I bought this game, played it 3 hours on launch, failed to refund it. Give me 3 reasons to reinstall this on steam and try it again.
Did you play it shortly after it launched, or some time after? The game was very unstable and buggy for a while after it released, but itâs been largely improved since then. Thereâs still a few minor bugs that are kinda hard to fix (usually scripting issues with some quest lines that can be broken, but I think most of those have also been repaired), but otherwise itâs very solid now.
Also, are you playing on a current-gen system? PS4/XB1 are going to have really bad performance, even with the updates.
If you didnât quit due to performance problems, why did you decide not to continue? Maybe I could shed some light on things youâre missing out on.
I played on PC only. I played it within a day of launch. It has been so long that I hardly recall. I believe it wasnât the most smooth experience, but more so than that, I didnât enjoy the gameplay. I didnât feel like my bullets were making a connection. The world felt more contrived than I thought it would.
I also feel like perhaps I bit into the hype to the point that I hadnât seen the forest for the trees. During my time playing, I realized I wasnât that into the whole cyber punk concept to begin with. Thatâs my fault obviously. Shameful though that I didnât set myself up for a successful refund.
Ahh, I gotcha. Iâd definitely recommend giving it another shot if itâs been a while! Some of the early weapons youâll find will have some pretty poor stats, but once you get past the main âintroâ quest (without spoiling anything, itâs after V and Jackie part ways), youâll unlock basically the full game at that point, with access to a lot more options for weaponry.
I also wasnât a huge fan of the gunplay in this game, so I ended up going with a netrunner build, so most of my combat was done a lot slower and from safe distances. If you ever try rolling another character, I definitely recommend going that route, instead. Dump the majority of your points into netrunning and cyberware, and also spec into stealth, and youâre basically the worldâs most dangerous computer virus, IRL. Drop a few points into some melee abilities and keep a katana or some throwing knives equipped, and youâve got yourself a really fun âcyber ninjaâ character going at that point. I prefer this playstyle, personally, because it feels a bit more appropriate for the world youâre playing in. It also keeps you safe from a distance, but capable to defend yourself up close, without needing much in the way of firearms. While you can absolutely run-and-gun your way through it if you want, I feel like you miss out on a lot of what makes Cyberpunk so special that way.
That said, if you come across any âsmartâ weapons (instead of bullets, they fire homing projectiles that auto-track enemies), those definitely felt a lot more fun to use for me. The only gun I really keep equipped is Skippy (a smart pistol thatâs tied to a really fun quest) because itâs great for those situations where youâre waiting for your skill cooldowns and need to drop an enemy or two and donât feel like aiming.
Alternatively, you could also just âbypassâ the combat by dropping the difficulty to just breeze through the story and the environments. Despite a lot of the gameâs flaws, it has some of the best narrative Iâve seen in a game in ages, so the story is absolutely worth digesting even if the gameplay isnât your cup of tea, in my opinion. The game actually poses a lot of really interesting philosophical questions to the player (if you enjoy some of the themes in Black Mirror about technology, identity, and ethics, then youâll probably dig Johnnyâs quest line), and goes into some pretty dark places. Iâm usually not the kind of person to be emotional with movies or games, but there were several moments in Cyberpunk that had me really invested in the well being of some characters and making choices not for myself, but for them.
But also, if itâs not for you, then itâs not for you. Thereâs a lot of parts of the game that I can see being an absolute turn-off for some people, and I get that. It can be gross, immature, and even unnecessarily disturbing at times. Sometimes the humor doesnât land, and some characters just arenât memorable or even likable. But, at the very least, the story is absolutely fantastic, and thereâs very little I can criticize in that regard.
If youâre into anime at all, maybe also check out the Edgerunners show on Netflix. Itâs fairly short, and focuses on its own completely separate story from Vâs, in a slightly different point in time than the game takes place in, and with its own characters, so itâs not related much to the gameâs story (and thus, wonât spoil anything about the game). But it does a pretty great job at capturing the feel of Night City and the characters in it, and uses a ton of songs from the game, too. Iâm not a huge anime fan, so I couldnât really say how it compares to other shows, but the artwork and action sequences are fantastic. Honestly, I feel like the anime is a better starting place if you want to get familiar with the world of Night City.
This is probably a lot more than you asked for, lol.
Iâm not gonna convince you playing again if you really feel like it is not for you. Maybe someday you might feel like giving it a go again and play it, so hopefully you will enjoy it that time. So for now, thank you for supporting CDPR financially! đ
P.S. I am not a CDPR employeeeeeeee
The game is actually very close to what it promised initially. Obviously some things just arenât possible (you canât open every door to every building unfortunately) but cyberpunk has really come into itâs own in the past few years. Not to mention that Phantoms Liberty is going to essentially be a soft relaunch along with a whole new story and world map. Iâd say itâs at least worth a couple more hours of trying it out.
