Having finished the game, I wouldn't say I was disappointed per se, as I went in with tempered expectations and a sneaking suspicion that something went terribly wrong -if only because there was nothing to show for 8 years then a string of delays happens. Still, the game was still a rather underwhelming experience. Aesthetically, it looks great. The city is pretty to look at. When it rains at night and I look up at the skyscrapers it feels a bit like I'm in Blade Runner. So they captured the "look" of cyberpunk.
The writing is good. CPR still has the best writing of all major publishers - though that says more about the standard of writing in the industry than anything else. I very much enjoyed what sidequests there are, especially those in Act 3. Silverhand is a very well done character, and I enjoyed that his presence was there across most things you do.
But the main story is extremely short. It feels like an entire act was cut, perhaps even two. It rushes through the Prologue and Act 1 like it's nothing, then leaves you with Act 2 where there's a fair bit to be done, but when you get to Act 3 it's less and act and more an epilogue. Act 3 is a single mission. That's it. You have an interesting menagerie of characters tied to the main quest and they barely get any time in it. Some of them get sidequests that help their characterization shine, but the main quest moves in such a frantic pace that there's barely enough time for anyone to do anything.
The dialogue choices are a step-up from Witcher 3 - which again, not exactly saying much. There certainly is a feeling of "uniqueness" to your character based on what stats you go for, because stat-based dialogue is predominantly present. That said, however, I don't really think those choices matter for anything more than fluff for the majority of occasions they are present, though I feel that has more to do with most dialogue choices not really mattering than anything.
Speaking of choices mattering, remember how a couple of years back CPR said that the game would be shorter than Witcher 3 but be more replayable because it's going to be choice heavy? Surprise, that was bullshit. 2077 is an extremely linear experience. To get different endings has nothing to do with main story, but rather whether you did some of the major sidequests. What ending you get is thus determined by whether you have done the sidequests, followed by a choice you make at the start of the final mission, and then again by a choice at the end of it. There's also a secret ending that is apparently difficult to get and needs you to plan for it from the start, but what can I say, I already fit all the criteria for it in my completely blind playthrough, so I can't say how much I was lucky or how actually difficult it is to get.
The game commits the fatal ubi-ism: Filling the world with mindless busywork. The majority of things to do in 2077 are "gigs" - basically short quests tied to a small hostile area of the map that require you to get in and either kill a guy, rescue a guy, retrieve object, or sabotage object. Some of them an extra condition, though with the exception of one gig those conditions are the same: Don't alert the guards. All gigs are independent of each other, and none serve a greater narrative, They are basically the "enemy camps" of Ubisoft games, given a bit of extra work to them. Each gig has a unique call from the fixer -the person giving the quest- giving you the details of it, and the ones with extra conditions end with calls from the fixer that are dependent on whether you filled that conditions or not - with the fixer being very happy if you did or disappointed if you didn't. In the end, though, gigs still gave the impression that they are there to fill the map.They are nothing more than 5-10 minute affairs that you forget about the moment you're done with them.
Having discussed gigs with a friend, we reached the conclusion that they are an enormous missed opportunity. Each different area has a different fixer for its gigs. What could have been done is keep the nature of the gigs intact -quick 5-10 minute affairs- but tie them together in order to give each area a unique feel to them. Basically, use gigs and the fixers to flesh out the various areas of Night City, because unfortunately, though visually great there's nothing that makes those areas really unique. Hell, there's different gangs in each area, and most of them have no presence at all in the story, Gigs could have been an elegant way to flesh them out.
There's also NCPD markers, but those are even more egregious busiwork. Go to place, kill criminals, boom done. Some of them have an extra step where you need to find a stash "hidden" (it's still marked directly in your map) somewhere else, but that's about it. More mindless busywork to give the impression there's something to the map.
Driving just plain sucks. Driving a car feels like you're trying to tame a wild stallion by mounting it, all while it kicks and thrashes along the way. I will say, however, that I've had a much better experience driving a motorcycle. One thing that I hate they forgot to do is that the minimap does not zoom out as you speed up while driving, often leaving you with a second to react when suddenly you have to make a turn.
Trading is slow and cumbersome. Selling things seems to make your inventory refresh every time you sell something, and selling multiple things takes forever.
Crafting is even more slow and cumbersome. I cannot fathom why they did not add an option to craft X amount of something. As it stands you have to click and wait 0.7 seconds for something to be crafted. Individually. Say you wanna craft 30 healing items. You have to click the craft button and wait for each one, individually. Same for ammo. It got so tiresome I had to tamper with the game's files and reduce the crafting time to near instantaneous. Crafting still probably took a couple of years out of the lifespan of my mouse, but at least it didn't take an eon to craft what I wanted, just a decade.
Fist fights in this game are atrocious. There is very little feedback to the punches you throw. There is very little feedback when you're getting punched also. Sometimes enemies stagger when you punch them, sometimes they feel nothing and unleash four consecutive hits while you're mid animation, leaving you either beaten or with a sliver of health. Out of all the things that 2077 does badly, for me fist fights were the worst.
TL;DR CP2077 is a game with very good writing, but there's too little of it to go by. Most of the gameplay loop consists of mindless busywork in a city that looks great but has no personality to it. The game's mechanics are at best not well realised and at worst actively frustrating.Overall I had some fun with it, and what it does well it does really well, but it's scattered in an endless sea of boring busywork and jank. Hideo Kojima is in the game. 10/10, don't buy it.
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