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It's a very well done platformer. Different areas have enough variety, there are puzzles to solve and plenty of upgrades to find. Controls are accurate. The combat is less great. There are not many enemy types and the combat is too easy, often it is enough to mash your attack button.
While I respect, and in many ways support, Lionheads decision to steer Fable III in a more story-focused direction. It unfortunately comes at the expense of an overall severe dumbing down and lack of the little details that set Fable I and II out from the RPG crowd. The most devastating to me personally obviously being the fun, witty flavour texts that adorn every item and house in the game. Although this doesn’t mean I am saying the writing is bad, because it is in fact rather good. Hell I’d easily admit that Fable III has some of my favourite characterisation of the whole series. Walter, Jasper, Sabine, Swift, Ben, Page, and of course the returning Reaver are all superbly written and acted and a lot more interesting personality-wise than anything this series has offered beforehand. It’s a shame that the much hyped Voiced Protagonist leaves a lot to be desired to the point where most of the time I even forgot the protagonist was voiced.
One of the major problems that plagues this game is seemingly its insistence in trying to streamline itself as much as possible to set itself out from its predecessors, gone are the standard systems of progression, replaced by a ‘Road to Rule’ system that feels more akin to buying levels than earning them. Gone is a standard inventory system, replaced by a ‘Sanctuary’ hub that although loads fast unless you like swapping weapons constantly, still feels like it was put in just to be another pretty fad or gimmick (this includes the hilariously inaccurate map). Perhaps the most egregious to returning fans though is the complete removal of shop inventory, now replaced by interactive pedestals and mannequins that although look neat, means a shop now only stocks 2-4 items. This is of course also a consequence of streamlining the experience by removing all gradual inclinations of item quality, now instead of 1 star or 2 star health potions, there is now only one all-encompassing health potion that you will never use because Lionhead somehow found a way to dumb the combat down even further than in Fable II. Elaborating on that, while also building off the inanity of the progression system, is the weapon system specifically. Gone are literally ever standard tier of weapons, replaced completely by a host of legendary weapons that completely break the feel of progression as you will most likely nab the first legendary you find and use it through the rest of the game as they all do similar damage, just with different augmentations, this was done in an attempt to encourage co-op play and “player trading” as if weapon damage really matters here. Although I do think the augment system here is a nice way to build up your weapon in a non-conventional way by completing challenges, its just a shame even the starting ‘Hero’ weapons are more than enough to carry you through the pointlessly simple combat sequences.
The customisation system is bad, terrible even if you compare it to its predecessors. I swear theres like 4 hairstyles and 4 types of facial hair. Even the facial morphing is nearly nullified compared to the previous entries. The hand-holding replacement for the follow command also feels rather pointless but does act as a great microcosm for how this game relates to II.
That being said I do love the world Lionhead has crafted here, industrial/fantasy is hugely untapped niche and it’s really committed to here, offering the dull, dreary stone walls of a factory juxtaposed with a countryside that feels ripped from a fairytale. The game just looks great, and even though theres not nearly enough of them, every outfit is intricately designed and really pops. The story itself too is something I found myself really enjoying, at least the Revolution half of the story anyhow. Now don’t get me wrong, as Mel Brooks says “its good to be the king” (especially after the cocktease of Fable II) I just found the first half to be an interesting (although slightly rushed) building up of resources and support reminiscent of Bioware’s style. It’s a shame the narrative takes a nose-dive towards the end as a new, mysterious villain is introduced just a bit too late into the story to make a noticeable impact on the experience. Although it is a step up from Logan, its Jack-of-Blades-esque malevolence and taunting just seems old hat. And it also doesn’t help the late game Royal Decisions slow the game down to a crawl. To me it just feels like a tired, last-minute plot device to attempt and spice the ending up, which it doesn’t really because the final battle is only like 5 minutes long if you rush. At least the side-quests largely seem to benefit from the more dialogue-focused direction as they are some of my favourite of the series. I enjoy how they attempted to make money meaningful here, but the rate at which you get it at of you buy enough real-estate only causes the problem to loop back on itself totally as before long you will still have more money than you could ever possible spend, even if you constantly repair every house one-by-one in what is probably one of the stupidest additions to the game.
The DLCs are okay, Understone and the Winter House add-on are both duds but the Traitor’s Keep DLC is at least and imaginative adventure through some interesting locales with semi-unique enemies.
All-in-all pretty adequate although a massive step-down from the previous entries in everything except maybe story.
One of the major problems that plagues this game is seemingly its insistence in trying to streamline itself as much as possible to set itself out from its predecessors, gone are the standard systems of progression, replaced by a ‘Road to Rule’ system that feels more akin to buying levels than earning them. Gone is a standard inventory system, replaced by a ‘Sanctuary’ hub that although loads fast unless you like swapping weapons constantly, still feels like it was put in just to be another pretty fad or gimmick (this includes the hilariously inaccurate map). Perhaps the most egregious to returning fans though is the complete removal of shop inventory, now replaced by interactive pedestals and mannequins that although look neat, means a shop now only stocks 2-4 items. This is of course also a consequence of streamlining the experience by removing all gradual inclinations of item quality, now instead of 1 star or 2 star health potions, there is now only one all-encompassing health potion that you will never use because Lionhead somehow found a way to dumb the combat down even further than in Fable II. Elaborating on that, while also building off the inanity of the progression system, is the weapon system specifically. Gone are literally ever standard tier of weapons, replaced completely by a host of legendary weapons that completely break the feel of progression as you will most likely nab the first legendary you find and use it through the rest of the game as they all do similar damage, just with different augmentations, this was done in an attempt to encourage co-op play and “player trading” as if weapon damage really matters here. Although I do think the augment system here is a nice way to build up your weapon in a non-conventional way by completing challenges, its just a shame even the starting ‘Hero’ weapons are more than enough to carry you through the pointlessly simple combat sequences.
The customisation system is bad, terrible even if you compare it to its predecessors. I swear theres like 4 hairstyles and 4 types of facial hair. Even the facial morphing is nearly nullified compared to the previous entries. The hand-holding replacement for the follow command also feels rather pointless but does act as a great microcosm for how this game relates to II.
That being said I do love the world Lionhead has crafted here, industrial/fantasy is hugely untapped niche and it’s really committed to here, offering the dull, dreary stone walls of a factory juxtaposed with a countryside that feels ripped from a fairytale. The game just looks great, and even though theres not nearly enough of them, every outfit is intricately designed and really pops. The story itself too is something I found myself really enjoying, at least the Revolution half of the story anyhow. Now don’t get me wrong, as Mel Brooks says “its good to be the king” (especially after the cocktease of Fable II) I just found the first half to be an interesting (although slightly rushed) building up of resources and support reminiscent of Bioware’s style. It’s a shame the narrative takes a nose-dive towards the end as a new, mysterious villain is introduced just a bit too late into the story to make a noticeable impact on the experience. Although it is a step up from Logan, its Jack-of-Blades-esque malevolence and taunting just seems old hat. And it also doesn’t help the late game Royal Decisions slow the game down to a crawl. To me it just feels like a tired, last-minute plot device to attempt and spice the ending up, which it doesn’t really because the final battle is only like 5 minutes long if you rush. At least the side-quests largely seem to benefit from the more dialogue-focused direction as they are some of my favourite of the series. I enjoy how they attempted to make money meaningful here, but the rate at which you get it at of you buy enough real-estate only causes the problem to loop back on itself totally as before long you will still have more money than you could ever possible spend, even if you constantly repair every house one-by-one in what is probably one of the stupidest additions to the game.
The DLCs are okay, Understone and the Winter House add-on are both duds but the Traitor’s Keep DLC is at least and imaginative adventure through some interesting locales with semi-unique enemies.
All-in-all pretty adequate although a massive step-down from the previous entries in everything except maybe story.
One of the BEST stealth games in the genre.
I like the art style and really wanted to go through with the adventure but I was getting frustrated with some aspects. Minor details that bugged me include the fact that there's too much dialogue and non-obvious interactions in order to advance (not knowing you have to re-interact with something only after a specific event). My biggest issue though is that I didn't know I could die so I didn't save and had to go through all that dialogue again. Then I found out you have to save at very specific moments, if you save too close to a specific event, you'll be stuck and have to restart the WHOLE game as there's no different save file option. At that point I said Nope and deleted the game.
Wholesome and sad, you'll get attached to these ghosts and their back stories. Can be finished in a couple of hours and restarted to enjoy different outcomes.
«Sit back and relax»
how can you play it
Positive:
A huge number of interesting mini-games. None of them felt boring/annoying.
Interesting quests.Tasks on the level make the player think, tell the lore of the universe, and also move the main plot.
Minuses:
Terrible character control.Some actions occur with a delay or do not occur at all)
Linear plot with a phantom option to choose from.A couple of times during the game, the player is given a choice,but it absolutely does not affect anything.
An incomplete system of dialogues.After selecting a dialog option, sometimes it disappears,and sometimes it does not, sometimes clicking the same thing a second time will also appear a new replica/useful information, and sometimes a repeat of the previous one, sometimes a green arrow appears opposite the option and the priority in the list changes, but this does not affect anything,and sometimes nothing like this happens
The shaking camera on the stairs.The camera thoroughly monitors the movement of the model and because of this, it jumps up and down on each step
An illogical ending. "I made a mistake.I probably should have stayed. " 1 minute later. "Will you stay? No"
6.5/10
A huge number of interesting mini-games. None of them felt boring/annoying.
Interesting quests.Tasks on the level make the player think, tell the lore of the universe, and also move the main plot.
Minuses:
Terrible character control.Some actions occur with a delay or do not occur at all)
Linear plot with a phantom option to choose from.A couple of times during the game, the player is given a choice,but it absolutely does not affect anything.
An incomplete system of dialogues.After selecting a dialog option, sometimes it disappears,and sometimes it does not, sometimes clicking the same thing a second time will also appear a new replica/useful information, and sometimes a repeat of the previous one, sometimes a green arrow appears opposite the option and the priority in the list changes, but this does not affect anything,and sometimes nothing like this happens
The shaking camera on the stairs.The camera thoroughly monitors the movement of the model and because of this, it jumps up and down on each step
An illogical ending. "I made a mistake.I probably should have stayed. " 1 minute later. "Will you stay? No"
6.5/10
It took me a while before I finally approached to play this game. It's funny, since it was pretty high on my list because it was made by developers of two first Fallout games, which I consider to be one of the best CRPGs ever made. Unfortunately, Arcanum has aged unfavorably. Maybe in early 2000s it could be considered as a pretty good isometric RPG, but by today's standards it can be only considered as average, or even user unfriendly.
Our journey in Arcanum begins with a crash of an airship, which was assaulted for unknown reasons by a group of bandits in air fighters. Being the only one survivor of the crash, we have to find a reason why it happened and who is responsible for it. To solve the mystery, the only thing we have is an advice of a dying man: "find a boy and give him this ring. It's all up to you, my friend". And then, we are moving out for our quest. Main storyline has all what it should have: there's a mystery, there is a secret assassin society, there are wrong and good choices, even few interesting plot twists. As for the main quest - not only I found it properly done, but it also assured me that developers of the game were capable of creating pretty interesting storyline and lore. They also gave us a plenty of possibilities for creating a character: warrior, mage, archer, gunslinger etc. The character creator menu can be overwhelming at the start. The best way to understand it is to just play a game, so better be ready that you might start all over again to upgrade your skills effectively.
This open world has over 80 locations to visit: bigger towns, smaller towns, camps, caves, islands, ruins, castles and many others. Exploring the world won't make them easy to find, since non of them appears on the world map even if our route goes next to them, and that is a huge flaw in my opinion. Original Fallouts had no such problem for example, because locations became visible to us when we moved nearby. In Arcanum, in most cases we will find out the specifics about visiting places through dialogues. Unfortunately, even if someone will tell us about certain locations and we will visit them, not many of them will be interesting. Also, exploring them can be a time consuming quest. Most of the buildings in Arcanum cities and villages look exactly the same, there is no recognition points to find our way around, and because of that at the beginning of the game it's very easy to get lost in large cities. To make exploring easier for us, developers gave names to most of the streets in the game, but it seems more like a design laziness. Architecture in a world of magic and machines (since it's steampunk) should give to the developers a lot of space for artistic expression, but this aspect of the game was not treated with the attention it deserves. World of Arcanum - despite all of its potential - lacks artistic uniqueness and brings no emotions to the player through its visuals.
One of the biggest problems of this game is its illegibility: it lacks of deeper interaction with its world and characters. A simple icon of eyeglass, a possibility of taking a closer look at the environement (terrain, objects, characters) to see its better description would be a great improvement in a game that uses 2D graphics. Yet, it isn't there, neither the situation-log (like Pip Boy 2000 from Fallout games). For this reason, specifics of the world around us are very poor. Of course we can find books throughout our journey that could explain the nature of Arcanum to us, but I am talking about actual options of experiencing its world right here and right now. The fact that areas are big and full of different objects and characters, it's a shame that a player does not get proper tools to explore it and manipulate through it. Illegibility creates a compulsion that pushes us to ask all the questions and speak with as many NPCs as we can. As it seems pretty cool in the beginning - since the dialogues in RPGs are important - the result is not enjoyable at all. "More" not always means "better". Arcanum gives us a liberty to speak with almost every character in the game (you can also kill everyone if you want), but not many of NPCs has something interesting to say. 90% of dialogues in this game concentrates around asking about news in town, trading, looking for a way somewhere or playing dice. There is nothing interesting in such dialogues at all, and at some point in the game we are starting to figuring out which NPCs might have something interesting to say. In most cases there is no way to distinguish which characters are important and which ones are useful only to show us the way; the only option is to talk with all of them, and find out for ourselves. Usually in RPGs you can't speak with everybody, but when you finally meet a NPC that you can talk to, dialogue with him most probably will reward you with information, quest, his story, he might share his personal feelings about the in game world. Unfortunately, dialogues in Arcanum are not interesting at all. If we are patient enough to look through all the NPCs on the screen, someone finally will give us a quest or information about important people's whereabaouts. Until we find them, we can start to feel overwhelmed by size of the world of Arcanum.
Side-quests themselves are mostly fetch-ones: bring me this, bring me that, which should be expected. What bothers me, is that the main story quests are a proof that developers are capable of creating interesting scenarios, yet in a world of this size (I will repeat: there's over 80 locations that we can visit) there is not so many side quests that might be interesting. The ones I remembered the most were the "Ghost of Bessie Toone" and the one with mastering melee combat (there's a sad love story involved).
The last aspect of the game that I will speak of is its combat: it's not balanced properly! We can choose between turn-based or real-time mode - we change it by pressing space. The beginning of the game might be tough (I've played on hard difficulty as half elve) and we can have a really hard time with the bandits, especially when it comes to hand in hand combat, but it's normal: we need more experience, more equipement, good companions. But even if we level up pretty well and we are managing to take care of ourselves and our crew, one of the main quests will take us to the location where we will have to fight with several golems. At this point of the game most of the players should be confused, since not only our weapon breaks on them, but also they can kill us with few hits only, so it should be good to keep them on distance, but if throughout your game you wanted to create a melee-based character: you're in trouble. Watch out, because Black Mountains are one the most annoying parts of the game. There's more: fighting can be pretty messy, since our characters are dropping very often their weapons. It happens mostly in real-time combat mode, that after few moments we realize that one of our characters is fighting using bare hands and we have no idea where he or she lost its weapon - our companions, nor our protagonist have no self preservation instinct to pick it up automatically without our direct order. Basically, a challenge of combat in this game was over for me when I have found a strong companion. And with that much of a force in my team, no enemy, no bandit and no boss was no longer a problem.
To be finished: I can't recommend this game. Of course it can still find its fans, maybe some old-school & hardcore RPG players will find it interesting, but for me it just aged pretty badly. It has its pros, but they are dissapearing in the blackness of dull dialogues, non-balanced combat and uninteresting locations. 5/10.
Our journey in Arcanum begins with a crash of an airship, which was assaulted for unknown reasons by a group of bandits in air fighters. Being the only one survivor of the crash, we have to find a reason why it happened and who is responsible for it. To solve the mystery, the only thing we have is an advice of a dying man: "find a boy and give him this ring. It's all up to you, my friend". And then, we are moving out for our quest. Main storyline has all what it should have: there's a mystery, there is a secret assassin society, there are wrong and good choices, even few interesting plot twists. As for the main quest - not only I found it properly done, but it also assured me that developers of the game were capable of creating pretty interesting storyline and lore. They also gave us a plenty of possibilities for creating a character: warrior, mage, archer, gunslinger etc. The character creator menu can be overwhelming at the start. The best way to understand it is to just play a game, so better be ready that you might start all over again to upgrade your skills effectively.
This open world has over 80 locations to visit: bigger towns, smaller towns, camps, caves, islands, ruins, castles and many others. Exploring the world won't make them easy to find, since non of them appears on the world map even if our route goes next to them, and that is a huge flaw in my opinion. Original Fallouts had no such problem for example, because locations became visible to us when we moved nearby. In Arcanum, in most cases we will find out the specifics about visiting places through dialogues. Unfortunately, even if someone will tell us about certain locations and we will visit them, not many of them will be interesting. Also, exploring them can be a time consuming quest. Most of the buildings in Arcanum cities and villages look exactly the same, there is no recognition points to find our way around, and because of that at the beginning of the game it's very easy to get lost in large cities. To make exploring easier for us, developers gave names to most of the streets in the game, but it seems more like a design laziness. Architecture in a world of magic and machines (since it's steampunk) should give to the developers a lot of space for artistic expression, but this aspect of the game was not treated with the attention it deserves. World of Arcanum - despite all of its potential - lacks artistic uniqueness and brings no emotions to the player through its visuals.
One of the biggest problems of this game is its illegibility: it lacks of deeper interaction with its world and characters. A simple icon of eyeglass, a possibility of taking a closer look at the environement (terrain, objects, characters) to see its better description would be a great improvement in a game that uses 2D graphics. Yet, it isn't there, neither the situation-log (like Pip Boy 2000 from Fallout games). For this reason, specifics of the world around us are very poor. Of course we can find books throughout our journey that could explain the nature of Arcanum to us, but I am talking about actual options of experiencing its world right here and right now. The fact that areas are big and full of different objects and characters, it's a shame that a player does not get proper tools to explore it and manipulate through it. Illegibility creates a compulsion that pushes us to ask all the questions and speak with as many NPCs as we can. As it seems pretty cool in the beginning - since the dialogues in RPGs are important - the result is not enjoyable at all. "More" not always means "better". Arcanum gives us a liberty to speak with almost every character in the game (you can also kill everyone if you want), but not many of NPCs has something interesting to say. 90% of dialogues in this game concentrates around asking about news in town, trading, looking for a way somewhere or playing dice. There is nothing interesting in such dialogues at all, and at some point in the game we are starting to figuring out which NPCs might have something interesting to say. In most cases there is no way to distinguish which characters are important and which ones are useful only to show us the way; the only option is to talk with all of them, and find out for ourselves. Usually in RPGs you can't speak with everybody, but when you finally meet a NPC that you can talk to, dialogue with him most probably will reward you with information, quest, his story, he might share his personal feelings about the in game world. Unfortunately, dialogues in Arcanum are not interesting at all. If we are patient enough to look through all the NPCs on the screen, someone finally will give us a quest or information about important people's whereabaouts. Until we find them, we can start to feel overwhelmed by size of the world of Arcanum.
Side-quests themselves are mostly fetch-ones: bring me this, bring me that, which should be expected. What bothers me, is that the main story quests are a proof that developers are capable of creating interesting scenarios, yet in a world of this size (I will repeat: there's over 80 locations that we can visit) there is not so many side quests that might be interesting. The ones I remembered the most were the "Ghost of Bessie Toone" and the one with mastering melee combat (there's a sad love story involved).
The last aspect of the game that I will speak of is its combat: it's not balanced properly! We can choose between turn-based or real-time mode - we change it by pressing space. The beginning of the game might be tough (I've played on hard difficulty as half elve) and we can have a really hard time with the bandits, especially when it comes to hand in hand combat, but it's normal: we need more experience, more equipement, good companions. But even if we level up pretty well and we are managing to take care of ourselves and our crew, one of the main quests will take us to the location where we will have to fight with several golems. At this point of the game most of the players should be confused, since not only our weapon breaks on them, but also they can kill us with few hits only, so it should be good to keep them on distance, but if throughout your game you wanted to create a melee-based character: you're in trouble. Watch out, because Black Mountains are one the most annoying parts of the game. There's more: fighting can be pretty messy, since our characters are dropping very often their weapons. It happens mostly in real-time combat mode, that after few moments we realize that one of our characters is fighting using bare hands and we have no idea where he or she lost its weapon - our companions, nor our protagonist have no self preservation instinct to pick it up automatically without our direct order. Basically, a challenge of combat in this game was over for me when I have found a strong companion. And with that much of a force in my team, no enemy, no bandit and no boss was no longer a problem.
To be finished: I can't recommend this game. Of course it can still find its fans, maybe some old-school & hardcore RPG players will find it interesting, but for me it just aged pretty badly. It has its pros, but they are dissapearing in the blackness of dull dialogues, non-balanced combat and uninteresting locations. 5/10.
This review is spoiler free.
The reason why you should take your time and wait for this game to be properly patched, is that Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of potential for the future to stand in the same line with the best open-world games in this industry. For now it's an unfinished product that gained success as a money making machine but it failed in delivering a polished work that would meet the expectations with the hype surrounding it. Lack of marketing deliberation and overgrowth of ambition are just the top of the iceberg that I won't explore over here. Instead, I will concentrate on the gameplay-only aspects.
Main character of the Cyberpunk 2077 is V - a street mercenary who desires to earn reputation and become a legend of Night City. Despite of already having certain personality (that we can't change or modify) developers didn't wanted to give us a character made from A to Z; instead they gave us an opportunity to choose V's background, attributes and appearance. It resembles very much creating Shepard in Mass Effect series. Chosing a background (corpo, nomad or street kid) will reflect on your prologue mission, it will affect few dialogues just a little bit and give you other type of clothes for the beginning but it won't make a big change on your overall gameplay; after the first unique mission for each class (which lasts maximum 25 minutes) all three lifepaths will continue the same story. Defining V's background is more about picking an identity that will suit your role-playing style the most, but nothing beyond that. After chosing your class, you get to dispatch 7 points for your attributes: body, intelligence, reflexes, technical abilities and cool. Each attribute is divided to few subcategories where we can pick specific skills at the cost of perk points that we get through three possible ways: leveling up, skill progression or through finding perk shards in the game world. The skill tree should be more lucid in my opinion, but once we will start to get any ideas in which direction we want to build our character it should make more sense. There are few interesting options: melee based sneaking character (cool + body), direct approach riflemen (reflex), hackers desintegrating enemies from safe distance (intelligence), engineers who craft powerful items and lockpick all the doors (technical) and other mixed variations between them that you can make to your liking. Be careful though: it won't be possibile to master all the skills in the game, and the maximum level of progression that you can reach is 50, so you should be concentrated on what kind of build you want to make. After deciding which attributes are the most important for your V, you will start working on the visual aspect of your character. We get enough of tools to create something original, yet not so much as most of us would expect. The promise of changing the size of V's penis could stimulate imagination of some people, but when it comes to body creation, Saints Row 2 from 2008 was way more complex on that matter. You shouldn't expect much but just enough. You can choose a voice (one for a male and one for a female), one out of 39 haircuts, beard type, skin type and its tone, eyes and eyebrows, nose, mouth, jaw, ears, visual cyberwares, piercing, tattoos, scars, make-up, teeth, nails, nipples etc. It seems like a pretty good base for making something original, yet you still can't change things like age (V is always 28 years old), body type (fat or muscular) and variety of tattoos or piercings is pretty low. You won't see V's face too often during your gameplay anyway; it's always FPP with no third person perspective available like in new Fallouts, which means that the only chance to see V's appearance will be by approaching to the mirror (which has to be turned on because there is no mirror reflections in the game), by using photo mode or by watching the ending cutscenes. If you don't want to spend too much time in character creator or you can't make anything interesting by yourself, you can always hit random button; it's pretty messy, since the creation algorythm randomizes every customizable part of your characters body and face, but after removing piercing, make ups, tattoos and scars you should get some cool results after few moments of trying. Watch out: once you confirm your V's appearance, you can't change any part of it in the game - there's no tattoo parlours, no barbers, no pedicures or manicures to be made. It's a missing feature that should be updated in the future, but for now it isn't, so make sure that your male nomad V doesn't have pink nails or crazy tattoos on his body or you will continue with it until the very end of the game.
The introduction to Night City - the main area of Cyberpunk 2077 - starts with a prologue unique for each one of the classes. In my opinion, the way that the game world was presented to us in a such story-focused game could have been done better; the introductions usually are the best moments to create element of surprise, to shock or either to take a slow-paced approach to build a tension that arouses curiosity. Entering to Night City should be a BIG thing, especially for nomads who start their journey at the desert environement of Badlands, yet things escalates so quickly that it seems like no one really has paid too much attention to importance of such introduction. You can feel that there is a significant part of script that's missing, and it's a pity, because the prologue mission of street kid was so well directed that with a little more time of work it could easily fill the emptiness I felt at the start. I think that the problem lays in the cutscene that you can watch after first 25 minutes of gameplay which presents V doing all kinds of stuff that YOU should be allowed to do: hanging out, making contacts and meeting people, getting things done, earning rep. Instead, the storyline skips all of this and suddenly it takes us forward in time 6 months later to Japantown, where you will have a messy task to do. That is the moment where things are starting to get bizzare - and a player still has absolutely no idea about it. The prologue presents to us gameplay mechanics that don't exist after reaching to act 2. Few examples. Our first mission in Japantown is the only place where we will find a breakable wall - the game will allow you later to shoot through obstacles with power weapons, but no object in the game can be truly destroyed in the same manner. It is also one of the very few moments in the game when we will have a possibility of participating in a drive-by shooting from a passenger seat, which is nothing more than a scripted shooting-on-rails part of the mission, despite from what the tutorial hint of "vehicle combat" appearing on the screen is trying to tell us; it's not a tool that we will be allowed to use later in the game. Also, our first visit to the ripperdoc will show us few animations of installing implants, but during your future visits there you will see nothing more than a shopping cart on your screen. But out of all these things, the most important matter of prologue exceptionality is that it appears to be the only part of the whole story where dialogues really seem to have an effect on the final course of action; you will realize that during your first big assignment from a fixer and your first mission with Maelstrom that there are multiple ways of solving a questline. It's not only one of the best missions in the entire game but it's also one with the biggest variety of outcomes depending from our actions. That's right - the most complex quest in the game appears in the prologue, which means that as the story will progress there won't be more missions alike! Gameplay exceptions like this creates a problem: it hypes you for a specific kind of experience that you expect to see when Cyberpunk's open world will be finally available to discover, but when you will reach act 2 and complete few missions here and there you will feel that something is missing. After putting some thought into it I realized that the reason why prologue presented all these unique mechanics was not just for the idea of introducing the world of Cyberpunk 2077 to the players, but most importantly for marketing reasons. The events from act 1 were presented by CD Project RED in their famous 48 minute gameplay reveal. Of course, as usual, the trailers are supposed to show what's the best to attract the attention of consumers and build a hype - and that is exactly why such materials should be approached with caution as they are overestimating the actual condition of the game - but I think that at this point we are touching the subject of false marketing or - to be more polite - a lack of deliberation. I can't recall any other game in the history that would have more agressive marketing than Cyberpunk 2077.
Finishing the prologue starts the act 2 which will present to us completely open world of Cyberpunk 2077 - the Night City and the Badlands. With the world at our feet, we can go out and explore it - and it takes some time until we start to get a hang of its topography. The game world is pretty big and it easily stands in the same line with the biggest sandbox AAA games such as Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim or Fallout New Vegas. It delivers one of the most detailed open worlds known in the game history, and the developers have done tremendous amount of work when it comes to building a distinctive for the genre atmosphere through Night City's complexity. I haven't been that amazed by gargantuanness of a cyberpunk megacity since seeing Hengsha from Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time in 2011. I think that CD Project Red deserved great words of appreciation for showing us a future dystopian metropolis not through dark, rainy and other sci-fi well-worn visual patterns with "the sky [...] that was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" but through a rich palette of colors emanating from the lights, neons, megascreens and holograms elevating above the city. Its districts differs from each other on the levels of architecture, social classes, fashion, quality of technology and cars driving through their areas. The game world designers were basing their work on few art styles such as kitsch, neo-kitsch, entropism and neo-militarism. You can adapt to the flow by establishing your own fashion style, or you can just travel on the streets of Night City and enjoy the variety of different areas: Cherry Blossom Market in Japantown with it's asian restaurants and gaming parlors; industrial part of Watson filled with Maelstrom gang members who seem to exercise Franz Rottensteiner's rule of high-tech and low-life with their cybernetically upgraded to the limit bodies; area of City Center serving as headquarters of corporations with its skyscrapers and splendor; the wastelands of Badlands surrounded by nomads driving in their Mad Max inspired vehicles. Even the view of the junkyard - and the size of it - near Santo Domingo can be astonishing. The attention to details in all of these locations is praiseworthy. We can't enter to all buildings in Night City, but when we do, we will realize that it's hard to find two look-alike locations, which is a common problem in games with open world. It is not perfect though - I admire the magnificence of the in-game world, but it has a strange and uneasy feeling of emptiness arriving from time to time. The reason of it lies in few things. One of those that I really hated was that sometimes the game engine was incapable of rendering crowds on the streets and in effect the city looked literally empty! Restarting the game usually was solving the problem but - unfortunately - not always. Some districts are just vacant and while for some areas it might be justified because of the high rates of crime activity (like Pacifica), this aspect just seems to be underdeveloped. The other reason behind the sense of emptiness of the Night City is... Radio stations. I know that it might be hard to believe - as the soundtrack in this game is amazing - but radio stations are in 99% just music. Sounds even more crazy? Then listen to no matter any radio stations from Grand Theft Autos and then check out any radio from Cyberpunk 2077. The difference is huge: in GTA - just like in the real world - the speakers talking all kinds of stuff, interrupting music with annoucing name of the track actually playing, agressive noises of product placement, commercials, news - it all makes driving through the city way more interesting and simultaneously it brings life to the streets. This aspect of the game, if properly done, could change very much in the overall experience of exploration. I really wish that radio stations could be done with the same pietism as in Grand Theft Auto series. I think that in creating open worlds like this CD Project Red could learn a lot from Rockstar Games and radio stations is definitely one of the aspects that the Reds should work on in the future. Apart from those that I already mentioned, there are few more ways of reducing the sense of emptiness; exploration of the city and the desert surrounding it could be more fun if developers would allow players to immerse themselves in the game world by doing side activities in town, such as hanging out with friends, eating, drinking, clubbing, bowling as Grand Theft Auto games allowed us since GTA San Andreas. In Cyberpunk when you go clubbing and want to order a drink at the bar, you will see a shopping cart on the screen - and it immediately throws you out of the flow. Considering the magnificent architecture of Night City, lack of immersing tools in it is one of the biggest missing features which prevents us from experiencing it more fully. In effect, exploring the game world concentrates for 90% of the time around driving from one mission to another and nothing beyond that. Cyberpunk 2077 is still far from the level of simulation reached by GTA IV and GTA V. Maybe in future games from CD Project RED we will have a chance of enjoying a more deep gameplay.
The best way to get around Night City is to drive one of the 54 vehicles available: sports cars, economy class vehicles, motorbikes, trucks etc. I especially liked the esthetics of nomad type of rides, so Mizutani Shion "Coyote" was my first pick and I am pretty sure that everyone will find something that will match their taste. The thing that made great impression on me was not only beauty of vehicle design on the outside but also inside them. Car cockpits are made with fantastic attention to details and I enjoyed driving in a first person perspective very much even if it's not my preferable view in racing games. For your creativity at designing vehicles in Cyberpunk 2077, I say chapeau bas, CD Project Red, BUT I have a big problem with car purchasing system. I don't know who came up with this idea and why it was implemented, but on the world map all cars and motorbikes available to buy are marked as side-quests... It creates an unnecessary mess when you're trying to filter map legend to figure out what should be your next move. System of buying cars in this game really seems like a last minute attempt to make it function and it was made quickly because nothing else was working, so they left it like that because they couldn't waste more of their production time. Who knows how many other aspects of the game were treated the same way? We can only guess. As for the driving system itself, I think that it should be toned down as the sensibility of handling makes our car turning too sharp. There is no need to expect from a story-driven RPG to be trying to implement Colin McRae Rally mechanics, and honestly there is no need to be changing that much. Actually - ironically speaking - sharp handling might be actually pretty useful at this point, since minimap during fast driving is zoomed so much that we will always miss a turn. It often ends in making u-turns and it's one of the most annoying features in the game that should be repaired as quick as it can; it lead me to a point where I turned the minimap off to be more focused on the traffic. Funny thing is that when I did it, while driving through more vacant locations of Night City I realized that the game engine keeps rendering artificial traffic in the far distance. It is especially highly visible during fast driving on the highways or Badlands and it wouldn't be a problem with more dense of real traffic. If at any moment of the game you will feel tired of driving - which shouldn't happen often anyway - there's a possibility of fast travel, but considering the amount of jobs that you can do in Night City I don't think that it will be necessary.
The world map is full of filler-quests of the same nature as question marks from Witcher 3, Far Cry series or Assassin's Creed. Majority of them are contracts for fixers who want you to steal a valuable object, hack computers of their enemies, kill someone, neutralise people sick of cyberpsychosis (Blade Runner vibes) or proceed a rescue mission; all of them starts with a phone call from a fixer who explains the nature of the contract and then sends you a message with all the details attached. Purpose of such missions is the same as always: earning experience, money and respect, and while most of them are just time fillers, the star of Cyberpunk 2077 shines its brightest light where the main plot and side quests lies. To avoid unnecessary spoilers I will keep it simple, and say that the main story focuses around a biochip which works as a storage for human personality - it's an obvious reference to mind constructs from William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and their subject will be deeply explored as the story progresses. It will also touch the subject of cyberspace, immortality, AI, human sex-dolls (reference to Gibson's meat puppets), braindancing (experiencing someone else's feelings through virtual reality) and many other aspects known in the cyberpunk genre. There is also another thing that has to be taken into consideration when we talk about great scenario and it is phenomenal character design. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the games that presents a great variety of characters so different not only on their superficial level but most importantly through their personality. We will get to know them more through dialogues, and these are of the same quality as all The Witcher games which is a good thing on one side and a bad one on another. The good side is that dialogues are well written and the voice actors have done their best to express the emotions of their characters (even an actor of one face such as Keanu Reeves). The bad side is that we won't have much conversation lines to choose comparing to other RPGs (like Fallout New Vegas or Mass Effect) and their outcome mostly stays the same; the only thing that differs is the NPC reaction to our words, but after this, the conversation follows it's linear script. Unfortunately, after prologue, the dialogues seem to be losing their importance.
To complete your tasks in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 you can take different approaches as you like. If you're a sneaking type, the game allows you to avoid enemy encounters, hack security cameras and silently neutralising your enemies, reaching your target, and then going out unseen through air shafts or rooftops like in a good immersive-sim, so fans of Deus Ex games or Dishonored should be excited for it. Unfortunately, sneaking mechanics are still underdeveloped and have to be patched. You will easy get thrown out of immersion when your character will just suddenly stand up on it's own and get quickly exposed which usually causes a carnage and more often our instant death (especially on the hardest difficulty). To hide your activity in enemy area you can carry bodies of unconsious enemies. Problem is that by leaving them on the floor the game often kills them, treating them as if they had fallen from a great height - it may be a problem for a pacifist kind of players, so remember to make tactical quicksaves often because there is still a lot of work to be done here. Another approach is just open combat with firearms or melee weapons. Gunplay in Cyberpunk 2077 is the same you know from Borderlands, The Outer Worlds or Fallouts; not only the enemies but your character too are nothing more but sponges for bullets and the difference between living and dying in this world lies in precision of your attacks (aim for the headshots) and in the quality of armor you're wearing. We have to remember that Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG and it is a genre that has it's flaws when it comes to keeping right pace of the combat. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if people found out that they like it; it's a matter of personal preference. Personally I don't like the bullet-sponge gunplay style; I liked more of a static combat known from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Dying Light. The reason why I am not a fan of such mechanics is because they often lead to bizzare situations on the screen. Surviving rocket fire or shotgun blast in the chest from close distance is one thing, but I find it quite an abuse when we are unloading a whole magazine of bullets to an enemy sprinting in our direction with a melee weapon and despite our precision and headshots, he still manages to reach us with 5HP left and he kills us with two hits of a baseball bat. At this point I think that we can deny AI's self-preservation instinct. Oh, speaking of AI? Right...
Artificial intelligence of NPC's in Cyberpunk 2077 is a misunderstanding. Lack of self-preservation instinct is just a beginning. Small word of advise: stay away from the police. The wanted script is a mess; no matter where will you hide, the police will get to you. You can even try to barricade yourself in the basement with power weapons - the police officers will magically spawn behind you and quickly put you to the ground. High speed chases with law enforcements? You have to forget about it. AI driving script is pretty bad too.
For now, Cyberpunk 2077 in its current state (version 1.12) is far away from what we were supposed to get. The marketing machine behind it promised the players way too much and set for this game a difficult challenge to meet the expectations of the immersive, open world gameplay. Promises lead to expectations and expectations often lead to dissapointment. The matter of agressive marketing of Cyberpunk 2077 proves a lack of deliberation, which combined with the fact that we have recieved an unfinished product is absolutely unacceptable. Despite of over 8 million pre-orders sold - which is pretty impressive - I have to argue with the idea of calling this game success.
The reason why you should take your time and wait for this game to be properly patched, is that Cyberpunk 2077 has a lot of potential for the future to stand in the same line with the best open-world games in this industry. For now it's an unfinished product that gained success as a money making machine but it failed in delivering a polished work that would meet the expectations with the hype surrounding it. Lack of marketing deliberation and overgrowth of ambition are just the top of the iceberg that I won't explore over here. Instead, I will concentrate on the gameplay-only aspects.
Main character of the Cyberpunk 2077 is V - a street mercenary who desires to earn reputation and become a legend of Night City. Despite of already having certain personality (that we can't change or modify) developers didn't wanted to give us a character made from A to Z; instead they gave us an opportunity to choose V's background, attributes and appearance. It resembles very much creating Shepard in Mass Effect series. Chosing a background (corpo, nomad or street kid) will reflect on your prologue mission, it will affect few dialogues just a little bit and give you other type of clothes for the beginning but it won't make a big change on your overall gameplay; after the first unique mission for each class (which lasts maximum 25 minutes) all three lifepaths will continue the same story. Defining V's background is more about picking an identity that will suit your role-playing style the most, but nothing beyond that. After chosing your class, you get to dispatch 7 points for your attributes: body, intelligence, reflexes, technical abilities and cool. Each attribute is divided to few subcategories where we can pick specific skills at the cost of perk points that we get through three possible ways: leveling up, skill progression or through finding perk shards in the game world. The skill tree should be more lucid in my opinion, but once we will start to get any ideas in which direction we want to build our character it should make more sense. There are few interesting options: melee based sneaking character (cool + body), direct approach riflemen (reflex), hackers desintegrating enemies from safe distance (intelligence), engineers who craft powerful items and lockpick all the doors (technical) and other mixed variations between them that you can make to your liking. Be careful though: it won't be possibile to master all the skills in the game, and the maximum level of progression that you can reach is 50, so you should be concentrated on what kind of build you want to make. After deciding which attributes are the most important for your V, you will start working on the visual aspect of your character. We get enough of tools to create something original, yet not so much as most of us would expect. The promise of changing the size of V's penis could stimulate imagination of some people, but when it comes to body creation, Saints Row 2 from 2008 was way more complex on that matter. You shouldn't expect much but just enough. You can choose a voice (one for a male and one for a female), one out of 39 haircuts, beard type, skin type and its tone, eyes and eyebrows, nose, mouth, jaw, ears, visual cyberwares, piercing, tattoos, scars, make-up, teeth, nails, nipples etc. It seems like a pretty good base for making something original, yet you still can't change things like age (V is always 28 years old), body type (fat or muscular) and variety of tattoos or piercings is pretty low. You won't see V's face too often during your gameplay anyway; it's always FPP with no third person perspective available like in new Fallouts, which means that the only chance to see V's appearance will be by approaching to the mirror (which has to be turned on because there is no mirror reflections in the game), by using photo mode or by watching the ending cutscenes. If you don't want to spend too much time in character creator or you can't make anything interesting by yourself, you can always hit random button; it's pretty messy, since the creation algorythm randomizes every customizable part of your characters body and face, but after removing piercing, make ups, tattoos and scars you should get some cool results after few moments of trying. Watch out: once you confirm your V's appearance, you can't change any part of it in the game - there's no tattoo parlours, no barbers, no pedicures or manicures to be made. It's a missing feature that should be updated in the future, but for now it isn't, so make sure that your male nomad V doesn't have pink nails or crazy tattoos on his body or you will continue with it until the very end of the game.
The introduction to Night City - the main area of Cyberpunk 2077 - starts with a prologue unique for each one of the classes. In my opinion, the way that the game world was presented to us in a such story-focused game could have been done better; the introductions usually are the best moments to create element of surprise, to shock or either to take a slow-paced approach to build a tension that arouses curiosity. Entering to Night City should be a BIG thing, especially for nomads who start their journey at the desert environement of Badlands, yet things escalates so quickly that it seems like no one really has paid too much attention to importance of such introduction. You can feel that there is a significant part of script that's missing, and it's a pity, because the prologue mission of street kid was so well directed that with a little more time of work it could easily fill the emptiness I felt at the start. I think that the problem lays in the cutscene that you can watch after first 25 minutes of gameplay which presents V doing all kinds of stuff that YOU should be allowed to do: hanging out, making contacts and meeting people, getting things done, earning rep. Instead, the storyline skips all of this and suddenly it takes us forward in time 6 months later to Japantown, where you will have a messy task to do. That is the moment where things are starting to get bizzare - and a player still has absolutely no idea about it. The prologue presents to us gameplay mechanics that don't exist after reaching to act 2. Few examples. Our first mission in Japantown is the only place where we will find a breakable wall - the game will allow you later to shoot through obstacles with power weapons, but no object in the game can be truly destroyed in the same manner. It is also one of the very few moments in the game when we will have a possibility of participating in a drive-by shooting from a passenger seat, which is nothing more than a scripted shooting-on-rails part of the mission, despite from what the tutorial hint of "vehicle combat" appearing on the screen is trying to tell us; it's not a tool that we will be allowed to use later in the game. Also, our first visit to the ripperdoc will show us few animations of installing implants, but during your future visits there you will see nothing more than a shopping cart on your screen. But out of all these things, the most important matter of prologue exceptionality is that it appears to be the only part of the whole story where dialogues really seem to have an effect on the final course of action; you will realize that during your first big assignment from a fixer and your first mission with Maelstrom that there are multiple ways of solving a questline. It's not only one of the best missions in the entire game but it's also one with the biggest variety of outcomes depending from our actions. That's right - the most complex quest in the game appears in the prologue, which means that as the story will progress there won't be more missions alike! Gameplay exceptions like this creates a problem: it hypes you for a specific kind of experience that you expect to see when Cyberpunk's open world will be finally available to discover, but when you will reach act 2 and complete few missions here and there you will feel that something is missing. After putting some thought into it I realized that the reason why prologue presented all these unique mechanics was not just for the idea of introducing the world of Cyberpunk 2077 to the players, but most importantly for marketing reasons. The events from act 1 were presented by CD Project RED in their famous 48 minute gameplay reveal. Of course, as usual, the trailers are supposed to show what's the best to attract the attention of consumers and build a hype - and that is exactly why such materials should be approached with caution as they are overestimating the actual condition of the game - but I think that at this point we are touching the subject of false marketing or - to be more polite - a lack of deliberation. I can't recall any other game in the history that would have more agressive marketing than Cyberpunk 2077.
Finishing the prologue starts the act 2 which will present to us completely open world of Cyberpunk 2077 - the Night City and the Badlands. With the world at our feet, we can go out and explore it - and it takes some time until we start to get a hang of its topography. The game world is pretty big and it easily stands in the same line with the biggest sandbox AAA games such as Red Dead Redemption, Skyrim or Fallout New Vegas. It delivers one of the most detailed open worlds known in the game history, and the developers have done tremendous amount of work when it comes to building a distinctive for the genre atmosphere through Night City's complexity. I haven't been that amazed by gargantuanness of a cyberpunk megacity since seeing Hengsha from Deus Ex: Human Revolution for the first time in 2011. I think that CD Project Red deserved great words of appreciation for showing us a future dystopian metropolis not through dark, rainy and other sci-fi well-worn visual patterns with "the sky [...] that was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" but through a rich palette of colors emanating from the lights, neons, megascreens and holograms elevating above the city. Its districts differs from each other on the levels of architecture, social classes, fashion, quality of technology and cars driving through their areas. The game world designers were basing their work on few art styles such as kitsch, neo-kitsch, entropism and neo-militarism. You can adapt to the flow by establishing your own fashion style, or you can just travel on the streets of Night City and enjoy the variety of different areas: Cherry Blossom Market in Japantown with it's asian restaurants and gaming parlors; industrial part of Watson filled with Maelstrom gang members who seem to exercise Franz Rottensteiner's rule of high-tech and low-life with their cybernetically upgraded to the limit bodies; area of City Center serving as headquarters of corporations with its skyscrapers and splendor; the wastelands of Badlands surrounded by nomads driving in their Mad Max inspired vehicles. Even the view of the junkyard - and the size of it - near Santo Domingo can be astonishing. The attention to details in all of these locations is praiseworthy. We can't enter to all buildings in Night City, but when we do, we will realize that it's hard to find two look-alike locations, which is a common problem in games with open world. It is not perfect though - I admire the magnificence of the in-game world, but it has a strange and uneasy feeling of emptiness arriving from time to time. The reason of it lies in few things. One of those that I really hated was that sometimes the game engine was incapable of rendering crowds on the streets and in effect the city looked literally empty! Restarting the game usually was solving the problem but - unfortunately - not always. Some districts are just vacant and while for some areas it might be justified because of the high rates of crime activity (like Pacifica), this aspect just seems to be underdeveloped. The other reason behind the sense of emptiness of the Night City is... Radio stations. I know that it might be hard to believe - as the soundtrack in this game is amazing - but radio stations are in 99% just music. Sounds even more crazy? Then listen to no matter any radio stations from Grand Theft Autos and then check out any radio from Cyberpunk 2077. The difference is huge: in GTA - just like in the real world - the speakers talking all kinds of stuff, interrupting music with annoucing name of the track actually playing, agressive noises of product placement, commercials, news - it all makes driving through the city way more interesting and simultaneously it brings life to the streets. This aspect of the game, if properly done, could change very much in the overall experience of exploration. I really wish that radio stations could be done with the same pietism as in Grand Theft Auto series. I think that in creating open worlds like this CD Project Red could learn a lot from Rockstar Games and radio stations is definitely one of the aspects that the Reds should work on in the future. Apart from those that I already mentioned, there are few more ways of reducing the sense of emptiness; exploration of the city and the desert surrounding it could be more fun if developers would allow players to immerse themselves in the game world by doing side activities in town, such as hanging out with friends, eating, drinking, clubbing, bowling as Grand Theft Auto games allowed us since GTA San Andreas. In Cyberpunk when you go clubbing and want to order a drink at the bar, you will see a shopping cart on the screen - and it immediately throws you out of the flow. Considering the magnificent architecture of Night City, lack of immersing tools in it is one of the biggest missing features which prevents us from experiencing it more fully. In effect, exploring the game world concentrates for 90% of the time around driving from one mission to another and nothing beyond that. Cyberpunk 2077 is still far from the level of simulation reached by GTA IV and GTA V. Maybe in future games from CD Project RED we will have a chance of enjoying a more deep gameplay.
The best way to get around Night City is to drive one of the 54 vehicles available: sports cars, economy class vehicles, motorbikes, trucks etc. I especially liked the esthetics of nomad type of rides, so Mizutani Shion "Coyote" was my first pick and I am pretty sure that everyone will find something that will match their taste. The thing that made great impression on me was not only beauty of vehicle design on the outside but also inside them. Car cockpits are made with fantastic attention to details and I enjoyed driving in a first person perspective very much even if it's not my preferable view in racing games. For your creativity at designing vehicles in Cyberpunk 2077, I say chapeau bas, CD Project Red, BUT I have a big problem with car purchasing system. I don't know who came up with this idea and why it was implemented, but on the world map all cars and motorbikes available to buy are marked as side-quests... It creates an unnecessary mess when you're trying to filter map legend to figure out what should be your next move. System of buying cars in this game really seems like a last minute attempt to make it function and it was made quickly because nothing else was working, so they left it like that because they couldn't waste more of their production time. Who knows how many other aspects of the game were treated the same way? We can only guess. As for the driving system itself, I think that it should be toned down as the sensibility of handling makes our car turning too sharp. There is no need to expect from a story-driven RPG to be trying to implement Colin McRae Rally mechanics, and honestly there is no need to be changing that much. Actually - ironically speaking - sharp handling might be actually pretty useful at this point, since minimap during fast driving is zoomed so much that we will always miss a turn. It often ends in making u-turns and it's one of the most annoying features in the game that should be repaired as quick as it can; it lead me to a point where I turned the minimap off to be more focused on the traffic. Funny thing is that when I did it, while driving through more vacant locations of Night City I realized that the game engine keeps rendering artificial traffic in the far distance. It is especially highly visible during fast driving on the highways or Badlands and it wouldn't be a problem with more dense of real traffic. If at any moment of the game you will feel tired of driving - which shouldn't happen often anyway - there's a possibility of fast travel, but considering the amount of jobs that you can do in Night City I don't think that it will be necessary.
The world map is full of filler-quests of the same nature as question marks from Witcher 3, Far Cry series or Assassin's Creed. Majority of them are contracts for fixers who want you to steal a valuable object, hack computers of their enemies, kill someone, neutralise people sick of cyberpsychosis (Blade Runner vibes) or proceed a rescue mission; all of them starts with a phone call from a fixer who explains the nature of the contract and then sends you a message with all the details attached. Purpose of such missions is the same as always: earning experience, money and respect, and while most of them are just time fillers, the star of Cyberpunk 2077 shines its brightest light where the main plot and side quests lies. To avoid unnecessary spoilers I will keep it simple, and say that the main story focuses around a biochip which works as a storage for human personality - it's an obvious reference to mind constructs from William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and their subject will be deeply explored as the story progresses. It will also touch the subject of cyberspace, immortality, AI, human sex-dolls (reference to Gibson's meat puppets), braindancing (experiencing someone else's feelings through virtual reality) and many other aspects known in the cyberpunk genre. There is also another thing that has to be taken into consideration when we talk about great scenario and it is phenomenal character design. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the games that presents a great variety of characters so different not only on their superficial level but most importantly through their personality. We will get to know them more through dialogues, and these are of the same quality as all The Witcher games which is a good thing on one side and a bad one on another. The good side is that dialogues are well written and the voice actors have done their best to express the emotions of their characters (even an actor of one face such as Keanu Reeves). The bad side is that we won't have much conversation lines to choose comparing to other RPGs (like Fallout New Vegas or Mass Effect) and their outcome mostly stays the same; the only thing that differs is the NPC reaction to our words, but after this, the conversation follows it's linear script. Unfortunately, after prologue, the dialogues seem to be losing their importance.
To complete your tasks in the world of Cyberpunk 2077 you can take different approaches as you like. If you're a sneaking type, the game allows you to avoid enemy encounters, hack security cameras and silently neutralising your enemies, reaching your target, and then going out unseen through air shafts or rooftops like in a good immersive-sim, so fans of Deus Ex games or Dishonored should be excited for it. Unfortunately, sneaking mechanics are still underdeveloped and have to be patched. You will easy get thrown out of immersion when your character will just suddenly stand up on it's own and get quickly exposed which usually causes a carnage and more often our instant death (especially on the hardest difficulty). To hide your activity in enemy area you can carry bodies of unconsious enemies. Problem is that by leaving them on the floor the game often kills them, treating them as if they had fallen from a great height - it may be a problem for a pacifist kind of players, so remember to make tactical quicksaves often because there is still a lot of work to be done here. Another approach is just open combat with firearms or melee weapons. Gunplay in Cyberpunk 2077 is the same you know from Borderlands, The Outer Worlds or Fallouts; not only the enemies but your character too are nothing more but sponges for bullets and the difference between living and dying in this world lies in precision of your attacks (aim for the headshots) and in the quality of armor you're wearing. We have to remember that Cyberpunk 2077 is an RPG and it is a genre that has it's flaws when it comes to keeping right pace of the combat. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if people found out that they like it; it's a matter of personal preference. Personally I don't like the bullet-sponge gunplay style; I liked more of a static combat known from S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Dying Light. The reason why I am not a fan of such mechanics is because they often lead to bizzare situations on the screen. Surviving rocket fire or shotgun blast in the chest from close distance is one thing, but I find it quite an abuse when we are unloading a whole magazine of bullets to an enemy sprinting in our direction with a melee weapon and despite our precision and headshots, he still manages to reach us with 5HP left and he kills us with two hits of a baseball bat. At this point I think that we can deny AI's self-preservation instinct. Oh, speaking of AI? Right...
Artificial intelligence of NPC's in Cyberpunk 2077 is a misunderstanding. Lack of self-preservation instinct is just a beginning. Small word of advise: stay away from the police. The wanted script is a mess; no matter where will you hide, the police will get to you. You can even try to barricade yourself in the basement with power weapons - the police officers will magically spawn behind you and quickly put you to the ground. High speed chases with law enforcements? You have to forget about it. AI driving script is pretty bad too.
For now, Cyberpunk 2077 in its current state (version 1.12) is far away from what we were supposed to get. The marketing machine behind it promised the players way too much and set for this game a difficult challenge to meet the expectations of the immersive, open world gameplay. Promises lead to expectations and expectations often lead to dissapointment. The matter of agressive marketing of Cyberpunk 2077 proves a lack of deliberation, which combined with the fact that we have recieved an unfinished product is absolutely unacceptable. Despite of over 8 million pre-orders sold - which is pretty impressive - I have to argue with the idea of calling this game success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWS9xz_1Pzo
Exatron Quest: L’Épée de Sang (The Blood Sword) is an RPG Maker French game developed by one person. It had been updated and replaced with the “Silver Dust Edition”.
While it's not my cup of tea, I like my RPGs with a deeper plot and with more character development, Exatron Quest is easy to pick up and play. Even a child could finish this game easily. However, do note that the saves are limited with the save crystals or at an inn so, if you are not careful, you’ll have to redo parts of the game over and over again.
The maps are well done. The combat system is the default RPG Maker MV’s one, but it is robust, dynamic, and fun to play. The graphics / images are from the engine RTP, but they fit well with the game’s fantasy world. The music is ok. Not bad, but not great either.
So, if you don’t mind a retro-looking RPG using the RTP assets, with a simple plot and with limited saves, get Exatron Quest: The Blood Sword. The game is available in English, even if the Steam store page only mentions French.
You can complete it in 5-6 hours, if you rush, or 8-10 hours if you do all the side quests. Since you can choose your hero class and gender, you can do several playthroughs too.
The English version does have some tiny bugs, but they are not game breaking. The translation is ok. You can understand what going on, but some parts of the text are rougher.
There is an important plot point part not translated, but basically, after you finish the Water Grotto/Cave with Rubis, you must go to the Infinite Desert after recruiting Hector in the main city.
During your quest, you’ll meet various characters and some of them will join your party. You have Mercuria, the last of her kind, the last for the sorce-blade. She can wield both sword and magic. You have Rubis, a “sage of water” who wish to go on an adventure, away from her watery town. A ”mage” character. You have Hector, a veteran fighter who wish to help you on your quest to stop the evil Demon King and to save the world.
Exatron Quest also got elemental themed dungeons, many boss battles, side quests, and places to explore. The world of Exatronia is waiting for a Hero. To fix their mistakes (yeah ‘cause they freed the villain!) and to save the world. Will you hear the call? YOU DECIDE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI3OQ2GS2to
----------------------------
My grade: 6/10 - "Fair".
----------------------------
The good (+):
* Easy to pick up and play.
* Nice little story.
* Well done maps.
* The art style (RTP assets) fit with the fantasy world.
* The combat system is fun to play.
* Many classes for the main character, so there is re-playability. You can also choose the MC’s gender.
The neutral:
* The music. I feel like the more "metal / rock-style" songs doesn’t fit the Exatronia world.
* All the "guest stars" cameos in pubs, bars, during the tutorial, and for many side quests. You don't have a very detailed explanation of who they are or why they are in the game, so I think they "clash" too much with the fantasy setting.
* The English translation. It could have been better. Also the untranslated text.
*The short “lifespan” of the game.
The bad (-):
* Limited saves. This system - saving only at an Inn or if you find a Save Crystal - is more of an annoyance then anything else. You could easily save everywhere, and the game would have been even more fun to play. Now, you must always be extra careful when you play, otherwise you might lose some hours in-game, and having to do them over and over and over again.
* The "insta kills". There are 2 of them. If you refuse to remove the sword at the start, and if you try to open the chest in the store with the kid in the big town. Now, I think in the French version, you don't get a game over by not removing the sword, but still, those "cheap insta kills" are dumb, happen out of nowhere, and doesn’t contribute anything meaningful to the game. Add the limited save system and you are bound to get frustrated.
* All the assets from the RPG Maker engine. They do fit with the game universe, yeah, but I like fully customized rpg maker games way more.
* Its story is nice, but it's not very deep and developed. In a nutshell: "You freed the demon king, then you purified the holy sword by doing the elemental dungeons and defeating the spirits. Now you find the demon king and with the final battle you defeat him then you seal him away. The world is saved. The end."
* A serious lack of characters and lore development. You barely know anything about Morgana, the Demon King, Mercuria, Rubis, Hector, the Exatron Goddess, etc. What is a “sorce-blade” (for Mercuria)? She doesn’t explain it to you in-game. What’s a “Water Sage” (for Rubis)? What happened to Prince Ernest after he defeats the Demon King 5 years ago? Is he dead now? Why do you need to go to the academy to choose a Class if the MC start as an “Adventurer”? Does every character in this universe need to go there to get a Class? Etc, etc.
Exatron Quest: L’Épée de Sang (The Blood Sword) is an RPG Maker French game developed by one person. It had been updated and replaced with the “Silver Dust Edition”.
While it's not my cup of tea, I like my RPGs with a deeper plot and with more character development, Exatron Quest is easy to pick up and play. Even a child could finish this game easily. However, do note that the saves are limited with the save crystals or at an inn so, if you are not careful, you’ll have to redo parts of the game over and over again.
The maps are well done. The combat system is the default RPG Maker MV’s one, but it is robust, dynamic, and fun to play. The graphics / images are from the engine RTP, but they fit well with the game’s fantasy world. The music is ok. Not bad, but not great either.
So, if you don’t mind a retro-looking RPG using the RTP assets, with a simple plot and with limited saves, get Exatron Quest: The Blood Sword. The game is available in English, even if the Steam store page only mentions French.
You can complete it in 5-6 hours, if you rush, or 8-10 hours if you do all the side quests. Since you can choose your hero class and gender, you can do several playthroughs too.
The English version does have some tiny bugs, but they are not game breaking. The translation is ok. You can understand what going on, but some parts of the text are rougher.
There is an important plot point part not translated, but basically, after you finish the Water Grotto/Cave with Rubis, you must go to the Infinite Desert after recruiting Hector in the main city.
During your quest, you’ll meet various characters and some of them will join your party. You have Mercuria, the last of her kind, the last for the sorce-blade. She can wield both sword and magic. You have Rubis, a “sage of water” who wish to go on an adventure, away from her watery town. A ”mage” character. You have Hector, a veteran fighter who wish to help you on your quest to stop the evil Demon King and to save the world.
Exatron Quest also got elemental themed dungeons, many boss battles, side quests, and places to explore. The world of Exatronia is waiting for a Hero. To fix their mistakes (yeah ‘cause they freed the villain!) and to save the world. Will you hear the call? YOU DECIDE.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI3OQ2GS2to
----------------------------
My grade: 6/10 - "Fair".
----------------------------
The good (+):
* Easy to pick up and play.
* Nice little story.
* Well done maps.
* The art style (RTP assets) fit with the fantasy world.
* The combat system is fun to play.
* Many classes for the main character, so there is re-playability. You can also choose the MC’s gender.
The neutral:
* The music. I feel like the more "metal / rock-style" songs doesn’t fit the Exatronia world.
* All the "guest stars" cameos in pubs, bars, during the tutorial, and for many side quests. You don't have a very detailed explanation of who they are or why they are in the game, so I think they "clash" too much with the fantasy setting.
* The English translation. It could have been better. Also the untranslated text.
*The short “lifespan” of the game.
The bad (-):
* Limited saves. This system - saving only at an Inn or if you find a Save Crystal - is more of an annoyance then anything else. You could easily save everywhere, and the game would have been even more fun to play. Now, you must always be extra careful when you play, otherwise you might lose some hours in-game, and having to do them over and over and over again.
* The "insta kills". There are 2 of them. If you refuse to remove the sword at the start, and if you try to open the chest in the store with the kid in the big town. Now, I think in the French version, you don't get a game over by not removing the sword, but still, those "cheap insta kills" are dumb, happen out of nowhere, and doesn’t contribute anything meaningful to the game. Add the limited save system and you are bound to get frustrated.
* All the assets from the RPG Maker engine. They do fit with the game universe, yeah, but I like fully customized rpg maker games way more.
* Its story is nice, but it's not very deep and developed. In a nutshell: "You freed the demon king, then you purified the holy sword by doing the elemental dungeons and defeating the spirits. Now you find the demon king and with the final battle you defeat him then you seal him away. The world is saved. The end."
* A serious lack of characters and lore development. You barely know anything about Morgana, the Demon King, Mercuria, Rubis, Hector, the Exatron Goddess, etc. What is a “sorce-blade” (for Mercuria)? She doesn’t explain it to you in-game. What’s a “Water Sage” (for Rubis)? What happened to Prince Ernest after he defeats the Demon King 5 years ago? Is he dead now? Why do you need to go to the academy to choose a Class if the MC start as an “Adventurer”? Does every character in this universe need to go there to get a Class? Etc, etc.