I'm about 16.5 hours in to the game, and not to sound contrarian, but there is an excellent game here. It's still early, but honestly this might be my favourite game this year. It's up against Hades for the title (as always, assuming Persona 5 Royal doesn't count).
I've hit a fair few minor graphical glitches and a couple technical ones (guys getting stuck in walls once, my gun wouldn't stop firing another), but nothing serious. I don't know if I'm lucky or if it is more a byproduct of playing a little slower and having hotfixes come down at the right time. I recall having many more problems with Skyrim and Fallout 4 back in the day, even this early in the game. Maybe Bethesda built up my tolerance a little.
The story line is interesting, the characters are engaging, the game play is fun. The driving sucks on mouse and keyboard (not exactly a surprise)....and the performance optimization needs work.
Now CDPR deserves plenty of flak for their dishonesty (including the features of the game that were advertised but cut out), but there's a gem at the heart of this game IMO and it deserves plenty of praise as well.
Edit: Apologies for the absolute essay, started by wanting to talk about your take, ended up writing a full on review of the game pre- completion of the story.
Not sure if I can give it similar praise to the extent that I'd have it as GotY over Hades given its troubled release and how some people at CDPR knew it wasn't ready but pushed the release anyway while hiding gameplay on last gen consoles.
However, at 23 hours on a base Ps4 where I really just got the game expecting it to be completely unplayable and would just wait for the big updates in the next two months, I mostly agree. The core and heart of the game and its story is terrific in my view. The main plot is terrifically engaging and presented with more humanity and heart than you see in most games. However it bums me out that life paths didn't have more of an impact on the wider gameplay aside from a few unique dialogue options.
Also it's not a big deal but my expectation for the story was watching V form a merc crew that would take on increasingly more difficult and prestigious jobs and heists on V's way to becoming a Night City legend. And it's not like the protagonist's rising reputation is ignored but it seems like what I was expecting more or less got subverted in Act 1. I like what it was replaced with but idk, it is just the slightest disappointment.
I'll also say that Night City, while kinda ugly on last gen, and not nearly as explorable and intractable as they made it seem like it would be, is a very well designed and executed concept that you can still feel immersed in. End of the day I'd rather explore a new and vibrantly designed game world inspired from the Blade Runner universe than a caricature version of a place I already knew and grew up in (Los Angeles/Los Santos). However I do wish there was more reason to explore these areas than random gigs and NCPD gang battle opportunities but other praised open worlds had similar problems so I'm not gonna be too upset over something that no open world game has accomplished yet.
I'll also say that generally the game is fun to play too. I enjoy playing through the missions (I'm often surprised at how well thought out and prepared many of the story missions end up being) and even stopping when I see an opportunity for a random gunfight against gangs for some loot but that's really more under the context of knowing V's rep as a mercenary is rising as I go along and the guns can feel satisfying to shoot. Beyond that it's true that the enemy AI is pretty busted and since stealth can be so easily failed I stopped trying to utilize quick hacks and stealth except where necessary. Though I'll say the updates fixed the ridiculous cop spawns somewhat and they're easier to fight off and survive now.
But there's still more problems than that. On one hand, driving is still terrible and it really shows off how bad the physics are when you can drive a motorcycle under a car without so much as a scratch or accidentally fly off two stories worth of a drop off an overpass on a motorcycle and land just bouncing like nothing happened. I also find it incredibly cumbersome trying to sell loot but I already mentioned that. The skill tree feels a bit half baked with only a small handful of skills and cyberwear actually feeling like they make a noticeable impact (double jump while expensive is a game changer though). And while narratively I completely understand and respect the decision to force the game into V's first person perspective, I do wish there were more opportunities to see V rather than the inventory menu, being on a motorcycle or initiating a dedicated mirror animation. I hope that in time they can figure out how to have reflections on windows because otherwise I don't really see the point in having so many uniquely designed clothing options and a character customizer. For most of the game V is a pair of eyes for you, a set of arms, and a voice.
All in all this is a very good game with a number of problems. Some problems that may never get fixed or changed. But I can say that about The Witcher 3 and I consider that game a masterpiece and my favorite game of all time. What Cyberpunk is, is a game that in my book, when all fixes are done may at best match Witcher 3's greatness but I think what was promised and eventually scaled back prevented this game from growing and evolving beyond what they'd already done so I don't see it as ever possibly surpassing TW3 unless they have some story expansions that blow everyone away. Cyberpunk meets the bar in terms of storytelling and having an aesthetically pleasing game world, but neither of these aspects surpass TW3. The story is debatably not even as good as TW3's though I haven't seen how it plays out yet. And Night City, while nice to look at and play around in, doesn't take my breath away anymore than the mountain islands of Skellige, or the immaculately designed cityscapes of Novigrad and Oxenfurt, or the serene, almost fairy tale like lands of Touissant. If anything I think TW3 had more dynamic and diverse settings to play around in, though I understand Night City is very much a Blade Runner-esque allegory and criticism of corporate expansion.
All in all, if I were to ignore the game's performance and core problems I could see why it received high review scores. But unless the last half of the game really blows me away with its story, I'd struggle to say it's greater than TW3.
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