I liked the idea of not getting other characters involved besides the OG duo of Rogue and Silverhand since I figured there was less likelihood of some depressing scenario
The part where you wake up and are suddenly wealthy with different tastes was a bizarre turn though, even moreso when it turns out you're headed for some giant casino in space with a handgun
Can't say that ending suited the tone it had built up to or even how I viewed my character but apart from that the lead-up was enjoyable, being pretty much more of the same decent combat/stealth.
Cute touch with V's new place on that ending being visible from her original apartment. Discovered this by reloading a save and jumping all the way down then back to the apartment. Surprisingly if you do that the game functions almost as normal, except cyberware is disabled, enemy HUD markers, time of day and some vendors seem to be absent. Not sure if sidequest phone calls function but all the sidequests are still there.
Game overall is shorter than I was anticipating from the outset and the decisions made throughout seem inconsequential to the ending. During parts of the game I was thinking that mentioning so-and-so in a conversation might lead to them being killed later or things like that but it really wasn't that deep and most choices affecting the ending come right near the end from what I've read subsequently.
Liked:
- Environments
- Stealth (even with the fragile AI one can play most scenarios like stealth puzzles and the positioning of enemy layouts is decent)
- Motorcycle driving
- Japanese voice acting
- Main quest has no cruft.
- There's a good variety of sidequests and when it gets the right tone and substance it's quite absorbing.
Disliked:
- Driving navigation. For high speed vehicles they should optionally add HUD turn signals on the road, a la the Claire racing sidequest (but less obnoxious, visually).
- Decisions through the game make very little difference to the plot.
Other thoughts:
- Sidequest discovery isn't particularly organic. All but a handful of sidequests are discoverable via dots on the map from fixers or just come automatically via phone. This surprised me coming from TW3 where vendors and other in-person NPC interactions were a source of sidequests. Even when a restaurant owner in 2077 says 'had three delivery men killed so can't deliver food' it practically makes you anticipate a sidequest but then nothing is available. There were only like one or two sidequests that I encountered by talking to someone in-person that weren't marked or automatic.
- Main quest was polished but shorter than I would have hoped for with how rich the environments are. Similarly, given the statements about content in the years leading up to it there were less sidequests than I was anticipating, however the variety of them was solid.
- Wish they delved more into the interesting corruption elements that featured in the Peralez and River sidequests. Given they placed these and the Delamain sidequests nearer the start of Act 2 I wonder if they just ran out of time/prioritized elsewhere.
