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 BrookM wrote:
They're rolling out hotfixes now to deal with issues as they happen.

I've managed to purchase the Akira-styled red bike after I've paid off Vik, going to have some fun with that one, just need me a biker outfit and that kickass Samurai jacket now. Just a shame that the driving mechanics on PC are a bit clunky, but then again most of the controls feel like that.

Part of it I think is that the UI feels unresponsive/slow to react to inputs. I notice it most with drawing/holstering weapons where the key doesn't do what the tool tip says it should do and crouching/uncrouching doesn't work half the time.

 Mr Morden wrote:
Had mutiple crashes on PS4, plus usual stuff like bald in mirrors etc. Going to give it a few days as no hurry to play more at the moment.

Have they fixed the cops teleporting in and out yet? Least its better than the gak Red Dead 2 Bounty system as out on the streets you seem to be able to ditch them. Did not quite figure out how you take out wanted perps without triggering the police being called.

the bald in mirrors thing is something I've figured out the reason behind. it's your hat. take your hat off and your hair'lll show up

I've had 3 major bugs in 40 hours.

1) Call wouldn't end. Had to reload an earlier save.
2) Game froze on map. Had to restart.
3) Other voice actors were mute, but I could hear V.

Other than that most issues I've seen are related to clothing items don't show when switching to them, but taking them on and putting them on fixes it. Occasionally third person view won't activate when driving.
Crouch sometimes doesn't want to work.

Some RPG elements are definitely lacking, but I'm not surprised considering the only other games by CDPR force you to play Geralt...

There are multiple choices to be made in side missions...some of them are fairly significant.

I've managed to avoid buying a vehicle so far. All just seem to be a waste of money I could spend on more crafting recipes, fashion and cyberware, at least at this point. Did the mission with Mama Welles after the heist (think you only get it if you choose a certain option during the heist mission, though you can get the bike anyway if you make a different choice) and got a motorbike from it, so I used that until my car got fixed up.

Meanwhile I'm now packing an 8 base ram, 7 buffer, 5 slot cyberdeck with a load of killer quickhacks (including an epic level Synapse Burnout and rare level Short Circuit), got Mk. 3 Hiroshi optics modded out with all the stuff I need (highlight enemies who have detected me, see grenade arcs and radii, increased crit chance), the leg cyberware which gives a charged boost jump, the slow-mo slide/dodge and also some subdermal armour (though I picked that particular piece of 'ware up from somewhere or got it as a reward, so it was free).

I haven't had any crashes at all on XSX, but there are times where everything will freeze up for about 10-15 seconds and I think it's gonna crash, but it comes back. I always do a quicksave as soon as it happens.

I had one weird bug where I did a quest where you have to find 20 different grafiti murals around the world, I cruised around and got them all, but when I went to turn it in to Misty, she had no dialog at all and just stared at me, but V said his lines. She gave me something at the end but i couldn't see what it was.

 Necros wrote:
I haven't had any crashes at all on XSX, but there are times where everything will freeze up for about 10-15 seconds and I think it's gonna crash, but it comes back. I always do a quicksave as soon as it happens.

I had one weird bug where I did a quest where you have to find 20 different grafiti murals around the world, I cruised around and got them all, but when I went to turn it in to Misty, she had no dialog at all and just stared at me, but V said his lines. She gave me something at the end but i couldn't see what it was.

I've found that crafting recipes often show up blank on the screen where it flashes up what you just got given/picked up. So if that is what happened, maybe check your crafting tab and see if anything new has popped up in there.

Maybe that's what it was, I did notice i suddenly have a recipe for an orange gun, maybe that's what it was

Thoughts on the MQ



Thoughts on the Side Missions


Compared to other well-known RPGs that I've played in the last 10~ years...I'd say DA:I is better, ME:3 is possibly better, Skyrim is possibly better (despite having weaker RPG elements to it IMO), and Fallout 4 and Outer Worlds are worse. I say Fallout 4 specifically is worse because I refuse to play it without some form of modern firearms mod. The in game options are awful.

In terms of out of the box gameplay, it's probably the strongest. It's not as dense as DA:I/ME:3 in terms of lore or characters or expansive as a Skyrim/Fallout 4. The writing is mostly good, but some Side Missions end abruptly. In terms of gameplay...you sort of have 3 classes...Quick Hack/Berserk/Time Slow...since you can only have one of those. All 3 work well. I kind of think melee+Berserk/Time Slow is more fun. Melee is surprisingly good. I played the last 25-30 hours as melee.

I didn't expect great Open World AI from the NPCs, but they need to tweak a few things. Right now the biggest issues to me are lack of barber, transmog, and New Game+. Bugs were minor for me.

Finished the game, got the 'bad' ending without really knowing how or why I got it other than I was trying to live. I thought that is what the game was pushing me towards but there you go. Other than that, the game then promptly crashed during the credits. Going to replay again for a better ending.

So, I'm level 22.. Main quests are at 60% 10% and 15% I think. In higher levels, are there any doors you really need to open that will require more than like 10-12 points in Strength or Tech ability? I'm trying to go for a stealthy assault build, but I find I have to keep dumping points because I don't wanna not be able to get to places. I find I'm using stealth, sniper rifles and quickhacks the most, but I'm just playing on the normal difficulty and most fights are pretty easy, I think because I'm doing lots of side missions and probably leveled up higher than most of the areas I'm going to. But I like clearing out a section of the map before I move on

getting tech to 18 so you can craft legendary grade items might be worth while

 Necros wrote:
So, I'm level 22.. Main quests are at 60% 10% and 15% I think. In higher levels, are there any doors you really need to open that will require more than like 10-12 points in Strength or Tech ability? I'm trying to go for a stealthy assault build, but I find I have to keep dumping points because I don't wanna not be able to get to places. I find I'm using stealth, sniper rifles and quickhacks the most, but I'm just playing on the normal difficulty and most fights are pretty easy, I think because I'm doing lots of side missions and probably leveled up higher than most of the areas I'm going to. But I like clearing out a section of the map before I move on

Told myself the same thing about fights.

And then I blundered into a crime in commission where I seemed to be doing almost no damage to the bad guys, and was dying *real* fast. After a few tries, I checked the map. The specific crime that I was interrupting (and that was marked on my mini-map) wasn't shown on the city map. But everything else in the immediate area was "Very Difficult". I decided to bail and come back later...


Smart weapons are turning out to be a bit of a headache for me. Either they're fun weapons that can nail the bad guys even when those bad guys are behind cover, or you watch the bullets turn away from the bad guys even at point blank range. I'm not sure what causes the latter. But it's *really* annoying.

Update from CDPR -

The fact that they are not allowing refunds after Christmas is a kick in the teeth. Betting a lot of people will be getting the game and finding it still a broken mess on their consoles on Christmas morning.

I'm not planning to be able to play the game until the new year anyway, so I'm glad I'll have some updates waiting for me to play on my xbox one a bit better.

I haven't picked up the game based on what I've seen so far but I feel it's a bit rich for CDPR to ask customers "for a chance" when they were fairly dishonest regarding last gen consoles being an utter mess and releasing a AAA title with horrendous bugs.

I think I may have come across the most fethed up quest so far..



Thankfully, not long after that I got to drive a from the bottom down naked man to a ripper doc because he installed a blackmarket penis.

Also encountered twice now a very annoying bug that locks you into cutscene. You can still walk around, but can't hack, shoot or jump, which cannot be lifted by reloading an older save or rebooting the game. Instead you need to start another cutscene to fix itself. It's a good thing joytoys are so cheap.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
I haven't picked up the game based on what I've seen so far but I feel it's a bit rich for CDPR to ask customers "for a chance" when they were fairly dishonest regarding last gen consoles being an utter mess and releasing a AAA title with horrendous bugs.

It does look like it comes out for PS4 / X Box 1 in late Feb to be honest - which is ok for me as plenty of other games to play whilst wait for it to be fixed but I do feel sorry for those getting for Christmas (and outside their refund window).

For a rpg the basic imersion breaking elements are surprisingly bad - I remember GTA games on PS2 having better crow reactions and AI for police and people on the street and San Andreas at least offered abilty to change your appearance - you even got fat if you ate to much rather than

Hy wow you can have different looks for your gentils (wow so edgy) at the start but nah you can't change your hair colour or haircut in game Isn't Cyberpunk all about appearance and customisation? Well not in the game!

Ah well - another half finished game released too early.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:
I've managed to avoid buying a vehicle so far. All just seem to be a waste of money I could spend on more crafting recipes, fashion and cyberware, at least at this point. Did the mission with Mama Welles after the heist (think you only get it if you choose a certain option during the heist mission, though you can get the bike anyway if you make a different choice) and got a motorbike from it, so I used that until my car got fixed up.

I use vehicles even less after buying double jump.

Once you can double jump, you can ignore most obstacles or easily get around them to roof hop your way through many of the twistiest parts of NC.

Then you get a Tech sniper rifle, use ping, and just stand on the roof and headshot everything XD

The game seems to encourage hybrid builds from what I've seen. You benefit a lot from a few points in everything. Most stats get you special dialogue prompts in different contexts, a few points in Tech/Int/Body open hidden pathways to objectives. Then the game seems balanced around maxing out your primary means of dealing damage early, and it looks like you'll have enough levels/points left over to max out another stat easily.

I've only done one build so far, but I can say Intelligence and Tech are disgusting together. Tech weapons are amazing because they pierce cover (and they can do it through multiple walls) making tech revolvers and snipers insanely good. Quick hacks back them up fairly well.

Quickhacks ultimately though, seem outright broken once you've unlocked synapse burnout and suicide (it does what it says). If you combine those with one of the legendary OS from a ripperdoc and lots of perks in Intel, you'll just daisy chain enemies one after the other without ever coming under fire. They'll all be dead before they can hurt you.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
I haven't picked up the game based on what I've seen so far but I feel it's a bit rich for CDPR to ask customers "for a chance" when they were fairly dishonest regarding last gen consoles being an utter mess and releasing a AAA title with horrendous bugs.

Yes but CDPR are but a widdle indie game studio, and you liked the Witcher, didn't you? And since the managers gracefully told the devs that their bonuses will not be tied to 90% on metacritic score, if you buy the game the money will actually, in a minuscule percent, go to the devs!

Man, this year has been a dumpster fire for a lot of studios isn't it? Naughty Dog lost what credibility they had between their insane crunch practices and the LoU Part 2 disappointment, and now CDPR doubles down on the crunch problem and the game is a mess for release. What a load of hooey.

Let's hope more people follow SuperGiant Games lead for how games should be produced.

First off, just wanted to say I feel for all the people having problems. I'm fortunate to have a strong PC that is able to run the game surprisingly well, and I've had very few problems. I know what it's like to have a game that has lots of problems, I'm just not in that situation with this one.

I'm level 21 now, played lots of hours, and I think I've decided what it is I would change if I could change one thing in this game: the levelled equipment system. There is no reason why I should be a minimum level to wear one jacket over another, or to use one pistol over another pistol that is the exact same make and model. By all means, keep the rarity (common, uncommon, etc.) as a determination of how much better one Unity pistol is over another Unity pistol, but there shouldn't be level requirements. Make a stat requirement if needed for high tech or really heavy weapons, that's fine, too.

Now that I've found an outfit I really like for my V, in order to keep that outfit up-to-date I have to pay continually increasing upgrade costs for it. Oh yes, each time you upgrade an item the cost to upgrade it again goes up. So if you find a really awesome looking top at a low level, you're screwed unless you can get really lucky and find the same one at a higher level in a shop.

Anyway, gotta say I really love the mantis blades now that I've finally got them. When my stealth approach fails and the enemies start charging me, I feel like the Doom Marine: "Rip and tear, until it is done".

Eumerin wrote:

Smart weapons are turning out to be a bit of a headache for me. Either they're fun weapons that can nail the bad guys even when those bad guys are behind cover, or you watch the bullets turn away from the bad guys even at point blank range. I'm not sure what causes the latter. But it's *really* annoying.

Yeah, first time I tried to use a smart shotgun I was like "this is awful, I'm not hitting anything". Just got an iconic smart assault rifle from some 6th Street people having a party and it seems to work a lot better. Might go and get a higher level of smart link cyberware.

Though I do also think that either the smart gun or the smart link cyberware itself is causing bugs with the reticule. When I go into scanner the gun reticule comes up and won't go away until I either reload or equip a smart gun and draw and then holster it. Bit annoying.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tannhauser42 wrote:

Now that I've found an outfit I really like for my V, in order to keep that outfit up-to-date I have to pay continually increasing upgrade costs for it. Oh yes, each time you upgrade an item the cost to upgrade it again goes up. So if you find a really awesome looking top at a low level, you're screwed unless you can get really lucky and find the same one at a higher level in a shop.

Yeah, that sucks. Also, would be nice if the shops actually stocked clothes which matched the kind of shop it is. Like I go into the super fancy haute couture boutique in the centre, where the items on display have holos listing them as costing tens of thousands but when I actually look at the stuff they are selling? Just the same kind of stuff as everywhere else, at the same prices.

If you had different stores which each had their own style and theme, then it would be a lot easier to put yourself an outfit together. Wanna look like a corporat? Go to a fancy tailor in the centre. Want rave gear? That shop over there is for you.

Also, the crafting system has a pretty major exploit in the form of maxdocs. Creating any version of a maxdoc (uncommon, rare, epic etc.) only requires basic and uncommon parts, just in increasing amounts. When you break down a rare maxdoc, however, you will get rare components back. So you get yourself a big stock of basic and uncommon parts (pretty easy from scrapping a load of guns you'll be picking up from dead dudes) and make yourself a load of maxdocs of rare or above, then break them down into components and boom, you just gained a load of rare or better resources and recouped some of your materials from making them. You can then sell the rare+ components for cash, buy more basic and uncommon ones and repeat. Or use those rare components to upgrade/craft yourself some goodies.

Playing a second character.

Background was obviously cut content, but it does impact choices and events.

Example:


The single biggest issue I have with the game is Johnny Silverhand. That character is the corniest, try hard edgy, absolute piece of crap writing I have ever encountered. I don't understand how anyone can like that or who okayed it. I get that the Cyberpunk IP leans corny, but FFS that character and the band Samurai are so bad they might as well be satire...that and the whole hard-on everyone in game has for Night City and being a legend of Night City. Who the hell actually thinks like that?

I don't know about the MQ...but the game absolutely should have had a couple of gangs you could have joined/taken over along with a couple of corporations that you could have risen in power with.

I like the core gameplay system a lot as far as combat/hacking goes, but the story elements are hot trash outside of the Evelyn/River/Judy/Panam plotlines.

 trexmeyer wrote:
but the game absolutely should have had a couple of gangs you could have joined/taken over along with a couple of corporations that you could have risen in power with.

Eh...

No thanks. That doesn't really fit with the cyberpunk genre, which is more about man versus the system. Rising to power within one of those groups would mean that V was joining the system. Also, we're explicitly told early on that you've only got a few weeks (despite the usual "video game time" stuff). That's barely enough time to get out of orientation in a big company, let alone take over a department. It always bugs me a bit when open world games have you doing that sort of thing in virtually no time at all.


There are some DLC planned, so despite my objections, you might still get your wish in the future.

That's my point.

You shouldn't be forced down the MQ. The MQ as it is should have never been written or made. It's not good.

 trexmeyer wrote:
The single biggest issue I have with the game is Johnny Silverhand. That character is the corniest, try hard edgy, absolute piece of crap writing I have ever encountered. I don't understand how anyone can like that or who okayed it. I get that the Cyberpunk IP leans corny, but FFS that character and the band Samurai are so bad they might as well be satire...that and the whole hard-on everyone in game has for Night City and being a legend of Night City. Who the hell actually thinks like that?

I don't know about the MQ...but the game absolutely should have had a couple of gangs you could have joined/taken over along with a couple of corporations that you could have risen in power with.

I like the core gameplay system a lot as far as combat/hacking goes, but the story elements are hot trash outside of the Evelyn/River/Judy/Panam plotlines.

I have to say, I'm extremely disappointed with the main plot of the game.

It's just... So pedantically lame.

Like, in the trailers and the sneak peaks, it looked like your character would get burned and then recruited into some radical freedom fighter group, which is probably a bit cliche for a punk genre game, but you know what with Keeanu as my spirit animal, I was all for it. Instead, the game is some sophist shlock masquerading like some kind of transhuman introspection that really just feels like a pointlessly high stakes game of musical chairs between you and Johnny. I think they wasted a perfectly good character (who comes off as a needlessly massive donkey-cave mostly because of circumstances) in this game the way the story is set up. The endings frankly give me Mass Effect 3 vibes, where the game acts like your choices matter but really there's only 3 actual endings, 2 of them suck, and the third is only a slightly better. Yeah yeah there's like seven 'endings' but they're all basically the same outcome with slightly different window dressing (colors). After hunting down all the ones other than the one I got, I find myself profoundly disappointed with the plot of this game, chiefly because;



I find most of the fan takes on how this is a 'deep' plot, to be rather pedantic. It's just crappy plot with an even crappier selection of endings. Go feth yourself if you became invested in your character, the NPCs, or the game world is how they all read to me.

I don't know about the MQ...but the game absolutely should have had a couple of gangs you could have joined/taken over along with a couple of corporations that you could have risen in power with.

I second this as well. I find most complaints about the game being deceptively linear hold true and it's a shame because the core game play loop, minus vehicles and bugs, is pretty sold. Builds are varied and impactful. You get to feel like an absolute badass at high levels and the level of open ended approaches to problems is generally great. It's an absolute shame none of that is reflected in an incredibly linear story and a game world that ultimately doesn't seem to care you exist and that you likewise don't care about outside of the immediate objective your pursuing.

It's one thing for a game to be about fighting the good fight even when you know you're going to lose. It's another when the game literally has no way for you to impact anything at all because you run around the world but don't really interact with it. The lack of interaction with the gangs, who were hyped as a big part of the game as I remember a few years ago, is one of the most noticeable aspects of this. The gangs matter so little, I don't even remember their names or what makes them different from each other. It doesn't freaking matter. ALl you do is kill them and the only interactions you really have with the city is in the corpse making business.

So what's the overall verdict? Worth a buy now at full price, or wait a while until it's on sale? Should CDProjektRed should have just made The Witcher 4?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
So what's the overall verdict? Worth a buy now at full price, or wait a while until it's on sale? Should CDProjektRed should have just made The Witcher 4?

If you weren't sold already, I'd wait for a sale or to see if the game state improves in a month. I wouldn't say I have buyers remorse. I would say that CDPR has scraped by avoiding the game becoming a repeat of Anthem, which isn't high praise. The game is at least functional on PC, where it doesn't have nearly as many issues as the console versions. The core loop is solid, the base mechanics work when the UI cooperates, and a lot of the bugginess will probably be patched out by the end of the month.

The bigger issue imo, is that the game is 'good enough' and for all the hype and supposed development time that supposedly went into it, good enough isn't. This game warrants serious comparisons to Anthem, another game that sat in development for a long time and also feels like it was not in development for that long at release. It's better than Anthem, but desperately needs fleshing out. There's a lot that just feels like it isn't there and the game's legacy will probably ultimately be defined by how CDPR handles post-release and DLC content.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
So what's the overall verdict? Worth a buy now at full price, or wait a while until it's on sale? Should CDProjektRed should have just made The Witcher 4?

I would only get it now for PC and only if $60 for 30-40 hours of entertainment doesn't bother you.

The gameplay is at least decent.
Some side missions are excellent, most are at least decent.
I don't love the MQ, but some aspects of it are really good.
The open world aspect of the game is massively exaggerated. It's only open world after Act 1.

A lot of people are complaining about the open world AI...but honestly...I can't name an RPG with good open world AI. Bethesda games are 'open world' and the NPCs have schedules and all that jazz, but it has ZERO impact on the actual game.

I'd compare Cyberpunk to AC: Origins/Odyssey, but with weaker open world aspects (having a nemesis system/better police would be nice) while having more RPG elements and story options. I haven't played the Witcher series, but I've seen a lot of people compare it to Witcher 3, just in a different setting.

Edit:

I think me and LordOfHats roughly agree that they botched the MQ and probably wasted time/money on that instead of building up the world well. The MQ is decent enough to me if