Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Acknowledges Linear Story Criticism, Says It's 'Justified'

Honestly I got bored with the game. I had it on PS4 and lived with the ridiculous bugs for awhile, then got a refund. Purchased it at 50% for PS5 and played it for a little while but just lost interest. It's a game I really should like and be playing more, but it never draws me back in.

They might as well conclude the game with this:

"cyberpunk protagonist, age 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the events of the game. he is now serving a life sentence."

if you don't get the joke, https://youtu.be/u61F_qvdid0

@HotGoomba
I just watched that video again last night, I kid you not.

Players do expect a lot from any title and impose their hopes and wishes for what they want a game to be. However they marketed, courted and heavily implied 2077 as this massive RPG non-linear playground and failed to deliver on a lot of these claims, so I feel he's being a little disingenuous placing all the blame on "player expectations".

Dude, ***** him, honestly. People expected more because of the game play demo that was complete BS. None of the missions EVER felt like the demo that was shown to us except the one we got to play from THAT demo. I wouldn't have cared nor anyone else would if they didn't keep lying here.

He admitted it was linear yet justified every linearity saying that it wasn't actually as linear as people thought. He is trying to pander to the critics of the game without actually admitting the game's flaws which extremely disingenuous and condescending.

95% of your choices lead to the same result and except for the ending a great majority of them don't matter at all and barely change your experience.

@Nepp67 I’m not sure what you think you’re achieving here. A developer is directly acknowledging feedback, yet you still feel the need to be combatant. 🙈

@Pat_trick Your experience and perception of the game don’t have to match his. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong or that he’s telling you that you’re wrong. Creators have just as much right to interpret the art they create as anyone else. I imagine you have the capacity to disagree in a civil manner without making it personal.

@fromjtov Your perception of civil and non personal is different from mine. I imagine you have the capacity to understand that.

I dont mind if its linear tbh. Both if the latest deus ex games were linear albeit with alternative routes through the missions but all ended at the same destination and they were great games. I'm currently playing cyberpunk and its a great game despite all the controvesy surrounding it. If i had a base ps4 i would have felt a bit hard done by but i dont and its really good on the ps5.

Most non-linear games just offer short lived story that branches at the last stretch of a game, neglecting mostly everything that happened before. Usually this ends in very unsatisfying results, where a more linear game can really nail these story beats.

So unless you have a sophisticated ai good enough to procedurally generate a plot, gameplay scenarios, animation and voice acting according to player action, it is unrealistic expectations, even if you were fooled by advertising.

I'm just glad the game forgoes the amnesia ridden silent protagonist. Definitely my least favourite and super lazy RPG trope.

Joke if a game. I still can’t believe the claims that were made by CDPR on the road to release. It seemed they had a mini-event nearly every week to showcase something. What a disappointment. I feel so sorry for the devs

@fromjtov How about, "We lied to you and we are sorry about the promises we made" about the game and not trying to walk around it. It's every single time with these developers. "Players expected more because of Witcher 3" It wasn't because of Witcher 3 it was because of what they said the game was going to be and advertised as such. World changing decisions, dynamic events, "Most believable city to date." If they had said, "This game will be linear and not have choice making, we want to tell a story with this specific character" Nobody would've minded cause at least they'd be honest and transparent about it.

@tameshiyaku Get blocked then

There was definitely an expectation after The Witcher 3 and the game itself certainly tries to create the Illusion of choice very early on and I seem to remember them exaggerating the different life paths in the game. Ultimately this was the most disappointing aspect of the game, even though I still very much enjoyed it but I wish the life paths and your own decisions had a greater effect overall. I also think the game does a poor job in really highlighting your character customisation abilities which can be great fun

Did not play witcher 3 as I don't like medieval settings. CP was far below my expectations because the game was not what was promised. Regardless of what starting point used all you got was optional dialogue related to that route that didn't change anything. Once you complete the game there's absolutely nothing to do. It's a dead city with no events or enemy spawns. They really f'd up and for some reason people keep trying to defend them.

😂 this crowd can't handle when mistakes were made and can't acknowledge apologies (which happened) and more important can't acknowledge steps of making up. So yes, childish behaviour through and through. I'm always baffled how the gaming community copes with everyday life. While gaming is a hobby of mine, this "community" does not deserve nice things.

Nice things? I was sold a lie and now I'm not allowed to be upset/annoyed because they apologized? In everyday life it's reasoning like yours that has ensured we keep getting ***** politicians for a century without outcry for legislation to be changed that penalizes them on their *****. The world has had enough of defeatist servitude mentality.

I expected a more complete finished product(nevermind linear)when originally played it on PS4 on original release date. There are so many games that got both versions of their titles running on both PS4 and PS5 perfectly fine. The PS4 and XONE was money they didn't want to lose so released it anyways completely unfinished and riddled with some of the most ugliest buggy graphical glitches ever and they clearly knew all this. Yh I know the PS5 version is an improvement but that's took about 2 years after release to improve and the PS4 and XONE versions are still turds

...Really not a fan of all the non linear business. All that makes me do is stop the game and look up the "best" solution (the one with the best rewards in terms of gameplay, mostly).

In other words just an additional hassle for me, but maybe I'm alone in that.

This whole player expectation excuse CDPR, and the media is pushing on their behalf is bonkers. Completely disconnected from reality. Along with the idea that this game only released in a terrible technical state..

These weren't expectations based on hype. These were features that were told was in the game via CDPR over the course of months and months of deception via their corny showcases.

They not only lied, but released the game unfinished. Had it ran perfectly on launch day it still would have been unfinished and clearly so just as it still is today. Linearity are the least of this games shortcomings and are really only a biprodict of releasing an unfinished title and doing so having lied about it all the way up to release for a massive short term profit gain.

It's great that some want to forgive, or make excuses but to attempt to gaslight and rewrite history to fit your delusions is just sad.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika I like linear games aswell I think what they were really talking about here was how your actions in the game don't really effect the story much

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika me too I like games that have alternate endings like resident evil revelations 2

The game just needed more quality story content both in side and main missions.

@z0d15g0d well go ahead, fight the power by beating a dead horse on a gaming comment section.
How silly of me, I work in a social field both paid and unpaid and am politically active, but man, I sure do belong to the sheeples for not eternally ranting about a botched game release.

@tameshiyaku Thought it was obvious from my earlier comment that not everyone should be in politics. This is far from a dead horse because all comments on this page are because of said horse and it's impending dlc.

I waited for the next gen update andwas enjoying the game up until you realize the situation V is in. I did a few more missions and side things then quit. It made no sense that the protagonist would be doing random quest given their condition. The logical side of me just couldn't get with that choice.

@Nepp67 Your feedback isn't without merit. It's actually quite reasonable. I just don't think him wording his acknowledgment any differently would change anything about the situation. It's better than what we get from 99% of developers when something doesn't measure up to the expectations that were set. Instead of only knocking down what we see as not good enough, perhaps we should celebrate the progress with equal measure.

@Pat_trick The only part of your response that felt personal was you referring to the statement as "extremely disingenuous and condescending." That's your perception. However, what is your context? Do you know him or his motivations? What do you stand to gain from vilifying his comments?

As I see it, a developer is openly acknowledging feedback and shortcomings. That acknowledgment and understanding isn't stagnant. It will continue to grow and develop over time.

CD Projekt Red has repeatedly apologized to players since Cyberpunk's launch. If it's never enough, perhaps we don't deserve the acknowledgment in the first place. The incessant focus on negatives without any appreciation for positives is why the matter of civility even came up in the first place.

Why players believe they deserve the world when they're so ready to trash developers for even minor missteps is beyond me. I respect your feedback, but I don't believe it's productive to accuse anyone of being disingenuous or condescending when you don't have concrete evidence to suggest that's the case.

@tameshiyaku 100% agree with you. Cyberpunk was a bit of a joke upon launch but its devs have worked hard to ensure its somewhere near what it should have been. I would have expected people to have moved on by now but this game is forever going to be sullied in the comments section by the same people over and over. I'm really enjoying the game and i applaude the devs for continuing to try and improve the game further. Massive mistakes were made,porky pies were told but i think lessons were learned along the way.

@fromjtov 👍

Nothing wrong with Cyberpunks story or how it's linear. Story was my favourite aspect of the game.

I loved the story of the game myself. There are some really fantastic side quests throughout the game that felt like they could play out very differently depending on choice. I've only played through it once though so I guess I can't really judge how much choice was just an illusion yet. Next time I start a game in it though I plan to be a ruthless Corpo though so I'm looking forward to that!

Eh, this is just a brow beaten developer cowing to the raucous gaming audience.

Choices mattered and effected end game options. Entire quest threads could be ignored, further affecting those end game options.

@Nepp67 I absolutely agree with you sir! But yet still won't take full blame. Every thing they got for lieing to every one they deserved the fines the lawsuits the money they had to pay out and the mouth they got from the gaming community all deserved. It's like Ford showing you a mustang but when you go picked it up it's a escourt instead just to get your money. This has happened alot during e3 over the years. Alot of game studios pulled the bait and switch. The game be nothing like what was shown and I'm not talking about the cgi trailers that people dident understand was just a opening scene . I'm talking about the game play of a game. Sony is guilty of it as well I remeber at one e3 the promissed the ps2 was going to have Toy story 2 like graphics. This is the main reason I do not miss e3 all it ever was for the youth and the straight nerds to get hard on looking at half naked chick's and blow their minds with bs hype on a game to the point they would go out that same day and pre-order this garbage. It was for the weak minded to be tooken advantage of.

I tried the game recently but ended up dropping it very shortly, it didn't click with me.

I will say I expected very little of the different backgrounds and the Corpo intro provided less than little.