Look, playing on PS5 there are tons of things I wish were different. There is a huge spoiler narrative choice I hate hate hate in the game that is absolutely unnecessary. I mean, I understand why they did it but even with all the considerations, I still don't like it. Let me list a few of them out:
-Conversations have no natural end. You just stop talking. No "See ya WWTBYA" or just "Bye"; It's just no loop closing at all. It must make OCD people CRAY-ZEE.
EDIT:-The game doesn't seem to keep track of time. It does. Oh it does. SOMETIMES. As Harshaw indicates, there are a number of things that transpire and are measured against the ticking clock and people will die if you leave them on the backburner too long. Although other things you don't have to worry about at all; the game doesn't tell you or give you ANY indication of which one is which. Neighbor downstairs, Evelyn, Meredith, Panam, Jackie, Judy? Which one is going to care and die if you don't go to a meeting and which one will wait forever? WHO KNOWS?
-While I don't mind the driving mechanics, its obvious this is CDPR's first driving game. The GPS alone is so fucking aggravating, its really hate-inspiring. If the driving were any better, it would make the stupid driving I get away with so costly that I would need to steal other people's cars ala GTA to afford it. My GPS talked to me in 1998, IIRC, they don't talk so you can follow directions 100 years later? The motorcycle driving is amazing, though, and by amazing I mean no wonder everyone is a cyborg. Seriously, I can hear the 80's theme song playing as I ride wheelies through intersections at 120+ mph and then flawless pivot on the front tire to stop at the police action that just popped up.
- Neighborhoods seem to have level ranges but no clear indications of them? I went from smokin' fools then had to drive to the badlands and stopped to stop a crime and got completely destroyed. I still managed to win in the end but had to switch to a sniper rifle, upgrade it all the way I could (I am one of these crafting idiots at c-level 21 but still only 9 points in tech ability) and then tech headshot the criminals through cover. Happened also in Corpo center/Downtown. Super drones out-classed and smartgunned the hell out of me; eventually I emp'ed and then beat the to death with a shock baton reloaded and I crafted on the spot. Driving around NC can be dangerous to your sense of superiority which is as it should be but nowhere is that advertised.
-The itemization feels all over the place but that may be a function of there being this hidden leveling system tied to the V and the neighbors that is occulted from the players' view. Is Watson just the starter area? Does is always remain a starter area? Do the levels scale across the board? Do the items' level scale? At one of the above mentioned encounters, all the items dropped were 4 or 5 levels above mine for required level. The stuff I have has gotten better slowly but I went, as some put it, from being a unstoppable tank to easily killable in certain areas or missions without much explanation or making any changes. Is there a random challenge level I am hitting where these few encounters are just at the upper end of a scale? No idea.
-My Biggest issue is this:
In Skyrim they didn't give you a death countdown before the title screen, which almost made me quit. I knew it was going to make everything else you did feel like a waste of time when you weren't following the main quest. As it turns out, its easy enough to ignore, and what they should have done was put Silverhand in your head and then turn on the "race to save your life" at the midgame/final third, rather than at the start. Then you get the benefit of his presence and can make friends with him, etc, without his always having his boot on your neck, as it were. It makes everything else you do feel like a waste of time. Even when you know you can take all the time in the world, the pressure is still always there. The world felt unlimited before, and had a defined limit afterward, for no reason other than that simple narrative choice. It makes for a great movie or Netflix series but an Open world game? Come on. Now, given, I am not done, and maybe there will be something that justifies that choice. We'll see but I will take convincing
I am still loving actually just playing the game. The little bits of story telling are great. Let's see if by the time I get to the end if its still warrants as much praise as I think it does.
Enemy difficult is resolved by simply scanning them. There's a lot of info there that you seem to be ignoring. But to be honest, isn't really necessary 90% of the time until you hit an area that straight up butt fucks you.
Agreed. Took this screenshot last night as another disagreement with that fake 3080 screenshot, and figured it was an appropriate response (once again GTX 1060).
I've come full circle with time sensitive quests. In nearly every game that had some false rush to the end theme I used to race along and then find I'd missed a load of shit for no good reason. Now I just assume everything will wait for me and go round picking up ashtrays from the ground while some guy's family is getting raped and tortured a street away.
I don't blame CD Projekts, I blame all those other games that made me the avatar of ambivalence.
Wait, you can save him and it was time sensitive? Rip then. I had talked to him and thought he was left off in a decent place, then I later find the asshole cop crying outside it after the dude offed himself.
It's pretty obvious they took Witcher enemy AI, gave it the ability to use cover, and when someone asked, "ok, so how should they respond to Tech weapons and quickhacks?" there was dead silence in the meeting room.
Honestly I don't even blame the AI dev(s) for that one though. Once you have Legendary Ping the enemies might as well all just react to combat like normal citizens do.
Wait, you can save him and it was time sensitive? Rip then. I had talked to him and thought he was left off in a decent place, then I later find the asshole cop crying outside it after the dude offed himself.
V needs to talk to the guy and find out what is up. Then you have to tell his cop buddy what is up with him. And then he goes and talks to him right away.
V needs to talk to the guy and find out what is up. Then you have to tell his cop buddy what is up with him. And then he goes and talks to him right away.
His "friend" was a pet turtle he inherited from his Mom who passed away. The dude had been "talking" to the turtle as kind of like therapy. So when the turtle died his PTSD or whatever just overtook the guy. His buddy cops were too oblivious to realize he was in trouble.
Not sure where this idea sprung from but, absolutely no quest that I've done in the game has a timer associated with it that alters the outcome, including downstairs neighbor guy. And I've done 95% of them now. The only thing the game timer is used for is triggering the next step in a conversation or quest; ie. "check back in a few hours" means you can't just leave, then turn around and knock on the door again to advance it.
Annoyingly I've seen that a few times and ignored it in favour of gunning people down. Now you mention it I feel like my life could have been easier in this game if I'd gone Skyrim-mode on a bunch of quests.
lol @ picking up ashtrays while family gets raped.
I have been seeing the AI break down more and more. Almost every other quest ends up having 1 or 2 enemy NPCs who just sort of time out, they dont aggro and just stay where they are, dont shoot back or react. One guy in a night club was in a VIP room, I skullfucked like 8 other dudes and cleared out the entire club, save for that one guy. I go back into the VIP room and he is seated, and bobbing his head to music while moving his hands around like he was getting a lap dance. It was hilarious. I shot him in his head and put him out of his misery loop.
The overall AI in this game is awful though. I dont understand how games made 10 years ago have better enemy AI.
I realized last night that the reason the cops teleport to you is probably because there doesn't appear to be any car/driving AI besides scripted paths. Cars will just stop behind your car if you park it in the middle of the road, as opposed to yelling at you, honking, and driving through like in GTA.
Cops have teleportation powers, it's part of their cybernetic implants.
Anyway I thought in my opinion Keanu Reeve's performance was not great, okay it was a bit decent but the problem is he has wooden type of acting, actors have their own style of acting like Nic Cage and Jim Carrey, You need someone high energy to counter his wooden style and make it interesting to watch.Also for that matter V's voice actors weren't high energy during the game, they're suppose to be the player's avatar afterall.
Look I like the guy and what he does is entertaining but For Johnny you need someone charismatic and high energy, not low key Keanu, who I think is miscasted here. Also is Silverhand supposed to be blond in the original art?
I realized last night that the reason the cops teleport to you is probably because there doesn't appear to be any car/driving AI besides scripted paths. Cars will just stop behind your car if you park it in the middle of the road, as opposed to yelling at you, honking, and driving through like in GTA.
Cops have teleportation powers, it's part of their cybernetic implants.
Anyway I thought in my opinion Keanu Reeve's performance was not great, okay it was a bit decent but the problem is he has wooden type of acting, actors have their own style of acting like Nic Cage and Jim Carrey, You need someone high energy to counter his wooden style and make it interesting to watch.Also for that matter V's voice actors weren't high energy during the game, they're suppose to be the player's avatar afterall.
Look I like the guy and what he does is entertaining but For Johnny you need someone charismatic and high energy, not low key Keanu, who I think is miscasted here. Also is Silverhand supposed to be blond in the original art?
Finished my first playthrough at 50 hours. Did all side gigs/quests except buying all the damn cars. Finished at lvl 43. I played with a Katana almost the entire games as I hate FPS games, so made it like Witcher 3 in Night City.
Got the Nomad ending as I romanced Panam and rode off in the sunset
Won't replay for other endings as I'd rather just read about them and wait for DLC. I played on PC and had almost no bugs minus a few visual ones and 1 total crash in 50 hours. Game was def worth it but really didn't like how crowded Night City was, it made it way to hard to really feel distinct, felt like 1 big blob.
lol @ picking up ashtrays while family gets raped.
I have been seeing the AI break down more and more. Almost every other quest ends up having 1 or 2 enemy NPCs who just sort of time out, they dont aggro and just stay where they are, dont shoot back or react. One guy in a night club was in a VIP room, I skullfucked like 8 other dudes and cleared out the entire club, save for that one guy. I go back into the VIP room and he is seated, and bobbing his head to music while moving his hands around like he was getting a lap dance. It was hilarious. I shot him in his head and put him out of his misery loop.
The overall AI in this game is awful though. I dont understand how games made 10 years ago have better enemy AI.
