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Come see why not enough “punk” in Cyberpunk 2077 broke Night City.
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I get why they kept the XP system, it's what people expect and players like the feeling of progression. But getting rid of it and having everything linked though Cyberware would be amazing! If you had proper humanity loss mechanics (including the glitchy effects style from Eternal Darkness as you got close to the humanity limit) would really add the feeling of night city forcing your choices in a similar way to Edgerunners, where David has to keep cybering up to compete, even though he knows it'll end in psychosis!
There's your character arc right there, driven by your choice to get more cyberware to get more powerful, but paying the price every time. Plus it gives a logical reason why you (and others) become bullet sponges.
That's what I want from Cyberpunk 2, rather than a plot that happens to me (there are a lot of cut scenes) I want a game where the plot is truly driven by my choices. Do I cyber up to compete, loosing my friends and humanity in the process, or do I resist the urge and get crushed by the city.
CP2077 was the usual eyecandy themepark, miles wide, but inches deep. Beautiful, but hollow. I think it was the last game I was hyped about ever. For me, the hype just died over the course of years. I recall thinking "oh yeah, there was supoosed to be a Cyberpunk game, is it out yet?" and it wasn't. So when they finally started hyping everyone for release I was unenthused over something I nearly forgot the existence of. I'll admit, last few days before release got me a bit hyped. Tuen the ge dropped and it ran like ass on my PC, was buggy as all hell, and generally meh. I think I dropped it before 1.04 came out, and picked it back up around 1.61, where I played for quite a bit, but dropped it again. Now I have it with Phantom Liberty, but I just don't feel like it. I used to laugh at my friend who bough it on PS4pro on release, played the intro, saw how it ran and uninstalled. I tried to convince him it's in a much better state, and PS5 have more power, so he should give it a try again. He finally caved, gave it a try, got really into it, bought the DLC and got all the endings he could on his character months ago. I still don't feel like it.
Your Bs and Hs are getting cut off, like when you said boxer and rebel, and happen.
I wish they had gone further into making it a life simulator of sorts, except really emphasizing just how difficult it is to ascend the ranks of society in this city. Maybe throw in some more tough moral decisions as you take jobs out of necessity for money and have to choose whether to go through with it and get paid or sacrifice your well being for someone else’s. Make money a difficult commodity to earn. Having an aerondight should be a flex that came from hundreds of hours ingame, not something you can get in 10 by selling dildos you found on the street.
Spot on. Coming up with a world where the player can both consume open-world combat arenas killing hundreds AND put some emotional weight to death is difficult. Let's see how the pros did it:
1) Assasins creed – it's a simulation/dream. Things didn't happen as you see them, or in order you see them. Perhaps the combat arena you cleared was a dream, a plan, a training exercise – which your character lived sort of as it were real – but didn't actually happen. And certainly not there, then, that way.
2) Far cry 1 – it's war-torn Liberia and human life really is as worthless as shown. Gunning down a bunch of starving black dudes and looting their guns is exactly what is happening and you are no more no less the genocidal monster you directly play as.
3) Far cry 2 – it's a power fantasy. You're actually still stuck in a cage, a rich and feeble teenager whose mind literally broke from the violence inflicted on those close to you and you. You imagine yourself being this uber-soldier enacting righteous vengeance the very moment the pirates are performing unspeakable acts on you.
4) Witcher 3 – as portrayed. You are in fact a super-human killing machine in a war-torn landscape. Hell, you've already slain more people you can count before the game started. And there's a war going on – marauders and deserters aplenty, people without options, and monsters having a feast of their lives.
Cyberpunk couldn't decide if it wanted the open world or the compelling narrative. You can't have both. Like oil and water, they don't mix unless you explicitly add some narrative emulsifier. As I left Jackie's funeral, before his mother finished her grievance speech, I had an HE grenade mid-air into a group of gangers, one whose head I blew clean off in an explosion of gore and loot. A somber remin.. – RADICAL, DUDE!
I never thought about the in-game financial aspects. Maybe there should be radiant quests that require you to pay your depts, (rather for gangs or corporations, or any other faction) like doing work, or paying with money.
What if the game had an honor system? Like in Red Dead Redemption. Like where you do wrong to a faction, and then that faction, or any relative factions are immediately against you, in transactions and business.
This is basically everything you said, not word for word.
Maybe you should be apart of the development team when the sequel to Cyberpunk is being organized.
The solution – have both your game design hemispheres talk to each other. Cyberpunk is an example of what happens when you've got the story guys writing a heart-gripping story on one floor, the gameplay guys polishing the tight combat in another – but neither talk to each other. You end up with steak tartare&green onions mixed with strawberry&whipped cream sorbet served on one plate.
CDPR should've sat down and evaluated, how many people is V going to kill, on average, before the credits screen. And either built a story where it makes sense for V to have a kill-count of 2000-6000, or redesigned their gameplay loop so V isn't the personification of the grim reaper.
HEY LOOK A CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO, EVERYONE. EVERYONE, HEY LOOK A CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO
edited for the comment below: BULLSHIT
Nope, you got it totally wrong, is like you didn't even prayed the game. 🤨
Imagine making a YT just to try to promote your stupid little book but most people will prolly disregard it since they can tell you’re only capable of bullshit takes lmao.
I see where you're coming from and it's some good thinking – but it would completely take the fun out of the game. Cyberpunk 2007 was never a real life dystopian simulator and was never meant to be that. I also strongly disagree about your point with Night City not happening to V. Yes, some choices are made so this game leans towards 'fun', but honestly the first five hours I played it, I certainly felt like a gonk being hit by the worst NC has to offer. I lose my only friend, I'm killed, I'm barely brought back to life only to get bitch slapped by some Arasaka-goon, get told a terrorist has invaded my mind, I get a medical death sentence, is rolled back into my 'cool new apartment' in a wheelchair by my dead friend's girlfriend and is almost killed by said terrorist during the night.
The whole premise of the game is, that everyone is chewed out by Night City, V just happen to gamle with higher stakes than the normal gonks and gets the full rollercoaster. If the game put more obstacles in V's way it would really mess with the pacing and focus of the story. With the different endings in mind, just weeks from the beginning, how can one say that Night City doesn't happen to V? V isn't just an observer to the tragic fates either, they react, care and fight for both themselves and other people. This means that their tragedies also affect V.
Great vid, well thought out and edited! I loved the use of punk songs to punctuate your points.
Subscribed!
My thoughts: Sounds like you want something more like an MMO, which I am not against but it is definitely not the game or experience I think they were providing.
Sure, V is on top of the city for a chunk of the game, and is able to make (in some cases) better decisions than the NPCs, we learn that even she is ultimately at the whim of the corporations. The endings and choices available reflect that. But yes, not the gameplay I guess.
Gotta remember, regardless of how much the player sleeps, the game takes place in a very short amount of time. All of the shit that V goes through happen in *a few days*. She goes from being a nobody, to a being somebody, and ends her arc like a flashfire. It tells a different part of the world's story, IMO.
Overall, though, I agree with most of the spots that could be deepened or improved. I would rather see smaller areas of night city released per game, much more fleshed out, more detailed faction mechanics, and much harder choices for the MC.
Hm, well, while the choices in the story are important, and I agree they don't really encapsulate punk, that aspect of the game is still there, it's just the players choice to walk that direction.
Now as for the larger overarching plot, I do agree it's not following punk- rather showing what happens when it fails. A good sequel to that would be to see it get back up and win somehow, dying in the process not being important as long as the enemy gets beaten by the unconventional.
Right in that the game doesn't have intricate difficulty tho, but I'd say that's cause of the development issues, otherwise this game would essentially just be scifi Bauldurs Gate 3. Which would be amazing, and more in line with the table top version being DND like.
Well at least they added the gangs who put out a hit on you and try kill you
Hope CDPR will find your video. I loved the game through and through, but you are clearly right. This would've made the game way better.
Playing this game and finishing the DLC really made me feel some kinda way. I legit felt attached to the multiple characters the game threw at me and without going into any spoilers, the ending really managed to exploit that to it's fullest. I think the ending of the game takes your point of showing how crushing Night City is and dumps it all at once on the player. (Spoilers ahead?) For those who finished the game, you may know what I'm talking about with the 2 common thugs we meet and also how Night City has changed but also stayed the same. Makes you feel powerless all of a sudden and naked. Makes you feel like even with all the strength you acquired and the havoc you wreaked across your different opponents, at the end of the day, the house always wins.
Saying something Cyberpunk didn't have enough "punk" as a fundamental flaw in a etymological fallacy.
That said, I agree with how there are few long term consequences with actions taken in the game. There are a few jobs that after completing someone tries to kill you, but I really think that should happen more. With gangs seeing you and wanting to kill you all the time after they know you pulled a job on them… unless you did it 100% stealth and they never found out who did it… this would change the idea of "run and gun" in a job and give you more of a reason for stealth.
Love the video. You got a sub from me!
Hey dude, there is something off with your video. The voice does not match your lips. So either you not native English and its dubbed or You messed up the audio. haha. This is the first video of yous I have watched so I dont know if that is normal or not. But once seen cannot be unseen haha.
Cyberpunk requires a lot of what I call head cannon that is basically for events to happen in ur head to immerse yourself more sort of like Elden ring where you have to really get into the roleplay the game is very loose on that and for a game that gives you such broad background which seems like inviting you to come up with ur own head cannon about your character I wish they have more immersive little features to make it feel more realistic like eating food and parking ur car in the garage more parking spots and not just leaving ur car in the middle of the road and having everyone just freeze and wait for you and consequences for the countless bodies you drop like you said the only time the police come after you is when you accidentally bump there car
I like the game for what it is. I think its one of the best of the generation. But I do agree that in the sequel I hope they make it a little grittier and add a little more life simulation aspects. Really the first apartment should of looked like that one you can rent for 10k and then actually charge 10k every 30 in game days. If you dont pay you lose access and can only access the stash from your car. But that's just not what the game was going for. I also don't think its necessarily unbelievable. V had a little bit of money and bought a decent apartment and car and then became a merc. Most of those homeless and poor in night city do menial labor if anything at all. But yeah the apartment is too nice for a low level merc.
I would imagine a lot of this was considered but just building the world took them years. It took 1-2 years after release to finish the game. I think they're using the same engine for the sequel though and the world is built for the most part now so here's hoping they do something like this the second time around.
I have long thought that one very appropriate ending to the game would be V/Johnny nuking Arasaka HQ _again_. But I think the point of the game is that you have to survive within that corporate dystopia despite the desire to destroy it….and I dislike the parsing out of what 'punk really is' and how the game doesn't life up to people's preconceived notions.
IMO CDPR could have done a lot to differentiate the lifepaths in the game…Streetkid really exploring and revealing the desperate underbelly of Night City…Corpo really showing the corruption and oppression of the corporate rule…the Nomad seeking fame and wealth, only to have his teeth kicked in by the reality of a 'City of Dreams' that smashes every dream. I really hope that Orion does more in this vein.