This is a game I started to wait for when it was clear it was coming to the market 'any day now', and finally did drop a few days ago. I am NOT even close to finishing a first run of the game but have gotten to the start of what I consider to be ACT II. I am playing in a way probably not intended by the actual producers at CDPR, but is fully within what is allowed by the game. But before that, I'll give some of my biases right up front.
- I absolutely suck at driving games, and driving in this game is part and parcel of the world built for the game. Don't ever expect me to like a driving experience in a game because when I drive IRL I can have very good situational awareness just by shifting my eyes to the various console readouts and to the mirrors so I know where everything is as I drive. The smallest of head tracking motions means that I'm always facing generally forward unless I need to do a lane change with an approaching vehicle in that lane or one that is nearby that is in the blindspots of a vehicle. You can't do that in first-person mode in most games. And the driving controls with keyboard and mouse are far, far too reactive to my liking due to the time compression the game does to present it in a fluid manner, and the physics of the vehicles involved. I will not be singing the praises of driving in this game. My bias.
- I like to think out situations and actually, you know, role-play. That means I will try some very harebrained ideas out just to see how I can fail at them. As an example I had one task that involved a minor gang takedown on an overhead covered walkway, and while the police were fine with the job I did, I noticed that there was still one active, hostile device just above me. So I would spend a good 4 hours of my life looking for any way to get to it. Including getting on to a fire escape on a building across the street, and trying to find a rooftop that would let me drop down to the walkway. Or trying to jump up to a broken part of the upper walkway. Or looking for simple set of stairs to get to the outer connecting walkway just above the crossing one. There probably is one, but I couldn't find it. From this you will now know why I'm not rushing forward.
- There are enough systems to work with in this game so that I do try to find a way to integrate my player character's skills and capabilities to my advantage. When I find none, then brute force techniques will be employed. Some times brute force is the best solution to a problem when skills, local geography, and threat analysis can yield no better solution. Stealth is a thing in this game, and I'm used to outdoor stealth, not confined places stealth. It's an area I, as a player, need to improve on for this game. I need better skills for stealth as a player, plus extreme patience analyzing patrol patterns and such. There are lots of missions to achieve this, and they do require a high integration of one's personal and player character's skills to achieve. Sometimes people do have to go down...stealthily.
So you get to play the main character "V", male or female your choice. I'm choosing XX for reasons of personal preference. You can go with a basic start as Nomad (outside of Night City), Steet Kid (Night City denizen) or Corporate (high society that runs everything, aristocrats basically). I went with freedom loving, honest Nomad. My initial stats were to concentrate on Cool (grace under pressure, keeping your cool in tough situations) with 3 spare points, Dexterity at 2 points for those times you just have to sneak around, Technology at 1 point because, well, it is the future after all, and then a last point into Intelligence. Basically a cool-heavy dexterous girl of the wastelands able to tinker with things and not of average intelligence. Later you'll get to the point where your cybernetics system that has been installed in your body gets one new component and here is where I will be playing this character.
What is pretty much required is the eye upgrade (and you presumably already had that replacement done with a low grade system before reaching that point), and the palm grip for getting weapon and other functional connections via those devices designed for it. That feeds your Heads Up Display (HUD). You also get the cyberware in your head that runs the system, and a jack that is available on your left arm. I am allowed only to upgrade what is already installed or replace with better. If it isn't installed it will not be installed voluntarily. There is a rationale behind this: while it can make the body a highly effective system, you also lose some of your humanity getting each tiny bit more. That is the entire basis for Cyberpunk: what is the dividing between human and machine? In fact if this character could find a way to remove the entire system, get cloned eyes, and generally escape the implants, she would do that as this system allows for a level of violation that you just don't have with a standard, non-upgraded body. The most radical thing you can do in a world like that is to NOT have these things implanted in you and prefer old fashioned separate electronics pieces... sort of like the Amish or the Buddhists in the 2077 world though willing to use retro-tech. Going retro is radical. And why can't I just use the handy ammo readout on the gun or simply count bullets? Such is life, but that is a self-imposed restriction on this run, just to amp up the difficulty a bit. As if I needed that.
As a Nomad your character starts out in the wastes (I'll use the proper Badlands infrequently as it feels more like a Wasteland from other genres) and I was able to hotwire the problem of my car, get in contact with the person who hired me to get something, and ran straight into the driving problems in this game for me. Luckily, I could avoid the guy floating in the middle of the road, and make it to the tower where I had to use ladders to make a connection, then drove out to meet my contact. I am so glad that roads are optional out in the wastes! I got in contact with him, was able to manage to get to the border crossing, bribed our way in and switched seats because, well, combat in vehicles. That's a thing in this game. And I got to experience the supposed fun of leaning out the window to use a pistol on our pursuers. Survived that, and then we got into town, he parked the car and then came the montage of 'you just got out of the minor tutorial section, welcome to your new home'.
It's a nice montage.
I would rather have been playing through it, though. It is a blur of people, a few names, a few types of operations the two of you went on and...then you start at home in your apartment and get to go to get some cyber implants put in. After that is the 'getting to know Night City' part of the game where I decided to ditch the main story until I could figure out what play was like. Things are... complex. When I found out there were lootable containers and stuff just sitting around that no one objects to my PC taking in the environment I got into being a scavenger. This is a mode I use for multiple RPGs and since some of this stuff has no weight but does have value...well...time to see what the world provides. I also ditched the car. After taking it to the ripperdoc, I left it in the parking space. Wasn't mine, anyways, but my partner's. I promised to meet up with our fixer, but...that would be days and days away. I decided to get to know the basic game mechanics as they worked out on the street and in buildings. I needed my character build to firm up, and the streets shall provide you with that.
Game Systems and Mechanics
A bit about the game mechanics and meshing between weapons, armor and hit points or health. It seems like most modern RPGs want to give the player more HP on a level up, and this then creates the dilemma of everything scaling to the player and, thus, the weapons you used earlier are less effective now as everyone gets better armor and more HP, too, though with a ceiling on them. So you get armor because you need it. But to respond to the need for more damage output, the armor you got is no longer as effective after a level up as it was before. Thus you need better armor unless you are so good at the game that you can play in a way that precludes that. And the weapons you have need to be upgraded or replaced sooner or later, as everyone else has gotten a leg up on protection. For most players this becomes a tail-chasing problem and game developers haven't done much to alleviate it. Back in the old days of Chaosium games system you did have a solution: static HP, static weapons and armor stats, but the ability to improve skills. Unfortunately the D&D systems which granted HP on level-up was more popular and that is reflected in gaming to this very day. That still has a death-grip on gaming. CDPR has tried to mitigate it, but the tail-chasing continues. Perhaps it is beyond game developers to make a game with a static HP, Armor, Damage system based on expectations that 'git gud' means getting a bright, dazzling level up and more HP.
No one on the development front has tried to do that as players have come to expect that glorious level up moment where they are significantly stronger than just a few seconds before it. The moment HP, weapon damage or armor capacity goes up, you are then in a tail-chasing problem. CDPR has tried to address this by limiting HP, but increasing weapon damage and the need for armor that is better: you are always going to be squishy if you don't get better equipment. Luckily they dropped the entire weapon and armor condition concept which doesn't work well with the tail-chasing system. As an example, I didn't know that there actually WAS a condition system in The Witcher III until after my first full playthrough. How did I miss it? Well I was having to upgrade my equipment and weapons so often that it never became a problem in the first place. And once I did know the system was there... well I so rarely used it that it brought into question the concept of 'condition' for equipment in a tail-chasing system. So kudos for making people still feel human under all that gear and built-in cybernetics and getting rid of condition for equipment! If you could nail down the other two parts, then equipment condition could be brought back in a sensible manner: your good equipment will always be good, but you will have to work to maintain it. They got that maintenance problem handled on upgrading weapons, but if that was changed to just maintaining them, then the world wouldn't have to be so loot based, and actual repair kits could be purchased for those not taking any crafting skill.
Not so much for adding a tail-chasing system into the game, though. A 'legendary' piece of gear won't hold out for more than a couple of levels without improvement and some of the materials needed are ones you will just not find without breaking down similar gear or waiting until mission rewards start to offer them. For a bit I had to upgrade my Technology stat and put perk points into automatically breaking stuff down for passive low amounts of XP and turning stuff with weight into weightless components. You can buy components, but you'll go broke doing that and some you will not find in stores, early in the game. The crafting system is a real sink for resources if you get into it, and its vital component of a Nomad run, I think, since so much of their society depends on fixing what's left. It's not bad as crafting goes, and the ability to add modifications to existing equipment later in the game is a real way to address character build deficits.
The hacking system, including the minigame for breaching systems feels...adequate. I would have expected that there would be a tiered system of automated and cybernetic equipment, that would remove the minigame once you got past a level requirement of skill (not stat) for that tier. Getting to a higher tier means not having a minigame for the lower tier stuff. Like all unlocking minigames its tedious... adequate, sure, but tedious. How you get components and cash from a successful hack is beyond me as that is just magic. Still it is one of the very few magical things going on that isn't well explained, and other games in other genres have done far, far worse than this. And I assume things get better with higher skill and perk unlocks under the Intelligence stat. Too bad I'm trying to be a Cool Technologist that can sneak around pretty well.
Perks are under stats, and its a nice system. Perks were once, long ago, minor RPG mechanics to give a kudo to a player for getting to a certain level. Now perks are a basic part of replacing a numerical skill system (reflecting background dice rolls and percentages) with snazzy systems that don't tell you what your actual chances of doing something are. So tiers of perks are unlocked by a higher stat for that perk tree, though you can pick anything available, so that's a plus. I'm not fond of the perkification of skill systems, perhaps modern players don't have room for numbers in their playstyle, and perks are a handy way to hide an actual skill system. With a tiered unlocked perk system replacing skills, then there should be choices to get around some of the lower level checks entirely. They can be mitigated, but never removed. Have fun with minigames to proceed, YMMV.
The game system utilizes these stats and perks to address the actual game environment which is huge. And, by actually role playing someone who isn't comfortable with driving in the city, I found that the design of the game and its rewards become evident through exploration on foot. I did this just to role play, mind you, and started doin wind sprints, jogging at my normal rate, and then sprinting down a long sidewalk, then back to a jog. After doing this for a bit, I was rewarded with a tiny bit of experience for using my Athleticism, it wasn't much but it was there. If you enjoy jumping and climbing and clambering on crates, scaffolding and such, I found there is a hidden Acrobatics skill that I got some XP for using.
For those used to the older Bethesda games, this is a way of rewarding the player for role playing by using their skills. The same is true for sneaking around and stealth, though the world size is so big its hard to justify the amount of time doing it to get those rewards because you ae slow when sneaking. Not good for long streets. The game keeps track of what you are doing and rewards you for good role play, but in a very subtle and minor way. Now if I could actually see these skills advancing because of this...or even devote some level up to them...ah, but that would add complexity to the perk system. So you aren't told directly about these skills but they are there. I would hope that doing wind sprints would not just up my stamina but also reduce the rate of stamina drain for physical actions. Similarly I should be able to jump just a little farther and do soft landings from low falls with acrobatics. I have no idea if this is happening, but it seems like it is.
This is an excellent way of melding the perk system with role play, and it is much appreciated. The more you properly utilize your character build, the more you interact with the environment, the more you try to find out just what it is you can and can't do, you will be slowly, but surely, rewarded. The game system does this silently and unobtrusively for the most part. If you follow what the procedure is for post take-down cleanup, you will get rewarded a little a time. In game skills that are not highlighted are there, and the more you do the better you get. You 'git gud' by playing your damned character, and if that means tossing bodies into dumpsters after a mission, so be it. And if you want fewer of the enemy to show up, you can do that in combat and stop unaware enemies from finding out their friends are gone. Still, do it after a mission and you do get benefits. Role play...if you don't care if the places you leave are littered with bodies, then you can expect the police to come and check out what happened and if you go back, they may want to take YOU down as the perp of a crime. Lovely, no?
And the best part of the hidden skill system is that you can get a free perk point when you level one up.
The Streets Shall Provide
It pays to use your cyber scanning capability, and to go after any item with a couple of dice above it which indicates randomized loot is available. No matter your build you'll need that stuff for cash, crafting or for use in keeping your body going during combat. Plus you can find lots of goodies as randomized loot, including better weapons and gear. I became a studied looter and was clearing out entire blocks of the city at street level of their loot. Got tons of missions to ignore, and that is part and parcel of the problem of missions being handed out... there needs to be a better system than this. Still I got a chance to figure out how to take down better armed and armored people this way! But only with good loot. One of the earliest perks in the Technology tree is that of automatically breaking down loot into components. If you are doing any crafting, this means you get low level components for free. If you aren't, then there are plenty of drop off points where you can liquidate your inventory for small amounts of cash. I recommend a low level of crafting for everyone, and even some basic stuff you can make is quite valuable, so you can turn a few bucks of loot into tens or even hundreds of bucks of items to sell. Plenty of junk to loot in the world. The Streets Shall Provide you with everything you need, really.
And that goes for experience as well. As I've outlined, you get experience at small amounts for everything you do, and that includes the auto-breakdown of junk to components. You are rewarded for crafting and that skill will level up slowly as you break stuff down or you craft new stuff, or as you update older equipment. You can find or buy weapon schematics, and The Streets have provided my character with quite a few of those. With a decent Intelligence you can unlock all your basic cyberware for hacking as things you can make to install on your firmware deck. And, yes, there are different skill levels for crafting, acrobatics, athleticism...and who know what else, and it is worth getting to them as some obstacles can be circumvented with a skill, not just Stat. Of course you might not have enough of any of those, but, that is life, and CDPR usually leaves workarounds.
There is so much street crime by gangs that the police can't handle it all, and that is where Mercs come in and you are a Merc. A Mercenary taking contracts, or not, to do missions, and street crime can be an instant mission as soon as the police put out the alert of one near you. Most of those are small time affairs, but there are some big ones, real big ones, hidden behind those alerts. At low levels it is necessary to think about your PC's skills and abilities and your own playstyle, and figure out how to get them done. I had initially thought of a pistol/rifle build aiming for a sniper weapon later on down the line as it is a crafting recipe. But a few times I started doing the mental calculations on enemy reload time and my own rate of travel. Thus it became Katana Time. I don't do melee builds. No, really, the last and least satisfying way for me to play is melee. As I did pre-order I got the Black Unicorn weapon in my inventory and it took up the rarely used Slot 3 in my weapons. Once, during a fight I was switching between weapons and...there it was. Enemies taking a long time to reload, distance not that far away, so it was time for the mad dash forward and swinging wildly. That was one of the hardest early ops I had and it was taking down some Netrunners who had...well...not factory authorized limbs they were pushing. I hated having my system hacked into and having to heal near constantly and guns just wasn't doing it. The Black Unicorn was in my hands and I thought 'screw it, this might be too hard at my low level, but I'll give it a shot'. Brute Force Was Used. Worked, too. Yeah one of them was cowering trying to use equipment to hide and yet peak out enough to hack my systems, but when I finally tracked her down, she pulled out a pistol. I was less than two feet from her. She never had a chance. Thus the wild-swinging Katana build as back-up to stealthy gunplay was born.
I don't do melee style builds, I don't do stances, combos, power attacks unless by accident...nope. My problems with automatic fire weapons is spread of fire. I need to hit a target multiple times and that often can't be achieved at even medium range. Burst fire is very good for that. Even better is right on top of someone and swinging a melee weapon quickly. Speed Kills. Later on I would just do some bull rush tactics of sprinting in before an enemy even knew I was coming at them...and have gotten the fun of taking down people who should be far, far better than me at martial arts melee than I am by not letting them get a chance to show it to me. Just don't hit those red canisters as they are all splodey, best to shoot those at long range.
The lesson learned: Learn to Adapt your playstyle.
One cute one I noticed under the Technology perks is not taking damage from your own grenades. Yes, running in and just dropping grenades seems to be a feasible playstyle in this game. Who knew? Sounds like fun, of a sort. Just pay attention to the red splodey stuff.
And speed. Yes, speed without cyber implants is possible. There is a mod for clothing that has a mod slot that increases movement, and I've seen it at 10 and 13. There are no qualifiers to that whatsoever. Start sprinting down long, open stretches of sidewalk, get your Athletics skill up and soon, very soon, you will become a low budget Flash. Speed Kills. I don't know if the effects stack, but if they do... well... you might become the fastest person without cybernetic augmentation that anyone has never seen. In theory, holding a bladed or blunt weapon out while sprinting past someone might be enough to take them out. That was a thing with cavalry and sabers back in the day. I have no idea if that works.
The advantage of high speed on foot is exploration of the Night City at a faster rate than without mods to clothing. You still get slow boosts to your Athletics skill, so its worth doing. I didn't come to Night City to do the story...I know, that's a shock, right? I mean I ditched the main story right from the start to get a playstyle and find things out. I wanted to see what CDPR has spent so long in making as they are known for a decent level of detail in their games. That, alone, is worth the price of admission. Every district, every block, every building feels like it belongs there, and the differences between a low-end retail area now being a place for homeless and that blurring into adjacent industrial works very well. Neighborhoods have their own visual style, but it isn't in your face. You learn to discriminate between the districts and the neighborhoods within them, and see who moving from one neighborhood to another, one district to another, changes the dress of the people, the look of the buildings and the flavor of the environment. Yet the buildings right on the border all fit together, and only the true shipping areas lack that, though they are well patrolled as those are true corporate holdings.
Your HUD gives you a minimap, but your best bet is to learn the streetwise skills of identifying landmarks, telling what sort of neighborhood you are in and then navigating via what you know about the area. In the digital age this on the ground sort of streetsmart navigation is being lost. Yet if you gain it you'll start to notice things that beg to be explored, alleys that you think should connect areas, stairs that go places you haven't been to, and you are rewarded by finding shops, randomized loot, and, of course, gang activity. You can provoke or not, depending on how you feel, and I've run through gang areas so fast they had problems even realizing I had been there. Now toss in climbing up crates, balancing over beams, jumping across spaces and you begin to get a real feel for Night City that you won't get depending on you Map and minimap. Forget the missions, take in the landscape from Downtown to Badlands, and see how it all works together. Because it does work together and you can start to feel how the flow of goods and people go in Night City. I still haven't figure out how to get to the elevated monorail system, a good 20 stories up. And the subway is just a fast travel point, which is disappointing as I was looking forward to subway tunnel investigation. While no one really likes sewers, I would like to see what the secrets of Night City are that the corporations have literally buried. To me, finding a manhole cover I could open would offer an entirely new way to get around the city, and find its secrets. At the speed of a low budget Flash, true, but I can jog! Life is too short to walk down the sidewalk.
Sadly most of the buildings are window dressing, with no real inside. I know this after having my sole dropping through terrain glitch and looking up as I surfaced under the city. Yeah, not much to render from under the surface of the city, and I was lucky to find a ramp that extended down enough so I could take it up and pop magically to the surface.
Bugs, Glitches, Irritations and Oddities
I have one quest that is bugged out, but its a sidequest, and not a major one. I triggered the triggers, did what was necessary and...nothing. I know it works because I had set it off earlier and know the procedure and went to a save before that to go out and do something else for a few weeks. Its a higher level thing that I just couldn't take down due to level differences. It happens.
People and vehicles pop in and out of being even as you look at them or the empty space they appear in. I'll pretend that its just a glitch in my cyberware! Though the vehicles are the worst. I've seen this en mass with vehicles far away in the distance, and see their headlights on the road as they are coming towards me, and then they disappear one by one, never arriving. Perhaps an advanced form of Fast Travel for the masses? That isn't bad. The truck that pops into being just as you are crossing the street... yeah, I could do without that.
NPC voice files not playing on phone calls or in meetings face to face. The latter I can get subtitles for, but there is no real animation going on for the NPC. A reload of a save can fix this. For phone calls, I've found myself choosing blindly and having to intuit what the conversation actually is. This not good, to say the least.
Loot icons showing but not being able to loot the object. For a couple of instances this might be due to the model glitching through the terrain just enough to make it not lootable. Nothing mission critical has had this happen to it, but I've seen it happen to dropped weapons and since part of the cleanup after a mission is typically getting rid of the weapons, that is a minor concern.
You care properly rendered for lighting effects, which means you have a shadow. My shadow has had a T-Pose, later it was missing below the waistline and my hat has hidden my hair in the in-game mirror/make-up area. This needs some tightening up, obviously, but is a low priority. I mean in TW3 Geralt may be extremely light on his feet, but stairs are his nemesis. At least I'm not falling down the stairs like he did!
The crime system needs something. Once I've started clearing out an area, I expect that the gangs I've been taking down will have some real morale problems, especially as my Street Cred goes up. And radiant crime is just... it needs something. I do expect some push-back, yes, and if I'm able to push those out, then a gang should be facing real, long-term problems. But it has been noted that in full Katana mad dash mode, the criminals are starting to call me a Cyberpsyco, which does bring a smile to my face. And here I am without any real nasty augmentations, just fast clothing. That and the puree effect must have something to do with it. But, really, once I've cleared all the major crime out of a district, I expect gang members to start having a real bit of fear showing up. The ones who are psychotic, well not so much, but even they should know that their own self-induced psychosis is being outmatched by someone with a purpose who has chopped up most of their gang and shows now sign of stopping. Crime needs a re-work, especially if I take out higher level functionaries of the gang. I would expect some splintering, in-fighting and general chaos to start showing up when the rank and file are having to depend on people who no longer know nor care much about them even further up the food chain. At possibly getting contracts from splinter groups trying to remove the original group.
Stealth needs something. I can't place my finger on it, but it needs something. Perhaps I'll need to do a bigger investment in Dexterity. Or a better selection of alternate paths? The Mission Critical ones have them, at least so far as I've found. But stealth needs a next level beyond Hitman mechanics of watching patrol patterns and marking things that move that can see (robots, people, etc.). Maybe something like a cyberchaff silent grenade or gas that makes areas temporarily unable to be scanned but leaves no smoke to be seen. Or an actual stealth field with soft-cushion mod on clothing, to complete a silent, sneaky passage. It feels so medieval to rely on older methods of stealth. I can work with it but I expected something more.
Once you get to Act II, why does everyone and their brother want to sell me car or motorcycle? I'm sprinting fast enough to keep up with some cars as it is. Out in the Badlands, sure, I can see it because where I want to go there aren't no roads. But I'm there to see everything which I can't do from a car or motorcycle. Sure I'll find areas of Bethesda levels of models that should be at ground level floating in mid air, who cares? I like to explore in Open World games, often more than actually going through the plot. So can I let it be known by my Street Cred that I don't want a vehicle? I got my crappy Nomad car back and its mostly going to sit out at a camp there because I have no use for it, either. And I'm happy to ride shotgun! Plus I don't have the money for a car or motorcycle. I am in a continual rich to poor to rich to poor cycle just trying to keep my equipment up to date. So, please, I know it is a major part of the lore and setting, but is there any way to turn it off? Or at least stop people from sending me notices of this sweet ride they have until AFTER I meet them and get to know them? Most of my message log is back up with this stuff. If I wanted a cool ride I would have bought one already. Instead I'm trying to find clothing too fast for my own good. Priorities! I should be able to go through someone who knows someone sort of deal to get a car, truck, motorcycle, etc. and that would feel organic to me. I'm not rich enough to afford them and they are just sitting in my backlog of stuff I don't have time to do.
Plus can I put in a message to people with an 'urgent mission' and let them know I'm busy ATM? Fixers need to be fixed, more in the veterinary way. There are some places where I was just jogging, sprinting, whatever, down the street and I couldn't go 50' without getting 3 missions...or 2 missions and a deal on a car...sounds like a game show, actually. Please? Pretty please? Get a message on someone needing me to steal something, then someone wanting someone else rubbed out, then a car, then a mission of search and destroy, then a cyberpsycho to be taken down non-lethally, and how about a motorcycle, eh? Right, I'm tempted to start taking THESE people out who are annoying the hell out of me, especially as I'm headed to an organized crime takedown. I should never, ever, get 3 missions from one fixer in 50'. Period. And how about these sweet wheels? I am busy exploring the damned city and slicing criminals up, could it wait a bit? Let everyone know the types of mission that ARE up my alley and those that AREN'T... in generally I'm not into the personal vendetta style missions. Just, no. Theft? Ah, well my stealth skills aren't what I'd like them to be, so no. Now a criminal gang leader that needs to be taken out either via puree or ballistics, that I'm up for. Search and rescue, generally OK, but situational. I've got more missions than I can ever complete and this game is a completionist's nightmare. Go racing! My driving skills suck. Have a shooting contest? Oooo...do we get living targets? Sit back and have a chat about a car...you know, I can make my own ammo and its the lowest and cheapest of components so, how about no and you'll get to live? The car thing starts in ACT II, but the huge number of messages I got just walking around, that was there when I was still trying to get my playstyle to firm up while not touching the main mission. My mission backlog stretches all the way back to that and the only thing longer than those side missions is the vehicle offers. Once I get some decent stealth going on I'll then tick that 'No Thanks' off on my phone, THEN you can hand them to me and not one second before.
Some views on my playthrough
There are some story plot holes, I won't go into those. I never got to go on a real mission out on the streets with my partner, and that makes the main story less satisfying. That is why I would have liked to play through that year and a half: I have no real connection as a player with these people, and it takes time to actually learn about them. Most of the characters that are important are just fine, and those you can get a deeper connection with have well drafted and executed back stories. Not all of them hang together all that well, sometimes, but there is enough there to show some real care and attention was paid to those few people who really matter. The plot critical decisions would make a much bigger deal if I got to know those on the decision path a lot better. A high end job from an old Big Time Fixer who has been off for a couple of years just doesn't mean much to me as a player. I just have to take the guy at face value, and that's...well there is nothing there so I just have to go by how I'm playiing my character. Honesty and Freedom are touchstones of the Nomads, and that means First Come, First Serve...with the exception being a Friend in Need as you will go through Hell, High Water and anything else that gets in your way to help a friend. Double deal with me, backstab me, change an arrangement without talking with me and you will not like the results. Do it at a critical juncture and I know you are untrustworthy in the extreme. That will lose me some people I like, but am not a friend with them, sometimes fatally. Such is life. A deal is a deal, and if you want to take the cards up to deal them to your favor I'll either walk away or flip the table over and let you know how I feel, personally.
I get the entire cyberpsychosis thing, and even how cybernetics can give an individual blinding fast speed for a fraction of a second. Totally get it. It's the disturbing udnerside to the man/machine dividing line and many minds will break down due to high stress, like combat or police work. It's a fine line to walk between being a thinking, caring human and an inhuman machine who puts little value on human life. Yet the emotions and psyche are still there, under all the machinery, and it can and does snap. When someone examining my few implants tells me they aren't up to snuff, well, good. My character is one who isn't willing to do that leap and all the fancy upgrades are meaningless. Once I can start having equipment that can see through walls and I can reach out and hurt them with a high caliber round, I've gotten just about everything I need, TYVM. As a Nomad I would think that I not only know how gear can be stripped down and repurposed, but what can go wrong with it. The more complex the system, the more that can go wrong and cause it to fail. Cybernetics are necessary, but the failure state of doing this to a person isn't in the equipment but the mind. Staying free, keeping your identity, and generally not going bonkers are high on the priority list. And the main story of the game doubles and then triples down on this. The mind is not an easy thing to fix, so keeping it is the top priority.
ACT II puts all of that into play, and the deadlines I do take seriously, though I know they are gameplay incentives. You can't get through life alone, and that means finding friends, maybe even family. But I'm a Nomad who left for a reason, and that was about my group joining a larger one and losing their identity. If I feel strong enough to leave at that point, then I will be real careful about such things in the future. Being self-outcast, self-exiled, I don't give that freedom up easily nor cheaply. Yet through it all, Friends get priority, even if it kills my character. I wasn't looking for a love life and there can be no promises on this plotline, and pure horrors are ahead. Thus I need to be good enough to get through the trials that await. And when I saw that my local gun dealer had a sniper rifle in stock in ACT II, I started to feel right at home. All is well as sniping must be a Nomad priority, given the vast empty distances of the Badlands, the wasted lands, the forgotten lands where the law is that of Nature and She is always with us.
At this point my GTX 1080 graphics card bit the dust (and on later examination it was my motherboard's chipset reading the PCIe slots that went under...the diagnostics on the motherboard told me that on further inspection). Waiting for a replacement to arrive. It served me well for a long while, but all things will eventually fail. (So, yes, new motherboard,CPU, memory, and have a new graphics card which helped in the diagnostic procedure. At 5+ years old, and a couple of generations behind when I got it, I am not surprised that the MTBF caught up with it.)
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