@bigsocrates: That's fair. Maybe Fallout was a poor choice. I think in my head I meant that even if the basic framework is like a Fallout games, but the depth isn't there. And not even just the amount of other crap you can do in Fallout with builds and alents or whatever. The dialog with non main storyline people isn't even comparable. If you wanna compare Cyberpunk to anything in that regard its more like Pokemon: a character specific phrase they repeat each time you talk to anyone who doesn't have a quest for you or sell you something. Granted, GTA has a similar issue, but those at least feel like there's a canned tree of responses. I forgive them for that because the game is like 7 years old at this point.
I'm less talking about comparing the amount of features and more the depth or quality of the ones that made it in. I don't think whole systems were cut from the game, beyond the standard "we planned for a lot of stuff and can only really nail these three things so let's choose these" phase of every game dev project. Its more that even the ones they felt they were able to accomplish feel unfinished. Things being shown like the monowire being able to hack a target from a distance and the energy katana. The armor that feels like the stats are randomly generated. It feels like there are a thousands of little things that got cut because it wouldn't be done in time. More than usual, and without any plans to fill in those gaps. The next three months are going to be bug fixing no doubt. Would that have been spent on content if they were able to reach the unobtainable goal of hitting December? As you said, I doubt it. I will be shocked if multiplayer ever makes it into this game.
I don't believe I ever expected as robust a city as GTA online has become, but some of those systems, the police/wanted systems, the streets full of cars that react to your driving, crowds that do more than walk down a path...those are not new techniques. Those are things that existed in games well before they ever had the right to make a Cyberpunk game. Maybe you're correct in that the goal was always a smaller scale of city as a backdrop. It certainly is a backdrop. And I experienced it on a bike because stopping to actually immerse myself in any of it was disappointing. Its not like I want to be able to LARP in there obeying traffic signals and whatever, but it felt like there were 5 places I bounced back and forth from over and over and going between the them was a trudge, not a reward.
Maybe it's a case of Andromeda-itis, where the engine was never meant to do those things and there was a brain drain or it just took them longer to make a shooter work in whatever in-house stuff they use. But I would much rather have a working cops mechanic, or fluid driving than the crew of 6 thugs in an alley 50 times. But that's something that they already had available. In all honesty that's what the cops are too. They had the ability to spawn in game asset with a crew of AI and it feels like that was copied and pasted over everything that wasn't the main questline or the side quests of your companions.
In some regards, I wish it was more like Mass Effect. Treat it like scenery. Let me look at it from the balcony as I'm on a mission. Maybe talk to some folks as I do detective stuff. Scope the city wayyyyy down and make it mission based. And then load me into an apartment or have the bar be my hub or something where I can chat with mercs and have a limited set of characters to deepend the dialog with. The less time you have to pull at the bubble gum and duct tape holding that world together, the more time you can focus on the fun story and missions and characters that are kinda the only redeeming quality.
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