Why Cyberpunk 2077 was disappointing *spoilers*
Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2021 1:46 am
It goes beyond the fact that they assumed everyone in 2020 would have a PS5 or Xbox X and half-assed last generation consoles before, oh no, it turned out those were less than a fraction of the owners that bought it due to Covid shortages and the majority of owners had a buggy ass piece of crap. No, I feel the problem is primarily storytelling and delivering far less than we deserved. This is why I feel the game feels undercooked.
1. I think that a lot of fans created a video game in their head which was completely divorced from the game that was promised and presented. There's people who are complaining about the Militech, Meredith Stout, and Night City PD plotlines that are completely products of their imagination of things that they thought they MIGHT do in the game. Ditto playing the corporations against each other and entirely separate Life Paths. I've actually PLAYED Cyberpunk 2020 and that game is all about being a mercenary criminal so this is silly.
BUT the game developers never gave a clear idea of what the game WAS supposed to be about: which was being a criminal in Night City like the tabletop game.
2. The game is pretty damn shallow and that is something that is entirely on CD Projekt Red. The game's main quest is about 30 hours and that's about 10 hours less than Dragon Age: Origins with far less focus on Companions and strong NPCs that make these sorts of games. Everyone generally likes Panam, Judy, River, and Kerry (they may even LOVE a couple of those) but the game is pretty absent of time to spend with them. Indeed, Johnny is about the only one you do get a decent time with. The plot is also incredibly "meh" in terms of stakes because you dying is something that isn't as motivating a quest as people think.
It's like Arthur Morgan's plot in RD2 except its absent the idea of Arthur trying to save his friends and doing a little good with his life in his little time left. V is just selfishly trying to save himself/herself and that makes him/her less interesting.
3. The game kills a staggering number of characters just before they actually get interesting and the player develops an attachment to them. Jackie, Evelyn, Dex, T-Bugg, and potentially Goro all end up dead before you can really build a storyline about them. In a game as short as this, the NPCs are going to determine whether or not you are going to become immersed in the world. Cutting out the entire first ACTs worth of companions leaves you with having to develop all those attachments again.
4. The game has no actual villain and that is pretty ridiculous in a fucking noir crime game. Yorinobu doesn't even know you're alive and you never face him down, Dex is killed by Goro before you can get revenge, and Adam Smasher has just a few lines here and there. Ironically, I most hated the Voodoo Boys but you deal with them (or don't) too much even when you might want to avenge Evelyn. As such, the game really feels impersonal as not only do you not have love to motivate you (jackie aside), you don't have hate.
5. So much of the game is busywork that is variations on the same theme. You do a massive amount of fighting gangs for the police (why?) and then you do work for 9 or 10 different Fixers who hire you for the same sort of things. While a few of the Fixers have personalities, you could work for half of them and have them be more developed.
6. The plot actually makes no goddamned sense after the Heist. You are supposedly guilty of murdering the world's richest man (Saburo Arasaka) but no one attempts to turn you over to Arasaka after Dex and plenty of these criminals actually hire you to their petty ass jobs. You're also dying and probably don't need a few hundred credits for murdering a local gang lord or kidnapping a woman guilty of manslaughter. In RD2, Arthur Morgan STOPS doing random sidequests and heists when he's dying or at least has the option of forgiving debt because money doesn't matter anymore. Hell, Arasaka never sends any more bounty hunters after you.
1. I think that a lot of fans created a video game in their head which was completely divorced from the game that was promised and presented. There's people who are complaining about the Militech, Meredith Stout, and Night City PD plotlines that are completely products of their imagination of things that they thought they MIGHT do in the game. Ditto playing the corporations against each other and entirely separate Life Paths. I've actually PLAYED Cyberpunk 2020 and that game is all about being a mercenary criminal so this is silly.
BUT the game developers never gave a clear idea of what the game WAS supposed to be about: which was being a criminal in Night City like the tabletop game.
2. The game is pretty damn shallow and that is something that is entirely on CD Projekt Red. The game's main quest is about 30 hours and that's about 10 hours less than Dragon Age: Origins with far less focus on Companions and strong NPCs that make these sorts of games. Everyone generally likes Panam, Judy, River, and Kerry (they may even LOVE a couple of those) but the game is pretty absent of time to spend with them. Indeed, Johnny is about the only one you do get a decent time with. The plot is also incredibly "meh" in terms of stakes because you dying is something that isn't as motivating a quest as people think.
It's like Arthur Morgan's plot in RD2 except its absent the idea of Arthur trying to save his friends and doing a little good with his life in his little time left. V is just selfishly trying to save himself/herself and that makes him/her less interesting.
3. The game kills a staggering number of characters just before they actually get interesting and the player develops an attachment to them. Jackie, Evelyn, Dex, T-Bugg, and potentially Goro all end up dead before you can really build a storyline about them. In a game as short as this, the NPCs are going to determine whether or not you are going to become immersed in the world. Cutting out the entire first ACTs worth of companions leaves you with having to develop all those attachments again.
4. The game has no actual villain and that is pretty ridiculous in a fucking noir crime game. Yorinobu doesn't even know you're alive and you never face him down, Dex is killed by Goro before you can get revenge, and Adam Smasher has just a few lines here and there. Ironically, I most hated the Voodoo Boys but you deal with them (or don't) too much even when you might want to avenge Evelyn. As such, the game really feels impersonal as not only do you not have love to motivate you (jackie aside), you don't have hate.
5. So much of the game is busywork that is variations on the same theme. You do a massive amount of fighting gangs for the police (why?) and then you do work for 9 or 10 different Fixers who hire you for the same sort of things. While a few of the Fixers have personalities, you could work for half of them and have them be more developed.
6. The plot actually makes no goddamned sense after the Heist. You are supposedly guilty of murdering the world's richest man (Saburo Arasaka) but no one attempts to turn you over to Arasaka after Dex and plenty of these criminals actually hire you to their petty ass jobs. You're also dying and probably don't need a few hundred credits for murdering a local gang lord or kidnapping a woman guilty of manslaughter. In RD2, Arthur Morgan STOPS doing random sidequests and heists when he's dying or at least has the option of forgiving debt because money doesn't matter anymore. Hell, Arasaka never sends any more bounty hunters after you.