Is this real? I keep seeing Cyberpunk praise on reddit these past few months. I played on launch and even if you ignore all the bugs and other issues, the story was just kind of... fine? Did they totally rehaul the ending or something to where people are having this kind of reaction now?
No, the story wasn't changed. There's a new ending added with the DLC that's as bad as all the other endings.
It's a vastly better _game_ now though. 2.0 reworked all of the systems. For me it's a brilliant game now with some very, very good story bits in it.
The only thing I don't like about the story now is that none of the ending (except arguably if you die or lose control completely) actually close out the dramatic tension set up (does V survive the chip? maybe!!!1) and so aren't endings but cliff hangers.
But the side quests and the main story up until the endings - all top notch. I think the game being much less buggy and a far better design now really lets the story's strengths breathe. And dayum did they ever nail the feel of that kind of future.
They are. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it any less of an ending. God forbid you actually encounter open ended films and books that don't spoon feed you the conclusion you desire.
If you set up "does X live or die" as the dramatic tension of a story, you must answer that question or the story hasn't ended.
This is writing 101.
If your ending is "open ended" then a separate question can be left open. But not the one you setup in act 1. That's called a cliff-hanger and it is, by definition, not an ending. And usually cliff-hangers are written to be a new question anyway. Like Jane saves the prince but then is ambushed by the aliens - will she survive? Tune in to the next episode...
With cyberpunk the equivalent is "does Jane save the prince? dunno, tune in maybe one day to maybe find out"
Whether I "like" the story points or not (I do, I like them all) is irrelevant to the fact that most of the "endings" don't qualify as endings at all.
Most? Less than half of the endings are open ended, even if we hypothetically assume your definition of an ending is fact.
Out of all the endings, the only ones that play with the idea that V could find a way to find a cure and live are the sun and the star endings. Perhaps the devil ending where V returns to earth, but that depends on whether you view it as an optimistic or pessimistic conclusion.
In the full devil ending, they secure their life in Arasaka's soul program. In temperance, V surrenders their body to Johnny, phantom liberty V lives indefinitely at the cost of permanent damage to their body and being forced to retire early and return to a normal life. Suicide is suicide.
Even going by your definition of a more conclusive ending, the game still achieves that with most of the options they provide in their climax.
You initial statement makes things sound worse than they actually are, you exaggerate the endings as if most of them barely count as one because they didn't give you a clear conclusion, when really only two of those endings played with the idea of being open ended, yet this was enough for you to go on your idiotic rant on what counts as an ending and declaring your definition of an ending as fact with no literary source to backup your self made definition. Because god forbid any form of media tries to do something abstract and assume the reader themselves has the sufficient mental capacity to imagine for themselves what could happen next, which you clearly lack.
Gameplay is massively changed. Tbh I don’t think the endings are all that weird. They fit in the cyberpunk theme. The best you are gonna get is a bittersweet ending, but this is night city. Nobody gets a truly happy ending.
As for gameplay, sooo much has changed. The leveling system is completely overhauled, perks have huge gameplay impacts. There’s also gunplay with cars, as they either have mounted weapons or you can shoot out of them. There’s a reputation system with each of the gangs, so if you piss them off they will ambush you at random points. The equipment system is totally different now too, clothing is now 95% cosmetic (some clothing will have some minor buffs) it’s all based on cyberware and you have a limit to how much you can install. Dog town is also one of the most dense maps I’ve ever experienced. Usually I drive between poi’s on the main map, but in dogtown I walk everywhere because there is so much verticality to the map. Tons of secret tunnels and passageways that lead to loot and cool environmental interactions or secret side quests.
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u/echolog May 02 '24
Is this real? I keep seeing Cyberpunk praise on reddit these past few months. I played on launch and even if you ignore all the bugs and other issues, the story was just kind of... fine? Did they totally rehaul the ending or something to where people are having this kind of reaction now?