Скорошни рецензии на EM

First Souls-like game I played and absolutely loved it. Stunning world building and some seriously impressive lore. Gameplay might not be for everyone but there are plenty of playstyles that can be viable for even casual gamers.

I have played through 4 times now on PC and PS5 and the PS version is definitely more optimized. PC has some random stutter issues and a bug with HDR thats still not solved. I don't like the quest design as its never clear what to do to progress questlines. seemingly random triggers and no real quest log to track anything. This makes using a guide necessary if you want to do everything. I also don't like the story. While the lore is quite good, the story is a mess. I know that's typical From Software style but if someone is playing for the story, they will be sorely disappointed. Also the big reveal at the end is not explained even slightly. No one is going to read a dozen scrolls and talk to 10 different NPCs to get fragments of the story. If I have to watch 2 hour long Vaatividya videos to make any sense of it, then its not good design.

If you don't care about the story, then this might be the best game you've ever played. Highly recommended but with a few caveats mentioned above.

Absolutely amazing work by CDPR yet again. The story, voice acting, cinematography, and level design are all top notch.

Performance:
I enjoyed the base game at launch and my tolerance for bugs is probably a bit higher than most. For this DLC I replayed the entire base game with the same setup I had 3 years ago: Laptop with i7, 16GB ram, rtx 2060. Running on medium optimized settings with Ray tracing on. Was getting pretty good fps for base game but tanked in phantom liberty. Had to turn off RT for PL. Performance has improved substantially for base game and again I faced no game breaking bugs. Visual glitches were few and far between. My laptop is starting to show its age so I played PL mostly on a PS5. Very smooth experience there for both base game and PL. So this DLC definitely requires some update if you have old hardware. Cross platform saves are perfect for me to switch easily between my gaming setups.

Customization:
I had complaints about the customization and that has vastly improved as well. No more stats tied to gear/clothes, several new cars and even new hideouts. Something for everybody here so no complaints. 3rd person would be nice but it's not a big deal for me.

Playstyle:
New guns and iconics with OP build possibilities. Love the cyberware rework too, first time I wanted to do Sandevistan builds. Will do sumurai hack and slash build next playthrough. New relic perk tree is a nice bonus but didn't find it as useful. You can freely reallocate perk points which makes the builds much more flexible.

Side-content:
Jam-packed with content in the small area of dogtown with interesting side quests and characters. Quality over quantity is always preferred. Repeatable vehicle contracts got boring quite fast but side missions were mostly top notch. Never felt pressured to do side content which is a good thing. I played through the content at my own pace.

Music:
I thought the original score was amazing. Like I always say, music makes or breaks a game. They added many original songs to the radio stations and even added a whole new station for community submitted songs. There was a point in the story where they basically give you a free concert and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cool show. I remember just putting down the controller and just soaking it all in.

Story, characters, endings:
I heard Johnny Silverhand didnt have much of a role in this DLC and was pleasantly surprised by how much of a presence he still had. So Mi and Reed voice actors absolutely nailed their performances. No surprise when you hire world class actors to do your characters. When you can remember the names of most characters that really shows how engaging and interesting the story is. Can't say the same for most rpg's coming out these days.

You can go some very different routes in the last act and I highly recommend to play each ending using save files (make one at Firestarter). If you are a cyberpunk fan you'll love the lore for this world. Blackwall AI's, Shady corps, top secret off-the-book projects, spies and sleeper agents, politics and scheming with you in the thick of it.. man I just can't get enough of this.

*Some light spoilers*
Again the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ depressing endings... is what I felt at first. But the more I think about it, the more they make sense. The tower ending is a bit forced but I can see how that would be exactly what happens in a world like this. I highly recommend playing this ending even if just for the conversation with Johnny. CDPR captured that feeling perfectly and Keanu's delivery is absolutely one of the finest performances he's given. I found out later that his responses are different depending on your friendship level (why would you have low friendship with my choom Johnny -_- ).

The other endings are all just as good but overall they lead to pretty much the same endings as the original game. I know what I prefer: the blaze of glory and becoming a legend of Night City (yes, Edgerunners might have something to do with that :D )

If the launch hadn't been so controversial we might have had more DLC's. Its an absolute shame really. Don't know how long we'll have to wait for the sequel :(

I still stand by my original review. Cyberpunk was always a good game and PL just makes it even better. Well worth the price.

I'm lazy, I just want the steam badge.

$70 for this? xD not even worth the 50% discount. worth like $15-$20 max

A great game to just chill with on the go.

What made the original so good was the story. This game is an improvement in all aspects except that which mattered most. It is still a enjoyable game with a similar atmosphere to the first game.

Damn some of these puzzles are hard! Had a great time figuring them out, will definitely recommend to any portal veteran players to check it out. I think the last puzzle can be easily cheesed but overall this mod is quite well done. A bit short but thats to be expected from a mod.

Had some serious performance issues for some reason, my laptop is more than capable of handling the graphics. Turned them down to low, didnt make a difference. Massive stuttering in some sections and had a couple of freezes. But hey, its a free mod made by 1 person. Reminds me of the time Valve made good games, they should hire this guy.

Wow, what an amazing game! The real tragedy is that you can't explain this game without spoiling it, so the review has to be vague. I recommend anyone thinking of getting this game to buy it and go in blind.

The game world is excellent. You play in a precise time loop of 22 mins after which the sun goes supernova and you restart. You keep the information from previous loops and slowly uncover the mysteries of this game. You discover the rules of this game as you progress and fill your ships log. The story progresses as you uncover the mysterious past of a race that came to this solar system long before you.
What's absolutely brilliant about this game is that it does not spoon feed you anything. You are free to explore and the only hints you get is from discovering and reading messages from others. This can get frustrating at times specially for casual gamers. You need to pay attention to the clues to figure out the puzzles presented by the game. Everything from gravity defying physics to warping tunnels that only activate for a brief moment in the time loop. All this time, you are racing against the clock to accomplish your goals.

This game is one of the most intense and breathtaking experiences you can have. It's sad that I had to wait so long after it's release to experience this because of epic game exclusivity but I can understand a small indie dev going that route, so it gets a pass for that. Buy this game on steam, it is worth it.

Another amazing CDPR game marred by bugs and glitches at launch. It is an absolutely amazing game regardless of the issues surrounding it.

Performance and Bugs

Ok lets get this out of the way first. Have had hardly any major bugs or glitches in my 80+ hr playtime but YMMV. Had a couple of quest breaking bugs (doors not opening, npcs blocking the door) but were solved with a simple quicksave and reload. Was able to complete every quest in the game so complaints there. I might just be super lucky or maybe I'm just not actively trying to find glitches but I've seen very few. The majority of visual glitches I saw were after the last 1.06 patch so they might have borked something there. Nothing major, mostly some pop-ins while driving fast, vehicles spawning half in the ground, a couple of T-poses as well.

Yes the AI is non-existent, you probably already knew that by now. Does it effect my enjoyments of the game? Nope. Cops are not involved with the story and hardly have anything to do with the side gigs. They could take out the cops from this game it wouldn't change a thing. If not having a good cop and driving AI is a deal breaker for you, dont get this game. It will not cure your GTA itch at all. In my opinion most people would be too busy with all the other stuff you can do in this game to be bothered by this. Think of it as the Witcher in Cyberpunk setting.

Mid-high tier hardware is probably a requirement for enjoyment of this game. This game certainly needs some hefty patches but it is still playable, and more importantly, enjoyable in it's current state.

I would definitely recommend waiting a few months if you can to play it.

I play on a gaming laptop and I can maintain decent frame rates in most areas with RTX on. Some of the denser areas in the city do suffer from frame drops but this can be ironed out in patches. RTX off and DLSS on in steady 60+ fps for me but RTX makes the game so much better.
Loads times are truly impressive with an SSD. I clocked it at 8 secs from main menu to in-game.

Visuals

Absolutely stunning graphics if you have the hardware for it. The city design, character models, vehicles and just the general ambiance in this game is breathtaking. I initially turned off ray tracing because it tanked my fps but its like a whole different game with RTX on. After patch 1.05 I was able to maintain decent fps with RTX on at medium with DLSS set to quality. If possible play with RTX, highly recommended! Its still visually impressive with RTX off though.

Sound and Music:

One of the things that makes or breaks a game for me is music. And this game delivers in that aspect superbly. P. T. Adamczyk and Marcin Przybyłowicz along with the ensemble of artists deserve all the praise. The radio stations have a wide variety genres ranging from pop, rock, synthwave, electronic, punk, and metal. Absolutely love the score in this game, just wish it was more frequent.
The sound design of the game is also amazing. Guns and cars sound good, ambient sounds are also decent.
The dialogue had some issues where it would overlap or appear to be coming from a distance. Again nothing too bad just random inconsistencies.

The voice acting is top notch. I highly recommend Female V. Her VA does a far better job at delivering lines than Male V, trust me on this. Keanu felt a bit off at the start but towards the end you really get an outstanding performance by him. He just doesnt play the angry douchebag rocker that well.

Quests:

In classic CDPR fashion, the quest design is again one of the best I've seen recently. The Witcher had a very slow start which put off a lot of people. This game is much better at pacing. However, similar to the Witcher 3, it gets pretty rushed towards the ending.
Several different playstyles are viable to complete quests but you do have to plan out your builds in advance. You cant max out every skill tree by the end of the game so just take note of that.
There are essentially 4 different types of quests. Main quests, major side quests, minor side quests, filler side quests/activities. The main quests and major side quests (Panam, Judy, Johnny) are all fleshed out pretty well. The minor side quests are a hit or miss. You can find some hidden gems like Sinnerman, or they can just be quests that ask you to take out a target or steal some stuff. The game does not do a good job of distinguishing them but I highly recommend just taking your time with the game and doing as much as possible. Then there's the filler stuff like ncpd scanner hustles which are pretty boring and just there for you to level up and farm stuff. These are entirely skippable.

Skill, perks and combat:

I feel like the more you play the better it gets in terms of gameplay (who would have thought). Initially the enemies are hard to kill and you pretty much have nothing but ♥♥♥♥♥♥ guns. As you level up you get some really good upgrades that are worth investing some time into. Get the double jump from a ripperdoc as soon as you can, it opens up a lot of possibilities in gameplay. Towards the end you'll be one-shotting people quite easily. If you delve into the perks, weapon mods/attachments, and cyberware upgrades, then the game will be quite easy for you from the start. You can go a multitude of builds like Mantis blades melee build, stealthy netrunner build, or the absolutely bonkers handgun build. I was one-shotting gonks through walls with my revolver ez. I feel like this games first 2 difficulties are made for games journalists so even gonks like them can finish it.

Customization:

Not gonna lie, was very let down in the start with the way customization is handled in this game. Stats are tied to your clothing and that forces you to equip whatever has the highest stat regardless of how it looks. But during the later stages it really doesnt matter as you are kind of OP at that point so wear what you want. A cyberware mod gives you 200 armor, body skill tree have lots of perks that give armor/resistance etc. Besides, you hardly get to see your character at all which is a shame cause I would have liked them to at least have 3rd person cutscenes.
There's no car customization at all. Found some really cool cars used by npc's (I'm a sucker for neon lights) but you cant keep them, only the ones you buy are available to you.
You get some stuff during the story that you can display in your apartment but thats about it. Don't really care that much about it as you dont visit your apartment frequently. Maybe in future dlcs they can add some content there.

General:

This game has some serious futuristic vibes and references to other pop culture. Sandstorms in badlands: Bladerunner vibes. Peralez quest: Black mirror-esque. Delamain quest: Mass effect endings. Tons and tons of easter eggs like John Wick, Matrix, Portal, San Andreas, The Office... I could go on and on. Quite fun finding all these in the game.

The ending (no spoilers):

Man the endings in this game are depressing af. I can appreciate the writers for such emotionally charged stories that truly resonate with you but come on man.. give us one slightly hopeful ending maybe? I really hope there is a DLC where there is a possibility of a happy ending. Whatever the case, Cyberpunk truly delivers in the story aspect (imo). The Sun, The Star, and the secret ending are all good but the best imo is the Star ending.

This game does not do any particular aspect better than other games but it combines several good ones to deliver a good game. The same could be said of the Witcher 3 (which is my highest rated game) but people tend to forget that in their outrage. I hope people give this game a chance and when its patched 6 months down the road, I am confident it will be regarded as a truly remarkable game.

If I had to give a score I would rate it 8.5/10 in its current state but I can see the potential for 9 or 9.5/10 with patches and DLCs.

An improvement from the frist game in almost every department. Soundtrack, visuals, gampelay, all top notch.