A fair review
Nice to see this review at a time when the rest of the internet is using Cyberpunk as a meme or demanding refunds after 50hrs+ of game playtime. Another prominent web (and print) publication put out a review from someone who criticized the story but obviously didn't make it through Act 2. It's easy to hate the characters in this game when you haven't even met half of them.
I too was heartbroken early in the game when much of what we've come to expect from an open world game was missing. CDPR seems to have taken an engine AI designed for horses and a few NPC's and attempted to expand it to Tokyo-sized scale, with 150mph hotrods replacing the horses. After playing though all endings and then continuing to play, however, I've started to ignore the issues and just enjoy the excellent story. And the story truly is excellent... those who discount it are missing the callouts to the hardships of terminal illnesses or the difficulties we all face when having to choose between our friends, our families, or ourselves.
I think the amount of bugs are proportional to the amount of destruction you cause in the open world. As someone who likes to stay quiet, the NPC's rarely deviated from their pre-programmed patrols and I enjoyed a mostly bug-free playthrough. In a world with what seems like perpetual item persistence however, that gun you don't pick up in the middle of the street after a brawl with the police may become a literal launchpad for future AI traffic. I'm sure these things will be patched, in time.
My largest gripe about the game that likely won't be patched is the sidequest system. With a half-dozen fixers, an obvious method to dealing with sidequests would be meeting each of these fixers to formally introduce yourself. Unfortunately, we're bombarded with phone calls and text messages early in the game, along with the dozens of "points of interest" that follow them. The Witcher 3 was great in its use of the "bulletin board" system to promote exploration, and it's unfortunate that isn't replicated in some way here.
Even though I told myself I would play through the "main character" sidequests and main story and then set the game aside to wait for patches, here I am, continuing to grind past 100hrs. I'm finding more main characters that I didn't know existed, along with excellent, Witcher-style sidequests that are linked to them. I've been on hour-long calls with friends comparing notes, realizing the sheer number of twists and turns that exist in this game if one decides to make different choices during a second playthrough. And as for those taxi quests... you may or may not be rewarded for them in the future!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
