I didn't really follow the hype leading up to the release of Cyberpunk. Only ever saw a few images and maybe minutes of a trailer, and Keanu Reeves showing up on stage. Thought I'd pick it up and try it when it released. With expectations so high, I figured this has to be a great game.
Cyberpunk takes gameplay aspects from a few other big titles. The open world mission based progression from GTA. The stealth/aggression FPS combat from Far Cry. And the level up perk dialogue options from Fallout. But each of these lack the depth from its' original counterpart.
The open world in Cyberpunk a beautiful, and reasonably big. But the traffic AI, the law enforcement, and the pedestrian AI don't feel the most organic. Pedestrians would reply with the same few things whenever you spoke to them. The things you could do were also quite limited in the city. As far as I knew, vehicles you could drive didn't have that much variety as well. Bike, car, or suv. Driving around in Night City was laggy for me, but maybe the problem could be fixed with a better PC build.
The game let me approach combat either with stealth, or guns blazing. I love stealth, and that's what I attempted at first. But this proved to be problematic. Scanned objects turned into a jumble of mess on my screen with random objects overlapping human enemies. The game intends for me to hack a radio to distract an enemy, but it takes me some time to actually align my cursor with the radio to hack it, making sure it's not the dude I hack. Hacking to distract enemies is a cool thought, but it serves the same purpose as throwing a rock to get enemies to turn around in many other stealth games of this nature, and it brings out the same effect with much less tedious work. I soon resorted to just going in guns blazing, as stealth became tedious and not fun. Most of the time, I'd be noticed for really stupid reasons. Either they suddenly turned around right before I could get close enough. OR the stupid double tap dodge input screwed me over. At times I'd tap the direction keys to slowly get closer, but that input combo is also for quick dodging, which means I'd accidentally blow my cover.
The perk tree is enormous. Like WAY too big. The only way I see anyone can even come close to completing it is if they do every side mission and take on almost every random street conflict. It's not necessary to level each perk, but I can't imagine anyone being able to do it unless they are a hardcore completionist.
The dialogue, voice acting, and characters were great. Although, there were many characters I wish had lived longer. I love it when games or shows kill characters, but I really wish Cyberpunk had kept some of them for longer, as I grew attached to them. Really wanted them to stick to, at least, until near the end.
The story was interesting. Mind transfer. But it's nothing I haven't experienced before. SOMA and the Observer come to mind. As well as movies like Source Code, and the Matrix. All three arguably portray it better, imo. But Cyberpunk did tell it in a fascinating and unique way. Having Johnny around questioning my every move was interesting, and made me think about my morals, which side I was on, and what I should do.
All in all, I did enjoy the game. But it's nothing I haven't experienced before. It's like CD Project Red tried to mesh together a bunch of the popular open world gameplay aspects together, but the result is just an average of all the big games that perfected the formula. The futuristic cyber theme definitely gives the game it's identity, albeit only visually.