I was hoping for a cyberpunk cross between skyrim and GTA. That would have been an amazing game. But that is not what this game is. This is a very good game, but more comparable to the DeusEx or FarCry series than Skyrim.

The Bad:
The illusion of a populated world is very poorly done compared to other open-world games. Commit a crime, police spawn 10 feet behind you. Game cleans up NPCs by deleting them when they are out of your cone of view, often resulting in people or vehicles suddenly gone or suddenly there if you check your six often. Vehicle and pedestrian AI is often immersion breaking. Vehicles will stack up behind the smallest obstruction and make no effort to go around or continue on their way. Jump too high or run too fast and EVERY pedestrian in a 2 block radius panics and runs away in terror. Vehicle traffic Level Of Detail becomes flat sprites at about 500 meters and these sprites pop in and out randomly resulting in a completely failed illusion of traffic to the horizon.

Vehicle engine sound quickly reaches a point 'looped buzzing' that can get pretty irritating at high speeds on long stretches.

I wanted to play a Netrunner because it is the cyberpunk equivalent of a mage. It scales on intelligence and you can 'cast' programs to do damage, crowd control, etc. However, the 'casting' in this game could be better. As it is now, you look at your target and bring up a menu of what programs you want to run while the game basically pauses. This is very disruptive to gameplay imo. I would have preferred 'magic casting' as done in games like Skyrim where you aim and cast in real time. Even if that means you have fewer spell options or can only have 1 or two programs equipped at a time.

Other controls that make for some clunky gameplay are the lack of a 'hold' option for shift sprinting. Toggling sprint is never a good mechanic when the game untoggles it during dialogue or other events. Better to just leave that control in the hands of the player.

At the time of writing, there are many bugs ranging from silly to side-quest-breaking. 3 Gigs bugged out for me and would not complete.

The Good
And yet, I had a blast. The main story quests seemed very bug-free and most bugs I encountered were not game-breaking or had simple work-arounds (besides the few broken Gigs).

The city is immaculately detailed. It feels grungy and real. There is a lot of love that was poured into building Night City and it shows. Same goes for the vehicles. The vehicle design (if not the sound) is absolutely stellar. You'll want to drive in 1st person so you can really appreciate the detail and originality of the interiors.

I played almost strictly pistols and revolvers but, based on my limited experience, gunplay was really good! Clicking heads was satisfying and felt consistent. I suppose you could make an argument for late-game guns being OP, but it is a power fantasy, after all!

I reached level 50 and, the whole time, I felt a sense of progression. I felt more and more powerful as the game progressed and I looked forward to every next perk.

All in all, I am a fan of this game. The map is only bested by Red Dead Redemption 2, which is high praise. Many of the issues I listed under 'The Bad' can be patched out eventually and I hope they are. CDPR traded most of their hard-earned Street Cred for $$ when they released this game in the state it is in. Now I hope they commit to earning that Street Cred back.