Does anyone else sometimes feel lost in the story?

[Captain Skinny]

Copious spoilers to follow! Proceed with caution!

Ever since first starting the game, I have often felt like I'm missing things. It all starts when I didn't realize TBug died. Or how after we grab Hanako, Goro is just suddenly dead. Three times I've tried to run it down so he survives, but he never does and I've never even seen his corpse! Or what is going on at Cynosure, was it an AI project? The giant spider bot? Why can't I blow the evil blackwall spider up? How do rogue AIs work, are they like teamed up, why are they unrelentingly evil, what was the 'core' and what the hell was that place supposed to be? A superweapon factory?

I'm not necessarily asking for answers to these questions, but I do find myself kinda taken out of the game at certain points because of it. Am I not finding or reading the right shards? Am I not listening closely enough to Johnny?
This is a unique feeling I get in this game, I usually don't have any trouble with plot or following ideas, but this game keeps me confused.

[Zerno]

You're lost because the types of stories CD Projekt Red likes to tell are the ones where you constantly have to be reading character bios and lore blurbs to get information. Not much is ever directly explained to the player in the story because why would it be? Everyone in-universe already knows this stuff.

They did the same thing with The Witcher. Very little was directly told to Geralt. Most of the lore is told through in-game books and character bios.

[Shield]

There's no secret sauce sans being familiar with the setting beforehand. I had to play the game twice to really appreciate it. I didn't really like my first playthrough.

[Doug Dimmadong]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

...

Sounds to me like you just missed a lot or didn't read much of the shards and other lore. Pretty much everything you're asking is explained. You also can save Goro. As for the not being able to blow up the spider, I assume you're talking about the one at the end of the DLC? I'd say because it's heavily armoured. Also plot armour since it wouldn't make such a good ending sequence if you could just murder it. Also I suspect blowing up the body wouldn't do much since it would just infect other machines, you'd just be destroying that body.

[Silverbane7]

Originally posted by owlBear:

There's no secret sauce sans being familiar with the setting beforehand. I had to play the game twice to really appreciate it. I didn't really like my first playthrough.

This. I think around 70 to 80% of the player base at the original launch had ZERO knowledge about the setting, where it came from, who the big names in the world were.
Most didn't even know it was a tabletop roleplaying game that started in the mid 1980's.

Then there was the 'Edgerunners' influx. Those who arrived because of the Netflix anime.
At least those folks knew who Smasher was (lol, and they are the ones who went out of their way to find 'Guts' and introduced Smasher to it..face first XD)

Its a bit like trying to explain 'Dune' or 'Warhammer 40K' to people who have never read the books/seen the old movie/played or watched the games.
(Or, sitting in the cinema with grandma, trying to explain some serious SciFi movie like the Matrix or Iron Man to her, when all she watches is soap operas or the Antique's Roadshow)

Those who play the game Cherry, best thing for them is play as the Nomad.
You get a little more hand held there than as a Corpo or a Streetkid.
Sure, Nomads know about their world, but they live outside of the big city, so its slightly easier to adjust for the player.
First playthru, READ EVERYTHING. Every quest detes, every text message, every shard. Check every laptop and desktop messages (don't worry about the fake virus number ones, they don't actually make V's head explode) as long as its not in front of its owner (unless they are dead lol)
Listen to everyone's dialogue. Stick subtitles on if need be, so you can read what they say.
And take things slowly.
I know the game makes you feel like you have to rush...'you haven't got long, kid' yeah, sorry Vik, not buying it.

Oh, and if you want to know more....check the dlc page, find the downloadable extras (music, artwork ect)
Redownload it (it was removed in 1.63 legacy and 2.0+ when you overwrote the game)
Used to be in the cyberp2077 main folder.
Now, its in the music section of your steam.
Look for the 'cyberpunk 2020 sourcebook.PDF' file.
They gifted everyone that bought the game a digital copy of the 2020 2nd edition tabletop sourcebook.
That's got a lot of info that can help you, it gives flavour to the game world, and let's you get to know some of the big names in the game, like Alt, Johnny and Rogue.

[Doug Dimmadong]

Originally posted by Silverbane7:

Then there was the 'Edgerunners' influx. Those who arrived because of the Netflix anime.
At least those folks knew who Smasher was (lol, and they are the ones who went out of their way to find 'Guts' and introduced Smasher to it..face first XD)

This is me. I first found...the song. The video of which made me want to watch the show which then made me want to play the game. When I did get to the Smasher part I paused the game, opened Youtube, played...the song...at full volume and I beat the absolute ♥♥♥♥ out of him. It felt great.

[Silverbane7]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

Originally posted by Silverbane7:

Then there was the 'Edgerunners' influx. Those who arrived because of the Netflix anime.
At least those folks knew who Smasher was (lol, and they are the ones who went out of their way to find 'Guts' and introduced Smasher to it..face first XD)

This is me. I first found...the song. The video of which made me want to watch the show which then made me want to play the game. When I did get to the Smasher part I paused the game, opened Youtube, played...the song...at full volume and I beat the absolute ♥♥♥♥ out of him. It felt great.

Might I recommend the 'Sir John Phalustiff' handheld bludgeoning weapon? Its bigger brother the 'BFC' (difficult to find. Owner MUST be duel'd with Sir John if you are a Roleplayer) for maximum enjoyment on your part, maximum humiliation on Smashers end.

There are videos of the first, not seen anyone use the second yet tho. Hilarious to see him being...ahem...boink!ed to death.
Thank you, Meredith Stout, for that heartwarming gift.

[EJR]

Originally posted by owlBear:

There's no secret sauce sans being familiar with the setting beforehand. I had to play the game twice to really appreciate it. I didn't really like my first playthrough.

The setting itself wasn't even difficult to understand, even before I knew even the bare minimum of Cyberpunk lore. The story itself is very easy to follow along as long as you read each like of dialogue instead of skip/skim through it.

[Captain Skinny]

For the record, I did go through the shards/computers/dialogues/etc, and its not that I don't understand most of the game and its setting, its more that certain gaps in knowledge take me out of the experience.

A lot of technical stuff in the DLC was sort of handwaved away.
Songbird was got 'infected' by AIs because she crossed the Blackwall? And these AIs tried to take over her body? Why would they be so evil, like saying oddly weird and insulting things to V? Wouldn't they just take the first opportunity to hop out and be free in the world, rather than dragging So Mi's half dead body around? Why wouldn't we put her down like a sick dog as soon as we could, since she's described as a 'walking nuke'? Why go to Hansen to try to help rather than talking to your bff the president or just hiring V to go down into the vault and find the core, etc etc.

Reed might've wanted to 'save' her, but it's strange to me that afterwards no one said 'Hey V, thanks for saving planet earth, good on ya.' Unless the whole 'could potentially cause all life to end if she loses control' thing was hyperbolic.
Reading all this back makes me realize I just don't understand what the AIs really are, want, and are capable of.

[Ihateeverybody]

Story Structure isn't that great either. You get it near the Start. When Talking with Viktor you act like you already work for dex before even meeting him. This part takes place before the ride.

It's not the only inconsistency but its the one that springs to mind first (And I am starting a new play so its fresh in my memory).

[orcaa]

Originally posted by Doug Dimmadong:

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

...

Sounds to me like you just missed a lot or didn't read much of the shards and other lore. Pretty much everything you're asking is explained. You also can save Goro. As for the not being able to blow up the spider, I assume you're talking about the one at the end of the DLC? I'd say because it's heavily armoured. Also plot armour since it wouldn't make such a good ending sequence if you could just murder it. Also I suspect blowing up the body wouldn't do much since it would just infect other machines, you'd just be destroying that body.

THIS is a really good answer ( in my own opinion ). It is like reading a sci-fi book..........you usually don't need to know WHY something works ( like cyberware for example ) just that it does work and what it does. The theory is not really relevant to the telling of the story.

[Piderman]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

Why would they be so evil, like saying oddly weird and insulting things to V? Wouldn't they just take the first opportunity to hop out and be free in the world, rather than dragging So Mi's half dead body around?

There is different flavours of AI. Those from behind the Blackwall for example are sometimes former military AIs that were freed back when Rache Bartmoss literally broke the Internet using a special type of Virus, which also "mutated" over time into really, really dangerous entities.
Some of these are just psychotic monsters, others may just want to be left alone... in the end, you simply cant tell what some of these AIs became over time in what you could probably call a digital jungle. But the best way to deal with them, is simply to stay far, far away.
...save for pleasamt exceptions like Delamain for example.

[Wantoomany]

Originally posted by Captain Skinny:

For the record, I did go through the shards/computers/dialogues/etc, and its not that I don't understand most of the game and its setting, its more that certain gaps in knowledge take me out of the experience.

A lot of technical stuff in the DLC was sort of handwaved away.
Songbird was got 'infected' by AIs because she crossed the Blackwall? And these AIs tried to take over her body? Why would they be so evil, like saying oddly weird and insulting things to V? Wouldn't they just take the first opportunity to hop out and be free in the world, rather than dragging So Mi's half dead body around? Why wouldn't we put her down like a sick dog as soon as we could, since she's described as a 'walking nuke'? Why go to Hansen to try to help rather than talking to your bff the president or just hiring V to go down into the vault and find the core, etc etc.

Reed might've wanted to 'save' her, but it's strange to me that afterwards no one said 'Hey V, thanks for saving planet earth, good on ya.' Unless the whole 'could potentially cause all life to end if she loses control' thing was hyperbolic.
Reading all this back makes me realize I just don't understand what the AIs really are, want, and are capable of.

I interpreted So Mi's condition similar to cyber psychosis. She wasn't completely taken over by an AI, but each time she crossed the black wall a little bit of AI code came back with her. Bit by bit over time the infection continued to grow, until she crosses a threshold and loses herself and goes psycho. By the time you meet her, she was basically at that threshold and looking for an out.

She sided with Hansen because she knew him and he already had the AI core in his possession.

So Mi's potential as a weapon was less about her raw destructive power as a potential rogue AI on the loose. But about the damage she could do politically to the NUSA if her operations, and the NUSA activities beyond the black wall was exposed.

[MrFizzlepop]

Anyone at all observant and paying attention gets a ton of feedback right away after being dropped off by Jackie.

The interview that plays on the four screens in the Elevator when you get in, is about the Relic. I can't remember if it plays after you are dropped off, or when you take the elevator down to meet Jackie.

V has a response about T-bug being dead in the elevator when escaping the plaza.

Nomad is the only start with combat, and I can't agree with an above poster that thinks it's the best background.

I would argue that Corpo is the best background as right away it gives insight that corporations are all powerful when you are forced to wait while JENKINS (Yes, I'm convinced they're related.) orders the murder of the that security council.

Then you get a great overview of the city in a flying car so you have an Idea just how big this game is going to be, and then at Lizzie's, how important implants and netrunning are in this world.

Sorry, OP, but it sounds like you are whining, after putting in a minimum of effort to actually learn about where you found yourself.

Also, why would anyone want to save Goro? V is just property and a bargaining chip to him and he's never done us a favor, that wasn't about saving his own skin.

I've literally let the car crash and Goro and I die several times when I am handed that Hypo, because I hate that man so much.

[Jack Greedy]

To be set in mood, read Gibson trilogy.

[Yes_1_am]

Don't feel bad, the game is like that. We have to replay a few times if we want to know everything that happened, make different choices, it's always been like this with CDPR.