Recent reviews by rEdRum~!

Played horribly. Felt undercooked. Doomed to fail.

That's what you get when you buy game for lulz.

it was crafted to be terrible, but at least I got a seemingly easy 100% game for my Steam statistics.

An epic adventure of impressive scale that may get overwhelming, best taken in doses. (each Act separately would be best)

After patch 6, with most problems ironed out - there is nothing else to do but slowly and carefully explore the world, every nook and cranny (yes, at least one quest is discovered by pillaging a wardrobe) - and enjoy the narrative.

The game might not change your worldview, doesn't provide the greatest "main plot" - but if anything - this is the *game* to play if you want to taste the true AAA quality of gaming, or gracefully enter the world of CRPGs. (the learning curve isn't too steep, and DnD5 system only makes it simple)

Average world? Check.
Horrible narrative? Check.
Tens of crashes along the gameplay? Check.
Clunky game engine? Check.


Well we got a candidate for a "platinum". Piranha did it again - create an average game, that can still give straight fun. Definitely the worst game I "platted", but it was enjoyable in a way.

UPDATE: 01.10.23: The game IS better, the character development system were improved, but 2+ years old bugs STILL persist. If it was launched as of 2.0, the reception would be better - and I COULD perhaps recommend it - that was not the case, through. The DLC provided fresh qualities and is clearly a must-play for anybody who at least "liked" the base game.

OLD REVIEW:
As much as I enjoyed just cruising the Night City, doing side-quests and helping NCPD with all the bandits around the place, the game just feels incomplete.

All the bugs (flickering palm trees, cars spawning within each other and flying up, corpses flying through the map etc.) is one thing. Lacking traffic AI is another. Incredibly stupid enemy AI yet another. Brutal scaling of enemies even on normal is tough to understand. Useless "street cred" which I maxed out in about 28 hours of exploration. That's just what I remember at the moment,

What hurt me most was the main plot. When the game finished, i felt like someone forgot to add about 50%+ of the content. The execution of the ending I got was pretty fine, but the story quality and length overall is insufficient for an AAA+ game which Cyberpunk was advertised to be. The plot didn't really refer a lot to the reality of 2077 and didn't elaborate too much on problems you could read about in notes found around the city.

I really wish I could recommend the game to you, but I just can't do it in all honesty. If anything, wait for a GOTY edition when it's perfectly playable and simply cheaper to buy. Right now, buying Cyberpunk is a risk - a risk not worth taking.

EDIT: Added another 50+ hours to get all the achievements done. My anti-recommendation stands, and at least 3-4 achievements are frustratingly easy to miss - which is IMHO not good game design. Still - hardly any game in history has given me so much pleasure in basically running around for 100h~ clubbing/shooting bandits.

Excellent, relaxing experience on an enormous scale.

Overall - a worthy continuation of the first game.

PROS:

- Improved Graphics - environment simply looks better, and fights look more effective
- More Accesible Talent Tree - you can plan building your character easier
- Extended Character Perks - new possibilities of interacting with the world, but carefull party planning required to prepare for all possible events and NPC encounteres
- Music - it changed style to accommodate pirate world, but it's still powerful
- Empower Mechanic - new mechanism of vastly increasing the power of one of your skills once per fight - tends to be immensely powerful (yep, third Minolettas on Aloth kicks butts) but a nice add overall
- NARRATOR! - a great addition, something that the first part definitely lacked and it builds up the right atmosphere

CONS:

- Difficulty Level - having passed PoE1 on Normal and bleeding to death during many fights, I found it embarassing to roll through the sequel on Veteran+Expert+Full Upscale with no hassle (apart from slightly autistic fampyr fights)
- Bugs - one prevented me from finishing a quest from Vailians (not the main one!), and one stopped me from doing the exploring achievement - plus a few (5-6) crashes throughout the whole game
- Ship/Sea Fights - overall fun, but could be more nuanced and more difficult as a whole

I'm not putting the plot anywhere here, as imho - if you liked it in the first game, you'll like it here. If not, it's the other way around.

TL;DR
Much easier, flashier and still fun Pillars of Eternity. Fans/veterans of cRPGs should engage POTD/Expert/Full Scaling right away.

Probably the best Hitman so far.

The game has it all - mission diversity, 5 difficulty levels (a little something for everyone), many achievements, styles and equipment to get, excellent graphics and - depending on your Steam community - a quite interesting Contracts game mode. Technically the game is rather flawless, it's quite possible that many hardcore Hitman fans might find the game too easy - even on Purist difficulty level - but this is typical for every new game of any series nowadays ;)