Is it better to play Cyberpunk 2077 blind or with a guide/walkthrough?

[tellville]

Is this one of those games where it's filled with missables and choices that radically affect the outcome of your game, or is it more linear? Can you get a satisfying ending through multiple paths of playing the game, or is there only one really good ending and only if you were perfect and a lot of average endings? An example of a game better blind would be Skyrim or Fallout 4. An example of a game better with a guide/walkthrough would be Persona 4 (possibly, depends on the person, but for me anyway due to how much can be missed and screwed up leading to an unsatisfactory experience).

Basically, is it better to play Cyberpunk 2077 blind or with a guide/walkthrough?

[Coffee Addict]

Originally posted by tellville:

Is this one of those games where it's filled with missables and choices that radically affect the outcome of your game

yes

Originally posted by tellville:

Can you get a satisfying ending through multiple paths of playing the game, or is there only one really good ending and only if you were perfect and a lot of average endings?

there are multiple endings and each time to complete one you are put right back at the start of the last ending so its possible to do them all on a single save (only one ending is missable and it requires you to do a certain thing during a certain quest)

Originally posted by tellville:

Basically, is it better to play Cyberpunk 2077 blind or with a guide/walkthrough?

i believe there is like 3 cars and 1 ending thats missible so a guide for though is required if you dont want to miss them (you may also need a guide if you wanna romance as you can select options to miss out on them)

outside of that you dont really need a guide

[Crimsomrider]

The game is full of intricate details, but I recommend going in fully blind and with absolute minimum use of the map. Allow yourself to get lost in the city and it'll provide a wonderful experience with plenty to see and discover.

The only thing I will mention is that there are 3 missions in the game that can be missed if you do not complete them within a specific timeframe;

• Love Rollercoaster - This side-mission in Pacifica is available from the start of ACT II and must be completed before doing Double Life mission.
  
• Gun Music - This timed side-mission in Santo Domingo must be completed as soon as possible after completing Riders On The Storm and before Queen Of The Highway mission automatically begins.
  
• I'll Fly Away - This timed side-mission in Badlands must be completed as soon as possible after completing Riders On The Storm and before Queen Of The Highway mission automatically begins.

These 3 are the only that you can truly miss out on, the others are impossible to miss.

As for the satisfying endings, the game is very mature and realistic in its own setting and they're all wonderfully unique and meaningful, but how satisfying they might be depends on you as a player and how you define your V since the endings reflect what V truly cares about in life.

[MeinChurro]

The endings are awful, you will likely get one of the worst ones going in blind. I probably would still recommend blind, if spoilers do lessen your experience in games in general.

[ShelLuser]

Blind.

Are you after a true and honest experience where your decisions could sometimes be literally thrown back in your face leaving you with nothing but time to reflect on your choices, most likely followed by some true solid & memorizable solid experiences out of no where? (no, Randy Orton left the building a long time ago ;)).

VS.

With all due apologies for maybe coming across a wee bit too harsh? This is just me, myself and I.

So... VS.

Yay, I did everything by the book and got all the results I wanted! Look at that hot babe/guy (in alphabetical order), IR the bomb. Wait... that's it?! That's ALL?!!! I just had to select some random options (who cares that this hit the NPC right in their soul; something you'd have known had you been paying any kind of attention at all). No... this game OBVIOUSLY lacks depth because all of this happened way too fast.

What do you mean I missed flirting? I never flitered you ignorant, I only raised my hand at the table. HA: shows how much YOU know about this game!

Believe it or not: no spoilers here, because "reasons".

Either way...I'd go for having a good time.

[Tokenn]

Play it blind...but take your time and really explore your environment and character and capabilities before progressing with the main story. I watch a lot of new players on YouTube and it kills me how much they miss. Every part of the main story and practically every side job will wait for you to get to it.

This game is very deep. Practically every part of it has an important role to play...don't skip over stuff or ignore NPCs...any character with a name, even people mentioned on the TV in elevators is significant. The differences in your weapons are significant. The informational shards you pick up are significant. Explore your inventory as you add to it.

Go through the tutorial when you get to it [it's early] and put it in your saved games...you'll likely want to review it. Turn on the information and tips in the game menu and _read_ them thoughtfully. Blowing off anything you're told will reduce your enjoyment of the game. It's not quite like trying to swallow the ocean...but there's a lot to take in. And just about every part of it is good.

One more tip -- Don't trust what Johnny tells you...he won't try to betray you, but he's the master of bad takes.

[Vela Darney]

That's the funny thing - people on the one hand saying "don't trust Johnny/what Johnny tells you" but on the other hand, those same people are taking everything they see in his memories at face value without questioning it ...

[Mr_Blank]

Originally posted by tellville:

Is this one of those games where it's filled with missables and choices that radically affect the outcome of your game, or is it more linear? Can you get a satisfying ending through multiple paths of playing the game, or is there only one really good ending and only if you were perfect and a lot of average endings? An example of a game better blind would be Skyrim or Fallout 4. An example of a game better with a guide/walkthrough would be Persona 4 (possibly, depends on the person, but for me anyway due to how much can be missed and screwed up leading to an unsatisfactory experience).

Basically, is it better to play Cyberpunk 2077 blind or with a guide/walkthrough?

Blind. In fat. Every game should be played blind except for maybe warhammer.

[Red Star, Blood Moon]

I mean, without spoilers I am just going to tell you right now OP that
>good endings
This is not one of those kinds of games. Because of the fact that sadly you can actually hit nearly all endings from the point of no return it really is possible to try every exact ending possible no matter what you chose with the sole exception of the secret ending that needs you being on good terms with Johnny and that's not spoiled by telling you straight up to get the secret ending you NEED to be near max level.

This is the one thing I wish I knew this about the game before trying to end it because I am busy this summer and couldn't let it drag on, that I ended this game around level 32, and your enemies are level FIFTY at the secret ending. So the secret ending is quite literally impossible at level 30, which is really easy to breeze through unlike the Witcher 3 game where it was so easy to keep getting distracted by sideshows and never actually finishing it, this game sort of needs to go out of your way to really hit all the side content. Super super easy to just breeze through it and get to the ending.

But that being stated, while I think the secret ending with you and Johnny that needs 60 or 70% approval from Johnny (guides say 70 but I'm pretty sure I got the option for it with 60%) and basically doing things like the Rogue side arc is the "good" ending I don't actually think there may be any good endings. I mean, this is a game that straight up offers you the option to shoot yourself as a way to go out on your own terms for an early game over to skip the last mission or two. So it's pretty damn grim.

Originally posted by Vela Darney:

That's the funny thing - people on the one hand saying "don't trust Johnny/what Johnny tells you" but on the other hand, those same people are taking everything they see in his memories at face value without questioning it ...

Which is pretty funny come to think of it in retrospect that you have every single possible reason to not ever trust Johnny, he's literally that badboy who'll say anything he can to sleep with you and you find him shtupping your best friend the next day. Johnny's the quintessential That Dude. Not to be confused with That Guy of DnD session infamy with his cheetoh fingers. He's That Dude, the a-hole extraordinaire who you'd have to be super dense ever to trust him because he's a user and an abuser, a self concerned sociopathic ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and a narcissist who's literally never done a thing for anyone but himself, he uses people and discards them, and is such a pos that everyone that knew him didn't even bother leaving the guy a grave marker, and the people that did know you immediately assume "what's your angle, Johnny SIlverhand never did nothin for anybody without some ulterior motive."

It's hilarious because all that stated, trusting Johnny is literally your ONLY way to getting anything remotely approaching a good ending. I mean they all suck more or less, but siding with Hanako is arguably one of the darker endings possible.

The reason for this is simple, it's that Johnny Silverhand is the Jungian archetype of the shadow self. He's a pretty popular and, I'd argue, not well worn or trite narrative device especially in hero and amnesia stories where much like Tyler Durden, he is the guy that embraces all the worst parts of the darker side of your selfish nature. He's like the id unleashed, the side that comes out more when you're blackout drunk and with no filters. It's a thing that everyone's got a part of him on the inside, and I think that's partly what made him such a great story, is that kind of guy is always going to have an immensely seductive pull on you, the kind of guy you might not marry but you're going to try and ♥♥♥♥ him anyway. It's why sociopaths are even possible to play off as protagonists and antiheroes at all, and it's the reason this is such a great story is because it's actually a story about the actualized Self in a lot of senses.

And so because of that what you're really dealing with is the successful integration of the shadow self in this story, of anima and animus, and that's why your erasure of him is such a complete failure because it is an utter failure of the actualized whole self. You're supposed to sublimate your darker urges into a wholistic self concept, which arguably makes it a better and more mature game for teenagers to try playing. You're not supposed to just blindly follow your id, any more than choking the life out of yourself with a superego that finds it impossible to live, it's the chaos in the order that makes the order alive at all rather than a dead lump of clay with only two hebrew letters.

[Tokenn]

Originally posted by Vela Darney:

That's the funny thing - people on the one hand saying "don't trust Johnny/what Johnny tells you" but on the other hand, those same people are taking everything they see in his memories at face value without questioning it ...

If you are acquainted with the Cyberpunk lore, you know he's making things up/remembering things wrong. If you only know what's in the game, it's far from obvious until Alt tells you explicitly...and even then it's not clear how much he's getting wrong.

This is a problem with all 'unreliable narrator' scenarios. Often the memory narrative doesn't give you clues, or gives only very subtle clues as to what's really going on. It's only as the game progresses that you may realize that Johnny is kind of a gonk and not someone whose word you can trust.

[Haree]

Play it blind, experiencing it with as little spoilers as possible is 100% the best way.
You could even do more walk throughs blind but make different choices, different build, different life path to see the differences. You will enjoy the different discoveries you make if you do.
I wouldn't recommend a walk through until you have at least done the majority of the game and all side quests at least once.

[ExplosiveBolts]

Why on earth would you play with a guide the first time through? There is nothing obscure enough about Cyberpunk to need a guide on your first playthrough.

[Toaster Maximus]

Blind first time its the only honest way to do any rpg.

[Tokenn]

Originally posted by ExplosiveBolts:

Why on earth would you play with a guide the first time through? There is nothing obscure enough about Cyberpunk to need a guide on your first playthrough.

There are guides...and then there are guides. I've seen players on YouTube that never looted enemy bodies, or only haphazardly, had huge inventories and got constantly overburdened but never sold anything they picked up, walked right past seriously better weapons and armour/clothing, didn't level up their attributes or add Perks. were constantly running low on ammo and health because they never picked it up [or only haphazardly], even though you can Craft health boosters and ammo almost from the beginning of the game. And much more.

This is why I say you need to explore your environment and capabilities...talk to everybody that speaks to you [Coach and Wilson at the beginning of Act 1, for eg.]. This game gives you so much...don't ignore any of it.