Cyberpunk 2077

[Yora]

I think this game might be deserving it's own thread. This is a big one, and I think a very long one.

When I bought it for PS4 on a whim, I had no real idea what kind of game I would get. I saw the reveal trailer when it came out years ago. Which as prerendered a CGI trailer of course did not reveal anything about the game other than the planned art style the creators had in mind at that time. It's very generic looking cyberpunk, perhaps with a little bit of extra punk and California sunshine.
And I think this is the game's biggest problem, that was entirely self inflicted and avoidable, and now comes to bite the developers in the ass. Over the years I occasionally asked people who were hyped about it what the game is about and why all the excitement. And it always was just the same empty basics that I already knew. "A cyberpunk game, made by CD Project, with a Keanu Reeves gimmick." Which basically is just "People who made a game I really loved are making another game". I think the hype train for this game made it out to be everything to everyone, and it would do so more amazingly than anything else before. That's great to generate lots of preorders, but sets up expectations that nothing can ever meet. Entirely self-inflicted, and probably a cautious tale for years to come.

I looked at what people actually commented on why they rated the game as 0/10, and much of seems to come down to the game not being what they thought it would be. Which I never was clear about either. Is it like GTA? Is it like Far Cry? Is it like Borderlands? Is it like Horizon? Is it like Arkham? Is it like Saint's Row? It it like Bioshock?
25 hours into the game, I can now say it's a very pure RPG with a hearty helping of immersive sims. This is a game like Vampire Bloodlines, Knights of the Old Republic, and of course Witcher 3, with a good dose of Deus Ex. This is a game about story, characters, and setting. There are cars you can drive, lots of guns to loot and upgrade, many cybernetic powers to hack enemies in combat. But it's not an action shooter or driving game. People are correct: Driving is banal and combat is about as thrilling and dynamic as in Mass Effect 1. It's serviceable, but it's not great. And the game probably could have been enhanced by having those parts polished up a lot, but those are things that I think aren't really that important for what the game is trying to do.
It's not wrong to not enjoy the game when that's what you're looking for in a game. The mistake was that these people bought the game in the first place. Which could have been entirely avoidable by being more clear what the product actually is.

And after 25 hours, I think this game is really just amazing at what it wants to be. I said it's about story, characters, and setting, and in all these categories this game is indeed in the all time top tier. Unsurprisingly when you compare it to Witcher 3, and also a big part of why it reminds me of Bloodlines and the KotOR games. (And boy, where those games buggy, unfinished, and had terrible combat.) All the characters are great. Some people who seem like they are just around for a single quick mission turn out to come back later to become your new "gang" when things inevitably go south and you have nowhere else to turn to. NPC faces are pretty good, and I really love the animations during the dialog scenes. You don't get anything like staring at the blank faces in portrait mode like in Bethesda games. Of all the people who are working on the game, I think the character animators deserve the greatest praise. The important story characters all have distinctive individual body language that feels very natural. Walking behind Jackie while he's strutting down a hallway with his guns in his giant paws is just a first impression.
And I have to say in the entire game I've not come across a single case of bad voice acting. Not sure if it's all A+, but I don't think there's anything in the game that isn't at least a straight B. Many of the gangs speak in their own foreign languages, and I am pretty sure they got native speakers for all of them. When the Japanese gangs are talking among themselves, I am totally buying it. Those aren't British or American people who learned a bit of Japanese once and are now reading lines someone else translated for them. And if they are, that company got the best people for the job there are. It really shouldn't be something that noteworthy, but it wasn't that long ago that bad voice acting was the default assumption even for the most prestigious games.
Love the story. It's not just an excuse plot to get the player to different enemy bases and have some fun action there. Many of the minor side missions are basically that, but even then you get a phone call from one of the many agents (with great voice acting) who are giving you the basics and send you a text massage with details that lets you get in the mindeset that there's an actual larger story going on in which at some point someone needs a mercenary to take out a minor gang boss or destroy a drug lab. In addition, most places have computers where you can check the emails of the gangs, and it turns out that you have the same people appearing over and over again. Somewhere you see a client list of a gang and it mentions Woodman, and you think "hey, that was the owner of that messed up brothel I had a five minute conversation with some days ago". I also looked at the first impressions of various people on youtube, and it turns out that there are plenty of dialog options and such that appear only if you previously some completely unrelated side-missions. It's really a lot like Bloodlines in that regard, and I think gives the game good replay value in the future. But the game probably is more than long enough if you even play through it once. As I said, I am 25 hours in, and I've only been to maybe 20% of the entire city at the most.

Technically it's pretty rough. On PS4, I have a crash every three our four hours, but the game is good with auto-saves and I don't think I ever lost more than 5 minutes of progress. There's somewhat frequent graphic glitches like phones that keep floating in the air when an NPC is meant to drop it and pull a weapon, or a gun being invisible in the player's hand during cutscenes, or textures on object being stretched across the whole screen for a second. It's not pretty, but it doesn't interfere with playing the game. This is something that shouldn't happen, but it's also something that happens all the time everywhere anyway. I don't see it as something that is a problem with this game in particular.
It certainly would have done the game no harm if it had been released three or four months later, though it might have done harm to CD Project's liquidity. Who knows. (Though with GOG, I somewhat doubt that.)

There are really just two things I have problems with in this game, and the biggest one is the loot system. This game has way too much loot lying around everywhere, and almost all of it is useless junk. What did the developer think how a tense stealthy hostage rescue would be improved by having the player looking into every nook and cranny looking for crumpled burger wrappers and packs of chewing gum? Many of these levels are really well set up, but actively harmed by giving you 200 pieces of junk to vacuum up while you're trying to shot a path to the exit. This is just completely baffling. I think it becomes less of an issue when you realize that almost all places remain completely accessible when the job is done and you can do a leisurely sweep of the whole place after all the enemies are dead and the hostages put into the escape cars, but it still feels completely pointless. Why do something that actively hurts the game when it could be so easily improved by just not having it in the first place?
Another annoying side effect is that all the junk makes equipping your character and dismantling or selling the stuff that is junk so much slower and drawn out. It would have been easier if all Unity pistols are worse than all Lexington pistols, but no. The name of all weapons only affects the model that you see appearing in your hands when drawn. Stats for all weapon are completely random. You don't upgrade from a Unity to a Lexington, and then get excited when you find a Nue. Instead you go from a Unity to another Unity, then to a Lexington, back to another Unity, and on to a Nue.
Clothing also makes no sense. You can have ripped T-Shirts with better protection than a ballistic vest. And in one case I had identically looking and named Arasaka Tactical Shirts, with one being being a white "common" version and the other a green "uncommon" version. But stats are so random that the common one actually had a higher armor rating than the uncommon one (and no other stats). Gah! I hate it so much. These are things that should have been learned 10 years ago.

Another thing that bothered me somewhat early on was that enemies soak giant loads of damage. Which I think was because I first started with a really weak gun and poorly suited character stats, and then happened to try my luck with random street gangs that were actually pretty high level and meant to be approached later. By now I no longer see that happen and random street punks go down very quickly. I am also playing on Hard, so I can't really complain too much about it. Combat is still nothing amazing, but enemies being too easy is a lot better than taking forever and requiring several reloads.
However, I am very pleased that you actually can play this game using almost exclusively stealth. You can absolutely play this game like Thief or Metal Gear Solid, and I find it to be a lot of fun that way. I've taken out several medium to large bandit lairs without firing a single shot.
What I am still waiting for is to find access to more and more powerful combat hacks. Currently I can only equip two quick-hack modules which I use for making enemies' eyes go into reboot for five seconds or clear their cache so they forget that they just saw me and wanted to call alarm. (The game assumes that every single gangster or mercenary in the city has cybernetic brains with artificial eyes.) Usually I try to to silently take out all criminals silently and leave them unconscious for the police to pick up later. (Which the game says happens, but you never actually see. The only difference between lethal and nonlethal damage is the blood puddle under the body.) But since I've gotten more information on scavengers after seeing the first chop shop (no, they don't take apart stolen cars to sell as spare parts), I have made it my goal to find, craft, or upgrade a quickhack module that allows me to make heads explode. I know there's one that causes damage by overloading cybernetic brains. Until then, breaking every scavengers neck will have to do.

This game is really great at drawing me in. I often just keep waiting at traffic lights without really thinking, always look left and right before crossing the road (and got hit by cars when I didn't). And one time I caused a police search in the area I was in because I shot a ripdoctor dead just as he was running out the front door of his side-alley clinic. I had confronted him with proof that he wasn't forced to work with the scavengers in his basement, and when he walked over to his desk to show me something, he suddenly bolted out of the other door leading outside. It was a split second decisions to shot him like a dog in the street because he was really fast and I didn't think there would be a follow up quest to track him down. (He was just in a little room I almost missed after clearing out the scavenger lair). And I regret nothing! This is such a wonderful horrible city.

I am really confident that one year from now this game will be well established as a classic of the deep-depth story RPGs. But as one Nintendo guy once said, a delayed game will eventually be good, but a rushed game will forever have a tarnished reputation.

[Silly Name]

Honestly, I'm enjoying the crash from the sidelines. The game was massively over-hyped, and while I don't think it's all bad, it's pretty clear that it wasn't ready to release - not just on last gen consoles, but some things appear to be missing or only partially implemented regardless of what platform you're playing on. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but the various delays this year were a sign of things not being ready, and shareholders probably pushed for a Christmas release no matter what.

I don't know if, after several patches, it will be able to compete in the arena for "beloved classic". I don't like to make predictions of that sort, but I suspect enough people were left burned by the sorry state of Day 0 after the massive marketing campaign that it'll be a sore spot for many people in years to come (similar to No Man's Sky).

[Eldan]

I don't know, I'd call it one of the best games I have played in years.

[thethird]

I was actually hyped for the game. Even pre-ordered (well my family did as a gift for me).

I am playing it in ps4 and I must say I am not disappointed. I am in fact having a blast. It is a very good RPG. I have picked clean (well almost) of "yellow" side missions (the ones that have a fixer telling you about stuff happening) on the first area. I am more or less about 20 odd hours in.

As for the technical aspects I haven't had a crash nor any serious bug. For what is worth I disabled most of the graphical stuff (blurry depth of field? Film grain? Flashes? Camera stutter? No thanks) Only one line of subtitles sticking to the screen (which is not terrible). And well the fact that if you look at yourself in the mirror with a helmet you go bald (which is off-putting).

When it comes to your particular build Yora (I am doing pretty much the same). You can get the fry brain hack from the drive that you are given to pay the maelstrom scavengers at the beginning if you exhamine it (although it sounds like you missed it), alternatively some netrunners sell hacks. Speaking of netrunners T-bug left you a quest, if you go and do it you will get a netrunner that will sell you my favorite hack (ping, it pings enemies). Invest asap in an improvement to your operating system, a ripperdock can get you one that will increase your hack capacity (both in how many you can carry and how many you can use).

[Rynjin]

When it comes to your particular build Yora (I am doing pretty much the same). You can get the fry brain hack from the drive that you are given to pay the maelstrom scavengers at the beginning if you exhamine it (although it sounds like you missed it), alternatively some netrunners sell hacks. Speaking of netrunners T-bug left you a quest, if you go and do it you will get a netrunner that will sell you my favorite hack (ping, it pings enemies). Invest asap in an improvement to your operating system, a ripperdock can get you one that will increase your hack capacity (both in how many you can carry and how many you can use).

I also got it from a Side Job in act 2, so it's not completely missable.

It's a job you get from Sandra Dorsett (the woman you save from the scavs in the prologue) to retrieve her databank.

As for people not getting what they expected...I have to imagine they never watched any of the gameplay footage they released in 2018. They played 45 minutes of the game, covering the entire All Foods/Maelstrom quest that is largely unchanged in terms of visible gameplay from the release product; the only major exception is that they had to remove the wallrunning mechanic because they couldn't make it work properly.

[boj0]

I'm unfortunately stuck playing on a last gen console, so obviously I'm having a rougher go than the PC folks; but I will say that this is a game that I so desperately want to love, it has character, the story is fun, it captures the "Pink Mohawk" flavor of the genre just as well as Deus Ex captures "Black Trenchcoat". It comes across as a love child of GTA and Deus Ex HR, I want to play through multiple times already between the life paths and skill trees.

The game doesn't want me to play it however, I get about ~3 crashes a session, constant lagging, graphics and meshes not loading, enemies T posing in combat, and now a bug where my side gigs aren't completing. I can't finish missions...that's pretty damming in a game chock full of missions.

I am holding out for a No Man's Sky style comeback, maybe after I can find a next gen system; but as much as I like the game, I have to put it down until it's playable.

[Yora]

Say, is it just me, or does everything about Night City feel very 70s? 1970s that is.

I'm constantly thinking of Dirty Harry or Shaft, or some Charles Bronson movies.

[Squark]

So, I'm apparently a very lucky base-xbox one player, because the game runs fine for me. It's never crashed, It's only had 2 instances of stuttering in like, 10 hours, and the graphics are servicable - Not above average, but not the awful experience some people have gotten. I've run into a few bugs like V's hair disapearing when I looked in the mirror the first time (I think the game disliked her being in a hat), a sentry petrified in a T-pose, and a cactus stuck on my windshield spazzing out, but the only really annoying one is the poor resolution on in-game computer screens.

I'm enjoying the story, while the combat is fine. It's perhaps more number-based than it needs to be, but it works.

[sihnfahl]

This game has way too much loot lying around everywhere, and almost all of it is useless junk.
That's more for the crafting system and ensuring the player has a lot of materials to do things like craft ammunition (you'll never run out), saleable weapons that are worth a lot more than the items you looted, etc.


Another annoying side effect is that all the junk makes equipping your character and dismantling or selling the stuff that is junk so much slower and drawn out.
There's a single perk in the crafting tree that lets you automatically dismantle loot the moment they're picked up. That just leaves you with the options of selling or dismantling weapons and armor for money or crafting mats.


What I am still waiting for is to find access to more and more powerful combat hacks. Currently I can only equip two quick-hack modules which I use for making enemies' eyes go into reboot for five seconds or clear their cache so they forget that they just saw me and wanted to call alarm.
If you do side missions and the NCPD blue quests, you'll end up with some nice gear as well as a ton of money.

I haven't even left Act 1, and I have a legendary cyberdeck with Contagion and Overheat. Hack a camera from range, zoom around, mark enemies. Contagion does non-lethal damage and spreads to nearby enemies. With the quickhack mod for increased damage, you can knock out entire groups of enemies that are visible through cameras without ever exposing yourself. If there's just one left, overheat will knock them out faster.

If you really want a shooting time, you can also get Cripple, which locks up their legs and keeps them from moving. Easier to get headshots.

[druid91]

That's more for the crafting system and ensuring the player has a lot of materials to do things like craft ammunition (you'll never run out), saleable weapons that are worth a lot more than the items you looted, etc.


There's a single perk in the crafting tree that lets you automatically dismantle loot the moment they're picked up. That just leaves you with the options of selling or dismantling weapons and armor for money or crafting mats.


If you do side missions and the NCPD blue quests, you'll end up with some nice gear as well as a ton of money.

I haven't even left Act 1, and I have a legendary cyberdeck with Contagion and Overheat. Hack a camera from range, zoom around, mark enemies. Contagion does non-lethal damage and spreads to nearby enemies. With the quickhack mod for increased damage, you can knock out entire groups of enemies that are visible through cameras without ever exposing yourself. If there's just one left, overheat will knock them out faster.

If you really want a shooting time, you can also get Cripple, which locks up their legs and keeps them from moving. Easier to get headshots.

Downside of that, some loot is valuable on its own. More valuable sold then scrapped.

Scrapper scraps it anyway.

[Yora]

I just spend 25000 eddies to upgrade from my starting cyberdeck with 2 base ram, 4 buffer, and 2 slots to the Stephenson that Victor is selling with 8 base rim, 7 buffer, and 5 slots.
Now were're in business!!!

https://media.tenor.com/images/b23a908ae01021bc1064937bad061b11/tenor.gif

I was hoping for maybe another point in ram, buffer, and slots. I've got 6, 3, and 3 instead.

https://edit911.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/I-Am-Invincible-GoldenEye.gif

Totally worth a third of all the eddies I've been hoarding the entire game.

[sihnfahl]

Downside of that, some loot is valuable on its own. More valuable sold then scrapped.
Haven't found any 'valuable' junk items that are worth selling, so far. I can use the breakdown to craft more valuable items.



I just spend 25000 eddies to upgrade from my starting cyberdeck with 2 base ram, 4 buffer, and 2 slots to the Stephenson that Victor is selling with 8 base rim, 7 buffer, and 5 slots. Now were're in business!!!
That's the one I'm talking about. All you need are those two I talked about, and things are golden for stealth runs.

I also outfitted an assault rifle with a silencer, and got the eye mod that turns all weapons non-lethal via looting.

It's great for a pacifist run, particularly on the quest where you run into a monk who was forcibly cybered by Maelstrom goons, and wants you to rescue his friend before he's modified ... without bloodshed. Even if they're Maelstrom and deserve a good headcoring.

[Wraith]

Like Silly Name, I'm watching the wreckage burn. I'm a big fan of Cyberpunk in general and I remember the original cinematic trailer that came out in 2012, it had a lot of promise and ticked a lot of boxes for 'things which I find appealing'.

Everything was ready to go, and I was waiting for the final litmus test which I refer to as the "Duke Nukem Forever Test" - was this really a game that had been in development for 8 years, or was it a game that was buggy and bad and problematic that had been passed from pillar-to-post for 8 years before a rushed hack-job was thrown out at the last minute?
Watching a few streams of it on launch week were the deciding factor as to whether or not I would bother upgrading my computer in order to play it, and I have to say... I probably won't.

The bugs are pretty bad. The unstable running is pretty bad. The controversy from CDPR about their practices and responses to complaints about some fundamental points is pretty bad. In short, aside from the concept of the game I haven't seen anything that I like and I don't think I want anything to do with it.


Say, is it just me, or does everything about Night City feel very 70s? 1970s that is.

I'm constantly thinking of Dirty Harry or Shaft, or some Charles Bronson movies.

I've seen that comment made before, and I have to say I think I agree. Cyberpunk was always the 1980's view of what life would be like in the 20X0's, and despite changing the name to 2077 it's STILL got the same aesthetic as what a 1980's artist thinks the future would be like, similar to movies like Bladerunner.

I like it, it's cool, and I would otherwise be happy to explore it, but (to quote the source I saw) it ain't Punk Rock - it's Classic Rock with neon lights pinned to it. :smalltongue:

[druid91]

Yep! And once you start unlocking higher rank programs it gets silly strong fast. I've been playing a Netrunner and for like... Four levels now I rarely need to shoot people unless there's a crowd. Because you can just cripple movement, which also prevents attacks at higher ranks, and then short circuit, contagion, and overheat.

Synapse burnout is neat but honestly I found it underpowered. Then you get into stuff like making enemies kill themselves by hacking their arms. Or just knocking them out by resetting their cybernetics.

Or causing them to go berserk and become a cyber psycho.

Netrunners are basically wizards.

Also interesting, if you got Cyberpunk on steam, the bonus content has the old cyberpunk 2020 rulebook in it.

[DanswordMaia]

On ps4, the game looks just disgusting, blurry graphics , and low fps just make me cry blood.:smallfurious:

[sihnfahl]

On ps4, the game looks just disgusting, blurry graphics , and low fps just make me cry blood.:smallfurious:
I think their modifications to RED Engine didn't port to the consoles that well, cause similar issues are on the XBox series.

Witcher 3 utilized RE, and it didn't have as many issues on the consoles as CP2077 seems to have.

Definitely was rushed out, and it wasn't necessarily an unforeseen issue. It was one of the issues, IIRC, that led to delays.

[Chen]

Playing this on a new PC (seems if I upgrade every 5 years it coincides well with CD Projekt Red releases lol) and it’s gorgeous and pretty much crash free. First pass I’m playing as run inside and shoot everything build. Even replaced my cyberdeck with the cyberware to slow time instead. Note also, $45k for double jump is completely worth it and makes exploring even more fun.

Smart guns are hilariously overpowered particular the one “special” one you find. Even without that though a solid pistol and sniper rifle cover most needs.

Very much enjoying the quests since all of them except the random NCPD ones have some sort of backstory associated with them. Maybe about 1/2 through the main story and it’s decent too.

[Yora]

I found the merc jobs to be all at least somewhat interesting. You're always fighting against the same gangsters (about the only enemy type in the game), but when you go sneaky, each one is different because the environment is different and the number and placement of the gonks unique. Though I don't know if there's any variation if you have a guns blazing style.

I also have one very important question! Why does Night City have 20 hours of daylight? The night is already over at 3 in the morning. For a genre that is usually "always night", I'd have expected something more like 50/50. Especially for a city set in southern California, which even during the longest days of summer still has 8 hours of darkness. This really seems like a mistake, and should only take up 1kb of patch space.

Something that I found quite neat, though, is that they really didn't just change the name from Cyberpunk 2020 to 2077 because that name seems silly now. The game clearly seems to be following a timeline in which the world was already a cyberpunk world in the year 2020. It's obvious in the memories of Johnny Silverhand, but it's also consistent in some text files and radio chatter throughout the game.

[sihnfahl]

I found the merc jobs to be all at least somewhat interesting. You're always fighting against the same gangsters (about the only enemy type in the game), but when you go sneaky, each one is different because the environment is different and the number and placement of the gonks unique. Though I don't know if there's any variation if you have a guns blazing style.
There is.

Maelstrom acts like their name - they all start clustering and heading for a firefight. Grenades may figure heavily, depending on location. Even though they tend to be poor throwers and inevitably grenade themselves.

Animals rush in, and their melee people are no joke. I found myself emptying entire clips into their legs cause headshots weren't slowing them down. Mind you, it's a lot more fun with Cripple involved now.

Tyger Claws? So many cyber heads. Expect regular cyber-based attacks. They love hitting you with Overheat. Add in proper flanking and tactics...


Why does Night City have 20 hours of daylight?
Well, it doesn't seem to have a day night cycle as it is. There are always people moving around, regardless of hour.

That being said, lotta light pollution.

[druid91]

I found the merc jobs to be all at least somewhat interesting. You're always fighting against the same gangsters (about the only enemy type in the game), but when you go sneaky, each one is different because the environment is different and the number and placement of the gonks unique. Though I don't know if there's any variation if you have a guns blazing style.

I also have one very important question! Why does Night City have 20 hours of daylight? The night is already over at 3 in the morning. For a genre that is usually "always night", I'd have expected something more like 50/50. Especially for a city set in southern California, which even during the longest days of summer still has 8 hours of darkness. This really seems like a mistake, and should only take up 1kb of patch space.

Something that I found quite neat, though, is that they really didn't just change the name from Cyberpunk 2020 to 2077 because that name seems silly now. The game clearly seems to be following a timeline in which the world was already a cyberpunk world in the year 2020. It's obvious in the memories of Johnny Silverhand, but it's also consistent in some text files and radio chatter throughout the game.

Yep. I liked the timeline thing. The tech has also advanced to a degree from the original game. What with all the wireless connections everywhere.

[Yora]

There is.

Maelstrom acts like their name - they all start clustering and heading for a firefight. Grenades may figure heavily, depending on location. Even though they tend to be poor throwers and inevitably grenade themselves.

Animals rush in, and their melee people are no joke. I found myself emptying entire clips into their legs cause headshots weren't slowing them down. Mind you, it's a lot more fun with Cripple involved now.

Tyger Claws? So many cyber heads. Expect regular cyber-based attacks. They love hitting you with Overheat. Add in proper flanking and tactics...

That's cool. And now that you mention it, I did see these patterns when I fought them in big battles. There's obviously visuals too. Toaster faces look nothing like Tyger Claws with their anime hair and motorcycle suits. This will probably become more obvious once I get into other districts. (30 hours in and still only been to North Side, Little China, and Japantown.)

[Rynjin]

Probably just as well. Arroyo is ludicrously high level, as are the surrounding areas. It really makes you wonder how V and Jackie managed to survive growing up there.

[druid91]

Well, Jackie was part of the Valentino's. So the ludicrously high level gangsters were on his side.

I still remember getting into fights with them and just getting one-shotted.

[sihnfahl]

I still remember getting into fights with them and just getting one-shotted.
One of the things I do to increase survivability is to utilize scrap to upgrade my armors and such.

Beyond the XP for improving crafting (which can lead to some really fun ennie generation if you're willing to take the time), I've got a lot of armor for the level, and most shots just hit for pittances when I actually decide I want to fight...

Keep track of which items yield the most components per ennie spent. Prioritize purchasing them, then craft items that yield the most ennies per component consumed. (Reportedly, Nicola Blue for dismantling and pistols for crafting are the way to go...)

[Yora]

I still have no chance surviving against most Cyberpsychos. I managed to take down one at the docks pretty easily (because he mostly kept standing on top of a shipping container with a gun), and I think I might take another shot at the one who threw people off a building. But the one with the mantis blades and the glowstick ritual circle takes 80% of my health with a single hit. And there seems to be a speed upgrade and something that messes with my optics, so simply trying to stay at a safe distance just isn't working.
The game says the danger for all of them is "moderate", but since all the danger is in a single person and not spread among a dozen guys, there is no taking them out one by one.

(I still like them though. Finding that cooler with the body parts late at night was awesome. :smallsmile:)

[sihnfahl]

And there seems to be a speed upgrade and something that messes with my optics, so simply trying to stay at a safe distance just isn't working.
Sandevistan. If you stay hidden before engaging, scan them and you'll see it.

I approach them with Cripple or Cyberware Malfunction equipped. It breaks the script for a moment when it tells them to accelerate and do the quick-step - slice combination. And at higher quality, CM will destroy the affected component until they're pretty much just a high-health enemy. Just need to dodge and get the occasional hit in to whittle health.

And a few do have 'reboot optics' as an option. That's cause they're melee builds, primarily, and RO is designed to allow a melee attacker to get into range against a shooter.

For example, the psycho in the warehouse that got corrupted by a bad BD chip someone had tried to hack - primarily melee, with a huge jump that lets her get to the upper levels should you try to use that to snipe from the walkway. I just whittled away at her between knockdowns and cripples (didn't have CM at the time). The only problem I had with that one was that I have the 'every weapon is non-lethal' mod, and I used a 300 damage epic shock baton for the knockout blows, and the game chat STILL went with 'yeah, I know she's dead, I was logged into our system...'

[GloatingSwine]

I still have no chance surviving against most Cyberpsychos. I managed to take down one at the docks pretty easily (because he mostly kept standing on top of a shipping container with a gun),

You want some hilarity?

That guy has no AI script other than run and cower if you jump up there with him. So you can just freely punch him into unconsciousness.

Ones that rely on melee can be offlined by getting out of their reach and hitting them with short circuit repeatedly.

[Yora]

Sandevistan. If you stay hidden before engaging, scan them and you'll see it.

I approach them with Cripple or Cyberware Malfunction equipped. It breaks the script for a moment when it tells them to accelerate and do the quick-step - slice combination. And at higher quality, CM will destroy the affected component until they're pretty much just a high-health enemy.
You can disable the implants that give them power? That's awesome!

I mean, it totally makes sense from a narrative perspective. But I've never thought that anyone would make this a game mechanic. (Though it's not really that different from shooting external weapons off robo-saurs in Horizon.)

I use Reboot Optics primarily to get double stealth takedowns when there's nothing suitable to use as a distraction and both enemies look at each other. Get as close behind one of them as possible, reboot the other one's eyes, then quickly take out the one with his back to you and circle around to get behind the blinded guy.

[sihnfahl]

I mean, it totally makes sense from a narrative perspective. But I've never thought that anyone would make this a game mechanic. (Though it's not really that different from shooting external weapons off robo-saurs in Horizon.)
Or just about any game where you can independently target their weapons to deny them the use.

It's a great mod find you can get very early on if you do the side job that involve ... I believe I got this one from a Tyger mission, doing heavy stealth that only had me pull the trigger on two people due to the fact they were on a floor where the cameras aren't controllable from downstairs, and the only way to see them is to open the door to the room those guys are in. And they're usually watching the door.

[Rynjin]

I have yet to find a Cyberpsycho that liberal application of Gorilla Fist to face hasn't been sble to solve.

[sihnfahl]

I have yet to find a Cyberpsycho that liberal application of Gorilla Fist to face hasn't been sble to solve.
One mod I haven't played with since I'm tending non-melee. Fun?

I've been playing with the launcher instead, utilizing gas rounds. Talk about havoc when you have a group of Scavs vs Maelstrom...

[druid91]

I mostly took the gorilla fists so I could open doors.

[GloatingSwine]

One mod I haven't played with since I'm tending non-melee. Fun?

I've been playing with the launcher instead, utilizing gas rounds. Talk about havoc when you have a group of Scavs vs Maelstrom...

Required.

If you want to do the boxing sidequest and retain your sanity, Gorilla Arms.

Also they let you rip some doors open, which means they can get you into places you couldn't otherwise.

[Yora]

Speaking of which, the cyberpsycho that Millitech tries to take down reminds me a lot of the unarmed stealth fight in the Ghost in the Shell movie. Taking place in very shallow water, and her haircut and visor matches as well. And the unarmed fighting style, of course.
Still can't get her under 70%, though. Even though game says she's "Danger: Very Low"

Also checked to be sure: The image for the Stealth perk Assassin is from the Blade Runner movie poster.

Game references everything it possibly can. :smallamused:

[The Glyphstone]

I have yet to find a Cyberpsycho that liberal application of Gorilla Fist to face hasn't been sble to solve.

When all you have is a Gorilla Fist, everything looks like a punchable object?

[Callos_DeTerran]

Been playing on Xbox One (Not S!) and I've been having a blast! Over the entire course of my time playing, I've had...three crashes I think? And some frame rate issues, but none of those have been recent honestly so I think they've been mostly ironed out. Love the setting and the characters in it, not because they're particularly unique but because Cyberpunk 2077 executes them well.

My biggest complaint might actually not be a complaint cause Iv'e only just gotten into Act 2, but its the customization feels a bit lackluster for the setting. Everything is kind of...plain so far, I have seen very little clothing that makes me sit up and take notice and cybernetics largely don't seem visible which is a shame but makes sense in a more story driven game.

I will say, I opened with net-running and hacking, having a similar problem that I couldn't actually hack enemies because I just didn't have enough RAM. I went back to get an iconic katana, spent my money on a better OS and boy howdy what a difference that makes! Haha, Stealth+netrunning seems like it might actually be kind of busted to be honest but I'm having way too much fun being a cyber-wizard. Can't wait to go demo with a Nomad character and street samurai with a street rat character.

As someone who's played bland but polished games and bad with bugs games, Cyberpunk falls somewhere else. Its a very enjoyable game that does have some wrinkles that need to be ironed out.

[Cikomyr2]

Strat-edgy dropped a nonspoiler review of the game, and he was very positive on it. Say the game is extremely good at what it wants to be; some people had the wrong expectations of what the game should have been.

He said the current buys means he can't recommend buying the game, but that it will be a very solid game once they wrapped up these problems.

[Yora]

Not saying that some don't have problems with bugs in this game. But in 40 hours on PS4, I did not encounter a single thing that would be worth calling a "hickup".
Having to reload a safe from 3 minutes ago because the game crash does not count as a serious interruption to me. And very rare texture glitches rank way below that.

I don't expect the game to get any cheaper any time soon. And if you buy it now and maybe wait a month or two for a patch that fixes a rare serious bug that happens on your console, or buy it in a month or two doesn't really make a difference. Maybe "sending a message" that you won't give them money until their work is done, but I hardly doubt anyone would notice.
No reason not to wait and start playing the game later either, of course. But I don't see the little blemishes as a reason not to buy the game now if you want to.

Out of curiosity, I checked through the PS4 trophies to see how fast people are progressing through the game. Weirdly enough, a lot more more people have finished the main story than "use distract 30 times without being spotted" and "install 3 demons in the same breach". Both are trivial hacking activities that you'll get automatically if you use the most basic hacking abilities from time to time. Seems like a large number of people actually play the game as a straight shooter. :smallconfused:

[warty goblin]

Out of curiosity, I checked through the PS4 trophies to see how fast people are progressing through the game. Weirdly enough, a lot more more people have finished the main story than "use distract 30 times without being spotted" and "install 3 demons in the same breach". Both are trivial hacking activities that you'll get automatically if you use the most basic hacking abilities from time to time. Seems like a large number of people actually play the game as a straight shooter. :smallconfused:

I'm going straight shooter. Also occasionally I stab people. When the fight get going, the soundtrack starts snarling, and some moron ganger walks around the corner straight into my charged up shotgun blast it's really very, very good.

Also hacking looked like a combination of 1) stealth, and 2), menus. Stealth to me just means "crouch-walk slowly everywhere and spend a lot of time staring at crates." And menus are pretty much the opposite of my idea of exciting action combat.

So yeah, I'm totally the unsophisticated neanderthal who is going full on shooter here.

[Cikomyr2]

Well, my new GPU won't be here before the end of the year, so I am 95% sure I can't even run that game with my current specs, if I can't even run Horizon Dawn :smallbiggrin:

[Rynjin]

When all you have is a Gorilla Fist, everything looks like a punchable object?

That, and Regina reaaally wants you to keep Cyberpsychos alive, so your options are kind of limited since they seemingly can't be grabbed even if you sneak up on them.

[Chen]

That, and Regina reaaally wants you to keep Cyberpsychos alive, so your options are kind of limited since they seemingly can't be grabbed even if you sneak up on them.

This is either buggy or not an issue because with a fully lethal sniper rifle I one shot one of the early psychos (on the bridge) and he was still rolling on the ground “unconscious”. Dropped another one with repeated shots from the iconic tech pistol from Lizzies and same thing he was also unconscious.

[GloatingSwine]

That, and Regina reaaally wants you to keep Cyberpsychos alive, so your options are kind of limited since they seemingly can't be grabbed even if you sneak up on them.

Some of the augs you can get make all of your guns nonlethal.

You can also use Short Circuit or later on System Reset.

[sihnfahl]

Some of the augs you can get make all of your guns nonlethal.

There are two.

Pax weapon mod. takes up a weapon mod slot, so not the best, but it does make one weapon non-lethal and leaves the lethal option for all others.

You can also get Target Analysis for the cybereyes, which allows you to put other mods onto the moddable weapons and still be non-lethal. Like slapping Crunch on it for the flat damage boost on low crit weapons, which is the tradeoff you may need since headshots don't do as much damage as before.

[Blackhawk748]

Well, I got it and couldn't play it with Steam active. Then the hotfix broke my direct .Exe launch and then a rapid double upgrade of Nvidia let me play again.

It was ok, the characters are whats keeping me around as the enemy AI is just... bland? Boring? Stupid? I'm not sure what word to use, but I honestly figured that they'd be much, much smarter on Hard than they are.

Stealth just kinda sucks as there's no way to de aggro if you screw up, and most of the time the enemies don't like to move around so if they're in a bad position you don't have any real option other than going loud, and I'm glad I specced into guns.

Also hacking. I hate hacking as I don't see any reason to use anything that isn't Ping, and I hate that the enemy can somehow keep using Overheat on me despite there being no LoS to me and I can't do that back. Very frustrating.

Perks. The perks are incredibly boring.

Outside of that, I am enjoying blasting people's heads off with the hilariously OP Achilles rifle, though it makes me question why SMGs and Assault Rifles exist...

In short... its not been great.

[Rynjin]

This is either buggy or not an issue because with a fully lethal sniper rifle I one shot one of the early psychos (on the bridge) and he was still rolling on the ground “unconscious”. Dropped another one with repeated shots from the iconic tech pistol from Lizzies and same thing he was also unconscious.

Considering I have accidentally killed people with my nonlethal weapon (I think the Gorilla Arms power attack finisher is always lethal), it might either be bugged or you found a weapon that has a nonlethal augment of some sort on it and never noticed.

[Anteros]

Well apparently the game is bad enough that Sony is offering refunds and removing it from the store.

Pretty unprecedented.

[Rynjin]

Well apparently the game is bad enough that Sony is offering refunds and removing it from the store.

Pretty unprecedented.

It wasn't tested properly on baseline PS4 and Xbone, is why. If you have a PS4 Pro, XBONEX, or PC you're fine.

[Anteros]

It wasn't tested properly on baseline PS4 and Xbone, is why. If you have a PS4 Pro, XBONEX, or PC you're fine.

Pretty much objectively untrue. People are having a ridiculous number of crashes and issues even on next generation consoles. It's pulled from the store entirely, not just for the ps4.

[Rynjin]

Pretty much objectively untrue. People are having a ridiculous number of crashes and issues even on next generation consoles. It's pulled from the store entirely, not just for the ps4.

I haven't seen very many complaints from the upgraded console versions, or PC.

[Anteros]

I haven't seen very many complaints from the upgraded console versions, or PC.

Check out either of the threads on top of Reddit, or the dedicated subs for the game.

[Rynjin]

Check out either of the threads on top of Reddit, or the dedicated subs for the game.

Let me rephrase; I don't see many meaningful complaints from new consoles or PC. This is after checking those threads.

Most of the complaints of constant crashing and other serious bugs come from base PS4s and Xbones. I don't consider minor artifacting or specific niche bugs others can't reliably replicate to be a huge issue overall.

By everything I can find, the only systems on which the game is consistently BROKEN and unplayable is base last gen consoles.

Most everything else is either "immersion breaking" (a complaint I find laughable in an RPG, which inherently require you to break immersion regularly to fiddle with inventories and the like) or genuine but relatively contained bugs. Most PC crashes in that thread I see are fixed by the user; and a running trend I see is overclocked CPUs causing issues running the game in 1440/60.

Is this ideal? No, particularly for people stuck on those older consoles. The games was in development for 8 years, presumably with those consoles in mind, so there's no excuse for it not running there. But most everything else seems to run the game fine, especially PC.

[Eldan]

I can anecdotally say that I know six people in my immediate friend group who bought the game, all on PC, and none of which had any problems beyond some minor and rare issues with things clipping into other things.

[Anteros]

It's bad enough for Sony to pull it from their game store a week before Christmas and offer refunds. That's all completely unprecedented. Especially for a AAA studio. I'm not saying that the game is unenjoyable or unplayable on PC, but it's objective fact that people are having tons of issues even on next gen consoles, and the fact that CDPR intentionally suppressed console reviews is incredibly shady behavior. If your game is working or you don't mind graphical glitches then fine, but for a lot of people that isn't the case.

[Blackhawk748]

I haven't seen very many complaints from the upgraded console versions, or PC.

A massive number of PC players literally couldn't launch the game for 2 days after launch. Currently, I can't make a new character because the game crashes the moment I make a Life Path choice.

So ya, it's a technical mess that is riddled with crashes


It's bad enough for Sony to pull it from their game store a week before Christmas and offer refunds. That's all completely unprecedented. Especially for a AAA studio. I'm not saying that the game is unenjoyable or unplayable on PC, but it's objective fact that people are having tons of issues even on next gen consoles, and the fact that CDPR intentionally suppressed console reviews is incredibly shady behavior. If your game is working or you don't mind graphical glitches then fine, but for a lot of people that isn't the case.

The way I've seen it go is either A) It works fine with minor graphical annoyances and a few smaller bugs or B) the game barely runs, crashes randomly, won't launch, or has such crippling bugs you need to reload multiple times over the course of a few hours. There doesn't appear to be much middle ground

[thethird]

Not saying that some don't have problems with bugs in this game. But in 40 hours on PS4, I did not encounter a single thing that would be worth calling a "hickup".
Having to reload a safe from 3 minutes ago because the game crash does not count as a serious interruption to me. And very rare texture glitches rank way below that.

Same here.


Out of curiosity, I checked through the PS4 trophies to see how fast people are progressing through the game. Weirdly enough, a lot more more people have finished the main story than "use distract 30 times without being spotted" and "install 3 demons in the same breach". Both are trivial hacking activities that you'll get automatically if you use the most basic hacking abilities from time to time. Seems like a large number of people actually play the game as a straight shooter. :smallconfused:

I rarely use distract, I will get to use it more.


When the fight get going, the soundtrack starts snarling

I actually find that annoying, it's a cue to me that your sneaking around failed.

[factotum]

I can anecdotally say that I know six people in my immediate friend group who bought the game, all on PC, and none of which had any problems beyond some minor and rare issues with things clipping into other things.

Which is lovely, but it doesn't really have any relevance to the game being withdrawn on the Playstation?

[druid91]

It's bad enough for Sony to pull it from their game store a week before Christmas and offer refunds. That's all completely unprecedented. Especially for a AAA studio. I'm not saying that the game is unenjoyable or unplayable on PC, but it's objective fact that people are having tons of issues even on next gen consoles, and the fact that CDPR intentionally suppressed console reviews is incredibly shady behavior. If your game is working or you don't mind graphical glitches then fine, but for a lot of people that isn't the case.

Honestly, I think they pulled it from the store not because of any problems with PS5, but because the situation forced them to break with their usual refund policy of 'If you downloaded the game you're out of luck.'

[Rynjin]

Which is lovely, but it doesn't really have any relevance to the game being withdrawn on the Playstation?

But it does have to do with the discussion we were having about the game being fine on other platforms.

[Anteros]

Even if it's true that it's fine on other platforms (which I don't agree with since there are tons of reports of people with problems on PC and PS5) it's still a huge glaring problem that the developer lied, suppressed console reviews and released a non working product for a huge portion of their customer base. I'm not even a console player, but CDPR has been shady as hell lately, and it's about time it came back to bite them.

[sihnfahl]

It was ok, the characters are whats keeping me around as the enemy AI is just... bland? Boring? Stupid? I'm not sure what word to use, but I honestly figured that they'd be much, much smarter on Hard than they are.
Eh, not so much they can do with enemy AI between difficulty levels save for just plain stupidity (like a guy with tons of cover deciding to just rush you).


Stealth just kinda sucks as there's no way to de aggro if you screw up, and most of the time the enemies don't like to move around so if they're in a bad position you don't have any real option other than going loud, and I'm glad I specced into guns.
There's a quickhack for that.


Also hacking. I hate hacking as I don't see any reason to use anything that isn't Ping, and I hate that the enemy can somehow keep using Overheat on me despite there being no LoS to me and I can't do that back. Very frustrating.
They can, and will, utilize cameras. One thing to check before engaging are active cameras.

And you can utilize that against them. Friendly a camera, then use it to mark and attack enemies. In an area with a lot of cameras, I have cleared out all enemies without even stepping foot in the building due to a single camera mounted outside.

[Blackhawk748]

Eh, not so much they can do with enemy AI between difficulty levels save for just plain stupidity (like a guy with tons of cover deciding to just rush you).


There's a quickhack for that.


They can, and will, utilize cameras. One thing to check before engaging are active cameras.

And you can utilize that against them. Friendly a camera, then use it to mark and attack enemies. In an area with a lot of cameras, I have cleared out all enemies without even stepping foot in the building due to a single camera mounted outside.

I guess it's less that I'm on hard and more that the AI is just incredibly dumb and static. Like, most enemies barely move in a firefight and it makes things incredibly simple with my Precision Rifle to just blow them away. They don't flank, they only rush if they have melee, and when I rush them they don't back up.

It's weird.

Is it Reset Optics?

There were no cameras pointing at me, I made sure of that. There was a solid concrete wall in between me and the hacker. It wasn't even a big deal, just incredibly annoying.

[Cikomyr2]

Even if it's true that it's fine on other platforms (which I don't agree with since there are tons of reports of people with problems on PC and PS5) it's still a huge glaring problem that the developer lied, suppressed console reviews and released a non working product for a huge portion of their customer base. I'm not even a console player, but CDPR has been shady as hell lately, and it's about time it came back to bite them.

I'm Gunna need some details on that. Is any of their shadiness not related to CP77?

[sihnfahl]

Is it Reset Optics?
Memory Wipe. It forces the target to non-combat.

Reboot optics just makes them blind for a moment, but they remain hostile.

[Squark]

I'm Gunna need some details on that. Is any of their shadiness not related to CP77?

Most of what I know relates to CP 2077, but it's been building for a while.

-Promising not to crunch after reports leaked of excessive crunch time, then announcing they where going to reneg on that promise- A few months after the crunch started up again.
-A very... awkward trans-fetishizing/transphobic in game billboard showed up in previews. CDPR didn't really address concerns well, and the ad is still in the game, and it sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of Night City's parody ads. I'm going to leave it at that, though, because there are better people than me to discuss the issue here.

[Inarius]

You want some hilarity?

That guy has no AI script other than run and cower if you jump up there with him. So you can just freely punch him into unconsciousness.

Ones that rely on melee can be offlined by getting out of their reach and hitting them with short circuit repeatedly.

Odd, that one for me when I climbed up dropped his gun and went into a boxing match with me. I declined and shot him full of bullets with the rifle i have set to do nonlethal damage since he hits like 5x harder than I do heh. Might of been a bug in your game?

[Blackhawk748]

Odd, that one for me when I climbed up dropped his gun and went into a boxing match with me. I declined and shot him full of bullets with the rifle i have set to do nonlethal damage since he hits like 5x harder than I do heh. Might of been a bug in your game?

Considering how many bugs are present that'd be a safe bet.

Question for the thread, do any of you find any reason to use a rifle that isn't a Precision Rifle? Because for the life of me I can't

[Silly Name]

On the topic of bugs: CDPR has a really bad track record with releasing buggy games. The Witcher 2 was apparently barely playable on release, and even The Witcher 3 had many bugs at launch that required a long time to fix, although they were less severe.

Cyberpunk, being bigger and more hyped, is obviously suffering the most from its bad release state than any other CDPR game before.

[Rynjin]

On the topic of bugs: CDPR has a really bad track record with releasing buggy games. The Witcher 2 was apparently barely playable on release, and even The Witcher 3 had many bugs at launch that required a long time to fix, although they were less severe.

Cyberpunk, being bigger and more hyped, is obviously suffering the most from its bad release state than any other CDPR game before.

I thought people knew this? Maybe that's the disconnect between expectations.

[warty goblin]

Considering how many bugs are present that'd be a safe bet.

Question for the thread, do any of you find any reason to use a rifle that isn't a Precision Rifle? Because for the life of me I can't

As a general devotee of the Way of the Assault Rifle in shooters, I confess myself slightly underwhelmed. Although the DPS is competitive, the damage per bullet isn't, and the relatively high spread (particularly in hip fire) makes it difficult to actually achieve their DPS at medium-ish ranges. Sure they work fine at close ranges, but shotguns have the same or better DPS, and also tend to set the bad dudes on their asses, which makes shooting them again easy.

So far the only machine gun I've found is hot trash. Way too uncontrollable to get a useful DPS out of, and because it appears to use the same ammo pool as assault rifles and SMGs, difficult to keep in bullets.

[Blackhawk748]

As a general devotee of the Way of the Assault Rifle in shooters, I confess myself slightly underwhelmed. Although the DPS is competitive, the damage per bullet isn't, and the relatively high spread (particularly in hip fire) makes it difficult to actually achieve their DPS at medium-ish ranges. Sure they work fine at close ranges, but shotguns have the same or better DPS, and also tend to set the bad dudes on their asses, which makes shooting them again easy.

So far the only machine gun I've found is hot trash. Way too uncontrollable to get a useful DPS out of, and because it appears to use the same ammo pool as assault rifles and SMGs, difficult to keep in bullets.

I too generally love Assault Rifles, but I've come to the same conclusion. With how little movement most enemies do in an average fight, I find the slower firing speed of the Precision rifle to be moot as most things die in one, maybe two, shots, instead of the 5+ it takes from the Assault Rifle.

And don't get me started on SMGs.

[Anteros]

On the topic of bugs: CDPR has a really bad track record with releasing buggy games. The Witcher 2 was apparently barely playable on release, and even The Witcher 3 had many bugs at launch that required a long time to fix, although they were less severe.

Cyberpunk, being bigger and more hyped, is obviously suffering the most from its bad release state than any other CDPR game before.

The Witcher 2 wasn't that bad though compared to Cyberpunk. Witcher 3 was buggy too, but Cyberpunk has been an order of magnitude worse than the others.

[Rynjin]

The Witcher 2 wasn't that bad though compared to Cyberpunk.

The first time I tried to run the Witcher 2 everything was in slow motion and blurry enough to make my eyes ache. This was only remedied when I tried to play the game 3 years later.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Even if it's true that it's fine on other platforms (which I don't agree with since there are tons of reports of people with problems on PC and PS5) it's still a huge glaring problem that the developer lied, suppressed console reviews and released a non working product for a huge portion of their customer base. I'm not even a console player, but CDPR has been shady as hell lately, and it's about time it came back to bite them.

I've heard different news on the console reviews, that being they were working getting the game stable enough that they didn't have time to send out console copies.

As for the non-working product, I'm kind of skeptical on that. As someone playing on a base console, ie the kind of person who should be the most affected by bugs I've had very very few. Certainly nothing game breaking or that makes it unplayable.

[Blackhawk748]

I've heard different news on the console reviews, that being they were working getting the game stable enough that they didn't have time to send out console copies.

As for the non-working product, I'm kind of skeptical on that. As someone playing on a base console, ie the kind of person who should be the most affected by bugs I've had very very few. Certainly nothing game breaking or that makes it unplayable.

Lucky you.

Currently:

Armor does nothing.
Half the Perks apparently don't work.
Legendary Clothing Blueprints don't respawn in shops
Looting is a buggy mess where you wind up needing to go to odd angles or just flat can't pick up some objects.
Cops have no pathfinding AI
Multiple missions break or can't be started.

I can confirm Armor, the cops and the Looting issues in my own experience, as well as rampant crashing (though the amount of crashes seems to change based on the day with no rhyme or reason). Apparently, you're in the group who have it run fine.

There's a bunch of us where that isn't true and its incredibly frustrating, particularly because there seems to be very little middle ground between the two.

[Vinyadan]

Can the Cyberpunk bug/crashes be compared to a Bethesda game? Or is it a worse experience?

[Rynjin]

Can the Cyberpunk bug/crashes be compared to a Bethesda game? Or is it a worse experience?

I have logged 35.7 hours into the game. A quick list of glitches I've experienced:

The radio cut out once until I restarted the game.
It crashed a single time about 20 hours in.
Repeating a conversating with a character caused my female V to briefly speak with male V's voice.
Somehow touching a rock killed me in Pacifica; thankfully about 3 seconds after I'd saved.
I picked up a duplicate version of a quest I'd already completed by interacting with evidence I had not scanned before completion.
(Repeated) texture pop in and wonky textures on people and cars, especially when moving quickly (sprinting, driving, etc.).
(Repeated) The game seems to register certain things by its own internal clock, or maybe your system clock. This means that sometimes on reloading a save you'll get dialogue related to something that only happened before you reloaded (like a character admonishing you for failing to stealthily complete a mission) or sometimes texts/calls from characters that didn't happen until later (eg you reload to a save from 15 minutes prior, receive a call you wouldn't normally have until 15 minutes later). No effect on play, just weird.

All in all, pretty tame stuff for nearly 36 hours of play time. This is on PC, mind you.

[Chen]

Lucky you.

Currently:

Armor does nothing.
Half the Perks apparently don't work.
Legendary Clothing Blueprints don't respawn in shops
Looting is a buggy mess where you wind up needing to go to odd angles or just flat can't pick up some objects.
Cops have no pathfinding AI
Multiple missions break or can't be started.

I can confirm Armor, the cops and the Looting issues in my own experience, as well as rampant crashing (though the amount of crashes seems to change based on the day with no rhyme or reason). Apparently, you're in the group who have it run fine.

There's a bunch of us where that isn't true and its incredibly frustrating, particularly because there seems to be very little middle ground between the two.

Is this all on consoles? I thought things would be consistent on basically the same hardware? I understand how different PC users can have issues but shouldn’t all (if not most) PS4 or Xbox one X users have basically the same experience?

[GloatingSwine]

It depends what triggers it.

I have a few consistent ones (on PC)

I'm very often stuck in aim mode when I get off my bike. (Might be holding down the brake and pressing the dismount button together), manually pressing aim afterwards makes it work. Also sometimes stuck crouched when getting out of cars (Again, actual crouching and standing up fixes it)

The first time I talk to a merchant after leaving a vehicle their store window closes instantly when it opens (works second time).

The Blood Pump cyberware no longer functions (it shows that it is recognising the input but it won't activate).

One of the Cyberpsycho encounters got added back to my quest log after I had finished it and is stuck there.

[Blackhawk748]

Can the Cyberpunk bug/crashes be compared to a Bethesda game? Or is it a worse experience?

For some people, it's about the same, for me, and as someone who remembers playing launch Fallout New Vegas, it is much worse. I couldn't LAUNCH THE GAME until the first hotfix came out and even after that it would crash after an hour.

On top of this my armor does nothing, I'm certain several perks don't work, and the AI is quite dumb.

And I'm not even going into the minor glitches, which there are many of, that don't really bother me all that much, but have certainly begun to add up.


Is this all on consoles? I thought things would be consistent on basically the same hardware? I understand how different PC users can have issues but shouldn’t all (if not most) PS4 or Xbox one X users have basically the same experience?

I'm on PC, but I know some of these are on console, and while a great many are consistent across hardware, not all of them are (see the people who are playing perfectly fine on PS4 as compared to those who are barely running a crash laden mess at 15 FPS on the same type of PS4)


It depends what triggers it.

I have a few consistent ones (on PC)

I'm very often stuck in aim mode when I get off my bike. (Might be holding down the brake and pressing the dismount button together), manually pressing aim afterwards makes it work. Also sometimes stuck crouched when getting out of cars (Again, actual crouching and standing up fixes it)

Oh, is that's what started happening when I got off my bike? I fixed that by bringing up the menu, because I keep walking slow when I get out of a car. I'll try just aiming.


The first time I talk to a merchant after leaving a vehicle their store window closes instantly when it opens (works second time).

Got this one too.



The Blood Pump cyberware no longer functions (it shows that it is recognising the input but it won't activate).


Can't confirm this one, but a bunch of Cyberware doesn't work right, same with a bunch of Armor mods (seen people mention Crit Chance Mods and similar other ones don't work on armor.)



One of the Cyberpsycho encounters got added back to my quest log after I had finished it and is stuck there.

Haven't heard this one before. Most of the Cyberpsycho issues are with the Lt. falling into the floor and making the quest unfinishable.

[Chen]

I'm on PC, but I know some of these are on console, and while a great many are consistent across hardware, not all of them are (see the people who are playing perfectly fine on PS4 as compared to those who are barely running a crash laden mess at 15 FPS on the same type of PS4)

My point was I understand different behaviors on PC due to hardware and driver differences. I also run it on PC and aside some clipping and visual glitches plus a super weird glitch where if I sell/stash/dismantle all my grenades my arm launcher disappears, it runs perfectly fine. But I can definitely attribute differences in PC optimization to them not fully testing it across all types of hardware combinations.

What I don’t understand is how one PS4 user can have dramatically different outcomes compared to another PS4 user. Unless one hasn’t updated their system or has jail broken it, the hardware and drivers should be indentical so I don’t know where the variance would come from.

[Blackhawk748]

My point was I understand different behaviors on PC due to hardware and driver differences. I also run it on PC and aside some clipping and visual glitches plus a super weird glitch where if I sell/stash/dismantle all my grenades my arm launcher disappears, it runs perfectly fine. But I can definitely attribute differences in PC optimization to them not fully testing it across all types of hardware combinations.

What I don’t understand is how one PS4 user can have dramatically different outcomes compared to another PS4 user. Unless one hasn’t updated their system or has jail broken it, the hardware and drivers should be indentical so I don’t know where the variance would come from.

You would think, but then again, this is the game where, two days ago, I coulnd't start a new game, but now I suddenly can.

Nothing changed. It just didn't crash that time I clicked on it. It crashed when I looked into the mirror and then didn't crash the second time I did it.

I don't know man, this game is freaking weird with its bugs

[GloatingSwine]

Can't confirm this one, but a bunch of Cyberware doesn't work right, same with a bunch of Armor mods (seen people mention Crit Chance Mods and similar other ones don't work on armor.)


Used to work, though actually it used to work too well because it would be an instant full heal when it's only the white tier mod and is supposed to be 50% heal. Doesn't now.



Haven't heard this one before. Most of the Cyberpsycho issues are with the Lt. falling into the floor and making the quest unfinishable.

It's one out on the pier down in Pacifica. There's a van under the pier with some related evidence in, I found that after completing it and it's gone back in the log.

[GloatingSwine]

What I don’t understand is how one PS4 user can have dramatically different outcomes compared to another PS4 user. Unless one hasn’t updated their system or has jail broken it, the hardware and drivers should be indentical so I don’t know where the variance would come from.

Age of the console can make a difference to the speed it'll stream data in either from disc or hard drive, and that can make it work in funny ways.

Old example, on the original Gears of War my mate didn't get the splash effects when he fired his gun into water, then later he replaced his console due to RROD and on the new one he did.

Because his old one was on its last legs it wasn't always rendering things it should.

Another one is on Ace Combat 5, because different revisions of PS2 would load information at slightly different rates off of the disc you would get different spawn timings for enemies, and that meant that some versions of the hardware had higher or lower possible high scores on some missions.

[Rynjin]

Used to work, though actually it used to work too well because it would be an instant full heal when it's only the white tier mod and is supposed to be 50% heal. Doesn't now.



It's one out on the pier down in Pacifica. There's a van under the pier with some related evidence in, I found that after completing it and it's gone back in the log.

That's the same quest I mentioned, BTW, so that seems a consistent issue.

Maybe they didn't expect me to ramp my bike off the bridge and then swim the rest of the way.

[Comrade]

Thought about getting this for my Playstation 4 but was advised that the game was apparently so ridden with issues on the PS4 that they were offering full refunds for it, so I decided to go with computer instead. And, well, I guess it's been so long since I bought a game for the computer (or at all) that I forgot system requirements are a thing. I just kind of assumed, hey, this is a brand new laptop, my old one could handle games like Civilization 6 just fine, this should be no issue.

Even with all graphical settings as low as possible, it's so slow it's pretty much unplayable. Not blaming the game here or anything, this is obviously my fault, but man did I underestimate how demanding new games are on computers.

[druid91]

Thought about getting this for my Playstation 4 but was advised that the game was apparently so ridden with issues on the PS4 that they were offering full refunds for it, so I decided to go with computer instead. And, well, I guess it's been so long since I bought a game for the computer (or at all) that I forgot system requirements are a thing. I just kind of assumed, hey, this is a brand new laptop, my old one could handle games like Civilization 6 just fine, this should be no issue.

Even with all graphical settings as low as possible, it's so slow it's pretty much unplayable. Not blaming the game here or anything, this is obviously my fault, but man did I underestimate how demanding new games are on computers.

One setting that might be a little odd to find. Go into Gameplay and turn Crowd Density down, and slow HDD mode on.

[sihnfahl]

So far, bugs that are annoying, but not game stoppers... beyond the inability to loot items because they're clipping bad with another object.

Blew up a few cars along the way. If they land on an enemy, no way to loot. Can't move the destroyed car, after all.

Sometimes get stuck in a no-run mode. Walk, yes, run, no. No dodging, either. But getting hit by a car sometimes fixes that.

Sometimes switching weapons will cause it to be stuck on autofire, which is VERY annoying if you're near a Netrunner. Or a Mech.

Killing an enemy while a quickhack is loading will cause the quickhack indicator to not go away. It just hovers there.

[Rynjin]

Sometimes get stuck in a no-run mode. Walk, yes, run, no. No dodging, either. But getting hit by a car sometimes fixes that.

I thought this was a bug at first too, but I think it's intentional, actually. There are some areas in the game that seem to disable some of your movement options; no sprint, can't jump (or in some areas you can jump but not DOUBLE jump), etc.

Some phone calls (but not all of them) also seem to disable your movement abilities; main mission calls only, perhaps.

[Corvus]

I've been waiting for this game since it was first announced. Probably even before that.

Weirdly I've not really played any CDPR games before - maybe an hour of Witcher 3 and a couple of rounds of Gwent and that is all. But I am a massive fan of the TTRPG it is based on and have been for 30 odd years. Cyberpunk 2020 would be the game system I've played second most, only behind AD&D 2E. The lore and the world built up by Mike Pondsmith is second to none really, which is why I have been wanting this game for so long. (Mike is in the game, on one of the radio channels as well, for a neat cameo.)

Is it perfect? No, but I am still having a lot of fun in it. Perhaps 50-60 hours already, and a lot more to come.

I'm playing on an older machine that doesn't meet recommended specs. Means I have to play on the lowest settings. Oddly, I'm not having much trouble with it. Some graphical glitches, which could be due to my old machine, just two crashes and only one bug that I've run across, and a minor one at that. I couldn't switch to third person view on vehicles until I had reloaded. Not a biggie.

Bethesda games have been worse for me at launch, though I know others, especially on older gen consoles, are having it a bit harder.

They didn't start working on this one until after they had finished Witcher 3 and all its content (they don't have multiple studios who can work on many games simultaneously unlike some places), so that makes it 3 or so so years. Probably could have done with some more work first.

But they got caught in a tough spot. When they delayed the game they got numerous death threats. Then when they released the game they got numerous death threats - probably from many of the same people. And you wonder why people think that gamers can act a little entitled at times... And then you have corpos being corpos, leaving the devs to catch the flack.

[Comrade]

One setting that might be a little odd to find. Go into Gameplay and turn Crowd Density down, and slow HDD mode on.

I already got a refund on it, but I'm thinking I might get it for Playstation 4-- I don't need the graphics to be any better than the other games I have for the Playstation. Or I might just pass altogether and wait for the price to drop before revisiting it or something.

[GloatingSwine]

Right now whatever platform you're considering I'd reccommend waiting 6 months before you pick up Cyberpunk.

[Whoracle]

OK, 66 hours in, and I'm done with the game. Male V, Male Voice, Streetkid, Netrunner build.


Started out Playing on a 1050TI and an AMD 8150FX, so GPU below recommended and CPU below minimum. Game ran like ass, but no crashes except for when the CPU overheated.

Ended on the same GPU and an Ryzen 5 5600x - Stable 30FPS (locked), got one CTD during a cutscene. Apart from that, only cosmetic glitches that I noticed.


Got five Endings so far. I'll name the spoiler tags after the Achievements, so only open the ones that you already got.


Let Panam help you, and get back in your own body.
A nice ending, tied up the plot just fine. Probably the "Canon" Ending, and I'm fine with that. Not that much to say about this. It felt nice, deserved, but not something that hit me that hard.



Holy crap, what a gutpunch. The ending Cutscene itself was really good. Helped that it was the first time in hours that I saw my V in 3rd person. And the little vignettes afterwards? Holy hell, so much misery. Emotional as hell. Judy was especially heartbreaking.



Let Panam help you, leave your Body to Johnny.
Felt a bit underwhelming, I guess. The Part at the columbarium was nice, the rest fell a bit flat. The Credits Vignettes were also a bit... lackluster? Didn't really feal connected to the storyline. Don't know what I expected.



OK, these missions feel Cyberpunk, allright. Going from the vibes of the rest of the game, these are the first Ending Missions CDPR wrote. The Ending was good, too. Nice sense of closure. Bit sad that the choice of romance doesn't really play into this, and the estrangement from where you came from evidenced in the Vignettes.

I especially liked that this is the ending where I get to stay in NC as V.



Eh, not too hot on this one. Feels kinda disjointed. Not much else to say. Shame I didn't get to thwart Hanakos plan somehow. Also, the Ending "choices" are kinda weird.


For those who are done - which one was your fav?

Also, general observations:

Netrunner Builds are OP. In a good way. Feels right on the money
The open world was nice, but a bit unpolished
Generally, the game felt less Cyberpunk the further into the main story I got. I'd have liked more of the game to be like the prologue and Act 1. More Heists, more, I dunno, Cyberpunk. Let me break into Tessier-Ashpools core or something like that.

The whole Panam questline had more of a Mad Max type feel to me, even though I liked it.
River was kinda there. Nothing to write home about, apart from that one mission. I'm shure those who've played it know which one I mean.
The Judy questline was nice, too, but didn't really feel Cyberpunk to me either.
The Kerry missions hit close to home, me being a (hobbyist) musician in the Rock/Metal genre and approaching my 40s.
The Rogue missions were also kinda just there
The Goro missions were the only ones that I felt were closer to what in my mind encapsulates the Cyberpunk feeling.
Voodoo Boys felt flat for me, too. They were just too removed from the goings-on. More of that with another faction would've been nice.
So after screwing me up not once, but twice I iced them all. You don't get to screw with me, Jackasses. Won't do that on a second playthrough, but from what I gather that doesn't change the plot...
The one questline that stood out was the Mayor Candidate one - The ending there was so good. Shame they didn't really follow it up.


Overall, I liked it. I'll definitely return with the DLCs, and will do the other endings with two more characters. Is it the 2nd coming of Gaming Jesus? Well, Performance issues and Bugs aside: Still no. But a solid 9 out of 10 from me.

[Chen]

OK, these missions feel Cyberpunk, allright. Going from the vibes of the rest of the game, these are the first Ending Missions CDPR wrote. The Ending was good, too. Nice sense of closure. Bit sad that the choice of romance doesn't really play into this, and the estrangement from where you came from evidenced in the Vignettes.

I especially liked that this is the ending where I get to stay in NC as V.



For those who are done - which one was your fav?

I got this one too. Worked very nicely. I romanced Judy and she does show up in your penthouse for this ending. BUT she leaves Night City (and you!) in this ending. Very said

[DanswordMaia]

I think their modifications to RED Engine didn't port to the consoles that well, cause similar issues are on the XBox series.

Witcher 3 utilized RE, and it didn't have as many issues on the consoles as CP2077 seems to have.

Definitely was rushed out, and it wasn't necessarily an unforeseen issue. It was one of the issues, IIRC, that led to delays.

Here I agree with you, but you can not notice the fact that the game began to make in 2012...

[sihnfahl]

Here I agree with you, but you can not notice the fact that the game began to make in 2012...
Oh, I'm not overlooking that. But given Witcher 3 came out over 5 years ago, and they resolved a lot of issues in that time, that doesn't give them a pass IMO with engine issues.

And, last I checked, the top line video card in 2012 was the AMD Radeon HD 7970 CF, with a whopping 3GB of RAM.

And midline performance for CP2077 calls for a GeForce GTX 1060 with 6GB.

To up the resolution and rendering, that means a lot of engine modifications..

[warty goblin]

Given the way Cyberpunk feels, I have a strong suspicion that CDPR scrapped a huge amount of work about two years ago. It just has that Mass Effect: Andromeda feeling of being assembled with duct tape and bailing wire at the last possible minute from whatever pieces were at hand. Because the writing is solid, and the art and environment design is spectacular, I think they had that nailed down earlier, and it's all the actual game bits that got binned and reworked in a hurry.

[Dragonus45]

Given the way Cyberpunk feels, I have a strong suspicion that CDPR scrapped a huge amount of work about two years ago. It just has that Mass Effect: Andromeda feeling of being assembled with duct tape and bailing wire at the last possible minute from whatever pieces were at hand. Because the writing is solid, and the art and environment design is spectacular, I think they had that nailed down earlier, and it's all the actual game bits that got binned and reworked in a hurry.

It's almost certainly the point where they decided to scrap wallrunning and the spiderbot because it was complicating level design to much. I'm betting that wasn't the only thing they ditched in an attempt to get things under control for a project that really did seem like it wanted to do all the things then suddenly realized they needed to settle for way less things.

[Yora]

I still love that you can climb on things that are above waist height.

[GloatingSwine]

Given the way Cyberpunk feels, I have a strong suspicion that CDPR scrapped a huge amount of work about two years ago. It just has that Mass Effect: Andromeda feeling of being assembled with duct tape and bailing wire at the last possible minute from whatever pieces were at hand. Because the writing is solid, and the art and environment design is spectacular, I think they had that nailed down earlier, and it's all the actual game bits that got binned and reworked in a hurry.

Yep. I agree. It feels like two games awkwardly wedged into the same executable. One is the heavily writing driven RPG that you play in the main plot and character sidestories, and the other is a Ubisoft style numbers-and-gear driven openworld shootmans game where nothing matters and only relates to the world it takes place in by the generic enemies you fight having slightly different gear and aesthetics.

The two games don't actually interact with each other much.

I think the biggest example of that is in River's series of missions. Almost none of them gave either my character sheet anything to do, they were really well written, but I could have done them at level 1 and not noticed much difference from doing them at level 45.

[Blackhawk748]

Yep. I agree. It feels like two games awkwardly wedged into the same executable. One is the heavily writing driven RPG that you play in the main plot and character sidestories, and the other is a Ubisoft style numbers-and-gear driven openworld shootmans game where nothing matters and only relates to the world it takes place in by the generic enemies you fight having slightly different gear and aesthetics.

The two games don't actually interact with each other much.

I think the biggest example of that is in River's series of missions. Almost none of them gave either my character sheet anything to do, they were really well written, but I could have done them at level 1 and not noticed much difference from doing them at level 45.

This is my biggest complaint. The glitches and random stupid crap I can deal with, because it won't be forever. The Gigs that are nothing more than "Go here, kill X" will be, and they're incredibly boring after awhile.

Yes, some of the Gigs are actually kinda cool, like one Wakako gives you to go find this Skeleton Key. Ya, its go here, kill X find thing, but its just laid out better so I feel like I'm actually doing something. And as for the main plot, I'm more or less fine with the story they wanted to tell, I just don't like the way they told it.

Like, don't skip 6 months after the prologue. Hell, that caught me by surprise. I figured this was gonna be a Saints Row type game where I go do fairly normal low level stuff for like 80% of the game and then do something nuts in the last bit and deal with the fallout from that. Like, let me properly get to know Jackie and T Bug.

[warty goblin]

To be fair to the game, making non-story open world encounters feel like they matter isn't a problem anybody's come close to having solved in a satisfying way. There's just too many of them in a big game to hand script them all with a story and consequences, and without any sort of open world stuff, the game would feel very lifeless.

About the only games I can think of that try to solve this are Shadow of Mordor/War, and Watch Dogs: Legion. The Middle Earth games at least have a main character, but implementing a nemesis style system in a very character driven game like Cyberpunk would be super hard. Legion goes so far as to programmatically generate relationship graphs and missions based on that, which is both impressive as hell... and kinda dull. Like sure it's better than just murdering that group of rando enemies because there's a map marker there, but not a ton. And the game absolutely pays for it in terms of personality. Which Cyberpunk very much has.

[Blackhawk748]

To be fair to the game, making non-story open world encounters feel like they matter isn't a problem anybody's come close to having solved in a satisfying way. There's just too many of them in a big game to hand script them all with a story and consequences, and without any sort of open world stuff, the game would feel very lifeless.

About the only games I can think of that try to solve this are Shadow of Mordor/War, and Watch Dogs: Legion. The Middle Earth games at least have a main character, but implementing a nemesis style system in a very character driven game like Cyberpunk would be super hard. Legion goes so far as to programmatically generate relationship graphs and missions based on that, which is both impressive as hell... and kinda dull. Like sure it's better than just murdering that group of rando enemies because there's a map marker there, but not a ton. And the game absolutely pays for it in terms of personality. Which Cyberpunk very much has.

Well, Fallout and Skyrim generally covered it by just making plenty of various missions to go do that all have little self contained stories.

Like, I don't need Gig number 6 to tie into the main plot, but I want it to be more than just an Outpost to clear out.

[Rynjin]

I think MOST Gigs have at least something going on. I was pleasantly surprised at how much flavor some of them ooze, especially if you try to do them "the right way".

Mind this applies for Thievery type gigs and the like; "Merc for Hire" gigs that are just "Go here and kill these guys" are boring.

There's a particular one where you're tasked with retrieving a BD (evidence of a child murder) that I really liked; multiple paths of entry and ways to complete the task, with some good dialogue and a "moral choice" (do you let
the BD editors live because they're just editing, not making these hardcore BDs, or kill them?). I've come across quite a few in that vein.

[Blackhawk748]

I think MOST Gigs have at least something going on. I was pleasantly surprised at how much flavor some of them ooze, especially if you try to do them "the right way".

Mind this applies for Thievery type gigs and the like; "Merc for Hire" gigs that are just "Go here and kill these guys" are boring.

There's a particular one where you're tasked with retrieving a BD (evidence of a child murder) that I really liked; multiple paths of entry and ways to complete the task, with some good dialogue and a "moral choice" (do you let
the BD editors live because they're just editing, not making these hardcore BDs, or kill them?). I've come across quite a few in that vein.

Oh that one.

Ya I killed everyone without a second thought. You are editing a snuff BD, you made your choice.

[Rynjin]

Oh that one.

Ya I killed everyone without a second thought. You are editing a snuff BD, you made your choice.

Same, but I like that it provides that extra bit of oomph to round out what could otherwise be a flat experience.

Honestly that's all I ask for from quests like that, which are basically Cyberpunk's equivalent to "radiant quests" in Skyrim. Little bit of filler to get extra XP and loot, but entertaining in their own way. Side Jobs and main missions are there for the more in-depth stuff.

[warty goblin]

And honestly I don't necessarily even mind just rando groups of dudes to shoot. I like shooting dudes in this game, it's nice to have shootable dudes on tap at any given time. It's a little weird that nobody cares about me shooting these dudes, but since I can ignore them freely, it's not like them being there makes the game worse in any way.

[Blackhawk748]

And honestly I don't necessarily even mind just rando groups of dudes to shoot. I like shooting dudes in this game, it's nice to have shootable dudes on tap at any given time. It's a little weird that nobody cares about me shooting these dudes, but since I can ignore them freely, it's not like them being there makes the game worse in any way.

Pretty sure no one cares because of the ruined Police AI. Like, think about it, just about every Gig tells you to leave the area and then your Fixer calls you. Now, this doesn't make a ton of sense, unless you're trying to bail before the cops show up.

Of course, they can't do that because their AI is the equivalent of holding together a hay bayler with duct tape and bayler twine, so it looks fine, but it can't move.

[Rynjin]

I vaguely recall from a tooltip or something that the reason is because the police basically don't prosecute anything outside LoS in Night City; they just can't be ****ing bothered. Especially with all the auged up psychos in the streets, they don't get paid enough to prosecute crimes they just hear about, and let citizens take matters into their own hands. They clearly do some investigation, but it's always after the fact; police very rarely show up to crimes in progress (unless committed by the player...and even then response times are slooowwww).

There's also implied to have been some kind of major expansion of the 2nd Amendment in this world that might explain soem things as well.

It's why the murder rate is so gosh darn high. 7103 murders per year is the listed figure, and it's absolutely insane. That's over 4 times last year's homicides for the ENTIRE USA.

Fixers also seem to control pretty much everything when it comes to doing business at a street level; and not just crooked business. Fixers seem to be either openly or certainly tacitly allowed to contract operators for any job you'd care to mention. I imagine that's why the Fixer-Merc relationship is considered so integral, and part of why cutting a Fixer out of a deal is considered poor form and likely to nuke your rep; you almost need to work with Fixers to work at all outside the corps.

Maybe I'll crack open a Cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook and see if it's explicitly stated anywhere.

[Blackhawk748]

Thats just a cover for the fact that the Police AI in this game completely lack anything more than the most basic Pathfinding AI. They will barely go more than 10 feet from their spawn to chase after you.

This is further backed up by the fact that if you listen to cops talking about stuff, they very clearly show up to calls and things, because they get shot at, or attacked by Cyperpsychos and things like that.

As far as I'm aware the cops are something you need to deal with in Cyberpunk 2020, cuz they certainly are in every other Cyberpunk IP

[druid91]

Thats just a cover for the fact that the Police AI in this game completely lack anything more than the most basic Pathfinding AI. They will barely go more than 10 feet from their spawn to chase after you.

This is further backed up by the fact that if you listen to cops talking about stuff, they very clearly show up to calls and things, because they get shot at, or attacked by Cyperpsychos and things like that.

As far as I'm aware the cops are something you need to deal with in Cyberpunk 2020, cuz they certainly are in every other Cyberpunk IP

Not really no. Cops were a player class in Cyberpunk 2020, and PC cops were basically the above average cop who actually investigated things. The game strongly implied that given their being outgunned, overworked, and underpaid, most cops in NC don't do more than the bare minimum.

[Inarius]

Not really no. Cops were a player class in Cyberpunk 2020, and PC cops were basically the above average cop who actually investigated things. The game strongly implied that given their being outgunned, overworked, and underpaid, most cops in NC don't do more than the bare minimum.

Indeed, theres even a gig in the game where you have to stop a good cop from doing her job because if she continues forward with her investigation shell probably wind up getting killed by the other cops because many of them are on the take from various gangs. Its basically just a few good cops while the rest are either dirty or at the least apathetic to the cause because everyone knows the real people in charge are the corps and gangs who are often sponsored by corps.

[Corvus]

Saw someone make a comment elsewhere that things really have changed.

Back in the day New Vegas released as a buggy game that crashed four times before you reached town and even it's patched state is still unstable and yet it is regarded as one of the best RPGs by many people.

The response today would not have been so kind.

[Anteros]

Saw someone make a comment elsewhere that things really have changed.

Back in the day New Vegas released as a buggy game that crashed four times before you reached town and even it's patched state is still unstable and yet it is regarded as one of the best RPGs by many people.

The response today would not have been so kind.

New Vegas was widely criticized for its bugs and w a s considered a good game in spite of them. Cyberpunk is buggies than new Vegas ever was, to the point that their largest market can't even play it, and is considered to be pretty underwhelming even when it works.

People went into New Vegas knowing what to expect. CDPR promised everything, delivered nothing, and intentionally suppressed reviews to trick people into buying the game. It's a world of difference.

[factotum]

Yeah, I agree with Anteros there--New Vegas, for all its bugginess, was an absolutely awesome game that totally fulfilled every expectation the fans had of it. I've not heard the same of Cyberpunk 2077.

[Inarius]

New Vegas was widely criticized for its bugs and w a s considered a good game in spite of them. Cyberpunk is buggies than new Vegas ever was, to the point that their largest market can't even play it, and is considered to be pretty underwhelming even when it works.

People went into New Vegas knowing what to expect. CDPR promised everything, delivered nothing, and intentionally suppressed reviews to trick people into buying the game. It's a world of difference.

Last gen consoles aside the game is nowhere near as buggy as New Vegas was on PC. As for the game itself, it is honestly better than New Vegas from a gameplay perspective because NV tried to straddle the line between iron sights and character skill which made it have a sort of hybrid system that to me never felt satisfying. Storylinewise I think NV comes ahead somewhat but CP has some really good story arcs and a pretty good cast of supporting characters so its not like the difference between the two is that vast.

Besides I'm a pretty firm believer that unless the bugs are truly amazingly atrocious people will ignore them. I think everyone here can think of a horribly buggy game that they love despite its warts. Its just the game had way too much hype and way too long of an information window. If they had kept their mouths shut and only released a few vids here and there over the past six months to a year it wouldn't be nearly as badly received.

[Yora]

I still have not encountered any serious bugs. Or even heard of anyone reporting to have had one. There are rare visual glitches, but that's all that I am aware of.
Never had quests not update, being unable to talk with quest-NPCs, enemies getting stuck in walls, myself glitching through the floor, cars levitating in the sky, elevators not responding, or anything in that regard. Such things were standard in all RPG back in my days. When we had to go to school barefoot in snow, uphill, both ways. It was standard even 10 years ago for big name RPGs.
In over 50 hours of play, I only had to reload after dying in combat. And even though the game makes five auto-saves and keeps five quick-saves, and I keep up to 12 manual saves around out of habit, I never loaded a save other than the most recent one. Not saying they shouldn't be ashamed for the game being in the state it is, but in the all time list of shameful releases, this one actually stands pretty down at the bottom to me.

And in the latest episode of "Spot that Reference": I think the Arasaka Heavies look a lot like Briareos (https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6a6c02be-3b17-4ff9-a425-2fdf3e9577a2/daqtbi7-057fc302-ac85-4a65-b6ef-f7d63219043d.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_742,q_75,strp/appleseed___alpha_painting_by_roman_zhizhchenko_by _chalcedonio-daqtbi7.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1 NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhN WYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg 4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1c m46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t 7InBhdGgiOiIvZi82YTZjMDJiZS0zYjE3LTRmZjktYTQyNS0yZ mRmM2U5NTc3YTIvZGFxdGJpNy0wNTdmYzMwMi1hYzg1LTRhNjU tYjZlZi1mN2Q2MzIxOTA0M2QuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwM jQiLCJoZWlnaHQiOiI8PTc0MiJ9XV19.BInGZNLv615NCDmvd2 x9mI08gaO4Pl8ahDb-qny8fas) from Appleseed.
And Misty obviously looks like one of the replicants (https://typesetinthefuture.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/bladerunner_1_15_20_fliss_red_eye_full.jpg) from Blade Runner.

[Blackhawk748]

Saw someone make a comment elsewhere that things really have changed.

Back in the day New Vegas released as a buggy game that crashed four times before you reached town and even it's patched state is still unstable and yet it is regarded as one of the best RPGs by many people.

The response today would not have been so kind.

I played New Vegas at launch on console at it wasn't anywhere near this bad. Ya, it crashed occasionally, but that's all that happened beyond silly physics glitches that made corpses spaz out.

CP was literally unplayable for me for the first day, the armor doesn't do anything, and many people on console have reported that various missions either won't complete or won't start. Oh, and PS5 players can get stuck in their settings menu after update 1.05.

[GloatingSwine]

Also on PC if your save file gets bigger than 8MB it becomes unloadable.

I've got quests stuck in my quest log, an implant that no longer activates, and have been phased into geometry coming out of sneak mode and flung hundreds of metres into the air by mild collisions on my bike. I've passed by wild exploding car fountains too as the physics sends them flying in all directions.

It's buggier than New Vegas was at launch, it's not as good as New Vegas at being an RPG where the narrative and mechanics work together and both feed into and draw from your skill sheet.

And New Vegas was whipped up in 18 months not 6 years.

[factotum]

I still have not encountered any serious bugs. Or even heard of anyone reporting to have had one.

In the sixth post of this very thread, boj0 wrote:

"The game doesn't want me to play it however, I get about ~3 crashes a session, constant lagging, graphics and meshes not loading, enemies T posing in combat, and now a bug where my side gigs aren't completing. I can't finish missions...that's pretty damming in a game chock full of missions."

So, none of those are serious bugs in your estimation?

[One Step Two]

Thanks to starting my extended vacation the day of release, I've come in off a deep dive of around 100 hours playtime on my main save, running on a pretty decent gaming PC.

Overall I've been trying to put to words what I find right and wrong with the game as a whole.

Let's start with the bugs. I am one of the lucky few that didn't experience anything that caused a game crash, but I have seen a good few T-poses, odd AI behaviors regarding vision and targeting, and vehicles that have minds of their own, it's far from being a polished experience, but that's hardly a hot take by now.

From a PC gaming perspective I found the gameplay loop interesting and fun, but I think that's coloured by the fact that the last AAA titles I purchased before this was Death Stranding and FFVII: Remake. I've not really bought into other franchises like the Assassins Creed series or Borderlands, so Open World and Looter Shooters aren't old hat for me. It's familiar, but not to the point I find it driven into the ground as others might. I enjoyed a the run as a Tech/Hacker making use of the Ping Hack to highlight enemies to eliminate with my Tech Rifle through walls was awesome synergy, bordering on broken, which I recommend to everyone to try at least once. I look forward to trying a Reflexes/Cool assassin type next, getting in close instead of remaining far away.

From the perspective of someone who has played the Cyberpunk 2020 tabletop game for the last few years, with friends who played it far far longer, we all share the consensus that it's been pure joy to run around night city and experience the underlying tensions the place holds. Seeing elements like even in the prettiest part of the city there are still random bags of trash thrown around, that stark contrast of wealth and poverty is done very well. The art expression and the story highlight it really well, I hope Mike Pondsmith knows that this part was done right if nothing else.

Speaking of the story, many of the choices have weight, but they are sometimes in the moment only. You might get the occasional Gig that asks you to be stealthy, or avoid causing death, but beyond one specific chain, there's no noteworthy mention. A friend of mine who is also enjoying the game, playing as a Nomad who focused on Body, and Shotgun usage mentioned, "Why is this fixer getting so up in arms over me causing a mess? That's how I roll, shouldn't have hired me otherwise." He's really gotten into the RP elements of the game, but it highlights that lack of continuity of NPC reactions to player actions beyond a few odd times. Other than that, the characters are all super colourful, and are great to interact with, I wish it wasn't always super brief though.

My feelings are still mixed, because if this game, as is, was released without the same Hype that it had drawn around it for the last few years, it would be very serviceable still. That in no way mitigates two super important feelings I have on it. 1) Bugs are bugs are bugs, this along with the lack of proper porting onto older consoles feels lacking and doesn't live up to the promises made a big let down for many people who only have consoles as their primary gaming machine, which ties into: 2) It was not worth the time people spent crunching to get it made. I think it needed 2 or 3 years more time in development than it got, and I was willing to wait, it may not be worth much to say it after having played it, but there it is.

Over all, I would give the Game with bugs a 7/10. The gameplay is interesting and fun, the story and NPCs are engaging. Remove the errors, and it's 8/10, as it feels like they had so much untapped potential left behind as it was pushed out the door as fast as possible.

Seriously, no barber shop or tattoo parlors to change appearances? Or even a Ripper to alter our looks, the heck guys...

[Anteros]

I still have not encountered any serious bugs. Or even heard of anyone reporting to have had one. There are rare visual glitches, but that's all that I am aware of.
Never had quests not update, being unable to talk with quest-NPCs, enemies getting stuck in walls, myself glitching through the floor, cars levitating in the sky, elevators not responding, or anything in that regard. Such things were standard in all RPG back in my days. When we had to go to school barefoot in snow, uphill, both ways. It was standard even 10 years ago for big name RPGs.
In over 50 hours of play, I only had to reload after dying in combat. And even though the game makes five auto-saves and keeps five quick-saves, and I keep up to 12 manual saves around out of habit, I never loaded a save other than the most recent one. Not saying they shouldn't be ashamed for the game being in the state it is, but in the all time list of shameful releases, this one actually stands pretty down at the bottom to me.

And in the latest episode of "Spot that Reference": I think the Arasaka Heavies look a lot like Briareos (https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/6a6c02be-3b17-4ff9-a425-2fdf3e9577a2/daqtbi7-057fc302-ac85-4a65-b6ef-f7d63219043d.jpg/v1/fill/w_1024,h_742,q_75,strp/appleseed___alpha_painting_by_roman_zhizhchenko_by _chalcedonio-daqtbi7.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1 NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhN WYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg 4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1c m46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t 7InBhdGgiOiIvZi82YTZjMDJiZS0zYjE3LTRmZjktYTQyNS0yZ mRmM2U5NTc3YTIvZGFxdGJpNy0wNTdmYzMwMi1hYzg1LTRhNjU tYjZlZi1mN2Q2MzIxOTA0M2QuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEwM jQiLCJoZWlnaHQiOiI8PTc0MiJ9XV19.BInGZNLv615NCDmvd2 x9mI08gaO4Pl8ahDb-qny8fas) from Appleseed.
And Misty obviously looks like one of the replicants (https://typesetinthefuture.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/bladerunner_1_15_20_fliss_red_eye_full.jpg) from Blade Runner.

That's either objectively false, or you're just not reading opinions from other people. Including those in this very thread.


Last gen consoles aside the game is nowhere near as buggy as New Vegas was on PC. As for the game itself, it is honestly better than New Vegas from a gameplay perspective because NV tried to straddle the line between iron sights and character skill which made it have a sort of hybrid system that to me never felt satisfying. Storylinewise I think NV comes ahead somewhat but CP has some really good story arcs and a pretty good cast of supporting characters so its not like the difference between the two is that vast.

Besides I'm a pretty firm believer that unless the bugs are truly amazingly atrocious people will ignore them. I think everyone here can think of a horribly buggy game that they love despite its warts. Its just the game had way too much hype and way too long of an information window. If they had kept their mouths shut and only released a few vids here and there over the past six months to a year it wouldn't be nearly as badly received.


Since we're throwing anecdotal experiences around like crazy on this thread, I never actually had a single crash in the hundreds of hours I played New Vegas on either PC or console, and neither did my roommate. In my experience, most of the whining came from people who modded their game like crazy and then acted surprised it was unstable.

[Eldan]

I remember actually being a bit ddisappointed when New Vegas didn't have any major bugs for me, except crashing when I activated 30 new mods at once. Those rotating head bugs in the intro looked hilarious.

[GloatingSwine]

New update on game balance.

I just did a stealth crit headshot for a third of a million damage.

Most enemies have about 9000 hitpoints on Very Hard.

[sihnfahl]

Most enemies have about 9000 hitpoints on Very Hard.
Also known as the 'AI sucks, so bullet sponge difficulty'

[warty goblin]

Also known as the 'AI sucks, so bullet sponge difficulty'

If you want smart, aggressive AI, RPGs are not the genre for you. The entire purpose of the AI is less to challenge player skill, and more to provide a block of HP large enough that the player can notice their chosen upgrades melting it faster. And every problem needs to be solvable with whatever build you've chosen.

I've been playing Halo 2, and it's kinda crazy just how different of a gameplay aesthetic it goes for. Depending on the situation, the game just shuts down or relentlessly punishes entire playstyles. You aren't going to shotgun your way through those snipers, that White Elite doesn't care that you have the plasma sword, he'll just tank the hit and punch your face in, and even a stupid grunt can 1-shot you with a plasma grenade. An RPG that pushed back like that would be considered infuriatingly broken, because 3/4 of the time your character build wouldn't work.

[KineticDiplomat]

What the game isn’t: the Alpha-Omega TTRPG but on a computer-lifestyle sim-personal ideology confirmer-GTA-X Universe But In Night City that so many people dreamed a dream about.

What it is: A story rich ARPG focused on a pre-determined character personality with stories that are cyberpunk AF, in a setting that is cyberpunk AF, with an open world that exists as scaffolding for the story and cyberpunkery and feels on the money.

So, in many ways Witcher-esque, but you know, cyberpunk-Ed.

Within those confines:

The gameplay is fun, not wildly-fun-beyond-measure,
but certainly fun enough to match most other major titles and carry you around the setting and the story. The story is definitely a cyberpunk one, and it is definitely character focused - with the requisite loss of agency in self-characterization. Honestly, it is executed well at the main story level, supporting story “quests that aren’t main but you’ll almost certainly do” level, and extended side quest level. The quick side quests could use a little more panache and variety, and that’s probably the area of storytelling that is weaker than the otherwise really quite good stuff. Of note, many of the more interesting side quests and better quick quests don’t show up until later in the game.

And for the feeling? You get all that retro-80s future feel, and hard. None better. You want to drive to a meet with a fixer in a smoky club, passing neon Japan town signs and a firefight flashing a block over, all while a synth-electronic song that is somehow not corny blares? You got it.

As for bugs, I’ve been playing on a mid range laptop. I’ve hit a few “late beta” style bugs (I reloaded because a soundtrack loop occurred, and one time the car views refused to switch) which really should have been polished, but I have not experienced the “mid-alpha Jank” that others report.

It’s solid fun, it’s cyberpunk AF on a scale no one has really seen, and you’ll more than get your hour-dollar out of it.

[boj0]

Small update:
After not playing for a few days, I downloaded the latest patch; I still have some struggles loading assests (often have to unequip and re-equip armor for it to show V as wearing it, and the UI not fully loading when switching menus), enemies locking up in combat happens rarely now, missions seem to have their triggers working again (I started a new game as a Corpo), and I've had one crash when I went to quickhack in an open area during combat.

The game feels slightly better, and to hop back onto the New Vegas comparison, I can handle the occasional visual glitch or clipping if I enjoy a game's narrative. Playing on a 5 year old Xbox One will obviously not be ideal, but for now I can tolerate a few hiccups.

[Dragonus45]

Oh that one.

Ya I killed everyone without a second thought. You are editing a snuff BD, you made your choice.

I uhhh, had the same though. I was closer to the son and after I killed him first the fathers response made me have to set the game down and go pour myself a drink. The voice acting there was top shelf.


In general I don't mind that a lot of gigs can be fairly shallow. Not every job needs to be it's own deep sub quest and on my second character my playstyle is different enough I barely notice redoing the same mission to often.

[Yora]

Son of a gonk! What's wrong with the Bloody Ritual cyberpsycho?!

I'm level 20 now, with 238 armor and 200 dps guns. And that freak can kill me in 2 seconds without a sweat. Game says the threat for this quest is "Very Low", but that's certainly not the case.

How do you kill this thing without dying in under 10 seconds? Overload Optics helps a little bit, but with all the running away and her speed, there just isn't really much opportunity to get any quickhack on her.

[Whoracle]

Cripple movement quickhack? I didn't kill all the psychos, but CM helped for every high-speed enemy.

[Blackhawk748]

Son of a gonk! What's wrong with the Bloody Ritual cyberpsycho?!

I'm level 20 now, with 238 armor and 200 dps guns. And that freak can kill me in 2 seconds without a sweat. Game says the threat for this quest is "Very Low", but that's certainly not the case.

How do you kill this thing without dying in under 10 seconds? Overload Optics helps a little bit, but with all the running away and her speed, there just isn't really much opportunity to get any quickhack on her.

Your armor doesn't work. I will keep saying this until it stops being true, so advanced enemies that you should be able to beat, are much harder because you are effectively naked.

Also, get the Arm Launcher and get Tranq Darts. It one shots literally everything in the game.

[Yora]

Cripple movement quickhack? I didn't kill all the psychos, but CM helped for every high-speed enemy.

Got to get looking for this one.

[Whoracle]

Got to get looking for this one.

IIRC you can just flat out but it at the netrunners shop in kabuki market roundabout for 1500. The one where you get ping in the prologue.

[druid91]

Your armor doesn't work. I will keep saying this until it stops being true, so advanced enemies that you should be able to beat, are much harder because you are effectively naked.

Also, get the Arm Launcher and get Tranq Darts. It one shots literally everything in the game.

I think it's not so much that it doesn't work as it's more or less negligible unless you hyper-stack it.

[Blackhawk748]

I think it's not so much that it doesn't work as it's more or less negligible unless you hyper-stack it.

No, it literally doesn't work. Some people have somehow gotten it to work, but I decided to go check it myself as did a buddy. I take the exact same amount of damage from the same enemy whether I have 200 armor or I don't.

First shot takes me to 45, the second kills me.

Now, if you get it to work, you can super stack it to like 10k or something dumb and take 1-3 damage from literally everything.

[druid91]

No, it literally doesn't work. Some people have somehow gotten it to work, but I decided to go check it myself as did a buddy. I take the exact same amount of damage from the same enemy whether I have 200 armor or I don't.

First shot takes me to 45, the second kills me.

Now, if you get it to work, you can super stack it to like 10k or something dumb and take 1-3 damage from literally everything.

I mean.... 200 armor is literally only -5 damage.

[Rynjin]

Son of a gonk! What's wrong with the Bloody Ritual cyberpsycho?!

I'm level 20 now, with 238 armor and 200 dps guns. And that freak can kill me in 2 seconds without a sweat. Game says the threat for this quest is "Very Low", but that's certainly not the case.

How do you kill this thing without dying in under 10 seconds? Overload Optics helps a little bit, but with all the running away and her speed, there just isn't really much opportunity to get any quickhack on her.

I just punched her into submission around the same level.

[NeoVid]

Just today, I found a handy guide to how to make the armor system in this game actually affect the gameplay. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xeYTsMpGOw) It is, of course, just as broken as armor not working at all.

[Blackhawk748]

I mean.... 200 armor is literally only -5 damage.

Yes, and it doesn't even do that.

Also, if it takes 200 armor to drop 5 damage, what is even the point?

[warty goblin]

This is fascinating. Last week I was reading about how the armor system sucks because it makes you dress in uncool ways to get the maximum value. Now it sucks because it doesn't matter.

[Blackhawk748]

This is fascinating. Last week I was reading about how the armor system sucks because it makes you dress in uncool ways to get the maximum value. Now it sucks because it doesn't matter.

I agree that wearing ridiculous stuff to get max stats is dumb, but I play Monster Hunter so it's not high on my list.

Frankly I'm still convinced that the armor system doesn't work because when I tested it I went from 180 to 45 to dead in two shots irespective of if I had armor on or not.

Now I find out that it's apparently supposed to be -1 damage per 40 (if I'm reading it right) and that's so low that unless you're gonna cheese it, I don't see the point in caring. Just pick what looks decent and wear that.

[Rynjin]

Yes, and it doesn't even do that.

Also, if it takes 200 armor to drop 5 damage, what is even the point?

If it drops damage by 5 per shot, it's quite useful. It makes you highly resistant to fast firing weapons, but less resistant to slower firing, punchier weapons (which you can dodge or otherwise avoid).

[druid91]

I agree that wearing ridiculous stuff to get max stats is dumb, but I play Monster Hunter so it's not high on my list.

Frankly I'm still convinced that the armor system doesn't work because when I tested it I went from 180 to 45 to dead in two shots irespective of if I had armor on or not.

Now I find out that it's apparently supposed to be -1 damage per 40 (if I'm reading it right) and that's so low that unless you're gonna cheese it, I don't see the point in caring. Just pick what looks decent and wear that.

I mean, from 180 to 45 is 135 points of damage. + or - 5 isn't going to do much difference to almost triple your health in damage.

[Blackhawk748]

If it drops damage by 5 per shot, it's quite useful. It makes you highly resistant to fast firing weapons, but less resistant to slower firing, punchier weapons (which you can dodge or otherwise avoid).

An assault rifle does like 20 a shot, so... I wouldn't use the words "highly resistant", particularly on Hard when they chew through my HP incredibly quick.


I mean, from 180 to 45 is 135 points of damage. + or - 5 isn't going to do much difference to almost triple your health in damage.

You're missing the point. When I say "does nothing" I don't mean "garbage effectiveness" I mean that I take the exact same damage. If armor worked as you say, I should have gone to 50 hp and then died, but I didn't.

[Corvus]

Spiffing Brit just did a video on armour. He became immortal, effectively taking no damage from firearms.

Melee weapons ignore armour.

[Rynjin]

An assault rifle does like 20 a shot, so... I wouldn't use the words "highly resistant", particularly on Hard when they chew through my HP incredibly quick.

That is a 25% damage reduction. A 25% damage reduction would be considered massive in most RPGs.

I also play on Hard, and can't say I've had the same issues. I'm also almost purely a melee build, so I'm pretty sure I eat more shots than you do. Mind, I have more health, but I rarely feel like enemies chew through my HP egregiously quickly. I have an armor of about...400-ish? I have a cyberware that gives 200 armor and all my armor pieces give about 40 apiece, besides the chest piece which is like 70 or so.

The only enemies that regularly mulch me are the one sin the Arroyo/Rancho Coronado/Heywood area, because Valentinos and 6th Street gangers are ludicrously high level (which I believe sparked my questioning earlier in the thread of "How the **** did Streetkid V and Jackie manage to survive in Heywood?"). Other enemies I can't just stand there and eat hits, but as long as I keep moving and occasionally pop behind cover for a quick inhaler shot things work out fine in prolonged firefights.

[Blackhawk748]

That is a 25% damage reduction. A 25% damage reduction would be considered massive in most RPGs.

I also play on Hard, and can't say I've had the same issues. I'm also almost purely a melee build, so I'm pretty sure I eat more shots than you do. Mind, I have more health, but I rarely feel like enemies chew through my HP egregiously quickly. I have an armor of about...400-ish? I have a cyberware that gives 200 armor and all my armor pieces give about 40 apiece, besides the chest piece which is like 70 or so.

The only enemies that regularly mulch me are the one sin the Arroyo/Rancho Coronado/Heywood area, because Valentinos and 6th Street gangers are ludicrously high level (which I believe sparked my questioning earlier in the thread of "How the **** did Streetkid V and Jackie manage to survive in Heywood?"). Other enemies I can't just stand there and eat hits, but as long as I keep moving and occasionally pop behind cover for a quick inhaler shot things work out fine in prolonged firefights.

It would if there wasn't 4-6 attacks being made a second.

And that's probably because Armor actually works for you. I have no idea how it does, because, for everyone I know, and a ton of people talking about it online, it doesn't. So I die in a handful of shots from even crappy mooks, 2 or three shots of slightly higher enemies and I will be literally one shot by stuff higher than me.

Combat for me is:

Pop out and shoot with Precision rifle or Revolver
Kill target
Duck back, inhale
Pop back out
Duck back, inhale
Rush last target with shotgun.

I'm basically playing Call of Duty.

[factotum]

That is a 25% damage reduction. A 25% damage reduction would be considered massive in most RPGs.

Which RPGs are you referring to? Any RPG I've ever played has much more effective armour than that.

[Rynjin]

Which RPGs are you referring to? Any RPG I've ever played has much more effective armour than that.

For a single armor piece?

[Corvus]

Even with refunds, Cyberpunk has sold 13 million copies in 10 days (https://www.polygon.com/2020/12/22/22195741/cyberpunk-2077-sales-figures-platforms-refunds-ps5-pc-xbox-one), making it possibly the biggest launch of the year.

[Inarius]

Oh that one.

Ya I killed everyone without a second thought. You are editing a snuff BD, you made your choice.

Just came across this gig myself and I wound up killing them both after talking with them and looking through the stuff they had on their computer. It was still a pretty big gut wrench though, I shot his son first and the fathers voice actors reaction was so despairing that I literally felt horrible for killing them after I did the deed.

[factotum]

For a single armor piece?

The impression I got from what's being said is that Yora's *total* armour is only 238? So, not just one piece, presumably?

[GloatingSwine]

Just came across this gig myself and I wound up killing them both after talking with them and looking through the stuff they had on their computer. It was still a pretty big gut wrench though, I shot his son first and the fathers voice actors reaction was so despairing that I literally felt horrible for killing them after I did the deed.

They were both in their BD chairs when I did it.

They didn't wake up.

[Rynjin]

A piece of armor (cyberware, technically) that grants 200 armor is fairly cheap to buy. If their armor rating is only 238, then it's likely they don't have that. I would say that's fairly similar to trying to RP a Vigilant in Skyrim; you're lacking some serious coverage.

[Blackhawk748]

A piece of armor (cyberware, technically) that grants 200 armor is fairly cheap to buy. If their armor rating is only 238, then it's likely they don't have that. I would say that's fairly similar to trying to RP a Vigilant in Skyrim; you're lacking some serious coverage.

I haven't bought it because Armor is bugged for me. Why would I waste money on upping armor when I've proved that on my game it does nothing? That would be like me buying the Cardio Pump (or whatever the low health instant heal one is called) knowing its bugged too.

Why would I do that?

[sihnfahl]

I was closer to the son and after I killed him first the fathers response made me have to set the game down and go pour myself a drink. The voice acting there was top shelf.
I killed Dad first cause he was the most guilty of the pair. I was considering sparing the son, cause he was raised into the situation and could hopefully be convinced to help track murderers down...

... but when Dad went into his little justification tirade after first trying to deny the obvious and Son wasn't disgusted ...

[Yora]

I let them live (though somewhat disappointed that you can't do anything else but shot them or ignore them before you leave). But I thought everything the father says I wanted to reply back to him with a gun in his face.
"This is just business." "If not me, someone else would do it." "I'm only providing what Night City demands."

[DigestPantheon]

A piece of armor (cyberware, technically) that grants 200 armor is fairly cheap to buy. If their armor rating is only 238, then it's likely they don't have that. I would say that's fairly similar to trying to RP a Vigilant in Skyrim; you're lacking some serious coverage.

There are a few really good purchases like that that are good to get early. I heard of that 200 armor one and went to find it and it was worth it. Definitely recommend double jump! It makes the game a lot more fun.

[druid91]

There are a few really good purchases like that that are good to get early. I heard of that 200 armor one and went to find it and it was worth it. Definitely recommend double jump! It makes the game a lot more fun.

Honestly I use the hold space to super-jump one.

[One Step Two]

Honestly I use the hold space to super-jump one.

I like the fact that both were included, giving people to use their choice of enhanced movement. Customization like that is something I hope to see more of in future updates/DLC.

[druid91]

Honestly I hope for playable AV's and ownable panzers. Maybe useable mechs.

[Blackhawk748]

New hotfix for PC. Apparently, this one patches the 8mb Save File corruption, so you can now craft to your heart's content.

[Chen]

New hotfix for PC. Apparently, this one patches the 8mb Save File corruption, so you can now craft to your heart's content.

It was practically impossible to actually hit 8mb anyways but still a good fix just in case.

For armor the database in game says every 10
Armor reduces incoming DPS by roughly 1. No clue how to actually convert that to damage reduction per hit though. It may explain why you can shrug off machine gun fire but snipers and other big hits destroy you.

[Blackhawk748]

It was practically impossible to actually hit 8mb anyways but still a good fix just in case.

For armor the database in game says every 10
Armor reduces incoming DPS by roughly 1. No clue how to actually convert that to damage reduction per hit though. It may explain why you can shrug off machine gun fire but snipers and other big hits destroy you.

If you did a bunch of crafting or were a prolific collector you could.

And no, selling stuff doesn't help.

That's and incredibly odd way of doing things, as DPS is simply a metric by which we measure damage. Armor doesn't really reduce that, it reduces the damage you take per hit. So a gun that gets high DPS via high shot numbers (like an SMG) should have it's damage more impaired by armor. However, if it works off of DPS then wouldn't everything be affected equally?

That is... Just a very odd way of trying to explain armor

[thirsting]

Spiffing Brit in his fair and balanced videos said it's 40 armor = 1 damage reduced.

(can't wait to get this and dlc's, mostly bug free, for 10 or 15 € in a few years :p )

[Meatball]

I'm torn on the game so far. Played it a bit and while it's awesome, it just feels a bit 'off'. At this point the plan is to just shelve the game for a bit and maybe let the patches roll out for a bit. Annoying, but I've got so many games in the backlog it doesn't really matter :)

[Yora]

Oh wow! I decided to switch pistols and went from Lexington auto-pistols to a Nue. Talk about stopping power. This thing seems to be a down-scaled desert eagle. On a good hit, it makes enemies stumble and kicks them to the ground, and can completely remove limbs.
This makes me feel even more like Judge Dredd.

Does anyone know what Tech-Weapons do? Power-weapons are obvious, and Smart-weapons are for shooting around corners. Tech-weapons I don't understand.


New hotfix for PC. Apparently, this one patches the 8mb Save File corruption, so you can now craft to your heart's content.

Also 15 gb PS4 patch.

[DeTess]

Does anyone know what Tech-Weapons do? Power-weapons are obvious, and Smart-weapons are for shooting around corners. Tech-weapons I don't understand.



Tech-weapons can be charged up for extra damage and shooting through cover.

[KineticDiplomat]

Tech weapons not only allow charging/blasting through walls and cover, but also typically scale independently with some technical side perks - so crafting paths get some killing love.

Aside from that, finished a play through. Holy ****, that ending was Blade Runner (in a good way) as all get out.

[Whoracle]

Aside from that, finished a play through. Holy ****, that ending was Blade Runner (in a good way) as all get out.

Which one did you go for?

[KineticDiplomat]

Corporate, following the instructions, with a corporate double down.

[Mando Knight]

Tech-weapons can be charged up for extra damage and shooting through cover.

Combine that with ways to highlight enemies you can't even see (like the Ping or Friendly Camera quickhacks) and Tech weapons let you become a wallhack sniper. Ping the door guard, then snipe half the hideout before even setting foot inside.

[Yora]

That also sounds fun. I already have technical as my highest stat, so I'll give it a try.

Though walking into a bar to kill the owner upstairs with a big semi-automatic pistol makes me feel like playing Taxi Driver.

One time I shot a guy's arm off and he just kept shooting at me with his other arm. :smalleek:
He did bleed white, though. Which I'd never seen before, and is universal sci-fi code for this is a mostly non-organic body.

[GloatingSwine]

That also sounds fun. I already have technical as my highest stat, so I'll give it a try.

Though walking into a bar to kill the owner upstairs with a big semi-automatic pistol makes me feel like playing Taxi Driver.

One time I shot a guy's arm off and he just kept shooting at me with his other arm. :smalleek:
He did bleed white, though. Which I'd never seen before, and is universal sci-fi code for this is a mostly non-organic body.

Yeah, you'll get a number of different blood colours. I've seen white, green and blue.


Anyway, I finished my run. Went for

Nomads, assaulted Arasaka Tower in a goddamn tank, left the city for good with Panam.

I might see if I can get the hidden ending. I'm within spitting distance of the relationship with Johnny I need, a few different choices in the convo with Hanako and I might hit 70 there, either that or it might be available at 60 as well.

[Yora]

How are people finishing this game? I played it several hours every day since it came out, and I'm currently plotting with Takemura to get him to Hanako and planning to make first contact with Panam next.
I have three progress trackers in the menu, which are currently at 30%, 10%, and 10%. I think this game will take me well over 200 hours.

[Whoracle]

I might see if I can get the hidden ending. I'm within spitting distance of the relationship with Johnny I need, a few different choices in the convo with Hanako and I might hit 70 there, either that or it might be available at 60 as well.

You're out of luck. Unless you took the correct choices at Johnny's grave, you won't get the secret ending. That's how you get the 70 in the first place, and also how people managed to get it with 50. With 60 it seems you're SOL if you did all the Johnny related missions... If you manage to boost to 70 though tell me how, it's the only ending I'm missing...

[druid91]

How are people finishing this game? I played it several hours every day since it came out, and I'm currently plotting with Takemura to get him to Hanako and planning to make first contact with Panam next.
I have three progress trackers in the menu, which are currently at 30%, 10%, and 10%. I think this game will take me well over 200 hours.

If you laser focus the main quests and ignore side-quests you can finish it fairly quickly.

[Yora]

I just had a quest get stuck and went back to an older save, then did a couple of things in a different order than before. And somehow I ended up with the quest Fixer, Merc, Soldier, Spy (steal a shard from a diplomat in a Kabuki hotel) not appearing. I looked a bit around and it requires finishing the quest Welcome to America, Comrade (bug the imported car in Kabuki), as well as having a bit of main story progress and 15 street cred.
The quest does not become available immediately after completing Welcome to America, though I have well over 30 street cred by now. Waiting some time also doesn't trigger it. Does anyone know if these follow-up quests appear after gaining a new character or street cred level, or doing a story mission, or anything like that?

[Chen]

That’s a gig isn’t it? I find you need to be near the gig location out of a vehicle to have the fixer call you for it.

[Yora]

That too, but I've been staring at the closed hotel doors, peeking at the people through the window glass already. There's also no map marker in the area.
Some kind of a delay after completing the previous job seems completely normal, but I don't know what triggers the next phase that activates the follow-up job.

[Blackhawk748]

That too, but I've been staring at the closed hotel doors, peeking at the people through the window glass already. There's also no map marker in the area.
Some kind of a delay after completing the previous job seems completely normal, but I don't know what triggers the next phase that activates the follow-up job.

It's entirely possible it's just bugged.

[GloatingSwine]

Some kind of a delay after completing the previous job seems completely normal, but I don't know what triggers the next phase that activates the follow-up job.

Usually one in-game day passing.

[sihnfahl]

If you laser focus the main quests and ignore side-quests you can finish it fairly quickly.
Which is a shame; some of those side quests are very good and highlight the utter crapsack nature of the CP2077 setting.

Just in act I alone...

The ex-soldier who stole the antipsychosis meds because they didn't work. Even if you talk him down peacefully, he'll kill himself. Read his laptop? Heavy PTSD.

Help Regina get back into contact with an old reporter friend when he gets in too deep? He thinks you're a hit squad and rushes to air an interview with a soldier who suffered severe injuries in the line of duty. They healed him and his people up, gave them top of the line stuff to get their lives back together ... and when the cameras stopped rolling, yanked all that stuff out and threw them to the streets...

[Yora]

And I don't know why, but I thought Burning Desire was hilarious.
It's all one long stupid joke, but I was laughing the whole time.

Regarding gigs unlocking, I loaded a really old save and went straight to doing Welcome to America, fast travelled across the city, waited 24 hours, fast travelled back to Kabuki, and went to the Hotel. Waiting one day is not the trigger. (At least not a working on in 1.06 on PS4.)
I did do it once in 1.05, so unless it's an issue caused by the patch, it does work on my system.

[Corvus]

Which is a shame; some of those side quests are very good and highlight the utter crapsack nature of the CP2077 setting.

Just in act I alone...

The ex-soldier who stole the antipsychosis meds because they didn't work. Even if you talk him down peacefully, he'll kill himself. Read his laptop? Heavy PTSD.

Help Regina get back into contact with an old reporter friend when he gets in too deep? He thinks you're a hit squad and rushes to air an interview with a soldier who suffered severe injuries in the line of duty. They healed him and his people up, gave them top of the line stuff to get their lives back together ... and when the cameras stopped rolling, yanked all that stuff out and threw them to the streets...


Couple more that I found just messing around in Watson.



In one I found a Maelstrom gang and a couple of dead cops. From reading shards after killing the gangers, it turns out the cops boss was working with Maelstrom and sent his men into a deliberate ambush to get killed.

And at a homeless camp under an underpass there was a bunch of dead homeless people and a bunch of Arasaka goons. Felt good to kill them. Felt better when finding out they had been sent to eliminate someone who was going to talk to a reporter and had been giving instructions there were to be no witnesses. So all the homeless got eliminated as a result.



Since the patches and also switching the slow hdd option on I've had no problems but a few minor graphical glitches on my old machine. No crashes, no stutters, no game breaking bugs. Stability seems to have improved, at least for me.

I've restarted my run, starting with a 6 tech/6 bod/4 cool nomad on very hard. Rather than go the netrunner or stealth pistol head shot route for the very hard run, I'm chosen a slightly more challenging way - shotguns, lmgs and grenades. Ive also been using the katana at times as well, even though I only have 3 ref and no perks to help melee. Its actually been going very well. Some fights I've had to reload after dying but most havent needed to, though I do burn through a few healing items at times. Being able to make your own is really helpful.

[sihnfahl]

And I don't know why, but I thought Burning Desire was hilarious.
Probably because of the voice acting. The sheer desperation of the guy at the idea of losing his...

If you saved before taking the job, approach him and turn him down...

There's another find that's somewhat related and makes you go 'uggggh'.


There's a spot near the warehouse district (northern part of Watson) where there's an entrepreneurial venture called 'Barely Illegal'.

Corp type goes there for some sweet, untouched young thing.

Well, to his surprise, he finds out where his runaway daughter ended up.

Poor johns panic when he has a heart attack. They rip out gear to try to stop the signal that would bring Trauma Team down on their little venture.

Well, let's just say that the place is a bit of a smoking crater when you get there...



Couple more that I found just messing around in Watson.

Listen to the news every so often...

Homelessness increased *300%* in NC. Not something that their more well-off citizens want to see - homeless, that is, they could care less about the housing and jobs problem as long as it doesn't impact them.
The City's method of clearing them out? Well, either they leave the areas they're not wanted, or they'll die when the city floods their squat spots with neurotoxins.

And I have a feeling that Night City's Government doesn't exactly care how the Scavs source their offerings. As long as they remember who's 'untouchable'.

[Yora]

Really game? Are you serious?

The game let me play a light and fast sneaky stealth guy for 50 hours. And then Panam drops me into a gunfight arena where people kill me with 2 bullets and throw poison grenades that drain my full health bar faster than I can mainline health potions. Sometimes even while I am still getting out of the car. On the side facing all the gunfire.

...so uncool.

[Whoracle]

Really game? Are you serious?

The game let me play a light and fast sneaky stealth guy for 50 hours. And then Panam drops me into a gunfight arena where people kill me with 2 bullets and throw poison grenades that drain my full health bar faster than I can mainline health potions. Sometimes even while I am still getting out of the car. On the side facing all the gunfire.

...so uncool.

Which mission? The Nash revenge (or however he's called) in the cave? If it's that, yeah, that sucked. Contagion, CM and a sniper rifle pulled me through, though. Just don't get boxed at spawn. Took me like 4 deaths until I understood that.

[KineticDiplomat]

She’s impulsive that way - fortunately, you can keep it just biz and not do the ride of the valkyries.

Alternatively, sprint and slide can be Reeaaalllly helpful in this case.

[Yora]

Eventually I figured out that there are few problems in the world that can't be made to go away with 500 health potions and a Tech-Sniper Rifle. :smallamused:
And I happened to have picked one up in the previous scene. But Panam is now forever on my naughty list. She'll be joining Miranda Lawson in the club of characters my character only get along with because it's necessary, and would drop at the first opportunity. That doesn't mean that I don't like the writing, but I mentally filed her away as someone who's going to get me killed if I stick around for too long.

Also to come back to my previous question about follow-up gigs: I made another fast-travel check after having gone with Panam to get her car and go through the cave and also got another level-up. There was no quest-marker on the map, but as soon as I approached the hotel I got the call from Regina for the Fixer, Merc, Soldier, Spy gig.
It seems to be that follow-up quests are unlocked once the requirements are met (street cred and previous gigs) and you either finish a story mission or get another level. It does not appear to be tied to any timer.

By now, I am really feeling that the open-world concept of this game is pretty flawed. The city is too big, and unless there's lots and lots of main quests taking you there, most places are visited only once. And since you'll probably almost always following GPS navigation, you never really get a sense of the geography. I was just starting to recognize places and remember connecting streets in Watson when I finished the last things to do in the area. And I am totally bragging here, but in my experience walking around cities and hiking with other people, as well as other open-world games I have played, I have a very high sense of orientation. So I guess most people never get to the point where they would be able to find any place without the dotted line.
The first times I got to the Kabuki Roundabout (which is not actually a roundabout, but this is America so it makes sense for the setting) or went to Jiji-Street, I thought these would be cool main hubs that I would keep coming back to throughout the game. But no, as far as I can tell, they are all one-and-done. Same thing with my apartment. I go there to sleep every second night or so, but that's entirely because I feel like it. It serves absolutely no function. I thought it would be cool to sit on my workbench and do 10-20 minutes of crafting while listening to the radio, but you do it in the game menu where you don't hear the radio music. :smallfrown:
I rally felt it was cool when I was driving late at night and thinking "hey, this is my on-ramp to the highway bridge that takes me home to bed". My exit. As someone who had a 15 minute highway commute, that really felt nice. But I don't think I'll ever drive through that part of the city again.
Because of the way that gigs and police missions are placed and their difficulty set, I did all of Watson before I really started doing anything in Japantown. And only then I realized that different parts of the city really look very distinctively different. After 30 hours in Kabuki and Northside, I was thinking everything's looking the same (and got bored by it), but it really is not.
There's also too many quests. By which I mean, too many completely interchangeable quests. I rather would have half as many, but instead have them with twice as much detail. Go in and bag the gang leader starts getting pretty meh after the third time.

What also puzzles me is that this is the first game in which an abundance of audio-logs would actually make sense for the setting. There are lots of "recorded conversations" you can find, which I think give the mini-missions some background and story. But I don't know, since I don't feel like reading all that stuff that has no more relevance to the game. Of course, getting all those voiced would have swallowed up huge amount of resources. But it wouldn't be nearly as much if the total number of quests where considerably smaller.
The 25% of the city that I've seen so far is really cool and the map designers did an amazing job with it. (Except traffic management, but being an American setting it makes sense for the world.) But it's clear to see that they made it way too big for this team to fill with sufficient content. Which I guess actually plays a part in its development troubles. A world this size makes sense for an MMO with hundreds of players playing it for 2 to 5 years. If it were even possible to fill it with enough single player content, I still think it would be too much. Better split all that up over three or four games instead of building it all in one batch and dumping it all on players at once.
This game was trying to bite off more than it can chew. Way too much.
I still love it. Probably my favorite game since Mass Effect 2. But I think it's very easy to see how it could have been so much better with a bit more modest scope.

[Blackhawk748]

Eventually I figured out that there are few problems in the world that can't be made to go away with 500 health potions and a Tech-Sniper Rifle. :smallamused:
And I happened to have picked one up in the previous scene. But Panam is now forever on my naughty list. She'll be joining Miranda Lawson in the club of characters my character only get along with because it's necessary, and would drop at the first opportunity. That doesn't mean that I don't like the writing, but I mentally filed her away as someone who's going to get me killed if I stick around for too long.

Also to come back to my previous question about follow-up gigs: I made another fast-travel check after having gone with Panam to get her car and go through the cave and also got another level-up. There was no quest-marker on the map, but as soon as I approached the hotel I got the call from Regina for the Fixer, Merc, Soldier, Spy gig.
It seems to be that follow-up quests are unlocked once the requirements are met (street cred and previous gigs) and you either finish a story mission or get another level. It does not appear to be tied to any timer.

By now, I am really feeling that the open-world concept of this game is pretty flawed. The city is too big, and unless there's lots and lots of main quests taking you there, most places are visited only once. And since you'll probably almost always following GPS navigation, you never really get a sense of the geography. I was just starting to recognize places and remember connecting streets in Watson when I finished the last things to do in the area. And I am totally bragging here, but in my experience walking around cities and hiking with other people, as well as other open-world games I have played, I have a very high sense of orientation. So I guess most people never get to the point where they would be able to find any place without the dotted line.
The first times I got to the Kabuki Roundabout (which is not actually a roundabout, but this is America so it makes sense for the setting) or went to Jiji-Street, I thought these would be cool main hubs that I would keep coming back to throughout the game. But no, as far as I can tell, they are all one-and-done. Same thing with my apartment. I go there to sleep every second night or so, but that's entirely because I feel like it. It serves absolutely no function. I thought it would be cool to sit on my workbench and do 10-20 minutes of crafting while listening to the radio, but you do it in the game menu where you don't hear the radio music. :smallfrown:
I rally felt it was cool when I was driving late at night and thinking "hey, this is my on-ramp to the highway bridge that takes me home to bed". My exit. As someone who had a 15 minute highway commute, that really felt nice. But I don't think I'll ever drive through that part of the city again.
Because of the way that gigs and police missions are placed and their difficulty set, I did all of Watson before I really started doing anything in Japantown. And only then I realized that different parts of the city really look very distinctively different. After 30 hours in Kabuki and Northside, I was thinking everything's looking the same (and got bored by it), but it really is not.
There's also too many quests. By which I mean, too many completely interchangeable quests. I rather would have half as many, but instead have them with twice as much detail. Go in and bag the gang leader starts getting pretty meh after the third time.

What also puzzles me is that this is the first game in which an abundance of audio-logs would actually make sense for the setting. There are lots of "recorded conversations" you can find, which I think give the mini-missions some background and story. But I don't know, since I don't feel like reading all that stuff that has no more relevance to the game. Of course, getting all those voiced would have swallowed up huge amount of resources. But it wouldn't be nearly as much if the total number of quests where considerably smaller.
The 25% of the city that I've seen so far is really cool and the map designers did an amazing job with it. (Except traffic management, but being an American setting it makes sense for the world.) But it's clear to see that they made it way too big for this team to fill with sufficient content. Which I guess actually plays a part in its development troubles. A world this size makes sense for an MMO with hundreds of players playing it for 2 to 5 years. If it were even possible to fill it with enough single player content, I still think it would be too much. Better split all that up over three or four games instead of building it all in one batch and dumping it all on players at once.
This game was trying to bite off more than it can chew. Way too much.
I still love it. Probably my favorite game since Mass Effect 2. But I think it's very easy to see how it could have been so much better with a bit more modest scope.

You've basically summed up all of my issues with the game. Its huge, but ultimately pretty empty.

There's lots of lore, if I want to read, which throws off my mission flow.

There's almost no one to talk to outside of Main Missions or specific character side missions.

Like... there's a good sandbox, but there isn't enough STUFF in it. Like, please do the audio logs so I can listen to the background of whats going on in the current gig as I do it, instead of pausing to read it an throwing off the pacing. I don't care if that means cutting half of them because, ultimately, I don't care about half of them

[warty goblin]

Oh god, please no audio logs. I am so completely done with audio logs. If I ever have to listen to another one, it will be too soon. I'll happily skim read (or completely ignore) all the text lore you want, but audio logs almost never make a damn bit of sense in universe (who leaves themselves voice memos all the damn time?) and you still can't really play the game and listen to them. Maybe walk around, but that's it.

[Corvus]

Hopefully the dlcs and expansions will flesh it out more and open up more buildings as well.

Just did a truely messed up side gig in Watson. A father and son who edit illegal and sickening BDs. I shot them without a moment's hesitation. Screw you and your 'if we hadn't done it, someone else would have.'

[Blackhawk748]

Oh god, please no audio logs. I am so completely done with audio logs. If I ever have to listen to another one, it will be too soon. I'll happily skim read (or completely ignore) all the text lore you want, but audio logs almost never make a damn bit of sense in universe (who leaves themselves voice memos all the damn time?) and you still can't really play the game and listen to them. Maybe walk around, but that's it.

I don't know, never had an issue with them in Bioshock or Borderlands, and who leaves dozens of random memos laying around in shards?

[sihnfahl]

Just did a truely messed up side gig in Watson. A father and son who edit illegal and sickening BDs. I shot them without a moment's hesitation. Screw you and your 'if we hadn't done it, someone else would have.'

Yep, that's the one folks talked about earlier. And, yes, totally messed up.

Oh, did you talk to them? Cause if you do...


They make it quite clear it's not a one-off. It's a -series-. The fact they're kids? No problem. Just choose your preferred race and sex of victim, and your preferred method of murder, and dance away.



I don't know, never had an issue with them in Bioshock or Borderlands, and who leaves dozens of random memos laying around in shards?
I'm getting the feeling their gear automatically records their conversations ... kind of like the messages and calls you get and can pull back up.
And the idiots don't have time to erase the messages before you come around and just end their day.

[druid91]

Oh god, please no audio logs. I am so completely done with audio logs. If I ever have to listen to another one, it will be too soon. I'll happily skim read (or completely ignore) all the text lore you want, but audio logs almost never make a damn bit of sense in universe (who leaves themselves voice memos all the damn time?) and you still can't really play the game and listen to them. Maybe walk around, but that's it.

I mean, I used to leave myself voice memos all the time. I used to have one of those little recorder sticks with the mini-cassette tapes.

[Corvus]

Yeah I did talk to them. And read the computer file of other experiences on offer.

Not even the Maelstrom gangoons guarding them liked them.

[sihnfahl]

Not even the Maelstrom gangoons guarding them liked them.
Then again, Maelstrom doesn't like anyone in the first place, so that's not saying much...

[druid91]

Then again, Maelstrom doesn't like anyone in the first place, so that's not saying much...

I mean, Dum Dum and Royce are friendly enough.

[sihnfahl]

I mean, Dum Dum
If you like drugs...


Royce are friendly enough.
Just don't mention Brick, right?

[Rynjin]

Really game? Are you serious?

The game let me play a light and fast sneaky stealth guy for 50 hours. And then Panam drops me into a gunfight arena where people kill me with 2 bullets and throw poison grenades that drain my full health bar faster than I can mainline health potions. Sometimes even while I am still getting out of the car. On the side facing all the gunfire.

...so uncool.

Same.

Thing that pisses me off is the game at no point gives you an opportunity to call Panam out for being a half-cocked dumbass whose "master plans" always end in disaster (unless I'm the one doing the heavy lifting to pick up the slack).

The other thing that galls me the most is she doesn't even help out in the gunfight. Sure, it LOOKS like she does in the moment, but she drops precisely ZERO of the bad guys.

[Blackhawk748]

Same.

Thing that pisses me off is the game at no point gives you an opportunity to call Panam out for being a half-cocked dumbass whose "master plans" always end in disaster (unless I'm the one doing the heavy lifting to pick up the slack).

The other thing that galls me the most is she doesn't even help out in the gunfight. Sure, it LOOKS like she does in the moment, but she drops precisely ZERO of the bad guys.

I've noticed that all of the "Companions" do that. Except Jackie. Jackie actually helps. Not a lot, but... hey, more than zero.

[KineticDiplomat]

I do find it incredibly true to form how V does moralizing:



So, I definitely just butchered the **** out of a couple dozen dudes because I felt like keeping an extra 10Gs while grabbing the drone I need to engage in a robbery meant to give some sort of soul copying technology to a group of xenophobes who consider most of humanity to be “disposable floor rags” and who routinely attack the one thing keeping mad AIs from frying the brains of anyone using the internet. All to be “in the major leagues.” As my intro to BD editing I’ll use a snuff BD as a training piece.

This quest will eventually see me knock out the power to half of night city (and by extension kill hundreds or thousands more as hospitals, street lights, etc. fail), go on a violent rampage against another group because I want to get in someone’s pants, at which point I’ll kidnap a scientist and (possibly) hand him over to a man who I hear about to waterboard said scientist as I leave, kill my way through a few dozen more people in order to make the literal nuclear-bomb-using terrorist who killed thousands and is now in my head happy. Eventually I will agree to either take part in a corporate coup that will have globe spanning effects, or I will launch an attack on a corporate headquarters because I want to save myself from the effects of the item I stole from them earlier (oh, I also shot/stabbed/hacked my way through lots them in the process of stealing it).

Along the way, I will take a variety of side jobs that almost all involve ultra violence, ranging from the theoretically well meaning to purely mercenary, and in at least one case will involve letting a guy I know cannot survive the run making a suicidal go at police transporting a known murderer.

Oh, and I tried to look at a billboard, ran three people over by mistake, and then drove away.

BUT YOU EDIT BAD BDS! SCUM!



I shot them because I didn’t want any witnesses.

[Rynjin]

Yeah, it's neat. Though the game does give you plenty of opportunities to live up to your own ideals, it does eventually come back to the inherently selfish (though understandable) problem with V doing ANYTHING they can possibly do to save their own life.

[Spacewolf]

Goddamn these boxing missions are awful, first mission is two enemies who take what looks to be more than 20 strong hits to down, can ko you in 3 hits and the area is lagging like a bastard. Fantastic. This is on hard I dont even want to think about it on the hardest difficulty.

[Rynjin]

Goddamn these boxing missions are awful, first mission is two enemies who take what looks to be more than 20 strong hits to down, can ko you in 3 hits and the area is lagging like a bastard. Fantastic. This is on hard I dont even want to think about it on the hardest difficulty.

As near as I can tell, Beat on the Brat is meant to be largely a late game affair. Yes, even that first mission.

[Inarius]

As near as I can tell, Beat on the Brat is meant to be largely a late game affair. Yes, even that first mission.

Even late game they'll still wreck you in 1-3 hits while taking 20-30 to go down and Buck and Rhino can cheat using health stims so you have to wear them down usually twice before winning. This is with me using Epic tier gorilla fists which i installed just for the quest heh, its more of a hassle than anything really.

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah, the first person melee system is just not up to the task of delivering on that kind of high-stakes combat.

The mechanical side of combat in general was less satisfying than the investigation, talking, and exploration bits.

[Rynjin]

Even late game they'll still wreck you in 1-3 hits while taking 20-30 to go down and Buck and Rhino can cheat using health stims so you have to wear them down usually twice before winning. This is with me using Epic tier gorilla fists which i installed just for the quest heh, its more of a hassle than anything really.

Buck I was able to annihilate both times he tried to start ****. Your Body stat is important if you want to melee. As are the Street Brawler and Athletics perks that let you Stun, recover stamina, and restore health.

I tried Rhino a couple of times, and she seemed doable, but I figure a couple of extra levels will make a difference, or maybe some Cyber. I didn't even know there were different rarity/better Gorilla Arms, I'm just rolling with common ones.

You can tell whether a quest is doable for you or not in the journal. Very high means combat is impossible, high is hard but doable and moderate is where you want it at.

[One Step Two]

I do find it incredibly true to form how V does moralizing:

-Snip-

I shot them because I didn’t want any witnesses.

"Cyberpunk isn't about saving humanity, it's about saving yourself." (https://youtu.be/xYxt7cwDk4E?t=97) - Mike Pondsmith, creator of the Cyberpunk TTRPG

This really comes to the fore when V discusses stuff with Johnny, especially when he contrasts everything happening to his experiences in trying to live up to his own principles. The biggest issue is the lack of continuity outside of... 2 quests?
Psycho Killers, Regina is impressed and thankful for you keeping them all alive. And when the Scavs manage to catch you again, and even that is inconsistent, because they want bloody revenge even if you take them out without a drop of blood spilled as far as I can tell.
There's interconnected parts to things happening in the city, but character impact isn't felt often, which is a damn shame.

For Beat the Brat, yeah the bullet sponge side of thing becomes way more on show here than anywhere else, but I am on my playthrough focusing on Body with brawling and the annihilation tree, I'll report back if it feels any easier with a dedicated Punch-Fu build.

[boj0]

Aside from the fights having the same problem as the Fist Fighters quest chain from Fable (ie enemies are sponges and your character gets 2 shot by them) the best fight was against Ozob. He's probably the most chill about the whole situation, pays out a ton of eddies, and you can get a special ending by punching him in the face repeatedly.

[sihnfahl]

I tried Rhino a couple of times, and she seemed doable, but I figure a couple of extra levels will make a difference, or maybe some Cyber. I didn't even know there were different rarity/better Gorilla Arms, I'm just rolling with common ones.
Yeah, I got the legendaries. I'm mostly netrunner / crafting spec this run, so 'meh' body. Charged GA with a guaranteed bleed?

"Let the bodies hit the floor..."

Also, System Reset? Makes the game so easysauce against heavily cybered enemies. Like that psycho with the sniper rifle atop the tower with the two mines at the top of the ladder? Okay, you got the first shot on me thanks to story mode, but now that I see you, TAKE A NAP.

[One Step Two]

Also, System Reset? Makes the game so easysauce against heavily cybered enemies. Like that psycho with the sniper rifle atop the tower with the two mines at the top of the ladder? Okay, you got the first shot on me thanks to story mode, but now that I see you, TAKE A NAP.

It's awesome, especially if you get the Cyberware processor that lets your ultimate spread to another target nearby. However, it might have been a bug for me, but using the hack gives you no experience points for the take down.

[druid91]

Honestly, is anyone else a little peeved with just how insanely tough the Valentino's are?

1v1 I can usually take them, but when you go from slaughtering Arasaka troopers like it's doom to getting one shot by the Valentino's it makes you wonder why Jackie didn't just call a couple of his gang buddies over for muscle.

[Blackhawk748]

Honestly, is anyone else a little peeved with just how insanely tough the Valentino's are?

1v1 I can usually take them, but when you go from slaughtering Arasaka troopers like it's doom to getting one shot by the Valentino's it makes you wonder why Jackie didn't just call a couple of his gang buddies over for muscle.

I have this issue with several enemies. Like, head over towards the badlands and the Scavs take multiple headshots. Good god.

I think I'd be less annoyed if the, rather absurd, HP bloat corresponded to an increase in visible Cyberware on the enemy.

[sihnfahl]

It's awesome, especially if you get the Cyberware processor that lets your ultimate spread to another target nearby. However, it might have been a bug for me, but using the hack gives you no experience points for the take down.
Which is why, except on the CP quests, I punch them with GA. Thunk. Dead. XP.

As for the difficulty ... mmm, Legendary Contagion + Netwatch Netdriver Mk 5 (Offensive quickhacks can be uploaded to 3 targets within a 6-meter radius, increases damage dealt by quickhacks by 30%, increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by 9 unit(s) per 60 sec, increases quickhacks spread distance by 60%....) + all Quickhack perks ... PLUS upping my crit rate ... breach, contagion, 1k+ ticks, all from a location they don't have LOS on. Watching the screen is like a march of red flags followed by outlines hitting the ground. And I almost never run out of RAM (over 24 now) to keep it cycling and active.

[thethird]

I first do nonlethal take downs with contagion or something, then I do lethal take downs with a blade (I go cutting everyone's head, killing them gives xp). My V has turned to be... kind of a psychopath. Hopefully she will be cured in 10 more levels when she reaches the level cap.

[Yora]

Is there a way to permanently turn out combat robots like you can stealth knockout humans?

[One Step Two]

Unfortunately, robots have no take-down mechanics as far as I can see, but they are very vulnerable to the Shock quickhack, and system reset also affects them.

[Yora]

I didn't have any problems with them so far. I just thought it would be cool to do "neutralize all enemies" objectives stealthily even when there's robots present. A master console to shut down all guard robots in the area would be fun as an alternative to a remote shutdown hack that you can use on turrets.

Something I noticed is that most of the perks in the game seem pretty meh. I am now level 23 and there isn't really anything I want to put my perk points into. Maybe once I have some stats above 14 (have not checked those yet), but all the ones I have access to now seem really useless.
- More components from dismantling.
- 10% less damage from rare attacks (I think it was grenades)
- Regain RAM more quickly + Shorter Quickhack cooldowns. (RAM and cooldowns are never an issue during fights for me.)
- Extra damage against drones and mechs (which I've seen maybe two or three times in 60 hours).
- Auto-regenerate health up to a certain amount out of combat. (I have 500 healing items and infinite food is everywhere.)
- Several that give you more stamina. (Stamina is completely pointless unless you melee brawl)
- 5/10/20% reduced fall damage. (Who gets fall damage?)

I feel I already have everything for a stealthy, quick-hacking pistolero. And I just started going outside Watson. :smallsigh:

[GloatingSwine]

- 5/10/20% reduced fall damage. (Who gets fall damage?)


I got fall damage quite a lot. I am reckless with gravity.

But if it didn't kill me it didn't matter. I finished the game with north of 500 healing items. Damage? Who cares about damage?

[sihnfahl]

- Regain RAM more quickly + Shorter Quickhack cooldowns. (RAM and cooldowns are never an issue during fights for me.)
Some higher level enemies need 10-16 RAM to affect. And when you have large groups that even with all the spread modifiers you need multiple applications to clear out, it's handy.


5/10/20% reduced fall damage. (Who gets fall damage?)
I do. Then again, I'm a parkourish type that gets into those high spots where melee enemies end up going 'duh' for the duration. Not to mention I run Lynx on my legs so I can scoot behind folks without detection rather than creep-sneak.

Plus, it comes in handy getting to gigs that are on a lower level than you without having to go looking for ramps or smaller drops.


Unfortunately, robots have no take-down mechanics as far as I can see, but they are very vulnerable to the Shock quickhack, and system reset also affects them.
Pretty much. They're not living, so you can't just snap their necks or strangle them out. The three methods are to use quickhacks, EMP grenades or just shoot the suckers.

If you REALLY want fun, the Cripple quickhack also works if you want to use them for a pinata. That's what I did with that one cyberpsycho in a military lift rig - can't otherwise shut him down, but he was vulnerable to cripple...

[Yora]

Pretty much. They're not living, so you can't just snap their necks or strangle them out. The three methods are to use quickhacks, EMP grenades or just shoot the suckers.
But is there a quickhack to turn them off without fighting?

[Whoracle]

But is there a quickhack to turn them off without fighting?

I think System Reset works on them, too. I'd have to check to be sure, though.

[sihnfahl]

But is there a quickhack to turn them off without fighting?
Short Circuit, as mentioned. Rare level also adds an EMP effect. It's been a one-shot with most robots I've run into. Just watch it upload, then there's the BANG.

And, of course, System Reset.

The rest are pretty much control measures that let you beat on them without them being able to return fire.

[GloatingSwine]

But is there a quickhack to turn them off without fighting?

There's a perk in quickhacking that gives you a damage bonus from stealth. That plus Short Circuit will instantly end any robot other than the big ED-209 ones. They don't alert anyone when used.

[sihnfahl]

Basically it comes down to maximizing:

Bloodware (30% more damage from quickhacks)
Subliminal Message (50% more damage if they're not alerted)
Critical Error (your crit rate = quickhack crit rate)

Mass Vulnerability: Quickhacks (+30% damage)

[Yora]

Cool. Looking forward to that.

[Whoracle]

Huh. Started a second Character (Female Corpo), and it turns out that you can hit Level 14, 30SC in Act 1 before The Heist as well as craft all Epic Quick Hacks that I normally use including System Reset. I'm going to be completely overpowered by the End of Act 1. Neat :)

[Blackhawk748]

The out of combat regen is actually pretty nice, as it means you don't need to do anything to get your HP back. And its really quick

[sihnfahl]

Huh. Started a second Character (Female Corpo), and it turns out that you can hit Level 14, 30SC in Act 1 before The Heist as well as craft all Epic Quick Hacks that I normally use including System Reset. I'm going to be completely overpowered by the End of Act 1. Neat :)

Sure. If you hit every NCPD bounty and side gig, not to mention stop whenever you see a star on the map in Act I, you can easily go into Act II pretty much able to head into any side gigs and bounties except those Downtown.

I also ran around triggering the advanced breaches on devices for hacking experience. Running everywhere and doing parkour stuff for the athletics. Thanks to the drink trick, also hit high in the crafting / engineering stuff, not to mention being kitted out.

Another thing? Scan all the time for red, make sure they're gangers / unaffiliated, then just unload on them. Random spawns make for XP fodder.

And you can hit max SC pretty quick in Act II.

[druid91]

Unfortunately, robots have no take-down mechanics as far as I can see, but they are very vulnerable to the Shock quickhack, and system reset also affects them.

Honestly I prefer Cyberpsychosis for bots since it turns them friendly.

[NeoVid]

Something I noticed is that most of the perks in the game seem pretty meh. I am now level 23 and there isn't really anything I want to put my perk points into. Maybe once I have some stats above 14 (have not checked those yet), but all the ones I have access to now seem really useless.
- More components from dismantling.

If you like having infinite resources and money, improving your salvaging can make it possible to get more materials from scrapping an item than it takes to craft...

[Chen]

All the high level high cost quick hacks just seem pointless. Contagion, overheat and short circuit kill everything with no trouble (usually it’s just contagion that does it). I have reboot optics and weapon malfunction just so I can upload two more daemons during breach.

Even bosses are completely non-challenging on Very Hard Oda fight went 1. Breach 2. Overheat 3. Unload assault rifle at point blank range into head for 3 seconds 4. Dead.

Smasher at the end was similar except I also short circuited him for an extra 20k damage or so.

The player scaling is WAY off in the game. I can drive up to a building and clear it non-lethally with my netrunner without getting out of my car. If I do have to get out of my car I basically only take damage from snipers or heavy pistols or melee because I have something like 5000 armor (could probably hit almost 6 if I put a helmet on but they change my haircut). Machine gun fire just tickles.

The game is still fun but at around level 30 you’re so grossly overpowered in offense that there’s basically no challenge anymore.

[Blackhawk748]

All the high level high cost quick hacks just seem pointless. Contagion, overheat and short circuit kill everything with no trouble (usually it’s just contagion that does it). I have reboot optics and weapon malfunction just so I can upload two more daemons during breach.

Even bosses are completely non-challenging on Very Hard Oda fight went 1. Breach 2. Overheat 3. Unload assault rifle at point blank range into head for 3 seconds 4. Dead.

Smasher at the end was similar except I also short circuited him for an extra 20k damage or so.

The player scaling is WAY off in the game. I can drive up to a building and clear it non-lethally with my netrunner without getting out of my car. If I do have to get out of my car I basically only take damage from snipers or heavy pistols or melee because I have something like 5000 armor (could probably hit almost 6 if I put a helmet on but they change my haircut). Machine gun fire just tickles.

The game is still fun but at around level 30 you’re so grossly overpowered in offense that there’s basically no challenge anymore.


There's an Iconic SHotgun you can get that fires 20 pellets and a dude, without crits mind you, was getting 120k a shot if they all hit. A decent shotgun build will one shot Smasher.

It's incredibly stupid.

[Rynjin]

From what I can tell, the game overall seems to be more challenging and fun if you don't do crafting at all...which tracks with my experience of most RPGs with crafting systems. I'm level 30 and have nowhere near 1000 armor, much less five times that.

[sihnfahl]

From what I can tell, the game overall seems to be more challenging and fun if you don't do crafting at all...which tracks with my experience of most RPGs with crafting systems. I'm level 30 and have nowhere near 1000 armor, much less five times that.
Which is why my next run will probably be no major crafting or cyber. Just to see the difference.
Still going to sink a point or two into the breakdown perks in crafting - too much of a moneymaker.

[Yora]

Not only is crafting equipment a bad system, filling the game world with trash items to turn into crafting components is just as bad. It's a distraction when you loot a room during an important dialog scene or major battle.

[druid91]

Honestly, I wish crafting systems were more..... Crafty, in most games.

I don't want an alternate way to purchase gear or equipment. I want to build a screaming death trap of a war machine that's effectiveness relies on how well designed it was.

[warty goblin]

Honestly, I wish crafting systems were more..... Crafty, in most games.

I don't want an alternate way to purchase gear or equipment. I want to build a screaming death trap of a war machine that's effectiveness relies on how well designed it was.

Honestly I wish crafting systems were more... nonexistent in most games. The difficulty curve of most games is so hilariously broken already, adding a giant timesink resource pit to break it further is just unnecessary. And there's never really anything interesting to it; find recipe, grind ingredients, hit craft. It's like a fetch quest stripped of any pretense of narrative that the player assigns themselves for some reason. And it takes basically zero skill, the only challenge is tolerating the component grind, and it provides about as much gameplay as the "options" menu, since all you're doing is hitting a button.

[Rynjin]

Honestly, I wish crafting systems were more..... Crafty, in most games.

I don't want an alternate way to purchase gear or equipment. I want to build a screaming death trap of a war machine that's effectiveness relies on how well designed it was.

Have you played Besiege?

[Blackhawk748]

Have you played Besiege?

Or Crossout to an extent. Fun game.

I agree. Cyberpunk has a pretty awful difficulty curve, but unlike, say Fallout 4 which is similar, the crafting just shatters it more whereas Fallout kind of evens it out.

I think it's just exacerbating preexisting issues like the loot being useless. Like, yes I could use the food, or with one perk point I could never think about it again

[druid91]

Have you played Besiege?

Yep! It's great.

[sihnfahl]

the only challenge is tolerating the component grind, and it provides about as much gameplay as the "options" menu, since all you're doing is hitting a button.
And that if you want to craft multiple items, there's no 'autocraft' system. You have to hold and release for each item...

Also, on another note, you know, for a man of God, the Padre really is old-school.

Forget that love and forgiveness stuff. Padre says: smite them all, and let God sort it out.

[Eldan]

I mean, I'd probably love a roleplaying game built entirely around the craft system. Story: you're an artificer of some kind. You have to solve every combat and environmental problem with a rube-Goldberg machine, but you have an open world to do it in. Equal parts Besieged, The Incredible Machine and Zelda Breath of the Wild.

That would be near-impossible to implement well, probably, but it could be fantastic. "So, I need to kill the dragon that flies out of this cave every morning at sunrise to go hunting. I have six levers, twelve springs, two eggwhisks, a fishing line, three gears and a small hammer, plus whatever I can find in this mountain forest. Let's do this."

Outside that unlikely case, yeah, I'll add my voice to the "get the crafting out of this game please" pile.

[Amechra]

I mean, I'd probably love a roleplaying game built entirely around the craft system. Story: you're an artificer of some kind. You have to solve every combat and environmental problem with a rube-Goldberg machine, but you have an open world to do it in. Equal parts Besieged, The Incredible Machine and Zelda Breath of the Wild.

I seem to recall that there are some older text adventures built around this general concept. But those are, you know, text adventures.

---

There are a few key issues with crafting systems in games that aren't focused on crafting:


They have to be skippable. Since it's not the main draw of your game, the vast majority of players need to be able to skip it. As a result, you're pretty much stuck with making boring consumables or minor number buffs.
They have to keep up with the gear treadmill. As a result, you either run into the issue where the weapon you spent 15 minutes crafting is useless an hour later, or where that weapon you spend 15 minutes crafting breaks the game over your knee.
The creators tend to think that they need to continually throw crafting ingredients at you, so your inventory ends up being incredibly cluttered.
A lot of gear systems tend to take up way more time than they're actually worth, because they involve digging through an inventory full of useless garbage.


Compare that to how Resident Evil handled crafting (AKA mixing herbs):


Instead of having discrete recipes, you have rules for how herbs interact that are pretty easy to remember. If you find a Yellow herb, you know that you should combine it with a Red herb (because Red + Yellow = increased max HP) and a Green herb (because Red + Green = a full heal).
If you skip mixing herbs, you'll be stuck with an inventory full of lackluster healing items for the whole game. And on top of that, you need specific herb combinations to increase your maximum HP. It's not necessary, but that's a perk worth going after.
Any important herbs aren't random drops — you need to explore to find the good stuff. On top of that, you have a limited inventory — not only does this mean that you can't lug around a million components, it also means that crafting is a massive efficiency boost.
It takes a few seconds to mix together herbs (you're just combining them in your inventory, adventure-game-style).


If I had to pick one of those items for why I think it's a good system, I'd have to point to how it interacts with a small inventory. If you can carry an infinite number of items, then mixing two herbs that each heal 10 HP into a potion that heals 20 HP is almost entirely pointless — at best, it gives you more efficient in-combat healing. If you have eight inventory slots to work with, on the other hand, using the crafting system gave you more efficient healing and opened up an extra slot. That's way more appealing.

[GloatingSwine]

I mean, I'd probably love a roleplaying game built entirely around the craft system. Story: you're an artificer of some kind. You have to solve every combat and environmental problem with a rube-Goldberg machine, but you have an open world to do it in. Equal parts Besieged, The Incredible Machine and Zelda Breath of the Wild.

That would be near-impossible to implement well, probably, but it could be fantastic. "So, I need to kill the dragon that flies out of this cave every morning at sunrise to go hunting. I have six levers, twelve springs, two eggwhisks, a fishing line, three gears and a small hammer, plus whatever I can find in this mountain forest. Let's do this."

Outside that unlikely case, yeah, I'll add my voice to the "get the crafting out of this game please" pile.

Dragon Quest Builders?

[Chen]

Which is why my next run will probably be no major crafting or cyber. Just to see the difference.
Still going to sink a point or two into the breakdown perks in crafting - too much of a moneymaker.

Its not really the crafting that’s the issue for the armor. You can find armadillo mods at various stores or in loot anyways. The armor is all found legendary pieces with many slots.

In theory without crafting you would have to randomly get the legendary quick hacks from access points which would make that bit harder. But really even without hacking at all the free gun in Lizzie’s bar is probably strong enough to beat the game with, let alone things like Skippy or Genjiroh.

[Rynjin]

I seem to recall that there are some older text adventures built around this general concept. But those are, you know, text adventures.

---

There are a few key issues with crafting systems in games that aren't focused on crafting:


They have to be skippable. Since it's not the main draw of your game, the vast majority of players need to be able to skip it. As a result, you're pretty much stuck with making boring consumables or minor number buffs.
They have to keep up with the gear treadmill. As a result, you either run into the issue where the weapon you spent 15 minutes crafting is useless an hour later, or where that weapon you spend 15 minutes crafting breaks the game over your knee.
The creators tend to think that they need to continually throw crafting ingredients at you, so your inventory ends up being incredibly cluttered.
A lot of gear systems tend to take up way more time than they're actually worth, because they involve digging through an inventory full of useless garbage.


Compare that to how Resident Evil handled crafting (AKA mixing herbs):


Instead of having discrete recipes, you have rules for how herbs interact that are pretty easy to remember. If you find a Yellow herb, you know that you should combine it with a Red herb (because Red + Yellow = increased max HP) and a Green herb (because Red + Green = a full heal).
If you skip mixing herbs, you'll be stuck with an inventory full of lackluster healing items for the whole game. And on top of that, you need specific herb combinations to increase your maximum HP. It's not necessary, but that's a perk worth going after.
Any important herbs aren't random drops — you need to explore to find the good stuff. On top of that, you have a limited inventory — not only does this mean that you can't lug around a million components, it also means that crafting is a massive efficiency boost.
It takes a few seconds to mix together herbs (you're just combining them in your inventory, adventure-game-style).


If I had to pick one of those items for why I think it's a good system, I'd have to point to how it interacts with a small inventory. If you can carry an infinite number of items, then mixing two herbs that each heal 10 HP into a potion that heals 20 HP is almost entirely pointless — at best, it gives you more efficient in-combat healing. If you have eight inventory slots to work with, on the other hand, using the crafting system gave you more efficient healing and opened up an extra slot. That's way more appealing.

Wait, which Resident Evil game has a yellow herb?

Edit: Weird...I never got to play 4 so didn't know it had a unique herb in it.