So looking at the gameplay trailer from August 2018 and the character creator had this:
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Now look at the backstory section and read the first childhood hero, this childhood hero was Johnny Silverhand and I think once Keanu accepted the job they decided he could play the role of Johnny Silverhand and after he had his role doubled, CD Projekt Red had to rewrite a large portion of the game leading to the lackluster life paths and large portions of the game being cut to incorporate Johnny. In 2018 it was confirmed the game was playable from start to finish (
It's not always sunny in 'Cyberpunk 2077'), but again from 2019 to 2020, they had to incorporate Keanu. I'm too lazy to write a whole essay but a lot of features that were promised and shown but, never came to fruition.
The game is so meaty thus far it makes sense they trimmed it down and simplified it.
Game development is also no different than movies when it comes to the creative team not always getting final cut...
In some ways it feels like a suit sniffing around to find more ways to make the game marketable to a wider audience... And fishing for DLC opportunity. Anyways, there is just a breadth of content available. Seriously, people who claim to already have beat the game, I'm wondering how much they've missed cause it feels like in my playthrough I should be near the end, but still have a sizable stack of gigs and main quest to get through. That's not to mention, I've basically avoided a lot of exploration outside of quest, side gigs, etc, and I know I shut myself out of certain quest lines by some of the choices I've made that I would like to go back and explore. The game feels very "alive", Npc's call you and demand your help, sending you spiraling to hours of other content... I just wish they had a better answer to what I'll call "locked door syndrome" A big sprawling city, but so many locked doors that could be puzzles, etc for content, weapons, and gear. But even with that, since my last post I've probably added another 15 hours (I'm kind of ashamed
) on top of my playthrough at least. I just don't understand the negative criticism about the game in regards to content.
That said, The bugs are starting to hinder my experience just a tad. There's quite a few of them that can completely destroy your progress in certain quest. My main gripe is using silent takedowns and the bodies getting found immediately with no other NPC's in sight, instantly putting the areas in high alert, and other time completely eliminating the possibility for a stealth finish.
In defense of CDPR that is a screen of a pre release, still in development copy that clearly says it may not be representative of the final product...
Also most everything in that screen seems to have been folded into the narrative and you make those choices by completing dialogue with characters in the prologue. Depending on your "life choice" I hear the first 25 minutes of gameplay is completely different, and it also has a great effect on dialogue and certain questlines from the little bit I've read and experienced in the game. It's better storytelling to play through something, versus choosing it on a menu. Like film it's just not uncommon for things to get cut for the overall betterment of the title, though I'd argue creating a video game is a much more iterative process.
That said, I don't think Keanu playing silverhand really cut that much into the content and features.
I'm excited to play more. Giving my PC a break and going to get some work done after taking an extended leave of absence