When I first heard about this game in 2013, I was slightly annoyed & puzzled at the same time! Many people were overly excited even though there was no gameplay footage or enough info at the time other than the Teaser Trailer, with comments from people who said that this would be the game of the year or the best game ever created in the game industry. Well! The game is finally here, & let me tell you that this has been more than engaging. It's been amazing! Since I played, I can't seem to put that game down. The main story just keeps on giving! It's like watching a really good movie, & I had a lot of fun playing it. The main story has been really gripping.

For starters, I'm sure that most of you have heard about a large number of bugs in this game by now. I heard that The Witcher 3 was just as buggy at launch. However, I never played it. From my own gaming experience, I didn't encounter too many bugs, so I guess I'm one of the few lucky people. It seems that CDPR is quick on fixing bugs & listening to people.

You start by choosing your life path & create your character with a poor choice of tattoos & color for the eyes & hair. Shush! I'm picky with that sort of thing. The character's face can't be seen outside of the inventory menu, in mirrors, in photo mode & at the end of the game. But to some people, including myself, it's better than no options at all. (We were told & shown that we could see our character in cutscenes, but there's been none in the game so far, minus the endings. Maybe in future updates!) Also, there's no turning back for you, which means that makeup on your character's face will be permanent in 2077! You should keep an eye open for those friends of yours who might want to prank you in your sleep...

After about 30 minutes into the game, you turn out to be a mercenary who does various jobs for Fixers & activities for friends like races, shooting targets contest & help-out the NCPD clear out the streets from various crimes & from cyberpsychos. Sometimes you will also be asked to escort someone, deliver a package, or retrieve some item or evidence.

There's also a small collectible activity available, which requires you to tag or scan 20 Tarot Card graffiti scattered all over Night City. There's also a dozen pre-added crime scenes & story-teller scenes for legendary or iconic weapons & items, free vehicles & data shards (notes) for the player to pick up that shares a few interesting Easter eggs related to some well known movies & other video games, which is a nice touch.

The combat feels good, especially when filled with over 50 weapon types & dozens of Iconic weapons available in the game. Some are more loved than others, & even more when they also have weapon attachments available like different muzzles, suppressors, better sights & long scopes. Many weapons & attachments are available in various colors & paint jobs that might not be for everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to rock with a bright-pink futuristic AK-47 that carries a baby blue suppressor & a lime green scope for your flashy cyborg-killer, then that's a thing. Or if you prefer to shoot your enemies with your shiny-gold-looking shotgun & sniper rifle, that's also possible! Unfortunately, changing the color/skin of your weapon at will is not possible. No menu or NPC can do that for you, which is a shame.

There's a vast selection of clothes & head accessories for you to choose from, allowing you to dress your character how you want it & without gender restriction neither. Earrings aren't an option, since it's part of the character creation. Most jewelry like necklaces, bracelets is either tied to innerwear, outerwear, or a one-piece outfit. The next thing I'm not too fond of is the color options. Luck & patience is needed to find the right color, not to mention the armor's stats that go with it.

Fortunately! There's a crafting option allowing you to turn an uncommon or a rare item into a legendary item if you have the perks & attributes for it, & also to increase the DPS of pretty much all weapons & armor stats to match your character level. So you can stick with the same pistol you're carrying around since level 2 & still kick some butts with it!

There's something that could confuse some people at first since this game has 3 different level systems. First is your character's level, which will allow you to use stronger weapons & armors but also match enemies to your current level. The second is street cred, which is your reputation. A higher cred will give you access to better weapons, armors, cyberwear, vehicles & other items like mods & so forth. The third is the skill progression, which will increase based on actions you keep doing through the game. Like, performing multiple stealth takedowns will increase its progression & allow you to get some skill rewards like increase evasion by 3%, or give +1 perk point & decrease visibility to enemies by 10%, etc.

Vehicles play a significant role in this game. Despite the world map looking pretty small, it feels big even while driving 200 MPH down the road. Car handling varies from hypercars to sports cars & muscle cars. Muscle cars & sports cars drive & handle the best. As for motorcycles, I could only appreciate 2 types of motorcycles as the rest didn't feel that great. As of right now, there's no taxi/cabs you can take & that fancy train from the trailer is (at the moment) just for show. As for the AVs (flying cars), they aren't something you can drive. They only appear during missions.

A few side quests are tied to the main story, which could change the course of action & even the faith of the story. The same goes for the life path you start with, making life easier or more challenging for you if you were a Corpo, a Street Kid or a Nomad. Some dialogue options can be available to you based on your life path. The same goes for your attributes. High enough points in Cool can give you the option to suggest a better plan to take on an enemy territory.

The immersion & amount of details in this game always impresses me, like the News on TV & radio that shares details on what's been happening as you progress through the story. Or NPC near mission areas that talk about recent events the player might have caused. Or just the visual is sometimes shocking, making me wonder why the developers went that far just for that amount of detail, like the components under the cars.

This game has some ups & downs. Let's go back to the voice acting for a moment. It's more of a personal opinion than a fact. I did create both character genders, & I might be crazy, but I have the feeling that the protagonist was meant to be a female character in the producer's mind from the very beginning. Either that or the woman who voiced V was much more experienced than the man who did it. Sometimes, the result from the male version of V was underwhelming to me. The "expression" in the voice for a lot of dialogues was missing. Like during an intense mission from Act 1, I could detect the sadness & disturbance in the female voice. Early on into the game, a quick example with female V as a Corpo who will whisper to Frank sharing info about her boss who is in a tough spot. You can see Frank's facial animation & body language, which tries to listen carefully to V's whispering. But male V never whispered while sharing the same dialogue & Frank did the same animations for that whispering sequence. That didn't hit me the same way. But again, it might just be me.

Outside of the mission areas (free roam), the AI is terrible. Don't expect that to be like GTA or RDR2, as the developers seem to have put more effort into quest areas than anywhere else on the map. Certain action buttons like flipping a switch or sitting on a stool could use a larger hitbox. I often find myself having to wiggle my character or crosshair around.

Well, I believe that's pretty much it for now. I hope that my review was helpful to you! ♥

When I first heard about this game in 2013, I was slightly annoyed & puzzled at the same time! Many people were overly excited even though there was no gameplay footage or enough info at the time other than the Teaser Trailer, with comments from people who said that this would be the game of the year or the best game ever created in the game industry. Well! The game is finally here, & let me tell you that this has been more than engaging. It's been amazing! Since I played, I can't seem to put that game down. The main story just keeps on giving! It's like watching a really good movie, & I had a lot of fun playing it. The main story has been really gripping. For starters, I'm sure that most of you have heard about a large number of bugs in this game by now. I heard that The Witcher 3 was just as buggy at launch. However, I never played it. From my own gaming experience, I didn't encounter too many bugs, so I guess I'm one of the few lucky people. It seems that CDPR is quick on fixing bugs & listening to people. You start by choosing your life path & create your character with a poor choice of tattoos & color for the eyes & hair. Shush! I'm picky with that sort of thing. The character's face can't be seen outside of the inventory menu, in mirrors, in photo mode & at the end of the game. But to some people, including myself, it's better than no options at all. (We were told & shown that we could see our character in cutscenes, but there's been none in the game so far, minus the endings. Maybe in future updates!) Also, there's no turning back for you, which means that makeup on your character's face will be permanent in 2077! You should keep an eye open for those friends of yours who might want to prank you in your sleep... After about 30 minutes into the game, you turn out to be a mercenary who does various jobs for Fixers & activities for friends like races, shooting targets contest & help-out the NCPD clear out the streets from various crimes & from cyberpsychos. Sometimes you will also be asked to escort someone, deliver a package, or retrieve some item or evidence. There's also a small collectible activity available, which requires you to tag or scan 20 Tarot Card graffiti scattered all over Night City. There's also a dozen pre-added crime scenes & story-teller scenes for legendary or iconic weapons & items, free vehicles & data shards (notes) for the player to pick up that shares a few interesting Easter eggs related to some well known movies & other video games, which is a nice touch. The combat feels good, especially when filled with over 50 weapon types & dozens of Iconic weapons available in the game. Some are more loved than others, & even more when they also have weapon attachments available like different muzzles, suppressors, better sights & long scopes. Many weapons & attachments are available in various colors & paint jobs that might not be for everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to rock with a bright-pink futuristic AK-47 that carries a baby blue suppressor & a lime green scope for your flashy cyborg-killer, then that's a thing. Or if you prefer to shoot your enemies with your shiny-gold-looking shotgun & sniper rifle, that's also possible! Unfortunately, changing the color/skin of your weapon at will is not possible. No menu or NPC can do that for you, which is a shame. There's a vast selection of clothes & head accessories for you to choose from, allowing you to dress your character how you want it & without gender restriction neither. Earrings aren't an option, since it's part of the character creation. Most jewelry like necklaces, bracelets is either tied to innerwear, outerwear, or a one-piece outfit. The next thing I'm not too fond of is the color options. Luck & patience is needed to find the right color, not to mention the armor's stats that go with it. Fortunately! There's a crafting option allowing you to turn an uncommon or a rare item into a legendary item if you have the perks & attributes for it, & also to increase the DPS of pretty much all weapons & armor stats to match your character level. So you can stick with the same pistol you're carrying around since level 2 & still kick some butts with it! There's something that could confuse some people at first since this game has 3 different level systems. First is your character's level, which will allow you to use stronger weapons & armors but also match enemies to your current level. The second is street cred, which is your reputation. A higher cred will give you access to better weapons, armors, cyberwear, vehicles & other items like mods & so forth. The third is the skill progression, which will increase based on actions you keep doing through the game. Like, performing multiple stealth takedowns will increase its progression & allow you to get some skill rewards like increase evasion by 3%, or give +1 perk point & decrease visibility to enemies by 10%, etc. Vehicles play a significant role in this game. Despite the world map looking pretty small, it feels big even while driving 200 MPH down the road. Car handling varies from hypercars to sports cars & muscle cars. Muscle cars & sports cars drive & handle the best. As for motorcycles, I could only appreciate 2 types of motorcycles as the rest didn't feel that great. As of right now, there's no taxi/cabs you can take & that fancy train from the trailer is (at the moment) just for show. As for the AVs (flying cars), they aren't something you can drive. They only appear during missions. A few side quests are tied to the main story, which could change the course of action & even the faith of the story. The same goes for the life path you start with, making life easier or more challenging for you if you were a Corpo, a Street Kid or a Nomad. Some dialogue options can be available to you based on your life path. The same goes for your attributes. High enough points in Cool can give you the option to suggest a better plan to take on an enemy territory. The immersion & amount of details in this game always impresses me, like the News on TV & radio that shares details on what's been happening as you progress through the story. Or NPC near mission areas that talk about recent events the player might have caused. Or just the visual is sometimes shocking, making me wonder why the developers went that far just for that amount of detail, like the components under the cars. This game has some ups & downs. Let's go back to the voice acting for a moment. It's more of a personal opinion than a fact. I did create both character genders, & I might be crazy, but I have the feeling that the protagonist was meant to be a female character in the producer's mind from the very beginning. Either that or the woman who voiced V was much more experienced than the man who did it. Sometimes, the result from the male version of V was underwhelming to me. The "expression" in the voice for a lot of dialogues was missing. Like during an intense mission from Act 1, I could detect the sadness & disturbance in the female voice. Early on into the game, a quick example with female V as a Corpo who will whisper to Frank sharing info about her boss who is in a tough spot. You can see Frank's facial animation & body language, which tries to listen carefully to V's whispering. But male V never whispered while sharing the same dialogue & Frank did the same animations for that whispering sequence. That didn't hit me the same way. But again, it might just be me. Outside of the mission areas (free roam), the AI is terrible. Don't expect that to be like GTA or RDR2, as the developers seem to have put more effort into quest areas than anywhere else on the map. Certain action buttons like flipping a switch or sitting on a stool could use a larger hitbox. I often find myself having to wiggle my character or crosshair around. Well, I believe that's pretty much it for now. I hope that my review was helpful to you! ♥