Bored - 8 hours of linear dialogue - 1 hour of gameplay

[Johnyfirst]

I just got into the game, avoided as much as I could up until now, but I must say I'm quite dissapointed. Wanted to check if anyone has the same experience, or if I'm missing something / playing it wrong?

So in my 10 hours of play I feel like I've barely actually 'played' the game.

I like RPG elements usually, but I don't feel like I have any agency in the story or dialogue. It's always just yellow lines to progress, blue lines for more info. But never any real choices, or unique responses. Feel like I'm just watching V say whatever he's going to say.

Think I've had 3 proper gun fights and driven around for maybe 15minutes? The rest was just walking and dialogue.

One mission I tried to do stealthy, non lethal. It was arduous and took way too long, but I wanted to see how this would affect the outcome... again it didn't. At the end of the mission I got forced into combat anyway and my stealthy "they never knew I was here" approach was ignored.

Tried some sidequests, they were also just talking -> Follow marker -> Talk some more.

In 10 hours I have a loose idea of the plot, no idea of who my character is, what build I want to go for or how I want to roleplay. It just feels like I'm not making any choices for hours upon hours...


EDIT: Looking at some replies I wanted to clarify some things

1. I'm very impressed with the quality of the dialogue scenes in the game. The attention to detail and immersion is top notch. I'm not hating, just trying to figure out why I'm not having as good a time as most people seem to have.

2. I like narrative games (disco elysium, witcher 3, outer wilds,...), but all these games gave me the feeling of choice and agency, which is my main issue with the parts I have playing up till now.

The way dialogue is presented with yellow choices being: pick these if you want to progress; and blue choices just giving more information is very inorganic. And if you get a choice in yellow options it's: "Give me the information (aggressive)" or "Give me the information (passive aggressive)" or sometimes "Pay for the information"

I can't remember a single choice that I made that shaped the way V looked at a situation, or had a unique moral impact.

3. I went with Corpo, but it felt really bad when the game just showed me a cutscene, did a timeskip and said.. you're a mercenary now ♥♥♥♥♥! I walked around in an office for 5 minutes and that's my introduction to the supposed important backstory? This was the first time I really felt disconnected to the V I wanted to play.

[Verios44]

I dunno what game your playing.

[Six of Saturn]

Until you finish the heist and get to act 2 nothing you do or say will effect any potential outcomes. This first act is when and how you build the foundations for what kind of skill build you want.


I am also not sure how you only got into 3 gunfights in 10 hours, unless you are avoiding fixer gigs, and NCPD markers.

[Riggnarok]

How? In all honesty how?

Srsly I would love to see your 10 hours on twitch to see how you only got 1 hour of gameplay it's just boggling my brain.

And yes non lethal stealth is not for those with no patience, If you want to be a ghost and go completely undetected or do what I do. Take out everyone non lethal without setting off an alarm. You have to take it slow until you get to the higher levels at the very least.

[Johnyfirst]

Originally posted by Riggnarok:

How? In all honesty how?
Srsly I would love to see your 10 hours on twitch to see how you only got 1 hour of gameplay it's just boggling my brain.

Honestly, that's why I posted. I feel like I'm (almost) the only one.
I've mostly been doing main quests from my journal, the ones that seem most important.

I'm in act 2 atm, and except for the heist and the introduction with Silverhand in the tower I didn't really have extended sessions of me actually playing.

(The heist at the end of act one is the one I tried stealthing btw, and now the whole time people refer to it as "making a big loud mess of it" ...)

[Dizzy Ladybug]

The Gigs and NCPD scanner stuff is almost pure gameplay and combat, have you tried doing some of those ?

[ZTEQ]

I just recently got the game myself and after feeling like the game was a bit off from an RPG standpoint I ended up reverting to 1.63 after doing some research on the web. It has much more of an RPGish feel to me as loot is much more fun/viable, exploration is much better rewarded from what I have seen so far at least, and crafting is 100% more fleshed out, unique vendors and ripper docs, and the list goes on. You could always try this and see if the game feels better.

[Grandmother CFO]

Originally posted by Johnyfirst:

I just got into the game, avoided as much as I could up until now, but I must say I'm quite dissapointed. Wanted to check if anyone has the same experience, or if I'm missing something / playing it wrong?

So in my 10 hours of play I feel like I've barely actually 'played' the game.

I like RPG elements usually, but I don't feel like I have any agency in the story or dialogue. It's always just yellow lines to progress, blue lines for more info. But never any real choices, or unique responses. Feel like I'm just watching V say whatever he's going to say.

Think I've had 3 proper gun fights and driven around for maybe 15minutes? The rest was just walking and dialogue.

One mission I tried to do stealthy, non lethal. It was arduous and took way too long, but I wanted to see how this would affect the outcome... again it didn't. At the end of the mission I got forced into combat anyway and my stealthy "they never knew I was here" approach was ignored.

Tried some sidequests, they were also just talking -> Follow marker -> Talk some more.

In 10 hours I have a loose idea of the plot, no idea of who my character is, what build I want to go for or how I want to roleplay. It just feels like I'm not making any choices for hours upon hours...

I think Modern Warfare 3 is out...

[malynx420]

Unfortunately, The Heist is the keystone mission of the game. No matter how you approach it people will react and refer to it exactly the same, except for the option you choose when Delemain asks you a question before you go into the No Tell Motel. The game is based on you talking to people to receive missions and then they will explain what they want you to do in the mission. Most of the time the game will shoehorn you into a certain direction no matter what dialog option you choose. There's still a good amount of times when based off of the dialog option you choose you could unlock more dialog options, new missions, iconic weapons and alternate endings. Pretty much all of Act 1 is exposition and it does lighting up afterwards. There is a way to skip through the dialog, but I wouldn't recommend it on your first play through. There is an option to receive only texts instead of phone calls in the settings. If you're not sure about something just save the game so you can explore the results of any choices you have to make. As for builds, you'll be able to max out 4 of the 5 "skill tree" branches at lvl 60 so just go with whatever sounds cool to you. I can tell you no matter what build I'm going for I always max out Technical Ability, crafting is awesome and a good way to make money. I know this was super long but I hope some of it helped.

[Coldhands]

Dialogue sequences are the best parts of the game.

[orcaa]

Originally posted by Johnyfirst:

I just got into the game, avoided as much as I could up until now, but I must say I'm quite dissapointed. Wanted to check if anyone has the same experience, or if I'm missing something / playing it wrong?

So in my 10 hours of play I feel like I've barely actually 'played' the game.

I like RPG elements usually, but I don't feel like I have any agency in the story or dialogue. It's always just yellow lines to progress, blue lines for more info. But never any real choices, or unique responses. Feel like I'm just watching V say whatever he's going to say.

Think I've had 3 proper gun fights and driven around for maybe 15minutes? The rest was just walking and dialogue.

One mission I tried to do stealthy, non lethal. It was arduous and took way too long, but I wanted to see how this would affect the outcome... again it didn't. At the end of the mission I got forced into combat anyway and my stealthy "they never knew I was here" approach was ignored.

Tried some sidequests, they were also just talking -> Follow marker -> Talk some more.

In 10 hours I have a loose idea of the plot, no idea of who my character is, what build I want to go for or how I want to roleplay. It just feels like I'm not making any choices for hours upon hours...

played the game several times thru ( start to an ending ) without going thru a stretch of 8 hours of blah blah dialog with 1 hour of gameplay. my opinion....that is you playing it wrong.

[Northwold]

Do not focus exclusively on the main quest. Do side content. Explore. If you just do the main quest (and the most linear version of it, ignoring all the really important side quests that are directly related to it, too), you will end up with a very, very short game and miss almost all the world-building and atmosphere that makes Cyberpunk Cyberpunk, too. There is A LOT to see and experience if you wander. Almost every corner of the world (and I mean every corner -- in the middle of the desert you can run into stuff) has something, even if it's just a body and a little note of what happened.

So, yes, in a way, you're "playing it wrong". Although the game could have made a bit clearer that you are free to do your own thing and SHOULD do your own thing, and you will not be punished for it.

[Johnyfirst]

Alright here my update on playing an additional 2 hours, just doing side mission focused on combat.

It is really fun, I got way more character progression done than I did before. It's just a shame that doing the main missions don't offer the same flow. I like clearing out map icons, but usually only after I've done a good chunk of the main story.

[Grandmother CFO]

Originally posted by Johnyfirst:

Alright here my update on playing an additional 2 hours, just doing side mission focused on combat.

It is really fun, I got way more character progression done than I did before. It's just a shame that doing the main missions don't offer the same flow. I like clearing out map icons, but usually only after I've done a good chunk of the main story.

Take your time,enjoy this Masterpiece slowly!!

[mcdcecil]

This is how it goes, from the start to the heist , is the Prologue. At the end of the cab ride to Dex. You are killed. End of Prologue. Meet Johnny this is the Interlude. You wake up in the dump to Takemura killing Dex. This is the beginning of act 1.

[BudlikyCZ]

I actually have the same problem. After 2 hours the only thing was sit in a chair and listen people talk at you. And 1 fight with a girl in a bathtub. I actually turned the game off because I was not having fun. I am glad I know I shouldnt be doing main quest because its basicaly a world tour of chairs you can sit on and listen people bore you to tears with their meaningless dialog. I will do some fixer jobs and gigs with NCPD thingies.