The good 👍
- Unlimited respec options
- The story is good but kind of short
- Very good system performance test 🤣 (though I think Wuhang already dethroned Cyberbug here)
- Cyberpunk climate is oozing from the screen
- A lot of attention to body and clothing customization
- Very good voice acting

The bad 👎
- Doesn't matter if we beat missions stealthy or aggressively
- Ending doesn't take into consideration our choices above "if you beat side quests, an extra road to the same ending will unlock"
- Abilities feel lackluster
- NPCs are brainless. They walk around, dragging their feet like a zombie, stuck in the same animation loops
- Enemies are very basic and their design is copy-pasted
- So much customization and we never see ourselves. Mirrors don't even show reflection unless we "activate" them
- Inability to change car paint color seems like a big omission
- It is painfully obvious that racing is rigged in our favor (competition waiting when we hit an obstacle, or rubber-band chase if we drive perfectly)
- During normal driving other cars move away to make us a path, like we are an ambulance with sirens on
- Physics can go bonkers, and walking past a stack of boxes or picking up a cup will send objects flying
- There are only 2 enemy robot designs in the whole game - flying scout and walking tank
- Interactions with Jonny don't matter, and the secret ending is unlocked after picking specific responses in one dialogue
- Starting background (badlands, street kid, corpo) doesn't matter
- Police can still spawn in the field of vision, and police chase sequences are very lack luster

Conclusion:

This game is like an empty easter egg. Very beautiful on the surface, and missing essence on the inside. Great customization options? Too bad we will never see changes to how we look unless we check the inventory. A lot of quests everywhere? Too bad they are basic filler, the main plot is short, and romance quests feel more polished than the main storyline. Romance storylines also take together more time than the main story, which is kind of weird considering V is working around the clock to not die. Big city full of opportunities? There is literally nothing to do, except visit clothes and cyberware shops. Or stealing a car to drive around without purpose. Tons of abilities to unlock and weapons to customize how we play? It doesn't matter if we play stealth or gun blaze, quests have exactly one end. Stealth only makes everything very long.

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Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☑ Average ☐ Good

There is a lot of lore for bookworms. Worldbuilding + atmosphere is very good. With a big help from the graphic quality. I played the main story for a bit, and got to a point "ok, let's focus on non-filler side missions now". I completed everything and went back to the main story. And I was literally one mission away from point-of-no-return. 5 out of 8 Act 1 missions feel like a long tutorial that ends with us getting the first cyberware. Act 1 concludes with two short missions where we see Johnny and learn how he died. Followed by 9 missions shared between Judy and Panam, which feel like side quests to build a romance with those two, not a part of the main quest. 4 Arasaka-focused missions. Which feels like the main missions, because we learn more about our condition, that Johnny will slowly "overwrite" V, unless we find a way to break into Arasaka and learn how to save V etc. This ends Act 2, and springs us into a short ending. Where we attack Arasaka tower alone, with Rogue or Panam. When I saw I had 3 choices of ending I thought "great, I can replay this and see how different the game ends!". But it doesn't matter. Alone/Rogue/Panam paths are 2 missions that focus on different ways to get into the Arasaka tower. But then paths converge, which kills replayability. For the whole game, we were doing everything to save V. And the game ends with "meh, doesn't matter". Feels like red/blue/green ME3 endings, where on the surface it looks like choices through the game meant something, but in the end, the illusion breaks. Wonder if it's because they were planning Cyberpunk 2 already, so having diverging endings would make it hard to execute.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☑ Average ☐ Good	Fast travel to mission, do mission, fast travel to next mission. The city is dead, and there is nothing to do. NPCs have nothing to say. There are a lot of "go and retrieve x" gigs. You can drive around instead of fast travel, but it feels off. Other cars will move to the side ever so slightly to give you space, so you don't hit them. Police lose interest after a couple of seconds (unless you go and kill civilians on purpose). Environmental food is often a flat texture, and V can't even eat it. The only way for us to eat food is to use it in inventory. Even part of the main story, where Jackie eats Chinese food during a long conversation is not animated properly. He is dunking chopsticks into a flat noodle texture and lifting pink cylinders to his mouth. Cylinders are not part of the dish when you look into the box. I think of GTA V released 7 years earlier, or 10 years younger Skyrim, and there was so much to do there, apart from going between the main missions. Pickpocketing people. Being caught during a crime and having a conversation with guards (in CP police shot us immediately). Interesting crafting. Going into a taxi to reach the destination. Using NPCs and environment to create your own stories. There are no environmental interactions in Cyberpunk. Except going to a cyberware clinic or clothes shop. V's flat can be used to see iconic weapons collections or change outfits. You can invite your love interest, but they have literally one dialogue to say (the same as they say if you call them over the phone). We have a long list of contacts in the phone book, but those NPCs also never have anything to say.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☑ Advanced combat	There are a lot of abilities to unlock, but towards the end I was spending points just to use them up, and unlock some environmental actions (doors that require technical ability to open, dialogues that are locked behind the cool level). None of the abilities felt impactful. I focused on stealth gameplay with Intelligence and Technical. Intelligence focuses on having small boosts for smart (homing bullets) weapons, longer hacks (magic) queue, and getting back some RAM (mana) after we kill an enemy. Boosting RAM amount or its regeneration speed is a cyberware job. We load 2 hacks "into" the enemy (overheat + overload, disease + blind etc.) and wait a few seconds for the said enemy to die. It is very unsatisfying. If we get caught by an enemy netrunner, they reset my optics or send overload. Which means graphical glitches for few seconds or getting slight electrical damage. I played on normal, and the game was so one-sided I ended up not carrying if the enemy noticed me. Just upload overheat twice for a non-lethal takedown and boom, perfect stealth mission. With enemies dancing around as they burn. It get boring quite fast, so I decided to have a bigger challenge and use a dildo as a main weapon. Without investing anything in strength. And I was still breezing through, KO enemies with 2 hits and non-mobs with a handful. With weapons, you can slowly pick enemies one by one with 3 - 4 headshots. I saw on higher difficulty enemies are simply more bullet spongy. Which is disappointing and not something I want to experience.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are good. There are no invisible walls, so if we invest in the double or higher jump we can go wherever. There is very basic parkour, things like jumping over barriers. If we get hit by a car we drop on the ground like a plank, and see "getting up" animation. Car driving can feel a bit soapy unless we drive a big and heavy car. Fist fights are very basic with the ability to do dodge and light/strong attacks.
📇 Inventory and menus ☐ Basic ☑ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	The only menus I was using were map, loadout, and abilities. There is inventory, but it's full of junk and it's easier to compare weapons on the loadout screen. Never found use for crafting, crafting materials are not abundant and it's easier to buy cyberware or hacks after we get a lot of cash from selling junk that we find. Weapon comparisons work well, with a clear indicator of stat change. Weapon icons don't clearly state weapon damage buffs (headshots, bleeding, poison, electricity, etc.) which is a bit annoying. Changing weapon scope/sight is a pain, as it can't be done when the weapon is un-equipped. We need to firstly equip the weapon, which makes its available mod slots visible.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Great	I already partially described it in abilities. On normal difficulty, it feels too easy and boring. On higher difficulties, enemies get bullet spongy. There is no level-scaling or "this area has stronger enemies". After the initial "beware, everyone has a skull symbol as they are above your level" we won't find a challenge. Even boss fights (there are like 4 - 5 of them) can be easily beaten by spamming hacks and some rifle damage. The only boss that put up a bit of a fight was the last one, but only because he has a few phases. The second to last boss bugged out and hang up in the middle of the room. Allowing me to shoot them without worry. Except for very early in the game, I never had to use a med kit. I forgot I have grenades. And used overdrive (intelligence tree ultimate perk) a few times for health regen during the fist fight side quests (I was a nerd with no strength, and it was the only way for me to get health regen). Going through slow stealth gameplay with manual takedowns doesn't feel engaging, as hiding the bodies inside a container counts as lethal action. So we need to pick up the enemy and walk with it outside of the patrol zone. Instead of quickly stash it away in a closet or dumpster.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☑ Really basic ☐ Average ☐ Smart and responsive	Meelee enemies will rush towards us. Ranged enemies will hide behind the cover, and wait to get headshots. Neutral NPCs are brain-dead and just roam around. They can get scared because we drive too close, and jump under our car in response. If we hit NPC car they will always try to drive away ASAP, while shouting some random texts. They won't stop the car, they can't get out. This means they sometimes hit other cars in proximity, which puts more cars in panic mode 😐

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☑ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☑ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☑ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☑ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☑ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☑ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☑ Minimap ☑ Fast travel	Details: It has beautiful graphic and devs make sure game supports all newest Nvidia bells and whistles. AMD and Intel counterparts are introduced with delay, Nvidia must still pay for game to be their tech showcase 🤣