First, before I begin talking about my first 24 hours with the game, let me first prove that I have at least idled inside of menus for that long. This overview will ABSOULETLY CONTAIN SPOILERS ABOUT GAMEPLAY / MECHANICS.

HERE IS HOW LONG ME PLAY VIDEO GAME

For further reference, I am using a Radeon RX 580, which barely meets minimum requirements and allows me to run the game on Ultra while hovering around~40fps. On High I can hang out around 60.

In terms of story completion, handy percentages in my inventory tell me that I'm about 14% completed with the main story. I have spent almost all my time in game doing side quests before then moving on to complete the main quest. My life background was Corpo.

--------------------------------------

I will spend most of my time here talking about the game as, well, a game. The mechanics inside of the game, the way you play the game, the way missions are given to the player, etc. This, notably does NOT concern critiques about story, graphics, characters, how well it runs, performance, etc.

If I see a comment saying something like "oh, you never talked about performance on the PS Vita" I will breakdown into barely-human remains kept together by dried glue and a child's dream.

Some of these systems work (meaning work well), some of them don't. Let me go over each category very quickly so that I can talk more generally about the game and it's systems and how I feel about them. Why does what I think matters? It doesn't. Nothing matters. Suck it up.

​

There is more, i'm sure, but I typed all of these out and had to start thinking really hard about anything I might've missed so I stopped caring and just said it was good enough. Whatever. Let's talk about these.

------------------------

I'm going to start with the systems that I liked or that worked, because that's just the kind of guy I am.

Crafting / Upgrading: This more is more "not bad." I'll get into the why a little more later, but it really ties into my issues with the loot system. As is, the crafting and upgrading system works but only if you spec for it. I think a character that doesn't put points into Technical is really going to struggle later on into the game, and the sooner you start levelling up your Crafting the better. The system rewards you getting into it early. To upgrade some of your items, maybe ones that you really like the look of, you will need a frankly absurd amount of components for the latter upgrades, which you'll need if you want to stay competitive with the enemies you're facing. Like I said, it works, it's fine. You'll want to always be crafting ammo and upgrading certain guns. The perk that allows you to de-craft junk automatically on pick-up is a must get. Not joking.

Quickhacking / Netrunning: Little to no complaints here, outside of some of the daemons you get being obviously better than other ones. Some are absurdly strong, others are PING. It's easy to do, intuitive, and, due to the nutso busted state the AI is in, overpowered. Honestly, rolling around with a good gun and some of the better Daemons might be the easiest, most fun way to play this game. It's too bad that isn't what I did. I do wish there were a few more fun ways to interact with the environment, but this is me coming off of playing Watchdogs 2 so i've been spoiled.

"Detective" Sections: If you've played one of these sections you'll know what i'm talking about. Without spoiling anything, these are some of my favorite parts of the game. I enjoyed looking around and scanning the environments in this game. There are so many details that make it clear how much work went into making this game look good and feel lived in. These parts reminded me a lot of playing through those Batman games in a good way. I even enjoyed elements of the forced Braindance parts.

Incentivized Exploration: The game is constantly trying to get you to look around, to explore. Night City had a lot of work and money go into it, obviously, and you get to see that. You are encouraged to explore the city due to the insane amount of "not missions" that populate your map. Whether it's intervening in a gang-dispute, getting involved with a police shootout, whatever. I just wish there was more and that they were more varied. I'll still stop running from one destination to the next if I see one of those icons pop up but the repetitiveness of some of these is starting to get to me.

The Leveling System: It works pretty well. Much less impact in game than you'd expect, most of the effects you see from getting stronger will be in combat. I think this might be because I'm still relatively early in the game's main story, but very rarely have I put points into something and then see it become relevant outside of combat. Exceptions include: some minor dialogue that might change the way conversations play out? A door that you can hack. A door you can run into. A terminal you can hack. It feels very "illusion of choice." To be transparent, I almost put this category into the other column, but I enjoy some of the perks and I like seeing my numbers get bigger, so...

------------------------------------

Ok, so as I move into the bad I feel like I should state the obvious: yes, there are more systems in this game that don't work than do. It's a big issue. The systems of the game that didn't work for me often had more to do with large, overall elements that make the game what it is. There are way too many issues here for me to point out individually and I am on a word limit here.

​

Stealth: Stealth is just busted. It straight up doesn't work. I don't know why but the stealth system in this game might be the worst i've seen. Half-cover doesn't stop them from seeing your head. Sometimes you'll uncrouch from trying to interact with the thing you're there to interact with and they'll see you. Sometimes they see you anyways. Sometimes their heads rotate 180 degrees like an owl's would. Broken. Don't put any points into Stealth / Cool unless you're doing to be playing a sniper or with throwing knives.

Customization (General): There is so little customization in this game it's laughable. I say this as someone who's familiar with the tabletop, so that's my background and part of why i'm so upset by this lack of options for my character. I want more implants. I want more clothing. I want to see how things look on me before I buy them. Why can't I change how I look after I set everything up? Even if I could, how big of a difference would it make? Some of these NPCs look fly as fuck, why can't I be more like them? Why aren't there more hair options? For both color and design. Why do I run into so many people with cool metal plates stuck in their heads it seems like they're giving them out for free at NEO711 yet I can't do anything but confuse soldering material for makeup. I want to make my apartment look cool! I want to trick out my car (that sucks!!!) I want to feel alive!

Driving: Driving is ass. I've had more control over an angry rat. Let me pick a destination and have my car drive me there. Or make driving feel better - natively. I've tried messing with third person camera settings but that makes it feel only marginally better.

Combat: Combat blows. Getting shot sucks. Shooting people isn't fun for me. Shotguns seem worthless and they're right alongside submachine guns. Melee is badass but I wish I had more long blade options. Or blunt options. Or that melee was viable on hard. I've been shot through walls, doors, people, the 4th wall. It at least should be consistent.

Armor / Loot: The armor and clothing system is bunk. I'd say throw it out and start over - it's that bad. You're encouraged to keep looting enemies because they might have armor with higher AC values, or guns with higher DPS. And I want to say that every enemy has either one or the other, so you're swimming in loot and it is ALMOST ALWAYS around your level. And as you level up your old things won't be good enough anymore, because enemies are also always getting harder and you need to be able to keep up. Sometimes this jump in difference between weapons or armor that you have on you and the one you loot off of the generic gang member is massive, and in the favor of the new loot. You are then faced with the option of taking the easy way (scrapping your old stuff, using the new at the cost of AESTHETIC) or the hard way (scrapping all the new stuff and struggling to upgrade old stuff)

Shopping: Buying and selling is bad and tedious. The entire reason I began breaking down my old stuff is because of how bad the system for selling or buying new things is. Actually, selling isn't that bad, it's more just tedious to do if you've collected a variety of different items that you want to sell. Buying, however, is bad. From that tiny picture you get so little information about what something really looks like, all they care about displaying to the player is the stats that go with it. Needless to say, this is part of the problem with the loot system.

AI: The AI just doesn't work. I don't know what else to say here. People walk down street. Lots of people have fun, cool twins or triplets. They'll tell you to fuck off. They'll ignore you. Cars follow set, predetermined paths down roads and highways. Vendors ignore you. It feels dead. It doesn't feel like the people in Night City are human, which I guess is fitting, but i'd at least like to see some more interaction from them and me. I think the most interaction i've had with NPCs is running through them.

----------------------

I don't really know how to close this out, so i'll end with this: I think this is an okay game and it has the potential to be a great one. Right now i'd give this game a 6/10, which should speak to how much I fucking love Night City. God, I love Night City. If this wasn't a game and just a controllable camera inside Night City it'd still be a 6/10.

I'm having more fun, generally, than i'm having a bad time. I do wish this was more of an RPG and less of an action-adventure, but that was never really up to me. I wish advertising was more genuine about what we'd be getting. I wish CDPR was honest about the state of the game. None of this has anything to do with mechanics or systems, however, so i'm including this here, at the end, as a special treat.

TL;DR: I played the HOT NEW OPEN-WORLD, ACTION-ADVENTURE game set in the DARK FUTURE from CD PROJEKT RED, creators of THE WITCHER 3 for 24 hours. I made people read what I thought of the systems in the game. This was that.