i'm quite liking it and have had to move very few boxes. Maybe a couple of trash cans to jump on.
But, i like the combat, and the stealth too. I'm terribad at stealth games, but i like this one.
Aside from my snarky post, how do you feel DXMD and CP77 compare?
I know that CP77 is bigger, but when it comes to sneaking around an enemy and then shooting your way out, how do the two compare?
Do the augmentations work similar in CP77 and DX? Or is CP more of .. Dungeons & Dragons "i got blades on my arm" combat thing?
the combat in both seems a bit similar, in that it just doesn't feel that impactful? I never played DX games as run and gun, so I generally go stealth as well, but even so, the combat in CP77 is a bit more actiony and fluid, which is nice, but like DX the gun play just doesn't feel right, if you know what I mean. Compared to straight-up shooters, aiming/shooting/impact have always felt flat in these games. CP77 is like that, but I feel like the engagements are much larger, and there is more of a focus on drawing you into the action, even if you are stealthy, unlike how DX combat is generally arranged.
the mele/blade work is about what you expect...not great in FP, or maybe I just think that about all such games that do it this way. I haven't even purchased the mantis blades yet, so haven't used them once, haha, mainly because it strikes me as no different than using a sword (you can augment those mods, though, to have different damage type effects, but otherwise the 4 arm mods don't have any specific level pathing within them--though main attributes in your skill system will boost one of each general damage type). I've been using the monowire (barely....it's just like swatting a whip around in front of you....I couldn't figure out what to do with it, as I recall early video showing them use it to lasso and stun people at a distance, or fry them...so I don't know if that just isn't in the game, or I haven't spent time learning how to use it) and the arm rocket homing thingy....kinda useless so far. the tranq darts on the arm cannon were supposedly granting one-shot kills at first (knock someone out is "perma disable" as far as the game is concerned. they don't wake back up), and then you could actually kill them once knocked out and get double credit for the takedown--that might still be happening but I haven't gotten a tranq dart to really work, so maybe they fixed that. Dunno.
There is a lot of itemization, on top of just the skill tree systems, and I think it's done pretty well: armor skin system is pretty good, if you're into dressup. The stats aren't really that diverse, so all armor is pretty much the same couple of things. Your cyberware has a lot of diversity, though, and limited slots per class of cyberware, that really change up how you play because certain types of features (Say, you want to go power, or more reflex/stealth) on some gear are skill-locked at higher levels. swapping skills is quite expensive, too.
smart weapons are kinda neat, but I haven't used them much (they home and track targets around cover, and do it really well. super casual playstyle, but kinda fits in this world so it doesn't bother me. ...and you also have to deal with enemies using that tech against you, so it makes things interesting.) you can replace your cyberdeck (basically teh device that allows your standard hacking tricks, and then mod slots that allow for all of your various system and enemy hacks--so it's own internal skill system), with a select couple of mods that just focus on specific assault skills (handguns/rifles vs the power/mele/brawler/shotgun style), so you can truly go all-assault or all-hack/stealth if you want. Later in leveling, doing both actually does work pretty well (this is hard to do in early game, say the first 15-20 levels). on-the-fly enemy hacking in combat is actually pretty decent. You have to hold your "hack menu" to access it, and it does turn to super-slow, or not depending the state of action, so you can get used to working through it while fighting, but also not cheesing things buy having it be an effective "pause action" menu. you can equip skills that just shut down function of enemy netrunners, which is very useful, put points into skills and equip mods that limit their ability to attack you.
it has a lot of just "in the world" node hacking exactly like in DX: basically get crafting item bits and cash. sometimes mods (if you put some skill points into it). So the skill and item system overall, I think, allows for some really diverse playstyles if you want to stay faithful to one method, completely switch up to another, or even do the combo. I think DX was very similar to that; but the battle maps in DX are more "on rails" with very specific, obvious paths marked out for you to make the "Stealth run," and in those maps, there really were few options to do that in each map. you just could not stealth through without accessing vent B, for example. It's not like that in CP77--it is just a much more open map (even the random "Stop crime" events that you happen on to, some can be very long with very diverse "trapped open warehouse" sort of maps, and each sequence can allow you to cover/shoot run and gun or stabby, or sneak, gank, knockout, hack, whatever. It's just more...open. Well, it really is an open world game, and it does do it very well. ...and the double jumping. Can't say enough about how learning to just run and jump through the whole city changes one's perspective on the game. (the driving is that bad, and should be avoided if not for the well-selected, moody, perfect soundtracks on the available radio stations).
This, on top of the more open flow, just easy trick into the cinematic mission and story sequences. You never feel like you are "activating" a mission. You just walk up to the people on your quest marker and the conversation is available or already happening. You can explore in a normal amount of space as you hold these conversations (say, you leave the room, which you can, it won't work, as it wouldn't in real life), but you can explore the room. This isn't anything completely new of course, but it feels more natural in CP77 than I have seen before. The dialogue responses if you are a goon like me and just have to select ALL of the additional options, aren't as broken/awkward as they tend to be, so that's a little bit better (you know, holding a natural conversation with an NPC...but then shuffling back through the menu to ask that one final piece of non-necessary line, when it was well past that point in the conversation, heh), still not perfect, but you also don't get a whole lot of additional dialogue options.
You DO get a lot of primary dialogue options, which are the ones that lock you into a path that could actually determine the progress with that story or more that character, and these have been pretty consequential and, I imagine, do make for some very different playthroughs for different character types. You can't bed anyone just because you want to. The main characters actually have PREFERENCES in their mates. Imagine that! In fact, I'm finding that sexy moments in CP77 are far less common than they were in The Witcher games--mainly, yes, because you can't just bed any of the main options at any one time, but also because there are just less brothels as far as I can tell (the city really is pretty well divided by actual neighborhood characteristics, so yeah--your brothels or dollhouses or whatever, really only in one specific area, and there are only a few options). ...but the sexy times are quite impressive indeed. Indeed....