Back to the game, and the show after giving up 3 times
I am a very big fan of Keanu Reaves, and the movie Matrix, so I am very attracted to the game (also watched bladerunner and the ghost in the shell, also enjoy shows like Altered Carbon). I love the future ai/robot themed story so much, therefore I purchased the game 2020, and started playing couple hours after it was released. It was good but the gaming system was so complex, and I had to go somewhere abroad for couple weeks. I found myself don't know how to play after weeks away from the game, so I gave it up my first time.
Did not open the game until edgerunner was released, then I tried it again. Watched a lot of youtubes like "1000 hours into Cyberpunk xxx" tho, watch a lot of skin or in-depth analysis video about backstories and the universe, (but not the main storyline, because I know if I get the spoiler, I will never play this game)
Finshed edgerunner series, fel in love the song, not the biggest fan of the way this anime was directed because it is a fast pace, limited volume anime, personally think 10 eps are a bit limited to describe the universe. However, SANDEVISTAN still brought me back to the game. Installed a lot of mods, spent like 10+ hours to research mods I should install for the game, but somehow I only made it through chapter 1, and gave up on one of the story in chapter 2.
Then Phantom Liberty happened.
Watched more trailers, back story, gameplay blablabla.
Pre-purchased it before it was released, thinking about getting back to it, but never made it to the action.
2026/07 decided to uninstall League of Legends, and review my stash in steam, and have decided to give it another try, but this time, I made it through chapter, level 55 now, iconic cyberware rare++ w/e. It is so fun, to jump/fly in this world, taking metro, fast travel, even sleeping in my apartment or playing pool in it are enjoyable, this time, I think I will make it to the end, in both main game and DLC.
Idk what's changed, but I felt this universe are gigantic, where you need to invest enormous amount of efforts to understand a tiny bit of it. For example, when Daivd's mother passed away, I was thinking, "okay that is sad, but they were unlucky, that is all" But it hits me differently when I saw this plot related his mother's death https://www.youtube.com/shorts/z8HL_gzOeAo . Edgerunner is good on its own, and so is Cyberpunk 2077, but the short story line makes me feel not enough to build the emotional impact, I really started to understand the whole world after 3 retries of game, and 2 retries of the show (yes I gave up the show once, since I forced my wife to watch it with me, and apparently it is not that attracting if you are not a game fan)
I want to recommend this game to a friend (who played Hellsdiver with me, and loves Baulder's Gate 3), and I hope he will enjoy the game as much as me now. I am thinking to recommend him to finish chapter 1 in the game, so he can learn the night city basics (for example, cyberware, rippledoc, some gangs story, brain dance , kill some Cyberpsychosis, etc.), live in H10 for couple days (which looks extremely siumilar to H4 where David lived), then watch the show, hear the song "I Really Want to Stay At Your House", cry couple times then comeback to finish the rest of the story. What do you think the idea, or if you have any similar or opposite experience of mine, would like to hear you to share yours.