Happy new year everyone. All I've done since last time is just play more 2077. Here are some more thoughts I've gathered. I need to dump them somewhere because my brain is just swarming with them and I don't have a podcast.
If you want screenshots and my initial thoughts you obviously go read my game Beaten post about it.
Obviously, if you still haven't finished the game and don't wanna get spoiled, you should leave now.
I did a playthrough of the 1.00 version on PS4 Pro and recorded all of it. It's pretty rough but interesting nonetheless. Check the playlist here or just the highlights. To be honest, I recommend just going for the highlights.
I'm in the middle of my 4th playthrough right now. This time playing it on PC to see what that's like. It's pretty good but it's really mean to your GPU if you want it to look great. I don't wanna upgrade my GPU just for one game, but if it's gonna be any game, it's this one.
I love all the characters in this game (except one that I can think of right now). I think that's why I am so hooked on it. Panam was my first favorite, but now I'm feeling like it's Rogue. I love Alt too, mostly because it's so sad what happened to her. Obviously I love Johnny too and I very often crack up at what he's saying. Not often I do that in a game.
One of my absolute favorite moments in this game is the Never Fade Away flashback with Johnny when you storm Arasaka to save Alt. You're in an elevator, Rogue leans on the back wall looking mean as hell, and then this music starts fading in. And then you go in and one shot every guard in there. It's so awesome, the music vibes so well. I get chills every time I do that mission.
My second favorite moment is the diving mission you do with Judy. It's really sweet and beautiful. Judy humms a song and then you go underneath the water and the actual song starts playing. It's amazing.
My third favorite moment is probably when you go to the movies with Rogue. She's so happy to finally get to do it.
I still don't like Jackie. Every playthrough I've done I basically rush the first act to get rid of him as soon as possible.
The endings are kind of lame. As I see it, there is one happy one (you escape with Panam), and all the other ones are depressing in someway. Some of them are just plain sad. I kinda prefer the Path of Glory ending though, it's epic. But if we go by heart, yeah, I prefer the Panam ending.
I read someone on Reddit say the story is too short. And y'know what? He's right. It is kind of short. But it flows really well I think. There's no filler, every quest progresses the story. I do look forward to DLC filling in the missing pieces though. I'd love entire DLC's for more Judy missions, more Panam missions, more Alt flashbacks, more Johnny flashbacks, etc. There is a lot of potential.
I did a playthrough as Male V to romance Panam, and I gotta say, it was not at all what I was expecting lmao.
On my current (4th) playthrough, I managed to have a romance with Meredith Stout too. I had no idea that was even possible, but it was and it was very funny, and my strongest weapon is now a vibrator.
I really prefer Female V's voice actor over Male V's. I highly recommend going Female. Male isn't bad but he's just kinda badass sounding. Female has soul.
Braindances are a lot smoother on PC. There is no loading going in and out of them. Hopefully next-gen console patches will remove that too. Probably won't be necessary.
I love all the words they use in this world, like Choomba and Gonk. So cute.
Wrapping up this post, I just wanna say I still absolutely love this game. It's a technical mess but if you can look past that (I honestly kinda love the strange bugs and will be kinda sad when they're patched out), I really think it's one of my favorite games of all time. Apart from games I've speedran, I don't know how many games I've spent this much time on.
There's just something special about it and I can't put my finger on it. It's the connection and story with Johnny, the city, how fun the missions are, the characters, the soundtrack, the voice acting... it just combines into this beautiful game that I enjoy every aspect of.
As I (think I) said in my original post: apart from the technical mess, I really don't have anything to complain about.
It's like my favorite game of all time as of right now.
Unless something unexpected happens in 2021, I plan on giving it my GOTY for 2021. Easily. I think it's more fair too since it'll (hopefully) have gotten more patches and maybe the next-gen updates. Giving a game that comes out in December the GOTY for the same year doesn't really feel right because of recency bias.
Anyway, I'mma go play more now. Later chooms.