D Printing etc. I grew up with Armored Cores, Zoids, Deus Ex, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Astro Boy, etc I love Robots, Mechas, Androids, Cyborg, Space Shuttle, Space station, lasers, ballistic missile, Smart systems, etc I even have capitalistic tendencies myself. But damn i know for a fact i'm a consumer, and i have to spend my money for my OWN interest and not let these corpos do this shit to me. I pay for your product, you don't fulfilled the requirement or pushing some weirdass ideology, you don't get a cent from me, or i simply pirate it if i deemed it reasonable or simply wanna test. I used to pirate or play demo before actually sinking my money into the game studio like i pirated Divinity Original Sins or Starsector, those studios deserve my money and more. You are a fucking consumer, that's your only power, patience is a virtue.
Yeah. I love CP in its state right now, but is not trully and rpg. Its more immersive sim in the vein of Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines, Deus ex, Thief. Acctually, is the only immersive sim with an proper open world. But not really an rpg. Withcer 3 is an modern rpg, but it is a very easy game. I was desapointe by the besutifull handcrafted world...with quest markers. It takes more than 50% of the game, and the super simplistic gameplay doesnt help.
Well, cyberpunk isn't the first game to take away decisions and actual world building, destiny has done the same thing. My problem with cyberpunk is the fact thier isn't any personal progression like starting from the streets and ending up in a penthouse or starting from the penthouse and ending up in the streets there aren't any the side missions are good stories but what is v story really like i haven't seen in game yet what the character wants which make these choices less impactful to me another thing is this world isn't explorable because you can't interact like shopping eating playing there aren't any animation for these things. V is a merc thats tasked with all sorts of work police work or gang work there is no consequence for what work you take on. I agree with most of what you said the world feels hollow. But it's not the game that changed how publishers look to publish games in my opinion that title goes to destiny as they completely changed their game and still made 500 mil in their first weeks of their game on the market.
Cyberpunk was their first time doing this and yes it's not an excuse. They did better with what they had with PL but over all the Game was never going to be better without Switching Engines and going to Unreal so they Throw was their engine away and went Unreal all thanks to Cyberpunk release in 2020. Enjoy it for what it is and hope they do better next time. Comparing Cyberpunk to The Witcher is going why Red Engine Good when it's not they don't want to be known as a one trick Pony and have more then 1 ip. Like I said count us Lucky Cyberpunk 2077 even come out.
They were way too ambitious, aimed for the sky and failed. BUT as a wise man once said « if you don’t fail you’re not even trying » so I appreciate the effort because cp2077 might not be what they envisioned and marketed but it still a good game and hopefully the foundation of an amazing sequel.
Cd never gave up on cyberpunk they updated it everytime making it better and better for ppl other companies would leave the game move on but they didn’t they made it better and the DLC it’s perfect beautiful
Best game alongside Fallout, Crysis, FarCry, Ghost of Tsushima. Honestly they somhould have continuously dropped add-on stories for five years before making a new one
To be fair the visual of the game is still stunning, and best among cyberpunk genre. For me after 70 hours of gameplay, night city no longer have anything more to offer, every side gigs, environment 3d assets, any activities you can do, you realize there are tons of copy-paste repetitiveness, just because developing a world this scale, the amount of tasks is tremendous even for a billion dollar company. Game experience is more linear than expected, but thanks CDPR for the game, the story left some mark in my memory, hope the sequel gets even better.
If you're searching for a real immersive cyberpunk game with deeper role playing mechanics Deus Ex Mankind Devided is your game. It's much smaller but it has more depth and detail in it's open world design.
The way i look at decisions in 2077 is that you are inconsequential to night city. Everything will go on whether you were there or not. Sort of as a way of saying yeah you're name gets around but you're stint in night city is so short that you don't get to see the effects of your choices.
I'd be more accepting of this if they didn't hype up how much our choices would matter. If they just said "Yea we have a bunch of side quests with multiple different outcomes" at the start then it wouldn't have grown into a bigger problem. But they made it seem like we'd be able to change stuff regarding the main storyline, which to be fair there are some but not to the degree they advertised.
Weirdly, I consider the failed marketing promises as 1:1 representations of the lies and promises told to Night City citizens. So yeah, the marketers who lied IRL suck, but they made it more immersive for me at the end of the day. Kind of a copium take, I know. But corpos are the same, IRL or IG.
@@SolidSnake240 I think that would be impossible in a region such as Night City and NUSA, the actions you make in the game are so unfathomably small relative to everything else happening outside of the story that even if you do something extremely significant it wouldn't really matter. Purely from a storytelling perspective. From a promises perspective, they did underdeliver, I would have liked to be able to control zones similar to San Andreas.
@@michaeldwhelchel
That's... Ew. Gross.
But that was not what was promised, or what was advertised.
You really put into words with the experience I had with this game. It is really good, but when you remember what it actually could be and the promises, I feel a bit sad. Night City is a phenomenal setting that deserves an in depth RPG experience.
high key want a top down cyberpunk crpg.
@Nykkynn Your explanation seems a bit unconvincing when there are other games that have achieved much more. It's about having talented developers and using the right engine. CD Projekt Red insisted on using their RED engine for so long, but now they've finally switched to Unreal Engine. Many of their long-time staff left because the new direction of CDPR seemed to prioritize profit over quality.
You mention computer specs, but a 3090TI can run any game. The real issue is CDPR's reluctance to leave behind the PS4 and Xbox One to focus on new consoles. It's disappointing when a game like GTA5, which came out in 2013, can still outperform Cyberpunk in terms of NPC behavior, a living world, and police mechanics.
It really does especially with how rich the lore is the sandbox is so dense and intricate too I've never seen a game where the futuristic buildings actually looked like a twisting complex conglomeration of a jungle I love just walking through it. Let's hope CDPR learned their lesson and delivers on the sequel
@@dilwalecricketwhenever you make this claim you give an example so we can have a debate because I don't think you've thought about your point very much at all
@Nykkynn that's such hard copium
To me, Cyberpunk has become my own personal 'Skyrim/Minecraft' in which dispute multiple playthroughs i just dont get tired of it and get lost in the world.
Fortunately, I joined the Cyberpunk hype ~3yrs before release after finishing TW3 so i was excited but had almost little expectation thinking it would be just 'cyber GTA'.
CDPR really did overshoot with the marketing of this game, and I genuinely do believe that they thought they could create that world they originally sold us. Hopefully for Orion they know their limits and strengths now and actually make a game worthy of the original Cyberpunk idea. They have the storytelling on lock now they just need that game design fleshed out.
Cyberpunk 2077 is such a beautiful mess, I love it.
to me, the game does feel like a "cyber gta" but I love gta so it made me love this game as well. it's on par with gta 4, details and everything for me. (the best gta game in terms of gameplay and story)
@@airboruto23 Definitely, just with much better gameplay than any gta game
Yeah I don't 100% many games but every time I play cyberpunk I always do for some reason which there was more.
Stil hoping Orion would be better than the first release of 2077. :)
I dont think they were necessarily lying in the advertisement. What they were selling is genuinely what they wanted to create. They just didnt have the time and resources to give us the masterpiece they had sold us on, and were fully intent on providing.
*Sigh* Here is my rough timeline/cycle with this game:
-Bought into the hype heavily by 2018 or so.
-Purchased and played day 1 on PC. Didn't have any game-breaking bugs and fell in love.
-Beat the game, put it down for a few months...
*Play other games*
-Come across a video essay on why Cyberpunk was good from fans.
-Get lured into my 2nd playthrough.
-Played a good chunk of the endings this time.
*Play other games*
-Learn of a mod to play the game in VR with my new Quest 2 headset.
-Nearly destroyed my GPU at the time (2070 super) but played the crap out of it in VR (and only played the game in VR since).
*Play other games*
-Find another video essay on why it's good again around 1.5 and watch "Edge Runners."
-Upgrade my GPU to a 3090.
-Start adding mods to the game.
-The pain of adding mods to the game.
-Finish 2-3 more playthroughs.
*Decide to stop playing until PA releases (after the official announcement)*
-New playthrough again after 2.0 releases.
-Keep playing into PL release.
-Fall in love with the game AGAIN.
-Stop playing until the VR mod is patched to work.
*Play other games*
-VR mod gets fixed.
-Start another fresh playthrough and get blown away by PL again in VR.
-More modding.
*Play other games*
-Watch another video essay on why the game is great and get pulled back in.
-More mods.
-2 more playthroughs and explored all PL endings.
*Get pretty deep into Fallout 4 VR after the show*
-Watch another video essay entitled "I shouldn't love Cyberpunk 2077."
-TBD
Honestly, it's only been about 3 weeks since I wrapped up my last playthrough, but I'm already starting to rush through the rest of the Fallout 4 main story to get to another 2077 playthrough, lol.
I'm fairly sure 2077 is just my comfort game at this point
The whole Cynosure mission blew my mind. Right up my alley. Great use of sound.
@@nothingelse1520Alien Isolation vibes
Play Deep rock galactic
Great video, thank you. One thing I've noticed as a change in game: After you intercept the A.V. with Panam, it takes about 2 in-game days for the advertising sky-beams to be turned back on, as if your EMP actually damaged something.
Okay, so first of all, I think there is something that a LOT of people miss when they say things like "how can CDPR release such a buggy mess when they've been releasing games so good as TW3?"
Well that's kind of the thing : they didn't really change anything from their way of working.
The Witcher 1? Delayed and was a buggy mess at launch, got fixed a little with patches. Very small audience through, so not a huge deal and overall for their first game it was pretty good. The "Enhanced Edition" would fix most of the major bugs and problems the game had.
The Witcher 2? Well again, it was delayed, and when it was released it was an absolute mess. Bugs, but most importantly performance issues, to a point that even today, there is some settings that you straight up can't run properly because it melts even an RTX 4090. But still, quite a large improvement over TW1, and again, most of the major bugs and problems would be fixed in the "Enhanced Edition".
Then came The Witcher 3, which was a much larger game than both TW1 and TW2 combined... When TW1 was more of a passion project where writing wasn't all that important (and they tried to include as much as the things from the books as possible as they didn't know if they could make a second game at all), and TW2 was a corridor game with a much stronger focus on a more serious writing, TW3 was a full open world taking the strong writing cues from TW2... and it was a huge success. BUT. The audiance that saw the game on launch day were mostly people that liked TW2, or got hyped up by the E3 trailers and such. There was a massive graphics downgrade from the trailers (actually created a small scandal at the time). The game was poorly optimized, the then very popular (and powerful for the day) GTX 970 couldn't really play the game at 60fps, there was a lot of game breaking bugs with softlocks that didn't allow you to finish quests, there was a lot of bugged dialogue, bugges NPCs, bugged elements of gameplay, the interface was a complete mess... But there wasn't such a massive audiance to see it. TW3 very much built its player base with the release of the two DLCs, and (much) later in late 2019 when the Netflix Witcher show dropped its first season : that's actually when the game hit its peak player count. Just like other CDPR games had been delayed 2 to 3 times, was a buggy mess at launch with really serious issues (I remember I had a 30GB patch every 2 weeks for a solid 3/4 months after the release to fix bugs), and most of the issues with balancing, interface etc were fixed with the DLCs that overhauled most of the rough things that TW3 had. And a LARGE portion of people discovered that game after it was patched, almost 5 years after release.
That gave CDPR a MASSIVE amount of confidence in the heart of players. So when Cyberpunk was announced, everyone thought it would be a masterpiece day one. As someone that has been there for every CDPR game since 2007, I saw the patter coming back : the game was delayed, again and again I was 100% certain of what was coming next : a buggy poorly optimized mess. And so it came. I played the game day one, and finished it before 2020 ended. Bugs, poor performance, but no completely game breaking bugs, and overall a better launch experience than The Witcher 3 for me. But this time, there was a LOT more people to see it, and the downfall came.
So how does a studio that releases a game as good as TW3 goes from greatness straight in the ground? Well, simply by getting extremely lucky nobody was really there to see their fuck-up in every other game they released. It's not that Cyberpunk was suddenly bad, more like it had no chance of being good day one.
Second, on the narrative aspect of Cyberpunk and the illusion of choice it gives you compared to what TW3 had to offer : I think that there is a radical change of message in Cyberpunk that should be acknowledged : In TW3, you have a "choice" in everey quest that will impact the world. But at the same time, you're an ultra rare and badass monster killer that regularly talks to equally rare magicians, or politicians such as kings, jarls, duchesses... You legitimately have an impact on the world because you interact with the important people of history with a capital H. That is shown very well in the very last segment just before the end credits : you get Jaskier narrating what happened after the ending quest, and most of it is geopolitics : what happened to the Temeria, to the North, to Nilfgaard, to the Skellige islands, and the rulers of those lands, as well as the main characters. You have a choice to do in pretty much every quest because you have the ability to make such a choice, and actually influence the situation. In Cyberpunk, the scope is much smaller : you get to speak with the "rulers", but they influence you more than you influence them. Whatever you do in the story, you will not be able to change Night City, or the rest of the region or the world. What you can change (and that is reflected in the end credits) are the people around you : your friends, your family, the people that you met along the way. You were never meant to be able to do anything and have a huge impact : that wouldn't fit the world at all. Cyberpunk is a game about having a terminal illness and dealing with that : some will try to survive by any means necessary even if that means selling your soul, some will try to leave a mark on the world before they go, even if it feels empty, and some will try to focus on what they think is the most important : the bond they creat with their family or their close ones. The message of the game is substantially different than The Witcher 3, and I think that trying to compare quest designs is a little bit meaningless in a way. If in the Witcher you will be able to convince someone not to do something because of your witcher status, or some magic, in Cyberpunk that person will still do what they intended to do and you find yourself with the illusion of choice : you never had one to begin with. The side quests are also reflecting that.
I can see how that feels a little dissapointing, but really : TW3 and CP2077 really are not the same kind of game, even if they look like it from the outside.
Also I DO NOT agree with the "it has shown developper that you can push out a turd as long as there is enough hype around it". This is a very common comment made by Cyberpunk's detractors today saying that we shouldn't love the game because of what it was on release. To me, publishers and devs should look at it this way : if you release a product as bugged and broken as Cyberpunk, it will require several years, and a team of devs as skillful as CDPR (no less!) to be able to turn that game from a failure into a success and regai the trust of people for when you will make another game. That is NOT enabling studios to release unfinished products, and if they're just a little smart, they should see that the message of all of this is the exact opposite.
cyberpunk has far more layers of grey than witcher ever will. You have to change your perspectives to extract the hope out of the story and it absolutely shows the hypocrisies of the people who play the game when it comes to their own values/beliefs. Like a mirror. Something witcher is far less capable of doing. Despite being a dark fantasy, witcher does not push that darkness as far as cyberpunk does.
That "illusion of choice" whatever that means is not relevant here because you will never save the world, but can only save yourself. Characters will not simply act entirely one way because you tell or want them to. Which makes more real than not.
It makes sense that Geralt has more impact in the world he lives in than V.
Still, even with a smaller scope, with less important people to interact with, there are moments when V could have changed things. Like when Evelyn try to convince V to do the heist without Dex. You can call her after this conversation and nothing will happen. Not even a single dialogue. The only thing you can do about this is tell Dex she can't be trusted and he will give you a higher porcentage cut of a heist that never pays out and don't have any alternative endings or choices whatsoever.
I mean, I love this game. But what if I could save Jackie? What if I could kill Dex myself? I think it should be totally possible and believable having these choices. Just as you said, you can change the people around you: your friends, family and the ones you met along the way. So why is this not available in the game?
This is my frustration with Cyberpunk 2077. I really love this game, I spent more than 400 hours playing it. Still...there is something missing.
Facts
Literally the only comment I've seen acknowledge that this is pretty much a pattern for CDPR. if you bring up TW3 disastrous launch most people won't even know what you're talking about or just call you a hater lol. I do have to push back on the last portion of your point in that I feel like it does enable these companies to keep doing this cuz now they'll think "well we'll just fix the game later and people will forget about the mess of a launch it had." They don't respect gamers at all.
In all fairness, I agree with the 50% of this comment that I read
I still think my favourite mission is visiting judy’s town underwater so unique and personal
Same, and the bungalow gave me fallout vibes. Junky, but kind of cozy, with a semi bleak type of lighting.
What about that mission with River. Don't know if it rains for everybody buy it was raining during my playthrough. Man it felt like a movie. That shit was gangster 😎
more like so
fucking
boring
What was promised was a massively integrated world to rp in, what we got was digital novel we can go psycho in when we get bored.
12:10 At the end of the game it does change if you tell the mayor or not, if you do you’ll see him paranoid about everything around him questioning even the smallest things but if you hide it from him you’ll see him chill and relaxed even tho it’s morally wrong to hide how the ai is taking over his decisions you make him not suffer cuz he can’t really take it off his mind
"Wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle" is how I would describe this game, even after all the updates. It's really not worth paying for unless it's on sale.
That’s harsh. Choices are harsh, and not as good as they should be. But the story, writing, graphics, and gameplay is very fun generally and better than most open world titles today
Let's hope. At least, just a glimmer of hope, that the developers will take into account all lessons learnt from 2077/Phantom Liberty and go all out with the sequel. Looking forward to post 2030 release, hopefully we are all still alive, nuclear war has not happened, BlackRock aka Arisaka has not taken over the world, and banks haven't got rid of cash eddies.
Despite all it's flaws, Cyberpunk truly is a glimpse into a very possible future world our grandchildren will live in.
Can V make a difference in NC? Sure... If you go in as a mass murderer and kill all the gangers hanging out in alleys, etc. and come back later you find the citizens have taken over those areas and are having peaceful interactions with each other and exhibiting much less fear and not wandering around like zombies, in utter hopelessness.
The best thing about CP is the stunning beauty of the City itself, walking up the catwalks that go over the streets below is an adventure and amazing if you do it, but often we stick to just accomplishing missions (NCPD or GIGs for Fixers or Main story missions and side quests). Sure there is no variations in outcome because of choices in general, but I noticed that Act 1 had much more variations my fav example is the All Foods mission where there are 3 possible drastically different combat paths to complete it, but they ran out of time apparently and Act 2 and 3 failed to deliver that, but brought that back at the end of Phantom Liberty (Reed of SoMi).
As far as immersion goes it was a complete failure at launch, watching NPCs walk thru cars, buildings etc. apparently the Red Engine couldn't identify assets borders and stop one asset from occupying the same space as other assets (something any player created map in Far Cry, GTA5, or using Real Engine to create a map, can easily do).
And just think about CDPRs interest in immersion when you play 2.0 and its updates that when you go to pick up weapons off gangers they are suddenly worthless as "broken" while a second before you were getting shot/stabbed with those same weapons, you mind is like "WTF?".
The reason I like playing CP 2077 is that the story is fantastic, the graphics are stunning, and the playground (NC) is great. ITs a looter/shooter and not really an RPG.
Most video games seem to be purposed to make sure you get it after finishing the game that "nothing you can do, will change anything" and that is demonic, because the truth is, in reality, we can change everything by our intent to do so.
CDPR kept trying to re-invent interest in the game by changing things (re-rolling loot box items with each new playthru, changing weapons, trying a "balance" a game that is not a PVP and no other game studio has ever "balanced" a single player game, and using Modders stuff to fix the issues that are top on the list for their customers (police interaction, adjusting enemy strength to match the players, etc). Gamers are unrealistic in their expectations that because I am hiding behind a large bolder I can get shot but do get shot, not thinking of how they would program the game to not take that into account. Its extremely difficult to replicate reality, but if it was reality then facing off against 3 enemies would find you dead, if you dont believe that, go play paintball with a bunch of 12 year olds and find out, but we wish to be invincible.
Now currently I’m on my 4th play through and in all honesty I get HELLA guns from dead bodies typically if I kill a whole room of people maybe 2 or 3 will have a broken gun, and in all honesty it does make sense with how much melee is involved in the game. But yes the red engine was never meant for a first person game and in all honesty that’s very clear to see from the launch of the game. I fucking love the red engine though I’m devastated the next Witcher is gonna be on unreal
I'm planning of making my own cyberpunk rpg game, but it'd be far into the future before I could do it. The inspiration was also similar things as you talked in this video. It's coincidently that it's like you talked from my mind. Though I'm still not up to the challenge of making "dynamic world" like we hope, but my first milestone is to make the live-in world of cyberpunk. Like selling meatballs to make small income and enjoying the life of poor but low risk.
"I love what it _could be_ more than what it _is!"_
"Cyberpunk 2077 is a lie! A lie that I continue to love - but a lie nonetheless.."
Well said, buddy. Well said..
I feel like the Cyberpunk aesthetic is shaping up to be the defining feel of the 2020s
The 80s had neon and synth, the 90s had grunge, the 2000s had oversized everything and post-9/11 paranoia, the 2010s were party party. The 2020s are the worst aspects of the last 40 years combined
What a time to be alive LMFAO
Oh boy, I disagree with you on becomming the same merk. I have 4 full playthrough and my 4 V's modivations and behaviours were really different in therm of world outlook, behaviours and aspirations and their endings reflected that a lot. My corpo swine was a narcisistic jerk with hyperviolent tendencies and ended up frozen in space alone, hoping for a day he would be healed but would be litteraly owned by Arasaka, My nomad was a happy go lucky toxic positive dreamer hoping to find a cure in the desert, my street kid started as a jaded sociopath but found her humanity in meeting other people, seeing their suffering and ultimately giving to both her chance at survival not once but twice to her friends so they can have the best chance at life themselves (sending Songbird to the Moon and giving her body to a changed, mellow and humane Jonhy), and my first playthrough, probably the most impactful one cut her quest short after failing EVERYONE, from not attending Jackie's funeral to not saving Takemura or the nomads, and always was in conflict with Jonhy to the end.
All those four playthrough felt completely different to the point that I could stick completely different psychopathologies and philosophies to them.
I just finished the game 2 days ago, I didnt encounter glitches or bugs, well not major things at least and that's probably because I discovered the game late. Still I must say that even if I just finished the game Im still here, looking for videos, reading through stories, reading people's comments because Im still totally inmersed in the cyberpunk world, it's been a while since a game hit me so hard and the last time I've played such a good story was the trilogy of mass effect, and I guess I can understand your complaint because in any other game you are the absolute baddass savior of the whole F** world or even the savior of the Universe you are the Biggest GOAT of everything all the time, but really cyberpunk and night city just crushes you, and not just you everybody in the game, even Johnny with all his megalomaniac complex he realizes that everything he did and gave his life for, was for nothing, he bombed the arasaka tower and sure was a big heist just to discover 50 years later that the Corp was still standing strong and they just basically rebuilt everything that was destroyed 😆
So sure, this game can be very depressing and yet is so addictive, about the bugs I can share my experience that I didnt find major problems, but if you are one of those Trigger-Happy that wants to be treated like the king of the hill all the time, and loves the recognition of being baddass, this game is not for you, but if you enjoy good stories, plot twist, deceptions and conspiracies then go for cyberpunk 100% because is super enjoyable.
Your lucky that you just had a fresh experience with it. I think the immersion and lore is really great especially mister blue eyes and the alien conspiracy infact the mission where you investigate the politicians apartment to find a company spying on them was my favorite mission. If you haven't yet watch the edge runners anime
Are you calling people choom at work yet? Lol . . . The reactions are funny cause most think it's an insult or Spanish here in New Zealand lol
@@cookdislander4372 no I don't 😆😆😆 but now when I look something kind of cool I think is nova hahaha
What I love about cyberpunk it's reminds you the players that they are force's in game that are more powerful than you, like when v constantly hides run away from Osaka, like when v can't resolve the AI who are controlling the politician and his wife, games like Skyrim Dragonborn or Fallout by the time you reach a certain point your the chosen one, your the most powerful, everything his handed over to you because your the chosen one, every faction your the chosen, but in cyberpunk you were supposed to die like anyone else, it's the chip in your head keeping you alive and killing you at the same time, v is not special, the character simple a pawn in somebody game , ( but the Witcher 3 was still the game of the generation)
the lifepaths was the only thong that I think thwy should have worked on more
I've always loved the Cyberpunk genre--starting in my childhood with the scene in Star Wars Episode 2 where Anakin and Obi-Wan are in the underbelly of Coruscant tracking the assassin, to various books, to the aesthetic--even my favorite looking city in Starfield is Neon, which is heavily Cyberpunk influenced. That said, I haven't bothered to play the game yet as I wanted to wait for CDPR to fix it (I saw the launch and we all know how that went lol). With it being on Steam sale ATM and me finally moving to PC, I'm going to pick it up and give it a shot. Can't wait to experience this game.
You see an advertisement about a delicious dinner, you go to the restaurant, they reassure you the dinner is delicious so you pay for it beforehand, and sit.
You get starters and like them, maybe not much, depends on the cook.
But then they just keep serving you snacks and starters and every other customer and employee acts like this is normal. The promised dinner never comes.
You complain and ask for your dinner, but everyone is like "what? you don't like what they served you?"
It doesn't matter, I was here for the fucking dinner. Where is my dinner?
Oh and most of the snacks and starters they serve have tons of decorative stuff on them which you can't eat. Which is a big no no in competent places.
disagree with how this analogy went. More like after a lot of hyping, the dinner arrived but it fell short of what was promised. The sauce was bland, the meat was overcooked, drink was luke warm instead of cold. Oh but what's this? you started seeing maggots in your steak, the drink wasn't the one you ordered, the sauce was spoiled. So people were outraged, restaurants refunded the customers, others started leaving and yelling on the way out.
After some time, the restaurant started issuing public apologies. Gave out free meal coupons, fixed themselves up. Sure, the food they served now wasn't like the one they advertised before but they had a certain charm to their dishes that made you start to like them again.
Of course there are those that liked the maggots but we just lump them up with weirdos.
All because they relied on "CDPR Magic"!The same thing BioWare does.
Completely agree mate. I really enjoy this game, but I have sour feelings due to the underdelivery and over marketing we got.
The fact that choosing your own path boils down to 30 minutes of play time and some dialog choices is so lazy and unforgivable. It's like it's there just so you can sell it through marketing.
I'm glad the devs put so much work into CP77 after release, but after 3 years, the caimpaign is still super short and V's impact on everything is underwhelming.
I can describe my whole experience with this game as follows: you find a coupon that promises to give you three apples: one is red, one is yellow and one is green. Excited, you turn in your coupon but only receive one apple: the red one.
Frustrated, you complain. Your voice is heard, and you receive an additional apple: the yellow one.
But you are still missing one.
You complain again and this time you receive no apple. You are stuck with two.
You eat your apples.
They are delicious.
So much that you wonder just how good the green one would have been.
I was underwhelmed at the game when it launched but I reckon the current game after all the patches, updates and the phantom liberty dlc it truly is one of the best games out there nowadays and I would take it over the likes of starfield, far cry 6 and what not any day
cool story bro
More like you see an advertisement about a delicious dinner, you go, they reassure you the dinner is delicious, you pay for it, you get starters and like them, but then they just keep serving you snacks and starters and every other customer and employee acts like this is normal.
You complain and ask for your dinner but everyone is like "what? you don't like what they served you?"
It doesn't matter, I was here for the fucking dinner.
I love this game post 2.0, logged over 300 hours. But I cannot deny that at some point we were promised an RPG, and the finished game is "action-adventure with RPG elements". Great video
Their are so many cuts that it hurts.
This videos my current mood on the franchise potential as a whole, if this is where we start, where will we end up with Orion per say?
I think the bottom line is, that video games will never rival life. Even in 20 years. There will still be "something wrong" with the immersion. You may have to accept that this is the level of immersion a game, can provide...
It's probably a blessing.
One thing aside from immersion is simply art. The art of the game is beautiful, and to enjoy that may be better than immersion.
The truth is you don't want anything more immersive that what cyber punk is right now. You say you do, but trust me you don't want it.
Any more immersive and you'll find yourself spending way more time in game. Maybe even in a relationship.
And you don't benefit long term from that.
So count it as a blessing, you get beautiful art.
Would you really want the Mona Lisa climbing out of her painting, maybe pulling you into it. You wouldn't. The immersion of this art is enough.
Food for thought.
It would simply be way to distracting for real life. As Adam smasher says in edgerunners "can you really afford to be distracted at a time like this" :).
I started playing in July last year when I first got a PS5, was my first next gen experience. . . First week I played 110hrs. Was hooked from the Sandra Dorsett mission when the cool music kicks in, loved all the side missions and gigs etc. . . This is my best gaming experience of my life. Last time I had this much fun was when GTA: Vice City released and I was 12 😂❤
14:25 pretty sure your game’s bugged. There are different shows and in major story points they’ll be new news segments
This game brought the spark of joy i had back when i played Halo Reach. The game experience, the chaotic journey of Cyberpunk updates, and persistently playing this game has been unforgettable. This definitely can’t be replicated. I hope I’m here for the sequel. Good video fam🔥
It absolutely needs ng+ and mods on console. The experience with those two changes will be night and day. The future of the cyberpunk genre has unlimited potential.
Underdeveloped/skipped aspects:
-actual branching narrative
-lackluster charater background missions/consequences
-North Oak very underdeveloped
-flyable AVs
Cyberpunk is like coffee, it taste bitter but I love it.
I disappointed at the buggy mess and missing features but I can't stop playing it, making photo modes, modding and listen to it's music for hundreds of hours.
Cyberpunk isn't a lie, it is our future what we will be living from the 2050s and coming decades.
corporate greed, marketing managers being idiots, crunch and deadlines, feature creep and wrong decisions, hype.... and more
i love the game, i love the premise, i love the genre, and yet i feel like cyberpunk 2077 is nothing more then smoke and mirrors wrapped in shiny neon paper, a huge missed opportunity
i dont know what happened, i dont even care about who was responsible for all of it, i just wanted it to be something more, the anime gave a glimpse in what it could be the DLC gave us something better
a good story, a mediocre game at best, a pretty sure but horribly boring and static world with RPG part being just stats, and the absolute stupid decision to cash on graphics to melt your pc WHY WHY would that be a core decision god fucking dammit.....
it could have been so good.... and yet here we are
"The graveyards are full of indispensable men" - Charles de Gaulle
I never had that experience. I only learned about the game online a few months before its release, and I never watched any of the marketing material, so I only get to see the game for what it actually is rather than what it could be, and what it actually is is pretty good
The whole Cynosure facility with the Cerberus bot and the sound design makes the game for me. Excellent mission.
So the thing about takes like this, _(and I promise I have no wish to be hostile towards the uploader over it. It's all love.)_ is that while there is merit to some disappointments brought on by some internal design shortcomings, especially after such an explosive hype fest years back, is that these topics always seem forget or maybe even purposely dismiss the fact that Cyberpunk 2077, is the first of its kind for CDPR developers.
It wasn't just an attempt to re-create a "Witcher 3" experience, with cyberware and futuristic buildings, like it's merely a simple cosmetic makeover. Cyberpunk actually runs very deep in features, lore and options unique to it's own universe. How they even managed to get it this far, is beyond me.
CDPR devs have come forward stating that venturing in this area was absolutely different from their experience with the Witcher games.
Witcher 3 and RDR2 are always used as a prime example of what Cyberpunk 2077 should have been, by common detractors, with no regards to the fact that both Witcher and RDR also have a legacy built with their prequels, before reaching to their magnificent statuses.
So I personally find it a bit unfair to not consider this fact, even despite _TimePlayer_ stating how Phantom Liberty has actually improved the experience as an expansion to Cyberpunk.
Why is Phantom Liberty such an improvement? Because CDPR now has a paved roadmap and did much like with what they did with the Witcher chronicles. They upped the experience.
It wouldn't surprise me if the next sequel to Cyberpunk "Orion" ends up being the "Witcher 3" status of the Cyberpunk series. It seems to be CDPR's trend in growth over previous experiences and that's why I personally support their efforts. That's not to say I wasn't impressed with CP2077 as is, because I definitely am. I adore this game.💙
It's a technological marvel in it's own right and it sits right up there on my top 10 games to play in 2024.
Yeah, Cyberpunk as a game, could have had so much more to it, with varying choices affecting reputations and outcomes affecting everything in its world. But again... considering the factors above, I think CDPR has done a phenomenal job (once the game was actually repaired and PL dropped) of creating a new exciting series within their small but very noteworthy catalog.
The dev team at CDPR are very passionate and that's clear as day. We've learned of how distraught they were when the game released with so many problems, because it was still not ready to go live. It was a historical disaster in gaming, despite selling millions of copies.
But they didn't give up and that's gotta mean something to some of you, if you can relate with the human condition.
Much like many others, I too faulted CDPR _(and they did as well)_ for choosing to oversell features they didn't even know would be possible to accomplish, in the set time frame they originally had to work with. They had multiple delays and even then, certain features couldn't be met. _(not talking about the illusive made up promises certain detractors have claimed, which actually originated on Reddit by an unknown user, that were later debunked)_ . All because they _(the higher ups at CDPR)_ wanted to impress their shareholders, which the rest of us got to see and speculate in awe.
It was reckless and dishonest.
But does this mean Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn't be loved and enjoyed for what it is today, though? Absolutely not.
Even without certain elements included, the game is still a beautiful and content rich development. I find it odd to question and philosophize on why you shouldn't love this game, when you indeed are enjoying the game.
I've already burned 450 hours into it myself and I still can't put it down. First full play through, finishing all the quests, gigs and found many hidden gems without the use of mods. The story was deep, filled with intrigue, emotional scenes and a uniqueness that can only be expected in a futuristic world. Some very heartfelt tragedies that had me thinking about them for days. Extremely detailed _(down to the thread!)_ outer worldly fashion sense, music that really pushed the culture shock to unexpected levels _(US Cracks)_ , aggressive advertisements exposing public desensitization and predatory monetary corruption. Phenomenal high rise structures that swallow you whole, which you can actually explore _(with the right cyberware)_ , some very comical moments and of course.... SEX. lol
I mean.. I can go on and on... Night City is truly an amazing experience with so many layers to it.
It's good to discuss our disappointments and wonder what if things were different, but try not to spend too much time dwelling on the negatives, choom.
Especially when you know deeply, you can live with the positives just fine. I am confident, it will only get better.
_(I really hope this doesn't age like milk)_
I hope they make a sequel to it that fulfills the previous promises to be honest, great video!
Cyberpunk is not that type of world. We aren't supposed to change it in any meaningful way. If you think you are you missed the point. At it's heart the entire genre of cyberpunk is futuristic noir. It's been that way since Gibson sat down at a typewriter and codified the building blocks of the genre. The entire opening act of Cyberpunk 2077 is a riff on Neuromancer's main plot, building a team and an impossible heist. One of the endings for the game is a direct reference to the ending of Neuromancer's main plot. No one "wins" in Cyberpunk. No one changes the world. The ending of every Cyberpunk story is death, a bad ending, or a questionable ending. That's the genre.
What the genre also is is the world it takes place in. If you go back and read several old noir novels what you'll figure out is that the city it takes place in is the main character. Not you. Not any of the people you interact with while reading. Not even the people at the top. The city is an amalgamation of all the stories happening inside of it. Big and small. All happening at the same time. There's no overarching quest to save things because there's no definition of what saving the place means. It's too chaotic with too many people pulling in too many directions. What Cyberpunk 2077 does better than any other game I've played is sell that part of noir. That side of cyberpunk. All the competing interests. All the highs of what a city can offer and the lows it can sink to. All the weirdness.
Our grand quest is our own story touching on other peoples. We aren't in it to save people or build an empire. We're in it to survive. Same as them. Just what we need is different than what they need. Some will help us, some will hinder us, but everyone is self interested. We're a small part of their story, not the other way around. None of them want to be saved by us, even the best of them. Even if we did change the city no one would thank us for it. Such a monumental shift would upset their plans, their stories. Ask yourself. Honestly. With everything you did in that 80 hour playthrough, of all the quests you did, and all the things every interest needs. How in the world could you possibly save it all? Truly change or make an impact on it in any meaningful way? All the different factions want wildly desperate things which in some ways conflict with each other. Even the ethically good factions are in some ways in conflict with each other over what they want. There's no monsters. No big evil trying to destroy the world. Just people who want different things coming into conflict with each other. We're railroaded into Arasaka by the quest but there's several other world superpower corporations in Night City we only tangentially see and they all have big huge world important plots going on inside them. They all oppose Arasaka because they all oppose each other. Arasaka isn't even the most powerful corporation in Night City, it's just the one we see the most of.
I think one of the endings in phantom liberty with Misty in it also reinforces that
I fell in love with it day one because I saw the potential and I’m glad I stuck through because it’s one of my favorite games I really want to it reach its potential in a sequel
I played day 1 I was super hyped and while I soon realized it was buggy af I still loved it and finished the game twice, my friend finally got it like a month ago and is loving it that convinced me to play through the game a 3rd time and I still love it so to anyone that tried it when it launched and got pissed about the unfinished bugfest or still haven’t played I implore you to give it a shot it’s truly a captivating experience (btw female V with Judy is peak and Panam is annoying/lame)
I started playing end of 2023 and now have over 250 hours in the game and bugs and glitches are few and far inbetween, I didn't encounter any major ones, the only one that I've sometimes seen is dead bodies kinda flexing in ways they shouldn't. That's it. Great job on fixing the issues!
I loved how in Witcher 3 the ending might depend on a decision you made 20 hours back, or it might be a seemingly trivial choice like making a funny remark with deadly consequences. Also, in Witcher 3, you could eavesdrop a conversation and you might end up on an epic quest if you follow through. CP is missing these, I think. By the way, I remember the developers promising 'verticality' (I suppose they meant parkouring). I still love the game though and it is addictive as hell. B
Am I alone in thinking like this supposed promise that players would be able to change every aspect of Night City through our choices, never really occurred?
I brought the game on day one but I certainly didn't come into it with such an expectation. What I recall from the trailers and prelaunch material, was that it was pushing a narrative that the world and characters were intriguing, immersive, etc. I was looking forward to a well written story in a fascinating world.
I think it largely delivered on that - although I'd say that the open world never felt as immersive as, say, RDR2 or a Bethesda game.
But still, I'm a little surprised that there was this expectation of narrative-changing choices being in the game.
Alot of what was hyped up was brought on by reddit incels. I forgot what they said but some reddits were hyping up the game before launch telling people about all these mechanics or aspects that CD didn't promise anyone. Gaming companies are a huge problem in the community but so is these new gen gamers. People don't want to research and don't care about the truth they just care about what they desire to be right. They get what they want to be true and the actual truth mixed up. It's bad.
Most “promises” were never actually promised in the first place, nearly all were just rumours created by over hyped fans. Someone on the internet had a theory, that theory got spread around and got blurred and misinterpreted which later turned into a fact that came out of CDPR’s own words when it was never even uttered by them in the first place, this happens with nearly every game but it happened with cyberpunk to such an extent because this game was practically the second coming of Christ in the eyes of most people so every aspect of the game was exaggerated and over hyped to extremes that no other game had ever seen. A lot of issues with this game were because of CDPR but the gaming community also had a role to play in this games failure of a launch because they created their own narrative for this game with false evidence, an idolised image of the final game in their head that was built on the lies of their own making.
The market value of the CD project red share in mid '20 was over 100€ and still more than 70€ in november of said year. It's now somewhere around 30€... It did recover from the initial shock of the release and the anime and effort of the devs helped but still the company lost a lot of trust and money. So it's just not true that the disapointment didn't had consequences. It did pretty strong ones even and long lastings ones too.
I'm honestly excited for the next game. This had problems with a great story abd is now improved with an excellent DLC. It truly feels like a different world but also based on the real life problems in ours. A great universe.
I think part of the "nothing you do fundamentally changes the world" issue is actually part of the Cyberpunk RPG game world and to a lesser degree the genre in general. MIke Poudsmith who created the RPG the game is based off of said something to the effect of "It is not about saving the world, but about saving yourself." A city where you have fast food joints named after literal communist revolutionaries is a statement about how even revolution is chewed up, spit out and commoditized in Night City. Not even a Marxist revolution would leave a dent on this place. Heck even the guy who wanted to be the new Jesus was turned into nothing more than a reality TV spectacle. So making a name for yourself and getting a drink at the Afterlife is the best you are going to get.
I want to add as well that phantom liberty ending DOES change night city. Most of where v and Jackie grew up doesn’t even exist anymore yea we don’t get to see much of the city after which is a bummer but seeing a night city being controlled by militech sounds like a great sequel
I feel like the lack of choice and change does match the theme though. One of the key concepts of the cyberpunk genre is that you can’t impact the world, that at the end of the day, you can only save yourself. Admittedly, their should be more choice, especially when it was advertised, but I found the unchangingness of the city somewhat immersive (especially living in a city myself, where I also have no way to change anything)
You have an influence on the people around you though. Idk, don't give my protagonist the ability to delete people from existence and then go "BUT DYSTOPIA!" when it comes to influencing things.
I had more fun and playthroughs in Fallout 4. The chaos just made interactions with enemies, looting, stealth etc so much more memorable and unique. Kind of like the first Halo, where every enemy encounter resulted in cinematic like chaos and different outcomes.
This is weird and I'm usually on the opposite side of this argument. Choices should always have consequences in games otherwise don't bother giving choice.
This is probably just my brain adjusting reality so it can fit its narrative but I love the illusion of choice in CP2077 and that no matter what you do, pursuing this path of glory and climbing up in the world will always give you false flags of success and eventually beat you back down to the reality of Night City. I love how hopeless and suffocating the world is and yet in that pursuit is such an amazing journey and story that many avenues and optional opportunities show up, an overwhelming amount in fact that some people never even touched the optional Judy/Panam/Claire/River stories. Never uncovered the cursed shit in the collectible shards and connected background work on cyberpsychos and essentially just a fleshed out world.
I love how punishing and tragic someone living in Night City is. Spoiler warning, I especially love the ending where you become noone again in Night City after losing your cyberware capabilities and all your friends have moved in 2079. It's a reminder that each and every playthrough is the tragic truth for every citizen of Night city. It might look like you're climbing for a good while but at some point, that city will make sure you're reminded that you don't belong at the top but on the concrete, curbstomped against the walkpath and shot like the dog that you are.
Either way, I completely understand people thinking it's dogshit because for a long time, I also thought the game was dogshit. I just really wanted to love it and now I do. Currently have 453 hours.
Most people forgot about the launch i guess
Wanna know what still blows my mind? 4 years ago, I would have never imagined this game would run on a handheld like the Steam Deck, but here we are only 4 years later.
The only thing i dont like, and still feel burned by, is the fact i waited 8 years for it. I finally get it it's broken. Then they say they have fixed it as much as possible on ps4 and its still broken. So your telling me i have to either buy a new console or get a gaming pc to play it? That doesn't sit right with me
The game was redesigned. It was originally designed for past gen consoles. They were in the middle of development when they got word that a new gen was coming out, so they redesigned the game for new gen. In which left the past gen game essentially broken.
The good thing is new gen is becoming cheaper and more available.
I just finished getting the platinum trophy for this game. I loved the story so much but certainly felt a lot of the flaws you discussed. Did anyone else have issues with the way driving feels in this game?
Perfect summary of the game. You put into words what I had trouble putting into my own thoughts. I had trouble pinpointing why I love the game, yet why it feels lacking in many aspects. Now I know!
When i started, i was like this is ok. And then it set in how good it is and im 140 hours in on series x and 90 hours on pc 😂
Cyberpunk is one my favorite games of all time while still being one of the biggest disappointments. The game itself is awesome but it could be legendary.
Cyberpunk 2077 is just a high end Farcry.
Phantom Liberty made me realize how much the base game is lacking impactful choices. That expansion gives me hope that the next game will be able to capture that choice and consequence that made The Witcher 3 so great.
really well written essay
Disagree with some of the points on reflection however I really appreciate the point that “I love the game but I love what it can be”, which sucks because what Orion can he is a necessity, I love cyberpunk and I feel that taking away the CDPR logo doesn’t actually mean it doesn’t feel like one of their games because he’ll these characters and arcs in this and phantom liberty echo W3 and its dlc, what I want is this team to meet the potential that is very much achievable, it just needs directional and a game built on quality and not big words
People still keep talking about bugs and glitches and graphics and shit. Is this the end for RPGs with actual meaningful choices? Baldur's Gate 3 says no... But I don't know.
This game advertised it's "branching paths and choices with consequences," even a couple months before launch and yet, this blatant lie is never talked about.
I love that the game was improved and they actually have a show on Netflix but I want more lore.
Yes the different path choices give a great variety, different, missions, options, tools, dialoges, weapons etc. So IDK why you say it's not.
But you can feel so many exciting plot points that just end abruptly. So many cut storyline
The first act of Cyberpunk when Jackie is still alive plays like a solid demo of a promising game but after that part is over its all downhill from there.
Bro the game is good now they always got to find something to hate about
Great video, best take on the all cyberpunk fiasco that I've seen in 3 years, thank you for speaking the harsh truth..
yeah they didn't even give us some free roam when the mansion was unlocked.
Wasn't this what Johnny Silverhand was talking about? The dystopia of a world that does not change, nor grow. A world kept sterile and unchanging by the powers that be. A world in which the individual is insignificant and cannot affect any change, for better, or for worse.
I love this game so much. It’s the city for me, there is no game that has made feel the way it does, a feeling when your arrive to a new country for the first time.
I wish they would keep building on this city but I know that would be the case
Very good video. Quick English tip, though: you don't need to say "inside" as much as you do. You can just say "in."
CD Projekt Red never hyped the game as much as people said. People expected it to be a second life but in a Cyberpunk universe, something that was never promised
It was always marketed as an action RPG with choices, literally the only valid criticism about this game was the bugginess when it released
Agreed. The game shouldn't have launched undercooked, but because of that event I think that's where some of the strangest "BUT WHERE IS X"!?!? comes from.
I pretty much got what I expected even if it took years to realize that vision. Beats the 2018 demo.
I agree but i still like it very much
4:02 yeah they definitely know how to present their stories
Gyatt! zoo we mama ( I am achieve 101 wizard academy brain rot)
I cant care less about some "broken promises", if cyberpunk still the best game i can play right now. If someone dont like something , you can alway play starfield , ubisoft games and something like that
Great Video...
The game really is all vibes though
I think it's one of the best games ever released, even at release, played it on PC though
CP2077 is top5 favourite game of mine. Me and my friend had played it since phantom liberty launch and i had zero problems. All around glorious game, story, character, city (gtfo GTA) really well done. I have all the confidence that sequel will be even better.
The only problem I have that we never got that Trauma Drama (4 people extraction shooter) multiplayer element in those Megabuildings, but i gues we all know it's coming in sequel.
Thank good i'm sane enough to think i still have the personal responsibility and choice where i spend my money, it's basically voting power.
And my hobbies are literally mechatronics, electric and electronics, drafting mechanical systems, 3D Printing etc.
I grew up with Armored Cores, Zoids, Deus Ex, Ghost in the Shell, Cowboy Bebop, Astro Boy, etc
I love Robots, Mechas, Androids, Cyborg, Space Shuttle, Space station, lasers, ballistic missile, Smart systems, etc
I even have capitalistic tendencies myself.
But damn i know for a fact i'm a consumer, and i have to spend my money for my OWN interest and not let these corpos do this shit to me.
I pay for your product, you don't fulfilled the requirement or pushing some weirdass ideology, you don't get a cent from me, or i simply pirate it if i deemed it reasonable or simply wanna test.
I used to pirate or play demo before actually sinking my money into the game studio like i pirated Divinity Original Sins or Starsector, those studios deserve my money and more.
You are a fucking consumer, that's your only power, patience is a virtue.
Yeah. I love CP in its state right now, but is not trully and rpg. Its more immersive sim in the vein of Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines, Deus ex, Thief. Acctually, is the only immersive sim with an proper open world. But not really an rpg. Withcer 3 is an modern rpg, but it is a very easy game. I was desapointe by the besutifull handcrafted world...with quest markers. It takes more than 50% of the game, and the super simplistic gameplay doesnt help.
Well, cyberpunk isn't the first game to take away decisions and actual world building, destiny has done the same thing. My problem with cyberpunk is the fact thier isn't any personal progression like starting from the streets and ending up in a penthouse or starting from the penthouse and ending up in the streets there aren't any the side missions are good stories but what is v story really like i haven't seen in game yet what the character wants which make these choices less impactful to me another thing is this world isn't explorable because you can't interact like shopping eating playing there aren't any animation for these things. V is a merc thats tasked with all sorts of work police work or gang work there is no consequence for what work you take on. I agree with most of what you said the world feels hollow. But it's not the game that changed how publishers look to publish games in my opinion that title goes to destiny as they completely changed their game and still made 500 mil in their first weeks of their game on the market.
Greatest game if they ever create a vr experience for this game ill live in there
10/10 game
If world impact is what you truly love to see in a roleplaying game.
Please make a video about baldur's gate 3
Cyberpunk was their first time doing this and yes it's not an excuse. They did better with what they had with PL but over all the Game was never going to be better without Switching Engines and going to Unreal so they Throw was their engine away and went Unreal all thanks to Cyberpunk release in 2020. Enjoy it for what it is and hope they do better next time. Comparing Cyberpunk to The Witcher is going why Red Engine Good when it's not they don't want to be known as a one trick Pony and have more then 1 ip. Like I said count us Lucky Cyberpunk 2077 even come out.
What we were promised: New Vegas on steroids.
What we got: the mentally deficient child of GTA and Borderlands.
What the fuck...
I don't fkg know why that car was flying but if that was a bug, it's the sort of bug i want in my game.
I love this game
They were way too ambitious, aimed for the sky and failed. BUT as a wise man once said « if you don’t fail you’re not even trying » so I appreciate the effort because cp2077 might not be what they envisioned and marketed but it still a good game and hopefully the foundation of an amazing sequel.
They didn’t really fail tho. The game is one of the best games ever.
Cd never gave up on cyberpunk they updated it everytime making it better and better for ppl other companies would leave the game move on but they didn’t they made it better and the DLC it’s perfect beautiful
Best game alongside Fallout, Crysis, FarCry, Ghost of Tsushima. Honestly they somhould have continuously dropped add-on stories for five years before making a new one
To be fair the visual of the game is still stunning, and best among cyberpunk genre.
For me after 70 hours of gameplay, night city no longer have anything more to offer,
every side gigs, environment 3d assets, any activities you can do, you realize there are tons of copy-paste repetitiveness,
just because developing a world this scale, the amount of tasks is tremendous even for a billion dollar company.
Game experience is more linear than expected, but thanks CDPR for the game, the story left some mark in my memory, hope the sequel gets even better.
Did you feel other Open world games of similar fashion like GTA 5 or such were better in that regard?
That intro…fuck yeah
I totally agree! But still, how the game make you feel is unique
If you're searching for a real immersive cyberpunk game with deeper role playing mechanics Deus Ex Mankind Devided is your game.
It's much smaller but it has more depth and detail in it's open world design.