Cyberpunk 2077

[Aliven]

I'd been avoiding getting this game for a while since initally the settings and reviews were putting me off.

But as avid Witcher fan and all the raves I'm hearing about the game, just wondering if the game has the depth and enjoyability of Witcher 3 now or not. Might pull the trigger if so on my playstation.

Its worth it. Especially on sale. Game is "fixed" now, so no longer egregious technicall issues. It still has high PC demand.

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Yep. The Witcher's got a couple different playstyles, you can do, and gear offers slight variations, but it isn't remotely close to what Cyberpunk offered at launch, let alone now.

You can rip people's heads off with hacking as a netrunner and basically never use a gun, you can beat people to death with your fists as an unkillable brute, you can be a sneaky assassin (multiple flavors), you can be a knife-hurling cyberninja, a supersonic cybersamurai, you can spew lead in as many different ways you like and with not just gun types but individual guns so varied you can build an entire character build around them.

And I'm scratching the surface. All these can be built as variants that combine other styles, I haven't even talked about arm cyberware like monowires and mantis arms, or any of the cyberware systems beyond those.

A lot of quests have multiple paths to success, some better than others but it's often satisfying to do things "your" way even if you get less of a payout. The flexibility is insane.

The story is also ridiculous in the depth and fleshing out. Even compared to Witcher 3. Most players probably don't even catch on to how far it goes. There's whole stories that play out in shards (notes, basically), or you can find locations where an NPC from a prior job is killed by gangs/corps they worked for because they fucked up, etc. I'm on my 5th playthrough and still finding new stuff (beyond the new content that's been added).

It's probably my favorite game of all time, at this point. Just be aware it's very much a small-c cyberpunk story, and that means happy endings are really not in the cards. Melancholic acceptance of the price you had to pay, or Pyrrhic victories that make you question the costs, are more the speed of what you get. You'll usually be able to achieve your short-term goals, but the story doesn't end there. You might save someone from being kidnapped for ransom and threatened with death, but you're not going to undo the trauma and their relationship with their shitty spouse that caused this is probably over, kind of thing. The Witcher's like this a fair bit too, but it's a LOT less clear-cut in Cyberpunk, to the point you're often really not sure there is a "right choice" for the big ones.



Yeah, a lot comes down to taste. Cyberpunk gives you more narrative control IMO, but also fewer choices with clear "right" outcomes. Often choices with two clear "bad" outcomes, in fact. Sometimes, you need to dig into other quests retroactively to figure out if an earlier choice was a "good" one. There's at least one I can think of off the top of my head where saving the "victim" is pretty definitely the wrong choice, but you've got to find scattered notes in an entirely different quest in, I think, a later Act to realize what a scumbag the guy you saved is, and now he's free to keep harming innocents.

That's not to say there aren't good or innocent people. There are. But Cyberpunk is very good at making you realize you don't have all the information and have to go with gut calls and you don't always get it right without magic prescience by playing through the game multiple times and knowing what's coming. It's a dark wilderness with points of light, even moreso than the Witcher, and some people hate that.

All work the same.

There is no difference between katana, monowire, mantis. You make different flavor of melee attack, which works the same.
Cyberware are, mostly, passives. You can unlock wrist rocket but then you can not use grenades.

Hacking is playing a wizard, you pick a spell (hack) and cast it (upload it). You have mana (cyberdeck if i remember correctly) which regenerates.
You can specialize in a weapon and be god but then you pick a weapon you have no perks and you are still god. I used pistols half the game without even a single point into them (was smg, katana, hacking, cyberdeck guy). Still wrecked everyone like it was no tomorrow.

[Endus]

All work the same.

There is no difference between katana, monowire, mantis. You make different flavor of melee attack, which works the same.

Uh, no. Mantis blades get a leap towards the next enemy. There's only one katana that does a lesser version of that. Monowire has a lot more range, and can be used to upload hacks; it's a netrunner weapon first and foremost and you're generally running it alongside a cyberdeck build.

Cyberware are, mostly, passives. You can unlock wrist rocket but then you can not use grenades.

Those passives also add entirely new options. Legs add a range of mobility options. Eyes change what gets automatically highlighted for you. A lot of the "passives" completely overhaul what you can pull off; they're not activated intentionally, but they're not +1.5% crit chance type passives, either. And the deck slot is build-defining.

Hacking is playing a wizard, you pick a spell (hack) and cast it (upload it). You have mana (cyberdeck if i remember correctly) which regenerates.

And there's multiple approaches to that "playing a wizard" which all play pretty differently. You can be launching AoE attacks that hit multiple targets whole picking off stragglers with a gun. You can be a sneaky ranged assassin, who's taking out enemies and never being noticed. You can spread contagion and blow everyone up with fire attacks (from a gun or the Overheat quickhack). You can be a monowire specialist attacking in melee range.

All these play differently, use different cyberdecks and loadouts, and have different cyberware focuses. And that's just in netrunner builds, and I'm sure I'm missing a few.

You can specialize in a weapon and be god but then you pick a weapon you have no perks and you are still god. I used pistols half the game without even a single point into them (was smg, katana, hacking, cyberdeck guy). Still wrecked everyone like it was no tomorrow.

If you're not on the highest difficulty, you don't get to brag about being OP. And if you are, take more risks and have more fun with it. Do crazy shit just because you can. CDPR's character progression arc is from "garbage" to "god-tier obliterator who takes out corpo armies solo". Enemies scale up linearly, you scale exponentially. Even with my sneaky netrunner, I can walk up to a camp of Barghests, hit "Overclock", and nuke everyone in about 1.3 seconds of real-time (takes a bit longer in the targeting window but time's slowed way down there).

Being able play "your way" is the point; there are no "optimal builds" you're limited to playing as if you want to succeed. As long as you're not being silly about it, you can basically do whatever you like and be great by the end. There are no "bad choices" in character builds, as long as you've got a goal in mind. That's a plus.

So far, I've done a sneaky Netrunner, a cybersamurai, a knife specialist, and my current new sneaky netrunner (but the first was at launch and it's basically a different game now), as well as a shotgun dancer build I abandoned partway mostly because of deciding to wait for 2.0 and Phantom Liberty. None of those runs played the same. I still haven't played a Berserk build, or a really gun-focused build. I'm going to faze my sneaky netrunner current build into a more aggro one once I clear Phantom Liberty; there's an endgame deck I want to try out.

[Aliven]

Uh, no. Mantis blades get a leap towards the next enemy. There's only one katana that does a lesser version of that. Monowire has a lot more range, and can be used to upload hacks; it's a netrunner weapon first and foremost and you're generally running it alongside a cyberdeck build.



Those passives also add entirely new options. Legs add a range of mobility options. Eyes change what gets automatically highlighted for you. A lot of the "passives" completely overhaul what you can pull off; they're not activated intentionally, but they're not +1.5% crit chance type passives, either. And the deck slot is build-defining.



And there's multiple approaches to that "playing a wizard" which all play pretty differently. You can be launching AoE attacks that hit multiple targets whole picking off stragglers with a gun. You can be a sneaky ranged assassin, who's taking out enemies and never being noticed. You can spread contagion and blow everyone up with fire attacks (from a gun or the Overheat quickhack). You can be a monowire specialist attacking in melee range.

All these play differently, use different cyberdecks and loadouts, and have different cyberware focuses. And that's just in netrunner builds, and I'm sure I'm missing a few.



If you're not on the highest difficulty, you don't get to brag about being OP. And if you are, take more risks and have more fun with it. Do crazy shit just because you can. CDPR's character progression arc is from "garbage" to "god-tier obliterator who takes out corpo armies solo". Enemies scale up linearly, you scale exponentially. Even with my sneaky netrunner, I can walk up to a camp of Barghests, hit "Overclock", and nuke everyone in about 1.3 seconds of real-time (takes a bit longer in the targeting window but time's slowed way down there).

Being able play "your way" is the point; there are no "optimal builds" you're limited to playing as if you want to succeed. As long as you're not being silly about it, you can basically do whatever you like and be great by the end. There are no "bad choices" in character builds, as long as you've got a goal in mind. That's a plus.

So far, I've done a sneaky Netrunner, a cybersamurai, a knife specialist, and my current new sneaky netrunner (but the first was at launch and it's basically a different game now), as well as a shotgun dancer build I abandoned partway mostly because of deciding to wait for 2.0 and Phantom Liberty. None of those runs played the same. I still haven't played a Berserk build, or a really gun-focused build. I'm going to faze my sneaky netrunner current build into a more aggro one once I clear Phantom Liberty; there's an endgame deck I want to try out.

Yeah, but thats the point.

Why i need to upload hack with monowire when they would be dead by monowire itself.
You can play your way. Absolutely. Just picking skills to specialize dont really change much. Yes, i can go crazy with speed, deflects etc on Katana but why when going to enemy and clicking it to death is faster for less work. I get it on geralt, because he is such op in lore than random bandits just die when he blinks. I dont get that from nobody, down on the food chain, scrapping by punk on night city.

And i indeed played on normal difficulty. I dont brag about being op. I just say you can be effective nearly as much with or without specializing into a skill, and you can max 3 atributes with 4 or 15 or something? What specialization I was walking tank on a verge of cyberpsychosis with wrist launcher, being god of hacks and katana, using smart smgs if i so desired.
Next one playthrough will be with pistols and maybe knifes? But i still will be god of hacks or whatever because you can max 80% or tree without even trying. Literally what will change that i will use pistols or sniper rifles and knifes instead of katana ans smg. Being walking panzer tank with hack the planet is still doable, and there is no reason to specialize.

[Endus]

Yeah, but thats the point.

Why i need to upload hack with monowire when they would be dead by monowire itself.
You can play your way. Absolutely. Just picking skills to specialize dont really change much. Yes, i can go crazy with speed, deflects etc on Katana but why when going to enemy and clicking it to death is faster for less work. I get it on geralt, because he is such op in lore than random bandits just die when he blinks. I dont get that from nobody, down on the food chain, scrapping by punk on night city.

And that's not you, in Cyberpunk 2077. There's a reason several of the endings leave you ranked among the most notorious/famous people in the city's history. You're not just "some punk", even if you started out that way.

And i indeed played on normal difficulty. I dont brag about being op. I just say you can be effective nearly as much with or without specializing into a skill, and you can max 3 atributes with 4 or 15 or something? What specialization I was walking tank on a verge of cyberpsychosis with wrist launcher, being god of hacks and katana, using smart smgs if i so desired.
Next one playthrough will be with pistols and maybe knifes? But i still will be god of hacks or whatever because you can max 80% or tree without even trying. Literally what will change that i will use pistols or sniper rifles and knifes instead of katana ans smg. Being walking panzer tank with hack the planet is still doable, and there is no reason to specialize.

You can't cap out every tree, and missing out on those top abilities leaves you lagging really far behind. Take netrunning. If you don't have 20 Intelligence and the Overclock ability, I guarantee you're operating at about 20% of the capacity you could be operating at. Same with cyberware; you can't (without mods at least) have a cyberdeck and a Sandevistan. You might be able to use a katana and a cyberdeck, but your katana skills aren't remotely comparable to a guy with a Sandy; you're fighting at normal speed while he blitzed and killed everyone in sight in less than a second.

And I repeat, if you're not playing on the hardest difficulty, complaining that you can kill everything with ease falls flat. This isn't me trying to shit on people who play on lower difficulties; I play lots of games on lower difficulties, because I'm more interested in general in narrative. But I like a little challenge, so I'll ramp the difficulty up to where I have to pay attention and be a bit careful. This isn't about being an elitist who sneers at anyone playing on less than the most extreme difficulty, it's that you've got tools to ramp up the challenge level, so saying "this isn't challenging enough on Normal" is entirely down to where you set the challenge level, not a comment on the game's power curve. If you're not feeling challenged enough, up the difficulty.

[Flaks]

The game had more depth than Witcher 3 even at launch.

Enjoyability is a completely different thing, and I can\t judge that for you. They are completely different games that happen to share the same sub genre. First person cyberpunk setting with your custom character vs 3rd person hack and slash dark fantasy with a set in stone character. Liking Witcher 3 has almost nothing to do with liking Cyberpunk or not, one person could love one and hate the other.

I guess what I mean by depth for CDPR games is storyline depth. I love still going back to the Witcher 3 and finding awesome world building questlines and little lore tid bits here and there. The combat is for sure not so exceptional in Witcher 3 but the world/setting more than make up for it.

Also I'll probably get ultimate edition for my PS5. Just wanted to see if it's worth it for the $20 off or so they have it right now. (No, can't get it on PC).

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The story is also ridiculous in the depth and fleshing out. Even compared to Witcher 3. Most players probably don't even catch on to how far it goes. There's whole stories that play out in shards (notes, basically), or you can find locations where an NPC from a prior job is killed by gangs/corps they worked for because they fucked up, etc. I'm on my 5th playthrough and still finding new stuff (beyond the new content that's been added).

It's probably my favorite game of all time, at this point. Just be aware it's very much a small-c cyberpunk story, and that means happy endings are really not in the cards. Melancholic acceptance of the price you had to pay, or Pyrrhic victories that make you question the costs, are more the speed of what you get. You'll usually be able to achieve your short-term goals, but the story doesn't end there. You might save someone from being kidnapped for ransom and threatened with death, but you're not going to undo the trauma and their relationship with their shitty spouse that caused this is probably over, kind of thing. The Witcher's like this a fair bit too, but it's a LOT less clear-cut in Cyberpunk, to the point you're often really not sure there is a "right choice" for the big ones.
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That's primarily what I needed. Guess I'm sold. Guess I'll be getting 2 games this month instead of just Stellar Blade like I was planning.

[Tech614]

I guess what I mean by depth for CDPR games is storyline depth. I love still going back to the Witcher 3 and finding awesome world building questlines and little lore tid bits here and there. The combat is for sure not so exceptional in Witcher 3 but the world/setting more than make up for it.

My opinion still stands even if it's just story and world related depth. Witcher 3 is not even close to Cyberpunk in that regard, as Endus already mentioned.

[Makabreska]

Man, CP2077 story was just excellent. From little, but completely believable and sledgehammer hitting moments like end of Evelyn story, to entire interaction with Johnny and clashing with his ideas. The entire Blackwall being a safeguard from what are basically evil demons is an awesome potential for so many narratives. And Phantom Liberty set the bar even higher. I ended watching several play-throughs on YouTube, just to check peeps reactions to all of that.

BTW, CP2077 sequel writers have been announced some time ago. Anna Megill (Fables reboot, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Guild Wars 2) and Alexander Freed (Star Wars: The Old Republic, Wasteland 3, Battlefield 2042).

[Ochinko]

Even with all the crap on launch I also got to say that I really enjoyed Cyberpunk. I myself could not stand both Jackie and Johnny and was always trying to make them go away, but the gameplay and story apart from them was fun and worth the money.

Sure they coulda made more out of it but at the end of the day thats true for every single game ever made. Got more than 60 hours of gameplay out of it and I feel like that is the standard with which to judge games nowadays, if you can get at least 1 currency (e.g. dollar / euro / pounds) / hour out of it, its worth to get / play / have.

[Cloverfield]

Excellent mods to get the most out of it: