I actually felt it was one of the best games I’ve played in the last 10 years. I really enjoyed the story. The game is beautiful. I love the amount of immersion that is possible, especially with mods. I’ve played through it twice.
I really, really wish we could inspect weapons. One mod gets close, but it isn’t the same as a Rockstar-style weapons inspection. We don’t even get to zoom in on the models in inventory. A damned travesty because the weapons are gorgeous.
But overall, I find it hard to fault, especially given its state at launch.
I always felt like the game was originally never meant to be an open-world game, it’s as if they were going for a mission-to-mission corridor kind of game and wrapped up a world around it to walk around in at a later phase. And many things in the game actually reinforce that idea.
I played the game at launch and the game was absolutely infested with stupid and annoying bugs, so eventually I just skipped all side stuff and just wrapped up the main story, I think that was about half-way through. Back then the open-world most definitely felt like an afterthought.
No events were happening in the world, there were entire parts of the city that were dead and empty. There were even areas blocked off by doors that were “locked” and implied there was something behind it, but some of those places I could just clip through and fall through the world because there was literally nothing behind the door.
There were few things that made it seem like an actual living world, NPCs were just wandering aimlessly, doing nothing. Just making a cool looking area and then dropping a load of copy/paste NPC clones in there doesn’t make a good open-world. If you comitted a crime the police would just spawn behind you, wherever you were. While in contrast some of the story areas seemed more detailed and have more “scripted” things happening, which is part of why I think the game wasn’t originally open-world.
Gameplay wise it was not that special either, gunplay was okay, melee felt quite unsatisfying, and outside of combat there was practically nothing to do other than just driving around. The choices you make at the beginning of the game don’t ever felt like they mattered, like they make it appear it’s a huge backstory thing that would play a role throughout the game. Nope, after the first 15 minutes it’s never mentioned again. The whole cutscene thing with Jackie after the intro feels like it was supposed to be actual gameplay, but was just cut out and changed to a cutscene to skip time.
Also the skill tree barely mattered, there were even skills like being able to breathe underwater longer, even though there wasn’t any underwater content, aside from one Judy mission I believe (which I didn’t get because she wasn’t accessible as a romance option to my character).
The only saving grace of this game was that parts of the story and characters were somewhat interesting, I liked the concept and style of the game. But it felt like a bad game when it came to actual gameplay. And some characters barely got any time to actually become interesting enough to care about.
I’ve been trying to get back in the game a couple of times, but it often just feels so lifeless and lacks any depth.
I always felt like the game was originally never meant to be an open-world game, it’s as if they were going for a mission-to-mission corridor kind of game and wrapped up a world around it to walk around in at a later phase.
That’s my take on it too. The story they wanted to tell does not mesh well with an open world game, but since the people loudly wanted something like “RDR 2 but Cyberpunk” they felt obliged to attempt to shoehorn it in.
The whole cutscene thing with Jackie after the intro feels like it was supposed to be actual gameplay, but was just cut out and changed to a cutscene to skip time.
Completely agree. I think having you play through that part would have made a huge impact on how you connect with Jackie. Maybe they felt it would have pushed the Keanu introduction too deep into the game?
I’ve been trying to get back in the game a couple of times, but it often just feels so lifeless and lacks any depth.
They’ve added some touches to the open world, but I think it was too fundamentally broken to be easily patched. The new skill tree from 2.0 is actually good though and I think the combat is pretty fun in its current state, even without going to mods.
Maybe they felt it would have pushed the Keanu introduction too deep into the game?
I was thinking that too. I think during development it might’ve shifted, since I think Keanu originally wasn’t in the game, and they wanted to make him part of the game quite early on.
I would’ve liked if they had extended the Jackie chapter and moved the Silverhand arc to a later act. It would’ve meant that people would just be dropped in the game and let them explore the world carelessly before the story kicks up to next gear. But they probably realised that the game wasn’t good enough to pull off the open-world part, so they decided to get on with the main story right off the start.
Could be, could be. I think your suggestion would make for a better game with less conflict between what the main story is saying and what the game is presenting in the open world. Having the story emphasize how fast V is dying, only for the player to then fuck around with car races and random merc contracts and whatnot really doesn’t work all that well as far as immersion goes.
Jackie’s death would have also been much more impactful if we’d have spent all that time with him playing through those six months.
There is no chance it wasn’t meant to be an open world. The witcher 3 was a very successful open world they made.
Also, CP77 actually is in the style of elden ring that was praised for it, but CP77 came long before it. Most critiques of CP77 missed that part because the game doesn’t throw it at your face.
I think the “breath underwater” perk in a game with literally no missions where you need to touch water except one - where you have a divesuit anyways - is the best example of how shallow the game is.
I played launch version which had it. I didn’t unlock all perks this time around. There really isn’t a major diff between launch and current when it comes to the things discussed in my post except for the insane number of bugs removed.
Meta sells a lot of their tech at a loss. You are not buying a VR headset with just your dollars. You are taking a huge kit of cameras and sensors hooked up to the world’s most advanced internet-connected telemetry and strapping it to your face. The data it gleans is how you’re covering a large portion, if not the majority, of the cost.
In my opinion, a PS5 and PSVR2 is the best way into VR for most people right now. I have that and a Valve Index and while the Index is awesome, it’s pretty dated and fiddly and while my computer runs it pretty well, catching up to more modern tech will cost me $2000 in upgrades and the fuss associated with building/upgrading/buying/migrating a PC.
I’m hoping Valve releases their rumored standalone headset sometime before the end of the world.
Much as I trust Sony more than Meta, part of the issue is that 80% of the cool stuff from VR comes from indie teams running an ItchIO page or Patreon, not established publishers.
Supposedly, PSVR2 can work with PC now but I don’t know how refined that integration is.
I agree that there’s a ton of good stuff coming from the indie scene and also some amazing modding of existing games out there (check the Flat2VR discord - they just modded full VR support with motion controls into Silent Hill 2 Remake), but despite all the complaints about the PSVR2 library, there is more than enough gold in there to keep a lot of people entertained for a very long time, and some of it is truly AAA stuff. The headset itself is extremely well designed and easy to pick up and play, and the amount of tech you get is pretty nuts.
I’ve heard it’s pretty minimally supported on the PC because they’re kind of trying to get away with building half of a bridge (spoiler: it won’t work) but even without features like haptics and eye tracking, it’s a reasonable baseline headset. There may be some Bluetooth inconsistencies for some though, if I remember correctly.
The integration is ok and the psvr2 is quite nice with the oleds. I have the adapter and it works. BUT VR is an utter joke… specially on the ps5 itself. So unless you are a furry and really really really need that much vr porn then I’d wait another 5 years and spend that money on hooker and blow instead.
You know, I had heard a lot about how much Cyberpunk had improved since launch, but I still couldn’t really convince myself to try it. “Cyberpunk game made by big corporate studio” always just struck me as something of an oxymoron.
With all due respect but no indie studio can create a game of this magnitude. I mean there is a lot of work put into it. Whether it was worth it is a completely different story though.
I mean, sure, you’re not wrong. It’s just that cyberpunk as a genre is pretty strongly linked to anti-capitalist and anti-corporate themes, and I think a triple-A game published by a big corporation is not very likely to adhere to the spirit of the genre.
Cars in the distance aren’t real. Get a scoped weapon and shoot they don’t react, just fade in and out.
No subway system. I was so hyped to life sim cyberpunk, get on a train like in the promotional material but nope.
Essential the set dressing is a mile wide and an inch deep. Unlike other open world games where I can see someone living a life, instead cars are boring no personality behind the ai, same with crowds.
You wanted to go down; I wanted to go up. I was so annoyed when I finally realized there’s no way up to those amazing skyscraper walkways in the downtown. Those buildings are just blocks with no entrance.
I figured that as you moved up in the world eventually that whole area would become accessible, but it’s just decoration.
I didn’t hate it. Maybe a 6.5/10 game with some cool moments. But it felt like the corners they cut would have been the coolest parts of the game.
Lmao the subway complaint is the dumbest thing ive ever read. The subway was added to the game and it was the most boring shit ever, why would you want to have to walk into a train system and watch a non skippable cutscene just to be able to travel somewhere. Talk about a stupid feature that somehow got latched onto by thousands of bitter basement dwellers who will never be satisfied.
“Mile wide and inch deep” is a great way to put it.
I’m playing through the game right now, and there’s a bunch of small annoyances (like getting stuck on invisible terrain while walking/driving), but I can overlook those. But so many things are lifeless beyond the basic game mechanics.
As an example, I just bought an expensive apartment. I didn’t expect a crazy cutscene or anything, but at least the person I bought it from should have shown some kind of reaction, maybe a short dialogue. But no, nothing. I pressed the button, money was subtracted, and I can enter the elevator. The person I bought it from didn’t even look up.
Compare that to something like Baldurs Gate 3, where even small unlikely interactions have surprising amounts of interactivity. The game oozes life out of every pore.
It’s depressing that this is the final state after so many updates.
To the people who come into point-of-view threads like this one and downvote what other people took the time to share, how about describing your own experiences instead? It would make Lemmy a nicer place to be, and might even add something of value to the discussion.
I’ve played Dwarf Fortress, Stellaris, yet I still find Dota to be the most complex game ever.
It sucks that it’s a multiplayer game, and you need people to play it well with you, but when it works, it’s amazing.
Everything in it has layers of usability, usually componded by the everything else in the game - hero abilities, items, map, neutrals, even the stupid trees play a large role in the game.
I’ve spent hundreds of hours studying the mechanics, and I still don’t grasp everything.
I played a lot of DotA too, but that doesn’t have a playtime counter. But I have over 3000 hours in Dota 2.
My second favourite game is OpenTTD. It’s just so satisfying to optimize the train network and add another 100 trains to it. I’ve tried Factorio, but for some reason that did not scratch that itch.
Or some roguelites, like Slay the Spire (or the Touhou: Lost Branch of Legend), Synthetik (haven’t tried second one yet), they are always fun.
Great list! I’ve tried Dota 2 as well, it’s definitely extremely complex and addictive but not my kind of game, I just cannot thrive and enjoy that sort of game. Same goes with League of Legends. Just not my cup of tea.
I am a little curious about Stellaris though. That game seems so incredibly complex, like, what about it is The draw for people? I’ve heard so many people talk about it and has so many freezy steam reviews but when I first tried it as a demo, it seemed so absurdly complex That my head was spinning. Like I had no idea what the heck was going on. I’m not sure how to enjoy it I guess
LoL sucks, it’s like a shallow copy of DotA. I’ve played around 300 hours, it’s very silly in comparison.
Stellaris is kinda easy once you figure out that expanding is the No1 priority for the entire game. Expand, build ships - nobody will be able to stop you.
There was always a need for a ‘tall’ empire - so you don’t expand, but focus on your small part of the galaxy - but so far it’s always crushed by the expanding ones.
Once you get stargate tech, it’s 24/7 war. For even more territory.
Right now I remembered a game that never was really finished, Stardrive, where you could design your own ships down to the electrical wiring. It had layouts with sections, and you could fill it up to your liking. It was a shame that ground troops could finish the game in minutes.
Sometimes I feel like 4X games are usually more suited for roleplaying than actual challenge of micromanagement.
Anyway, I have a huge jam on my main line in OpenTTD, gotta fix my intersection again.
It’s a mix of strategy and role-playing. Sure if you want to survive on higher difficulties, you probably need a build that is meta. But on medium difficulties or lower you can pretty much roleplay your empire as you like and there’s many mechanics in the game that help with this. Your empire can be a democratic haven for all, a mega corporation, a machine hivemind forcefully assimilating organics into its network…and much more.
There’s also a great exploration aspect of the game. Your exploration vessels regularly find anomalies that tell a neat little story and provide bonuses to your empire (which can range from a small resource bonus to making one of your leaders immortal).
Of course, there’s also the power fantasy. You start with just one planet, but you will quickly expand throughout the galaxy. You can then wage war against other empires, build a federation together with them or convince the galactic community to crown you as Emperor of the entire galaxy. But the game also regularly throws adversaries at you if the AI empires are starting to become no match for you, may it be one of the space fauna suddenly becoming extremely hostile or a Great Khan uniting a marauder horde and demanding everyone to become their vassal.
It is also rare that a bad outcome leads to a straight loss. Losing a war (usually) does not doom your empire but you only lose a bit of territory or get vassalized, both giving you ample opportunities to build up your strength again or make allies to stand together against an enemy.
Not a huge fan of the sets and how the bonuses work, but it’s still pretty straightforward and better than the old armor system. Everything else is great. Magazines are a little weird in a split group because we typically have one person go into loot perks, but magazines drop based on the skills of who loots the container, but it gives access to crafting recipes to people who otherwise wouldn’t have them because they were previously skill level locked.
Have done at least one fresh run through major updates since a16 and the game has never gotten worse, in my opinion. The new pois are amazing. As well. Oh and the trader system is fixed and quest leveling overhauled, rewards improved, and progression made transparent. A little glitch in multiplayer though, last I played.
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