Cyberpunk 2077

[Khaldun]

I hit my first really bad glitches in the Aldecaldo-connected ending, by the way. Vehicles popping in and popping out in the yard before the drill, at one point a Militech troop got knocked down and fell through the floor where he was untouchable but I couldn't progress without killing him, so had to restart. Couldn't touch my inventory a few times, dialogue skipped, the stupid fucking tank spontaneously flipped over on its back like a turtle so that when I got in it I had to spend ten minutes trying to coax it to flip again, etc.

I might try a melee-based playthrough in May or June if there's a bunch of new content or patching. Gunplay combat was pretty good? I never bothered with richochets and all that stuff, and the smart sniper rifle I made late in the game was incredibly boring to use (instakilled anybody I pointed it at, but reloading on every shot). The pacing of the ending felt kind of off generally.

[Riggswolfe]

I hit my first really bad glitches in the Aldecaldo-connected ending, by the way. Vehicles popping in and popping out in the yard before the drill, at one point a Militech troop got knocked down and fell through the floor where he was untouchable but I couldn't progress without killing him, so had to restart. Couldn't touch my inventory a few times, dialogue skipped, the stupid fucking tank spontaneously flipped over on its back like a turtle so that when I got in it I had to spend ten minutes trying to coax it to flip again, etc.

I might try a melee-based playthrough in May or June if there's a bunch of new content or patching. Gunplay combat was pretty good? I never bothered with richochets and all that stuff, and the smart sniper rifle I made late in the game was incredibly boring to use (instakilled anybody I pointed it at, but reloading on every shot). The pacing of the ending felt kind of off generally.

I didn't have these issues thankfully but we're probably on different platforms or something. Except the dialogue. It was there but the VO wasn't playing so without subtitles on I briefly thought the game had frozen or something.

[Khaldun]

The one other quest that completely glitched for me was the one with the Delamain cabs--I didn't chase the one that wants to commit suicide, so it showed as being at the trash dump it plows into but it wasn't interactably there and I could never get it to actually appear. There's one cyberpsycho quest that's also fucking annoying--I had assumed I'd just glitched that too but it only goes off after 8pm.

[Samprimary]

my general take on this game is that it's actually good and it'll be worth following along its expected DLC/expansion trajectory

but it's packaged with a bunch of shit that rightfully pisses gamers off for actually good, reasonable, important reasons and these guys shoulda known better

and also it's basically only worth playing on PC, and only then if you can roll the dice and find that your rig does not, for whatever inscrutable reasons, offend the fae gods that dictate if your game bugs out like fucking crazu

[Riggswolfe]

my general take on this game is that it's actually good and it'll be worth following along its expected DLC/expansion trajectory

but it's packaged with a bunch of shit that rightfully pisses gamers off for actually good, reasonable, important reasons and these guys shoulda known better

and also it's basically only worth playing on PC, and only then if you can roll the dice and find that your rig does not, for whatever inscrutable reasons, offend the fae gods that dictate if your game bugs out like fucking crazu

Nah, I played it on my Xbox One X and it was great after the first patch cleared up my crashing issues. (Was going to play on PC but the spouse wanted to watch so there you go). It's even better now that I upgraded to a Series X.

That said, it absolutely shouldn't be on baseline Xbox Ones or PS4s.

[Surlyboi]

Same for PS5 and PS4 Pro. Worked just fine on both of those.

Working through my second full playthough now and my third ending. The core story works and is an actual tear-jerker in a lot of cases. Some of the side missions are pretty damn engaging too. will it get better? Yes. Was the rollout to lower-end consoles dumb? Also yes.

It's still a good game.

[Falconeer]

Add me to the bunch who consider it a really good game. Show stopping bugs suck, if you get them. But unless this, or that, or that, is not your cup of tea, like always, the game itself is very good.

[Sky]

Same for PS5 and PS4 Pro. Worked just fine on both of those.

Working through my second full playthough now and my third ending. The core story works and is an actual tear-jerker in a lot of cases. Some of the side missions are pretty damn engaging too. will it get better? Yes. Was the rollout to lower-end consoles dumb? Also yes.

It's still a good game.

And it's working for folks like you pushing through the story and folks like me just dawdling around. I'm still at the part where the story splits into 3 questlines (Takemura is one I forget the other two because it's been a minute). I did finish Judy's quest line, that was awesome. I have a screenshot from a later mission that's so beautiful I want to paint it :D

However, I'm most of the way through the NCPD POIs. I mostly just cruise the city between them, checking stuff out. I leave the 'Psycho Killer' mission tracked, as it doesn't have a yellow WP to distract and looks good in teh save menu since I'm basically playing a psycho killer for the ncpd.

I actually had one crash last weekend, but I give it a pass since I was in hot combat and tried to do several things at once, so it was likely some odd combination. Rock stable otherwise, most bugs I've seen are just visual stuff or stuff I feel will get switched back on at some point (police AI, traffic).

I loved Disco Elysium, but that's a different kind of game. As much as I'd call that one of the best rpgs of all time, I like open worlds where I can come home for lunch and blast some bad guys and then chill in the evening with a story mission. Games like this are right down the fairway for me.

[Kail]

I think with Cyberpunk a lot of the POI quests surprised me as being rather good and more detailed narratively than I expected them to be.

Yeah, I was actually surprised at how in depth some of them are (some of them are terrible, too).  There was one quest where Wakkado asked me to kill someone for unspecified reasons, and the client asked to come along to witness the deed.  Chased the target down and shot him, mission complete, but the client died, so I decided to re-try it to try and keep him alive.  Mission went ENTIRELY differently the second time, turned in to a multiple part quest after that with a super dark ending and is probably one of the most interesting dilemmas in the game.  And in some parallel universe, there's a version of me that just shrugged their shoulders when the client died and never thought twice about it.

the smart sniper rifle I made late in the game was incredibly boring to use (instakilled anybody I pointed it at, but reloading on every shot)

How do smartguns work, exactly?  Unless I swapped guns without noticing it, I lost my crosshair when I installed the smartlink and now I can't aim for shit with it.  The gun itself is long since obsolete and can't one shot enemies even with a head shot, so it's not really interfering with my game, it's just that I feel like I don't understand how it works.  Did a search and everything just seems to be either vague "it helps you aim" or instructions on where to buy the link.  So I've got a sniper rifle that I can't aim which does garbage damage.

Can't get rid of augments, either, which is annoying, since if you have an arm implant, you can't activate your blood pump due to a glitch, and I really don't like the nanowire that I installed.

[01101010]

the smart sniper rifle I made late in the game was incredibly boring to use (instakilled anybody I pointed it at, but reloading on every shot)

How do smartguns work, exactly?  Unless I swapped guns without noticing it, I lost my crosshair when I installed the smartlink and now I can't aim for shit with it.  The gun itself is long since obsolete and can't one shot enemies even with a head shot, so it's not really interfering with my game, it's just that I feel like I don't understand how it works.  Did a search and everything just seems to be either vague "it helps you aim" or instructions on where to buy the link.  So I've got a sniper rifle that I can't aim which does garbage damage.

Can't get rid of augments, either, which is annoying, since if you have an arm implant, you can't activate your blood pump due to a glitch, and I really don't like the nanowire that I installed.

Smart guns only work with the smart link cyberware. Install that at a ripper and get a smart gun and the gun will display a wide bluish-gray screen instead of a reticle. Just put the screen over the target and the bullets become guided missiles. Aiming the gun further and moving it up a bit will target the head more often than not and will target the head if you are using the sniper rifle. Think about the shots like golf shots... as long as the target still has a small red circle on it, move the barrel and hook your shots around their cover, or over it so the bullets dive over the cover.  I use them on my netrunner since I usually wipe most of the chaff mobs out with contagion and only need it to clean up the remainder. The smart shotgun is my go-to for that because it is just stupid at closer ranges.

[Surlyboi]

Have still yet to use a smartgun. Just get the optics on some heavy shit linked to my cyberware and target enemies from behind cover and shoot at the heads of the painted silhouettes through the wall. No muss, no fuss. They never even see where the shots come from.

[Riggswolfe]

Have still yet to use a smartgun. Just get the optics on some heavy shit linked to my cyberware and target enemies from behind cover and shoot at the heads of the painted silhouettes through the wall. No muss, no fuss. They never even see where the shots come from.

I tend to use tech guns but Skippy is a fun smart gun if you can find it. It has an AI that talks to you and it acts as a smart gun even if you don't have the cyberware installed. If you make the right choices it becomes a smart gun that ALWAYS shoots the head and does massive damage if you're specced right. The AI is kind of fun though I did find it both amusing and annoying when it'd sometimes pop off a round and say something like "I'm sorry, that never happens to me."

[Khaldun]

It seems really hard to upgrade though? But crafting is so opaque at times that I can't always tell why I'm not being allowed to upgrade a particular weapon. One thing I think I learned is never ever breakdown an iconic weapon--even if you have the crafting spec, it seems like you have to have an actual copy of the weapon to make a better version of it. (e.g., you may have the spec to take a rare iconic and make a legendary iconic but if you broke down the rare ironic, you're fucked).

[Rendakor]

Yea I didn't realize that early on and lost a bunch of cool guns because of it. I saw the crafting spec but didn't realize I needed the original.

[Sky]

Iconics, yeah, you need the original to upgrade. The recipes should unlock automatically for you, though. The only other requirement for upgrades are parts and level. If you have all the parts, you should get a message telling you that you need to be (some messed up lvl(0) msg that means you need to be a level higher to upgrade again).

The purple maxdoc will break down into all but legendary parts for the cost of common and uncommon, which you can get from junk and beverages. It's more efficient to make grenades, though. A purple flashbang costs 1 grey and 1 green but will give you back blues and purples (but no grey/green).

There is a green flame jacket that is good for money grind early on. As I was exploring and doing POIs, I just emptied all the soda machines as I passed them (¢$10/can). Then break those down into parts and craft those jackets, which sell for around ¢$500/ea. It's grindy and limited by money at each vendor, but it's a nice way to get a car or a nice mod or weapon early on.

When the blue tier unlocked, there is a synsilk jacket that sells for around ¢$1k but adds some blue and purple parts to the recipe, which becomes the bottleneck and is a bit more grindy (adds step of making grenades/heals and breaking those down for blue/purple). BUT they also have a slot, which has a chance of having a Legendary mod (+15% crit change or 30% crit damage) that you can choose a perk to get back when you recycle the jacket. Then you can break that down and get legendary parts. The whole process works and makes good money, but is just past my tolerance for grind. But if you are using it for parts and save scum when crafting Legendaries, it goes far enough in a pinch. And monetarily, even without grinding a ton (mostly using it to get back money when I buy something expensive at a vendor), I'm sitting at around ¢$550k at level 32 without having done most of the story.

Speaking of mods, pay attention to the stat panel. A lot of the mods don't stack. Only 1 each of the aforementioned crit mods will apply to the Stats page, even though it looks like they stack on the clothing. This goes for mods on the same item, as well as all items combined. Further confused by showing a successful stack on the item tooltip (pants with +60% crit change over 4 slots had me so excited, too, but nah).

When crafting mods, there is a weird thing with just the Armadillo mod. All others seem to be a locked value (+7 damage for instance), but the armor mods seem to craft randomly at 3 levels (grey/green/blue) and increase total armor buff as you level (so a level 10 mod will be better than a level 9 mod). This only seems to apply to armor mods, but they're so cheap it's worth grinding out a bunch when you need some. Slot the blues and recycle everything you don't use. Making sure to keep these mods up to level and having points in tech, the armor really starts to pile on. I can mostly just walk into shotgun fire to smack someone with the pimp cane (I also have a speed demon build that stacks more armor buffs, it's pretty OP imo).

I'm using a legendary non-iconic smart shotgun with an 8 projectile shot. In the gun's HUD you can see little red circles on the highlighted enemy, this is where the gun will attempt to hit. As a speed demon, it takes some practice to get enough space and the correct angle, but it's a pretty crazy weapon for when things get a bit too hot for the pimp cane. The targeting stuff may be from the eye mod or a perk, though.

As a shotgun/blunt build, this game really seems to favor pistols and rifles. I've found so many more iconics, smart guns, and in general better drops across the board. I was using a blue autoshottie for the longest time because I never get a decent shotgun until I was at least in my 20s!

Lest this get too long harhar, one final note about Body build: LMGs are broken. Something's wrong with the slots and with a 4 slot LMG I could only slot in the top mod. So I stopped using them and switched to mostly melee.

[Riggswolfe]

It seems really hard to upgrade though? But crafting is so opaque at times that I can't always tell why I'm not being allowed to upgrade a particular weapon. One thing I think I learned is never ever breakdown an iconic weapon--even if you have the crafting spec, it seems like you have to have an actual copy of the weapon to make a better version of it. (e.g., you may have the spec to take a rare iconic and make a legendary iconic but if you broke down the rare ironic, you're fucked).

Skippy? You don't have to upgrade it. It levels with you.

[Khaldun]

Well that would explain why I couldn't ever upgrade it. :)

[Sky]

I read there is something with Skippy...it locks out whatever primary mode you've been using at some point when it levels up. Look into that if you're leaning on Skippy as your primary weapon.

[Tebonas]

I guess Skippy is gone once you give it back to the questgiver? Because I want all those quests gone so I had to. The fact that all those car sale offers clutter my map is bad enough for my OCD.

[Sir T]

I've heard of a settlement in trouble, General. I'll mark it on your map..

[Riggswolfe]

I read there is something with Skippy...it locks out whatever primary mode you've been using at some point when it levels up. Look into that if you're leaning on Skippy as your primary weapon.

That's what my spoiler covers. It's a bit of a trap if you don't know what it does.

[Fabricated]

Can't you just slot in the optics mod that makes all your guns non-lethal no matter what if Skippy locks on lethal?

[Khaldun]

I slot that thing in and out every time I'm going after a cyberpsycho.

I'm doing a second play though I doubt I'll finish it through, just curious about a few things, and I'm trying really hard to do most things stealth and non-lethal. Now this is something where there should be some difference in how people treat you but I can't see it--it really only seems to matter on those missions where the fixer says "please try not to kill people". Otherwise you can kill the fuck out of everything, as far as I can tell, with no difference in how anybody in the world sees you. I wonder if it affects how Johnny sees you? I'm trying to think where it was in the game that some NPC made a crack about how many people you've killed--I wonder if that would change if you somehow managed to kill no one?

[Velorath]

Aside from a difference in dialogue, I'm not entirely sure it actually matters much if you kill a cyberpsycho or not. I've seen mixed reports on whether or not it fails a quest, on whether or not lethal damage actually kills them or if you have to shoot them again after you've downed them to actually kill them. Even then it's hard to tell what's a result of the mechanics and what's just a bug.

I'm guessing there was probably supposed to be more with the whole lethal/non-lethal stuff in the game but as implemented I'm not sure there's any functional different in the game really.

[01101010]

Aside from a difference in dialogue, I'm not entirely sure it actually matters much if you kill a cyberpsycho or not. I've seen mixed reports on whether or not it fails a quest, on whether or not lethal damage actually kills them or if you have to shoot them again after you've downed them to actually kill them. Even then it's hard to tell what's a result of the mechanics and what's just a bug.

I'm guessing there was probably supposed to be more with the whole lethal/non-lethal stuff in the game but as implemented I'm not sure there's any functional different in the game really.

My MO for all those missions is to use the tranq dart with the cyberware projectile launcher - knock them out, find the info, text Regina and finish the quest, then double tap headshot with my sidearm while they lay there and collect the NCPD reward. WIN-WIN

[Surlyboi]

I've gone lethal on three cyberpsychos and miraculously failed to kill them all. Finished mission as expected.

[Riggswolfe]

All attacks on cyber psychos seem to be non-lethal until they drop.  I've dropped them by shooting them in the face with my explosive pistol and they are still alive. They only seem to die if you shoot them after they've fallen.

[disKret]

I'm not entirely sure it actually matters much if you kill a cyberpsycho or not.

If You will not kill any psycho there will be a few lines more from Regina on final step of the quest. I dont remember getting any additional award.

[Sky]

I don't use that mod yet it seems that I have to clean up every POI by going around and finishing off chooms rolling around on the ground. Seems almost random whether they die or get knocked down (not out, as they're rolling around in apparent pain...except for the ones that don't, but still aren't dead...).

I was kind of hoping there was an achievement for cleaning off all the NCPD POIs, just finished the last few last night. More to know I got them all than any whoring.

Hands down my favorite quickhack is Cyberpsycho, especially with a few perks to promote spread. Ironic that I'm hunting cyberpsychos, but I've made hundreds of them. I still mostly go for visceral melee/shottie action gameplay, but it's nice to take a breather and watch a couple psychos fight everyone until they blow their own brains out.

[Khaldun]

The cyberpsycho questline feels to me like one of those that got semi-cut in the rush to release, in the sense that if you read all the shit you pick up after taking one down, it starts to feel very clear that there's an actual cause and it actually matters. Including the quest with the guy who stole the drugs who isn't yet a cyberpsycho and who suicides if you talk him down. It's a real letdown when you do the whole damn thing and Regina's like oh well thanks for all that help guess we'll never know. I would assume that's a DLC in the making--probably something that takes you into Militech and other corps, etc.

[Sky]

I agree, and that was a nicely done vignette with the neighbor.

But, to reiterate...I'm making new cyberpsychos on the regular, soo....the real villain was V all along.

[Khaldun]

Zigacktly.

[Sky]

So. Getting to the part of the main plot where you work with the Voodoo Boys (I said I was playing slowly heh). I probably missed the 'good' way to stealth through the level, but in 2077 can a hacker download a damn map for stealth levels? Anyway, ended up cyberpsychoing everyone as usual because I ended up in a dead end and was tired of sneaking after a loooong and slow creep across the map. Problem is, by then it was late and I was going to bed and I hit an almost half-hour sequence of story without any saving.

First time I was actually annoyed at the game. Partly for keeping me up way past my beddie-bye, but also because I rushed through the story parts that I had been looking forward to. Boo to long unskippable unsaveable passages in anything ever. For a second I was longing for the old Playstation button to just sleep the game.

[Khaldun]

Placide seems like another character that they likely had more interactions planned with once upon a time--there's enough effort put into his character model etc. that the limited interactions you have seem odd.

I was also slightly annoyed that V wasn't allowed to put two and two together in terms of who had been behind Evelyn in the first place if your V went ahead and read all the shards they'd been collecting up to that point. Brigitte is in there under another name. If you're attentive you already know a lot about her by the time you meet her. That's another thing that is kind of underwritten in the game--you don't get dialogue branches that reward your acquisition of information.

I've seen that you can side with NetWatch but it's pretty damn hard to stealth past Sasquatch plus Sasquatch drops something good.

[Sky]

Placide seems like another character that they likely had more interactions planned with once upon a time--there's enough effort put into his character model etc. that the limited interactions you have seem odd.

I was also slightly annoyed that V wasn't allowed to put two and two together in terms of who had been behind Evelyn in the first place if your V went ahead and read all the shards they'd been collecting up to that point. Brigitte is in there under another name. If you're attentive you already know a lot about her by the time you meet her. That's another thing that is kind of underwritten in the game--you don't get dialogue branches that reward your acquisition of information.

I've seen that you can side with NetWatch but it's pretty damn hard to stealth past Sasquatch plus Sasquatch drops something good.

You can still side with the Netwatch agent after killing her. I stumbled on her while my cyberpsychos were cyberpsychoing, it was a pretty challenging fight to go into unprepared with low ammo weapons. I tried three paths with him (two were the same outcome, but the first time I just jacked him immediately, in hindsight I liked the interaction with Johnny after that the best).

And for sure they need to put in flags based on collected knowledge from the world.