From a Patreon post back in July I had not read until today (this excerpt was preceded by 15 more paragraphs outlining what to expect in the future): Just . . . don't expect any of that from The Action Button Season One Finale: Action Button Reviews Cyberpunk 2077, a video that has provided me roughly sixteen lmaoaneurysms per hour of editing work. When I first started this series I wanted the videos to possess the beefy texture of old floppy glossy magazines. For this season finale I drilled down on that "magazine concept" like my name was Hori Taizo. I figured, there's no better way to pave the path for a new style than by grinding the old style into a fine spreadable powder. So oh baby: I haven't wheeled "apotheosis" out of the wordshed or scare quotes in literally fifteen years, though dude, I probably am gonna hafta do it for the announcement post of this god-forsaken video presentation. I figure that in this life, you either go out with a bang or you die with intact eardrums. In the words of Johnny Silverhand as pronounced by Keanu Reeves, "I'm here to say goodbye [to big long horribly wild videos, and hello to much different ones]! Sorry, in hindsight, I probably chose the worst video imaginable to share with y'all...Expect videos you can confidently send to a friend who has never played a video game before, and receive a text later informing you that they actually watched all of it.
OK, see now that helps. This changes the context from "Unaware youtuber generating low-effort low-value stream-of-conscious nonsense interminably" (of which there are thousands others) to "Fully-aware artist intentionally creating interminable review as expression of their regard for the game being reviewed". Which elevates the entire thing a lot. So that's cool. I'm not gonna watch it though, cos its 10 hours and I get the sense that most of the message is "Hey this thing is 10 hours long!!!!", which you can get without having to actually watch it. I haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 yet, but the fact someone created a 10 hour saga about it is making me want to...
My wife pointed out years ago that there are movies that I think are good that are good, and there are movies that I think are good because they perfectly align with my lived experience. River's Edge is an okay movie but it's a goddamn masterpiece if you were smarter than your burnout friends who committed crimes for fun and Ione Skye is your platonic ideal of womanhood. Cyberpunk 2077 is certainly the latter for me. But it's also what Witcher 3 would have been if everyone who worked on it had been waiting 30 years to show everyone how awesome these little-noticed Polish novels that got them all into game development in the first place are. If you haven't played Witcher 3, play Witcher 3. It's not at all essential but it's also an acknowledged masterpiece. The only reason I bring it up is that Cyberpunk 2077s basic mechanics and gameplay are Witcher 3's, perfected. Yet the former is a masterpiece while the latter is a cautionary tale. Reviewers hated Empire Strikes Back, too.
Here's the thing, though. It prompted me to download some hot patches. I played through once, did everything right, did everything according to everything video games have ever taught me, and ended up with the BLEAK ending (you know the one). And that caused some real soul-searching. So I played through again, went a little more rogueish, got bogged down in errands and shifted my focus to something else rather than do the raid on Nakatomi Plaza or whatever. But I mean... this game wanted 24GB worth of patches before I could play it through again, which is my intent. The universe rallied around Cyberpunk and declared it an abject failure, an utter disappointment from the hottest, most promising studio in games and moved the fuck on. But it's sublime. It's a towering achievement. It is every bit as pure and shining an accomplishment as Blade Runner, for the exact same reasons only more. Maybe that's a sign you're getting old. All the games you wanted when you were a kid but there was absolutely no way you could code them? They're AAA now. Cyberpunk? I can smell the clubs, man. I have those tumblers. They didn't use Massive Attack's Teardrop, they ripped it off exactly how they should have. I'ma play through it again and that's entirely because some dude I've never heard of decided the only appropriate way to review the thing was to spend ten goddamn hours doing it. He's absolutely goddamn right - video game reviews suck universally. The style is terrible. Youtube style is terrible. Reviews longer than a speedrun? ...probably not a style that can persist? but I'm glad he did it once, and he did it about exactly the right game. We're gonna talk once I've finished this playthrough. 'cuz Cyberpunk 2077 is worthy of note, I don't care who you are. You tried Horizon Zero Dawn yet? Or does that not exist on any of your platforms? 'cuz Cyberpunk 2077 is a faithful homage to a genre of literature and gameplay that existed from 1983-1992, bleakness and all... but HZD is its hopeful, beautiful, optimistic little sister.
I pretty much 100%-ed the game on my first playthrough and just started up a new one. A "positive" side effect of this Moment we've been living through the past two years is that my memory has gotten worse, I've forgotten enough of the minor plot points and side stories that it feels fresh again. Really looking forward to talking about it more. Horizon Zero Dawn is at the top of my Steam wishlist, just waiting for a sale to pick it up. I love Girlfriend Review so much, their Nier Automata review has convinced at least one friend to actually play it which feels like a huge win for a Yoko Taro game.
I presume you got to the B route then? Yeah, wasn't a big fan of the hacking mini game but I've played a lot of bullet hells so maybe it didn't bother me as much. Except for some boss fights they're basically recycling the same 4 or 5 templates so once you "solve" them you just do the same thing every time. I did every side quest I could during route A so my route B was pretty quick. Figuring out and manually setting up your chip configuration can also make you disgustingly Cyberpunk-level overpowered. What I really like is how the game manages to explore the themes of purpose, meaning and free will almost in isolation since the setting is so far into the future and so devoid of humans that it manages to slip out of the post-apocalyptic setting into something new. The common criticism of many open world games feeling mostly "lifeless" becomes an asset supporting the theme, while still giving you a sense of awe when you explore it and meet its inhabitants. I haven't read nearly enough science fiction to call it unique, but it felt fresh in a video game. I loved the musical score and the aesthetic, and as someone who struggled my way through Drakengard and the original Nier it is SO much better from a gameplay perspective once they brought in PlatinumGames its not even funny.