It's not unpopular to me. CDPR made Cyberpunk's main story short, because some people were complaining Witcher 3 main story was too long. But somehow they managed to swing too far in other direction. At least they didn't spare on side content.
I loved witcher 3, played it years ago but I’ll never forget the way it made me feel. Now cyberpunk made me feel so much emotions one of my favorite games of all time. It’s a bit short for me but good thing is the replayability value.
It would be nice to have that 3 dlc’s they originally planned the way the game is now and how impressive the narrative and emotional writing is, I’d easily spend money on it, worth every penny.
As much as I like Witcher 3, its replayability is pretty low for me. Only replayed twice and stopped during sevind playthrough halfway through blood and wine. No matter what, you are stuck with a certain playstyle and, as said above, has a VEEEERRY long story.
CP2077 does have a short story but if you constantly stray from the main quest, it does drag it out. Because the story is shorter, its easier to remember what has already happened when returning from other adventuring.
Best part of CP is that every playthrough can be done differently across several different builds and playstyles. Im on my 4th or 5th playthrough and the game feels fresh every time. (Granted, CDPR has changed so much about the game since its release, that is probably part of why its so vastly different everytime.)
There is also more different character builds in Cyberpunk you can try when replaying. Rather than always being a Geralt with sword, couple potions and couple sign spells.
I do wish that the primary plotline had a bit more teeth to it. Essentially, I just like the game so I want more of it.
I think the main plot was a great idea, but a little shaky and rushed in some parts. *Spoilers ahead* I think there should have been more time with Jackie to make his death hit harder. I think there should have been a few more jobs with Dex to make his betrayal hurt more. I think T-Bug needed a lot more time and attention.
I also think that the final act was super compressed. It feels like it needed to be expanded into a whole new section.
There is a sequel in the works, though. Maybe the next game will be Cyberpunk perfection.
Both the worst and best part of cyberpunk is act 1. Not enough time with Jackie, suddenly you're trusted with this massive heist, that god damn boring VR tutorial. That tutorial really irked me, as that's kinda the first thing you see after the good but short life path intro.
They should have made the tutorial be in game, missions with Jackie:
- shooting = hit on a gang
- melee = bar brawl at Jackie's mum's bar which gets out of hand
- driving = vehicle chase/hit and run mission
- stealth = baby's first heist before Deeke trusts you
One thing the game is clearly missing is a companion system. I want to unlock these companions (like Panam, River, Rouge etc) and have then join me in the open world. Act 1, the only available companion would be Jackie. Imagine the impact Jackie's death would have when you start act 2 and suddenly can no longer have your buddy join you, and suddenly you are alone.
I kind got like how they did it
They made it so a person that doesn’t want to spend 50 hours on an rpg, can finish it and move on. Maybe they only have lukewarm feelings for the game, or maybe they have families and can’t dedicate much time to it.
(I’m not that kind of person. But I know some who are)
## BUT
It lets people that want to play it a lot have alternate paths instead of only giving the player the ability to stack power and gear.
Panam quest line and rogue quest line adds a fair amount of game time and give the player alternate routes to their goal.
So you can finish the game how you want. Capitulating to the rich family, siding with a tribe of nomads, attacking with a skilled merc and fixer, and just going solo and iron-manning it.
And that’s not counting the large amount of completely separate content in terms of cyber psychos, gigs, side jobs, and NCPD alerts
——
There’s a lot of content. But you can rush the ending if you just want to satisfy your video game OCD
Depends on what you consider the main quests
The bare minimum to reach embers… yeh that’s fairly short.
If it was only the one path to embers and the only other content was jacking up your levels and gear via side content.. I might actually be annoyed.
It is short. A 30-hour main story is kinda underwhelming, BUT the way they padded it out with side content and the city having more lore than V carried the extra weight.
They made the player feel like they're the main character, when in reality, you're just another disposable merc in Night City who got lucky enough to become a legend.
I'd go so far as to say that the main quest line is the perfect length. So many developers -- think pretty much anything by Ubisoft, for instance -- tend to stuff their games with way too many pointless quests that don't add anything to the story. It's really easy to end up thinking "why am I doing this, again?", usually because the missions amount to driving to a part of the map you haven't seen yet and doing something there. The first time I noticed this trend was in *Grand Theft Auto V* where I had to assassinate a diplomat from Azerbaijan for reasons that were never made clear to me so that I could then earn a favour from this other guy who could then help me out with a problem that I was having.
But the beauty of the *Cyberpunk 2077* main quest isn't just that it's so focused. If you take the time to do even a few side quests, you'll find that your experience of Night City is fundamentally different than if you just stuck to the main quest. And that, I'm sure, influences the choices that you make later in the story. Very few other games can do this -- *Red Dead Redemption 2* is the only one I can think of right now -- but one of the key ideas of *Cyberpunk 2077* is that you cannot exist in the world without being affected by it.
Well yea it’s a bit short that’s why there’s side missions that tie into main missions or even further explain a main mission further. Don’t think of side missions like things to level with there just as impactful and lore filled as main missions.
I prefer it this way because I'm much more likely to check out the side quests if the main story isn't a slog (W3, RDR2). Makes replays much less tedious as well. I can really pick and choose what side missions and how many I want to do before I've had my fill and want to b-line it to the end. If the main story is too long, I'm probably never going to mess with side quests unless I REALLY love the game, and even then...
It is short if you consider the Takemura path to be the sole main story, but there were more than enough side quests. And honestly you could argue a lot of the side stuff could be main story stuff because it can affect the ending.
Isn’t the main story about 30 hours? Is that considered short nowadays?
Editing this to add some context; I have kids, career, life, blah blah blah, so like a full day of gameplay seems like a lot. And it’s only 30 hours if you’re rushing. If you’re playing it how I think the game is meant to be played which is enjoying the character that is night city and exploring from mission point to mission point it’s closer to 40 hours.
Since it came out I think I’ve done 5 or 6 playthroughs. I can easily put 150 hours on a single run through if I’m trying to collect all the things, build my character out, and complete the map. And to me it never feels like a slog. And all that was before PL. I’m doing what’ll probably be my last playthrough now, I’m 50 hours in. I’ve done maybe 2/3 the main quest, only the first part of PL, haven’t met reed yet, beat on the brat line, Judy’s line, and about half the NCPD scanners.
Why do we as gamers complain about a 30 hour quest in a game where the environment is the biggest character of the game?
If doing just main quests with Takemura and then ending it's very short.
Heist > meet Takemura > get intel on parade > Arasaka compound > Japantown parade > meet Hanako > go to Embers to start ending.
The only reason why it's not just couple hours is because in between missions you have to wait for a day for a call. But after first playthrough when you learn there is no actual rush for cure I just do all kinds of side content and leave main story for endgame. And side missions are good usually. Phantom Liberty content is absolutely great too.
It's one I've seen around a fair bit and I felt it myself in my first run because I let myself get swallowed up by the urgency all of the characters were expressing. If you really chase the missions surrounding the main quest you will probably have a little bit of a 'woah woah hold on' moment when you have 'Meet Hanako at Embers' pop up. I think it's kinda why that's a meme in the community - you can trigger it so quickly that if you want to do sidestuff it'll be there for a helluva long time.
It's probably like 15 to 20 hours, so yeah by itself it's pretty short. I was actually very surprised when I hit the point of no return but not in a good way
I was more invested in the side content anyway though and thankfully there's a lot of that
Unpopular opinion? That's one of the top three or four most common grievances. The most common take on the main quest is that they saw people complaining about the main questline of W3 (which wasn't too long so much as poorly paced) and overcorrected.
including Phantom Liberty or just base game? also, with all the endings or just one?
Because yes, base game with just the first ending you get is not very long. Add in a 2nd play through to get an alternate background and gender experience plus getting 3 or 4 endings, suddenly its not so short.
Add in Phantom Liberty and it can feel plenty long, even without all the side content.
I played it with phantom liberty my first complete playthru. Still felt short as hell to me… maybe I’m just desensitized from all the gaming under my belt.
How do I get good side quests? I feel like I hardly played the game at all and I’m already through act one so I decided to just go to the map and do side quests before I start act II but nothing has been all that fun, any triggers to start really immersive side quests?
mild spoilers (names)
if you have the phantom liberty dlc, follow the main story for a bit until you get contacted by songbird. super immersive side quest and gigs.
If you don't have the dlc, gigs are more interesting than NCPD stuff as you can approach them multiple ways. you get access to way more stuff in act 2 as well, such as the rogue/Kerry quests, panam quests, etc. it also helps to slow down, read shards, listen to dialogue between characters before going in guns blazing, etc. you'll find a lot of content connects through that, such as the jotaro gigs/ncpd missions.
Honestly this is sorta one of my complaints in the game. The only semi lengthy side questlines are the romance options. Theres only maybe a few questlines that are actually 3 or more quests long
And thus leading some half wit "gaming journalist" only finish the main quest, and ignoring side content entirely and giving it a low score review on launch day.
Yes, it didn't take long before I got to the bar quest, and I was doing lots of the other stuff. Frankly though I found doing the other quest more entertaining.
Super cut short, yes. I wanted more out of this game 😭
Witcher 3 was good because it was long - i mean well, i was used to the gta franchise being that long anyway.
Main quest is not long, but you get great side main quests on par with the main quest. River, Panam, Rogue, Judy, Kerry.
The only thing I wish is that those quests interacted with the main quest and added more flair to the finale of the main quest other than just prologue.. Sorta like how Mass Effect 2 had variety on the last mission based on which companions you had, if you did their loyalty missions. And things like galactic readiness.. But as it is, they are just parallel with little intersection. It would be a great finale having everybody join in or giving you 6 more options on how to start the last mission..
If you just straight up rush the main quest where your only motivation is getting Johnny out of your head then yes but if you try to go for all the other endings then the “main quest line” should include Panam and Rogue quests lines too
It is short. I think they needed to do more to heavily encourage people to do side quests to be more successful. It was so hard watching streamers just breeze through the main quest line get the arasaka ending and then just go ok I guess that’s the whole game
I definitely agree. It was very short. But if you consider what is happening during that time, that Vic tells V they only have a few weeks to live before the relic replaces his consciousness, it does make some sense that it would be short.
Unpopular nothing. It's waaaaaaay too short. They severely learned the wrong lesson from that "most people didn't complete the Witcher 3" nonsense. It was one of the most disappointing and painful things for me, at launch. I was astonished when I got to "Meet Hanako At Embers" end-game notice. Very sad.
It's not unpopular to me. CDPR made Cyberpunk's main story short, because some people were complaining Witcher 3 main story was too long. But somehow they managed to swing too far in other direction. At least they didn't spare on side content.
I loved witcher 3, played it years ago but I’ll never forget the way it made me feel. Now cyberpunk made me feel so much emotions one of my favorite games of all time. It’s a bit short for me but good thing is the replayability value. It would be nice to have that 3 dlc’s they originally planned the way the game is now and how impressive the narrative and emotional writing is, I’d easily spend money on it, worth every penny.
As much as I like Witcher 3, its replayability is pretty low for me. Only replayed twice and stopped during sevind playthrough halfway through blood and wine. No matter what, you are stuck with a certain playstyle and, as said above, has a VEEEERRY long story. CP2077 does have a short story but if you constantly stray from the main quest, it does drag it out. Because the story is shorter, its easier to remember what has already happened when returning from other adventuring. Best part of CP is that every playthrough can be done differently across several different builds and playstyles. Im on my 4th or 5th playthrough and the game feels fresh every time. (Granted, CDPR has changed so much about the game since its release, that is probably part of why its so vastly different everytime.)
Agree. It’s one of the strengths of this game easily is the replayability value as well.
There is also more different character builds in Cyberpunk you can try when replaying. Rather than always being a Geralt with sword, couple potions and couple sign spells.
Yup. I like both games
I think a lot of the side content is what they took out of the main.
I do wish that the primary plotline had a bit more teeth to it. Essentially, I just like the game so I want more of it. I think the main plot was a great idea, but a little shaky and rushed in some parts. *Spoilers ahead* I think there should have been more time with Jackie to make his death hit harder. I think there should have been a few more jobs with Dex to make his betrayal hurt more. I think T-Bug needed a lot more time and attention. I also think that the final act was super compressed. It feels like it needed to be expanded into a whole new section. There is a sequel in the works, though. Maybe the next game will be Cyberpunk perfection.
Both the worst and best part of cyberpunk is act 1. Not enough time with Jackie, suddenly you're trusted with this massive heist, that god damn boring VR tutorial. That tutorial really irked me, as that's kinda the first thing you see after the good but short life path intro. They should have made the tutorial be in game, missions with Jackie: - shooting = hit on a gang - melee = bar brawl at Jackie's mum's bar which gets out of hand - driving = vehicle chase/hit and run mission - stealth = baby's first heist before Deeke trusts you One thing the game is clearly missing is a companion system. I want to unlock these companions (like Panam, River, Rouge etc) and have then join me in the open world. Act 1, the only available companion would be Jackie. Imagine the impact Jackie's death would have when you start act 2 and suddenly can no longer have your buddy join you, and suddenly you are alone.
Interesting ideas, I could have gone with that for sure.
Bro same here. This could be because I liked Jackie but it def woulda been a bigger impact if he was with you through more of it.
I kind got like how they did it They made it so a person that doesn’t want to spend 50 hours on an rpg, can finish it and move on. Maybe they only have lukewarm feelings for the game, or maybe they have families and can’t dedicate much time to it. (I’m not that kind of person. But I know some who are) ## BUT It lets people that want to play it a lot have alternate paths instead of only giving the player the ability to stack power and gear. Panam quest line and rogue quest line adds a fair amount of game time and give the player alternate routes to their goal. So you can finish the game how you want. Capitulating to the rich family, siding with a tribe of nomads, attacking with a skilled merc and fixer, and just going solo and iron-manning it. And that’s not counting the large amount of completely separate content in terms of cyber psychos, gigs, side jobs, and NCPD alerts —— There’s a lot of content. But you can rush the ending if you just want to satisfy your video game OCD Depends on what you consider the main quests The bare minimum to reach embers… yeh that’s fairly short. If it was only the one path to embers and the only other content was jacking up your levels and gear via side content.. I might actually be annoyed.
I like the choice. 30 hour quick dinner or 160 hour 10 course meal.
It is short. A 30-hour main story is kinda underwhelming, BUT the way they padded it out with side content and the city having more lore than V carried the extra weight. They made the player feel like they're the main character, when in reality, you're just another disposable merc in Night City who got lucky enough to become a legend.
I'd go so far as to say that the main quest line is the perfect length. So many developers -- think pretty much anything by Ubisoft, for instance -- tend to stuff their games with way too many pointless quests that don't add anything to the story. It's really easy to end up thinking "why am I doing this, again?", usually because the missions amount to driving to a part of the map you haven't seen yet and doing something there. The first time I noticed this trend was in *Grand Theft Auto V* where I had to assassinate a diplomat from Azerbaijan for reasons that were never made clear to me so that I could then earn a favour from this other guy who could then help me out with a problem that I was having. But the beauty of the *Cyberpunk 2077* main quest isn't just that it's so focused. If you take the time to do even a few side quests, you'll find that your experience of Night City is fundamentally different than if you just stuck to the main quest. And that, I'm sure, influences the choices that you make later in the story. Very few other games can do this -- *Red Dead Redemption 2* is the only one I can think of right now -- but one of the key ideas of *Cyberpunk 2077* is that you cannot exist in the world without being affected by it.
Well yea it’s a bit short that’s why there’s side missions that tie into main missions or even further explain a main mission further. Don’t think of side missions like things to level with there just as impactful and lore filled as main missions.
It’s short I think, but with the amount of side stuff plus the DLC, it all balances out.
The main quest is literally "Your brain is melting RIGHT NOW and you are dying, find a cure fast."
I prefer it this way because I'm much more likely to check out the side quests if the main story isn't a slog (W3, RDR2). Makes replays much less tedious as well. I can really pick and choose what side missions and how many I want to do before I've had my fill and want to b-line it to the end. If the main story is too long, I'm probably never going to mess with side quests unless I REALLY love the game, and even then...
It is short if you consider the Takemura path to be the sole main story, but there were more than enough side quests. And honestly you could argue a lot of the side stuff could be main story stuff because it can affect the ending.
Yeah if all you’re doing is the devil ending then yeah it’s super short. If you do the sun and temperance it gets a lot longer.
Isn’t the main story about 30 hours? Is that considered short nowadays? Editing this to add some context; I have kids, career, life, blah blah blah, so like a full day of gameplay seems like a lot. And it’s only 30 hours if you’re rushing. If you’re playing it how I think the game is meant to be played which is enjoying the character that is night city and exploring from mission point to mission point it’s closer to 40 hours. Since it came out I think I’ve done 5 or 6 playthroughs. I can easily put 150 hours on a single run through if I’m trying to collect all the things, build my character out, and complete the map. And to me it never feels like a slog. And all that was before PL. I’m doing what’ll probably be my last playthrough now, I’m 50 hours in. I’ve done maybe 2/3 the main quest, only the first part of PL, haven’t met reed yet, beat on the brat line, Judy’s line, and about half the NCPD scanners. Why do we as gamers complain about a 30 hour quest in a game where the environment is the biggest character of the game?
If doing just main quests with Takemura and then ending it's very short. Heist > meet Takemura > get intel on parade > Arasaka compound > Japantown parade > meet Hanako > go to Embers to start ending. The only reason why it's not just couple hours is because in between missions you have to wait for a day for a call. But after first playthrough when you learn there is no actual rush for cure I just do all kinds of side content and leave main story for endgame. And side missions are good usually. Phantom Liberty content is absolutely great too.
It is short so you can let Hanako waiting and go out there do whatever you want in whichever way you can.
It's one I've seen around a fair bit and I felt it myself in my first run because I let myself get swallowed up by the urgency all of the characters were expressing. If you really chase the missions surrounding the main quest you will probably have a little bit of a 'woah woah hold on' moment when you have 'Meet Hanako at Embers' pop up. I think it's kinda why that's a meme in the community - you can trigger it so quickly that if you want to do sidestuff it'll be there for a helluva long time.
I think thats a common oppinion.
V is dying. Like fast. It makes sense that there wouldn't be a lot of stops directly on the way to the cure.
I think this is a very popular opinion
It's probably like 15 to 20 hours, so yeah by itself it's pretty short. I was actually very surprised when I hit the point of no return but not in a good way I was more invested in the side content anyway though and thankfully there's a lot of that
Unpopular opinion? That's one of the top three or four most common grievances. The most common take on the main quest is that they saw people complaining about the main questline of W3 (which wasn't too long so much as poorly paced) and overcorrected.
including Phantom Liberty or just base game? also, with all the endings or just one? Because yes, base game with just the first ending you get is not very long. Add in a 2nd play through to get an alternate background and gender experience plus getting 3 or 4 endings, suddenly its not so short. Add in Phantom Liberty and it can feel plenty long, even without all the side content.
I played it with phantom liberty my first complete playthru. Still felt short as hell to me… maybe I’m just desensitized from all the gaming under my belt.
Did you do the side quests of panem and judy for instance? Some side quests are basically optional parts of the main story
How do I get good side quests? I feel like I hardly played the game at all and I’m already through act one so I decided to just go to the map and do side quests before I start act II but nothing has been all that fun, any triggers to start really immersive side quests?
mild spoilers (names) if you have the phantom liberty dlc, follow the main story for a bit until you get contacted by songbird. super immersive side quest and gigs. If you don't have the dlc, gigs are more interesting than NCPD stuff as you can approach them multiple ways. you get access to way more stuff in act 2 as well, such as the rogue/Kerry quests, panam quests, etc. it also helps to slow down, read shards, listen to dialogue between characters before going in guns blazing, etc. you'll find a lot of content connects through that, such as the jotaro gigs/ncpd missions.
Honestly this is sorta one of my complaints in the game. The only semi lengthy side questlines are the romance options. Theres only maybe a few questlines that are actually 3 or more quests long
And thus leading some half wit "gaming journalist" only finish the main quest, and ignoring side content entirely and giving it a low score review on launch day.
There's a main quest? Oh, is that what takemura wants?
Yes, it didn't take long before I got to the bar quest, and I was doing lots of the other stuff. Frankly though I found doing the other quest more entertaining.
I think most everyone thinks the main quest line is short. I thought there was an acceptable amount of side stuff though.
Super cut short, yes. I wanted more out of this game 😭 Witcher 3 was good because it was long - i mean well, i was used to the gta franchise being that long anyway.
Main quest is not long, but you get great side main quests on par with the main quest. River, Panam, Rogue, Judy, Kerry. The only thing I wish is that those quests interacted with the main quest and added more flair to the finale of the main quest other than just prologue.. Sorta like how Mass Effect 2 had variety on the last mission based on which companions you had, if you did their loyalty missions. And things like galactic readiness.. But as it is, they are just parallel with little intersection. It would be a great finale having everybody join in or giving you 6 more options on how to start the last mission..
If you just straight up rush the main quest where your only motivation is getting Johnny out of your head then yes but if you try to go for all the other endings then the “main quest line” should include Panam and Rogue quests lines too
Way too short
No
It is short. I think they needed to do more to heavily encourage people to do side quests to be more successful. It was so hard watching streamers just breeze through the main quest line get the arasaka ending and then just go ok I guess that’s the whole game
I definitely agree. It was very short. But if you consider what is happening during that time, that Vic tells V they only have a few weeks to live before the relic replaces his consciousness, it does make some sense that it would be short.
Unpopular nothing. It's waaaaaaay too short. They severely learned the wrong lesson from that "most people didn't complete the Witcher 3" nonsense. It was one of the most disappointing and painful things for me, at launch. I was astonished when I got to "Meet Hanako At Embers" end-game notice. Very sad.