I wanted to write something about the game itself, that’s not about the bugs or the controversy.
The main story missions are terrific. Full of everything you’d expect from CDPR. The characters, the dialog, all on point. Shit gets fucked up, people die, it’s a mess. Keanu is terrific as well. I was worried from the preview stuff that he would be a bit distracting, he’s Keanu Fucking Reeves of course, but the way he’s “integrated” into the game works really well <no spoilers/>.
Of course Night City is pretty much a character itself, dense, layered and sprawling. It’s a maze to navigate and honestly it’s kind of impossible to find anything without the GPS. Also the minimap is kinda narrow in terms of how much world it will show. This forces you into the main map a lot which kinda defeats the purpose of the minimap. It’s minor but noticeable. (cool tip: as in TW3 long pressing the inventory button will take you straight to the map.)
The city is a bit of a cross between Blade Runner and GTA but it works. Also, now that the blurriness as been cured it looks pretty fantastic. The name Night City is well earned, as sometimes it feels like the dead of night but you look above you between the ’scapers and blue sky peeks out.
Combat is tight, the shooting is lit, as the kids would say. While the game has a total Fallout 4 vibe the shooting is one area where it’s much improved over that title. In the early stages it really pushes you towards shooting, as the Netrunning (hacking) is a bit under-powered. However once you begin to update your skills things do become a bit easier. Similarly the stealth works pretty well, but it’s a bit fiddly, and it’s a process of trial and error to figure out what brings you out of stealth and what doesn’t. Again improving skills helps this.
The open world is a bit crazy, there’s almost too much going on. Your map is a Christmas tree of lights and icons, and while the blue stuff can generally be skipped (go there - kill that) the yellow question marks generally yield interesting missions with some variety. The main quest is defo where it’s at though. It’s not a city simulation like GTA, the world feels more like a backdrop, rather than a sandbox to play in. It’s capable of some outstanding beauty though.
The bugs, the bugs. Yes, it’s buggy, but it’s not massively more buggy that some other launch titles I’ve played, suchastheaforementionedfallout4 and of course Witcher 3. Now main issues for me are the crashes, which are still relatively frequent, and that sometimes the quests will bug out. Especially the side quests, as further you get from the mainline the more buggy it becomes. It doesn’t, however, feel like years from completion, more like months.
The main draw is the story, the characters, and predicament they find themselves in. It’s classic CDPR and if you’ve played Witchers 1, 2 and 3 you will be please to find a complex and very dark story, that is filled with complexity and darkness. Honestly, it’s terrific.
Also Judy is bae.