~Ravewolf

I think the new Cyberpunk 2077 game has generally been great. I especially like the different choices and replayability aspect depending on what character type you go with. The level of thoughtful detail is also wonderful for world building. The different paths to accomplish goals thing has been sorely lacking in a lot of past RPGs, which is why people remember stuff like the Vampire Bloodlines game so fondly.

It feels a little odd playing this at a time when at least some of the cyberpunk ideas have actually started to come to pass, from VR to self driving cars. The future is now. I was amused when a game streamer I watch responded to the early in-story VR section with "Oh, cool, I like VR." referring so casually to their enthusiasm for actual VR in real life. For some of us who were waiting for VR since reading the old cyberpunk stories of old back during childhood, seeing stuff like today's kids responding that way to the concept, as if it was something taken for granted, is really funny.

It's also interesting how we have come such a long way since the media responded with headlines about the evils of "full frontal nudity" in a presumed kids game when the first Mass Effect game had mild nudity during love scenes, and the creators responded by censoring future titles in the series. Now this game comes out, with actual full frontal included, and hardly anyone cares, and Twitch even allows it to be streamed uncensored.

That said, some of the reviewers and game streamers I have observed playing it have mentioned that some of the characters sound like they are trying a bit too hard to be a kid's idea of what would be cool at times, which I sort of agree with, though I don't think it's a huge problem, as cinema-speak is pretty common in most media storytelling.

I think the larger problem with the dialogue is that there's a lot of telling rather than showing. Characters make pronouncements about themselves that don't feel very real. Granted, there are some efficient moments of exposition that were necessary, but when characters straight up tell you things about themselves rather than letting you discover them through their overall tone and actions, it feels as if the game writers don't trust the players to intuit things about the story, despite the game being obviously intended for an adult customer.

I think they should have trusted the audience a bit more. I mean, come now, I think we can figure out that the guy who has been described as a loan shark is a shady and cold character without him literally announcing for us that he is "All about the biz."