Cyberpunk 2077

Went with the Panam ending - felt right. As much as I love it, Night City was nothing but misery - Jackie, Evelyn - and meeting Panam was one of the few good things to come out of it (love Panam). There were moments when, amongst all the gigs and cool stuff, that I had to wonder if there was anyone who was actually a friend, or just people I did work/killed people for. Leaving it all behind instead of ending up like one of the sad old fixer fucks playing the game until the day I die is the way to go

I didn't finish the Johnny questline stuff (didn't go on the date with Rogue) because I just felt like he was up to something with Rogue to manipulate me into becoming Johnny (doing Johnny stuff, taking the pills) and taking my body. Her randomly giving me the replica of his jacket was just too weird. Never trusted Johnny - not sure I ever really liked him. All said, I did feel sad at the end when he left. The thought of V living on without him just feels strange and lonely. I guess it's difficult not to grow attached to someone literally living in your head, even if he was a massive douche (and honestly just thought he was quite sad)

Like him or not, I did enjoy interacting with him and the game is just something else

Don't think I'll do a proper review in that other thread because I've just got too many thoughts and the more time passes since finishing it, the more I'm thinking about it all

How conditional is the ending? Is it purely a binary choice at the end or do your actions alter whether or not your body is more V or Johnny at the end? There were several moments where the screen did a... thing when I did something that made me think something like that was going on. It happens when you put on Johnny's jacket or play the guitar in one of your apartments. It also happened when I sat down to talk to Panam towards the end (so took that as pushing me more towards V). Either way, with the Panam ending, it sounds like there's some hope anyway

For Phantom Liberty, I sided with Songbird all the way - no question. Even though she did lie to me, she still felt like one of the more genuine characters in the game and felt very similar to V in that she just wanted to survive and be free. If V couldn't, at least she could help So Mi to. Also, Myers and Reed can get to fuck. I was never even part of the NUSA to begin with. Didn't take the oath, don't care about it. Alex was cool though (her taking out Hansen was incredible)

Didn't bother with any hacking stuff (left Int at 3) as it seems like something fun to save for a future playthrough and I was just in the mood for something with a bit of action. Did a lot of killing but they were all bad people. The guns and various abilities felt great and there wasn't a second of the time (almost exactly 150 hours) I spent playing the game I didn't enjoy. Even at the end, I wasn't ready for it to be over and it felt nothing like being well over 100 hours. It just flew by. Even the gigs are interesting and I never felt like I was doing something I didn't actively want to be

I've heard people complaining that the city isn't very interactive and, while I do normally enjoy exploration a lot, I felt it worked to the benefit of the game here. It was really quite freeing. I didn't feel like I needed to explore every corner, try and talk to or listen to every NPC I came across, look in every bin or random box for stuff or try every door. I could just enjoy the game. It made the world feel so much more immersive and convincing for me. Night City doesn't exist as a playground that revolves around you, you just inhabit it. I'm going to miss just commuting around the city listening to 98.7 Body Heat Radio hoping my favourite songs start playing

There were so many times in the game where it felt like they went so much further than they needed to. So many little details that you barely notice - like people at camps strumming on guitars, but they're playing songs you hear on the radio. Little call backs here and there (Panam mentioning Jackie briefly in a conversation during one of your car journeys because you talked about him earlier). It's insane and amazing

I don't think I regret any of my decisions. I might not have always liked how things turned out but I'm happy with my choices at the time and it just doesn't feel like a world of happy endings or clear good/bad boundaries. The writing is good enough that even if things go bad, it's still interesting. Evelyn fucked me up a bit though - still think about it. I really wish there was more to that (I'm sure Phantom Liberty mentioned dealing with the people who hired her in some way but I don't remember anything coming of that). It's one of those things where I just keep thinking 'if only I'd done something different', but it's just how it is. That scene where you try to comfort her on the bed and she flinches from your touch. Makes me sad. Not gonna lie, it kind of made me not want to be around Judy anymore. Too depressing. Felt like a world away by the end

Guess I'll shut up now anyway as I'm just rambling. But I want to talk about eeeeeeverything

Yeah, there were definitely moments with Johnny but I couldn't shake the feeling he was playing me. The paranoia was fucking real, let me tell you. I couldn't play it for a while because I really didn't know how to proceed (had to fight with wanting to see what happend in that questline/do more stuff in the game vs not wanting to be made a fool of/lose to Johnny/hate myself later)

I think that's just a testament to how amazingly realised the seedy world is. He lost me when he took control over my body that first time I think. Not sure if he slept with Rogue or not then but if he did, that's so gross - using my body like a doll. Not cool, Johnny. Not at all

He comes good right at the end so maybe playing through again (without the distrust and paranoia) I might feel differently towards him. Well played by CDPR for making me genuinely uncomfortable with whether I should trust a character or not though

Compltely agree with your last point; there are even key characters who meet their end by the hands of someone other than V (Dex and Hansen spring to mind), which gave them agency and made it all feel bigger than you. I wouldn't want to mess with Alex, so I'm glad she was cool about everything in the end

as much as I love the game, many decisions are ultimately decided by a single option. In some ways there's a lot of smoke and mirrors making the player agency seem greater than it is - but generally events up to a critical decision won't impact on the event. So often those big choices are fairly binary - that may be disappointing but I'm comfortable with that because it's done extremely well.

So whether Alex kills Hansen, or vice-versa, is scripted depending on whether you betray Songbird or Sol. That's it. Any decisions prior to that wont impact that event... But the game does a very good job at flowing things together seamlessly so it feels natural.

Additionally I've definitely seen some dialogue and line deliveries change based on other actions, which helps with the illusion that choices are less binary. So maybe it is smoke and mirrors, but when it's done that well, does it matter (especially when it's hardly the only RPG that handles things in that way)?

There's also just enough callbacks to make you think "oh wow, if I'd done x then y wouldn't happen" - those moments are ultimately quite minor but again, the cleverness is in the illusion it creates, and those moments are used in such a way to really feel important. It's quite masterful.