Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty

[mmmark]

I’ve started the trial on XBSX. It’s a massive improvement over what I played on PS4 pro. Large crowds, no fading in and out objects and traffic.

 

I won’t buy the full version any time soon, I’ve already got more than enough to get on with, but it’s good to see the improvement. They should never have aimed for last gen. 

[HandsomeDead]

I played it for a few hours and I think I'll try again when it's on GP or something.  I'm not convinced I'll like it that much.  There probably is a way of levelling up that makes it more enjoyable to play but I'm just not in the mood for working through a game waiting for it to get good.

 

I'm more inclined to give Witcher 3 another try.

[mfnick]

12 minutes ago, HandsomeDead said:

Witcher 3

I’m more excited about this getting a next gen patch too. Yet to play it, but got it ready for when they finally release the SX version. 

[bellow]

I tried the new demo, and it definitely seems like something I could play and enjoy. I actually bought it at launch when I had an XSS, and I really did feel like I'd been ripped off. It looked like a PS2 game so I got a refund on the strength of all the hullabaloo, even though it was probably running as expected on that system.

 

Having said that I'm not exactly chomping on the bit to play it, so I might wait to see if it hits gamepass. There's so much already to play this year.

[shinymcshine]

What is the actual gameplay like ?

 

Is it a multilayered RPG which allows you to tackle situations in a wide variety of ways, based on how you've developed your character, along the lines of Deus Ex, or is it predominantly rooted in set shooting scenes with dialogue choice, along the lines of Mass Effect ? Are you even given a free reign of character choice, like Elder Scrolls, or do you play a set character, like Witcher?

 

I've not really managed to pull that out from reviews, which, unsurprisingly focus on the games technical shortcomings.

 

I was quite interested in this when it was announced, as I'd played the tabletop RPG many years ago .

[one-armed dwarf]

I got into that here (dont want to quote the whole post)

 

IMO, it gestures towards being like those games in a very surface level way, but it's much more like Fallout 3 while looking like Deus Ex in a city.

 

Character choice is more in line with Witcher but not very impactful

[radiofloyd]

It is multilayered in the sense of if you want to go in all guns blazing or use stealth and creep in through a side entrance. Buildings often have multiple entry points. I used a combination of both all through the game.

 

In terms of combat there are multiple weapon types. I didn’t specialise in any particular one and I mostly put my points into other perks. You can use lethal and non-lethal weapons. There are quests which give you the option of resolving them peacefully or with violence (but I’ve killed pretty indiscriminately and mostly play V as I see him, a tough motherfucker in a tough world).

 

What sets Cyberpunk apart is the quickhacking. You can hack devices and people (Breach Protocol) and upload daemons which have various effects, I put a lot of perk points into this. You can use quickhacks to cause all kinds of problems for enemies. I used this a lot too. One example of a cool thing you can do in the game is hack a camera to view into another room, and then use your quickhacks to attack enemies in that room.

 

There is a significant amount of item crafting and upgrading in the game and I put a lot of perk points into this too. I would say the game is an interesting mix of something like GTA (it often reminded me of playing San Andreas) and the old school Infinity Engine games.

 

It’s open world but there are many fast travel points so you can do as much or as little traversing as you want. But I enjoy driving around. There are a lot of sights to see. I feel like there is a lot of love and care put into this game.

[spatular]

9 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

Is it a multilayered RPG which allows you to tackle situations in a wide variety of ways, based on how you've developed your character, along the lines of Deus Ex, or is it predominantly rooted in set shooting scenes with dialogue choice, along the lines of Mass Effect ? Are you even given a free reign of character choice, like Elder Scrolls, or do you play a set character, like Witcher?

 

i'd say a lot of the options for upgrading your character i didn't find that interesting, it seemed more about fighting or quick hacks which i wasn't too interested in, i wanted more stealth upgrades, but some of them like higher jumping (edit - was higher jumping a thing or am i getting mixed up with another game?) and lifting heavy things do open up other routes and stuff like that. i'm not sure stealth is always an option (maybe it is if you hack everyone but i didnt want to play like that) but it is sometimes, and in that way it is a bit like deus ex, and those bits i enjoyed the most. i guess what i'm saying is the upgrade tree didn't really tie in with how i wanted to play the game but i could still play the game how i wanted, in parts at least. even if the stealth didn't always work out, but i can't really be sure if that's because i was no good at it.

 

i can't remember too well about the character choice stuff, i think it's more of a set character but there are a few different endings and iirc you get to do some missions differently based on options i think so there is some choices stuff in there i think? i don't know the elder scrolls too well but i'd say it's sort of similar to the witcher there yeah.

 

i really enjoyed the game anyway.

[shinymcshine]

Cheers, sounds like something I'll end up getting, on PS4, in 6 mths or so, once they've finished patching. I don't mind if it runs a bit rough, so long as gameplay is okay.

[radiofloyd]

I’ve had my first play since the patch (which involved another 10GB download today). Things I noticed:

 

Perk points have to be reassigned. In a sense, this is beneficial since it costs money to so in game but is free this time. I noticed a few changes to the perks but nothing major. I more or less bought all the same ones I had.

 

Clothing mods were rebalanced so have to be equipped again. Also mods can no longer be attached to equipment of a lower rarity. A small, but not totally insignificant change.

 

The map has been improved a lot. Nice redesign. They added a custom map option which allows you to filter the icons you want to show.

 

Fixers give you rewards for completing all of their gigs. I was already eligible for two of these, Dakota and Regina.

 

You can now buy other apartments in Night City and customise them.

[DisturbedSwan]

 

[radiofloyd]

This is getting temporarily put on hold for Elden Ring. I’ve passed the 100 hour mark on Steam (although the in game clock is 90 hours). I’m still enjoying completing side missions and gigs so I haven’t rushed ahead to finish the story.

[bellow]

Ooh. I had no idea the game had those kind of legs. I think that will be my next big adventure. Eldin ring looks good but I'm no longer a 'full price' kind of guy.

[bellow]

Fired this up after reaching the 40 hour mark in Valhalla.

 

I'm on my third start on this game. The first was at launch, when the best course of action seemed to return the thing (even tho it was running ok on my XSS). Then I got it with the XSX upgrades. Looked great, ran great, but I felt I just couldn't understand it. It seemed full of gobbledegook and unnecessarily complicated mechanics, so I returned it again.

 

But the 'idea' of the game still intrigued me and I found myself thinking I'd been a bit hasty the last time. So now I'm playing the demo. It's free and five hours long. I've watched a few vids on how to play the game and now I'm comfortable with it, and it's finally started to get a grip on my cyberpsyche.

 

It could be a big game for me. Pity it's gone back to full price on the store. You can it cheap elsewhere, though.

[bellow]

Level 14 in this. I postponed the first real mission (the heist) because I started to get side missions (gigs, in this) off a lady fixer. Ended up doing her whole roster while building up my character as a sort of stealth takedown hacker with a sideline in heavy guns when my stealthing goes tits up.

 

Already I understand the systems which, at the start, seemed pretty opaque, and i love nothing more than a trip to the cyberdoc for a quick upgrade. Got an arm that shoots grenades and an ankle upgrade that has turned me into Spring heeled jack. Perfect for stealth, and those all important drop takedowns.

 

I'm already thinking it's such a pity they bolloxed up the initial launch. This could be better than Witcher 3 from what I've seen so far. 

[bellow]

I'm now addicted to gigs. I've hardly touched the main thread and yet I'm touching level 30, and am basically a cyber ghost, infiltrating even the most defended locale like an augmented spirit of silent death.

 

Unless I get caught, and then I'm Sammy Shotgun.

 

It's all good in Night city.

 

 

[DisturbedSwan]

Sounds good, god knows when I'll get round to trying it.

[bellow]

It is good. And when you do the second campaign mission (which I got around to after about 30 hours😀) you start getting these just amazing multi layered side quests, the kind of emergent short stories I've been hankering after since fallout 3.

[bellow]

I've seemingly run out of gigs. Bummer. I've also turned away from a very clear point of no return to finish a few outstanding side quests. I'm not really sure where this point of no return came from to be honest. I feel I've done very little of what could be termed a main campaign. I've racked up a good 60 hours so it's not really a complaint. I just don't feel I've tackled V's little problem to any great depth. 

 

The side stuff has been immense tho, so there's that.

 

[bellow]

Done. For me that was a better experience than Witcher 3. I thought it was really well done, with great stealth and action mechanics all the way thru, believable AI (at last), and a well plotted, if short, story to the main campaign that kicked hard in the latter stages.

 

There's no way I'm not going to want to return to this in a year or two and let it play out again with another of the profiles. I went nomad this time, but quite fancy the exec class next time, as a lot more of the game is spent in those skyscraping night city locations than in the desert.

 

They could have had it all, this publisher, couldn't they? A monster new IP to follow their fantasy masterpiece. Greed. Bloody greed😟