The fact that I predicted this would be a disappointing trainwreck before it even came out once they started delaying it by, like 6 days in a clear mad dash to rush it out before the quarter deadline was up is still one of my proudest achievements in gaming tbh. Yet, the reason this game sucks has virtually nothing to do with the glitches at all. Sure it's annoying when your mission softlocks, combat just straight-up doesn't work, or your screen irreparably gets layered in unsightly visual hiccups - but tons of games that come out these days are broken, buggy messes on launch that just get patched later on so it's nothing you haven't seen before. No, the reason taking two months to 100% this hog was one of the most soul-crushing experiences of my life is honestly because of how deliberately un-fun this all is. The missions are laborious to pad out length, the side content is repetitive, the much-hyped free DLC is paltry, the overworld is bland as can be, the menus are unreadable when they even operate to begin with, the choices don't matter, and even after all the supposed quality-of-life updates it's still a barely functioning mess.
But the story is its biggest sore spot, I think - because in fits and starts there is a ton of potential here. This is CDPR after all, so there are rock-solid characters (Judy Alvarez, Takemura, and Keanu's charisma-machine Johnny Silverhand are standouts) and moments of poignancy which I was just craving to be in a better game because it's all promptly undercut by the butt-ugly modernization of it. This was originally intended as something darker and more intriguing, but ended up being another drab GTA clone instead. Serious Dead Island storytelling going on here too which I hate - i.e. "do this thing to have x happen, uh oh... x didn't happen after all so that mission was totally worthless. Well here, do this and maybe y will happen, uh oh... y didn't happen after all so that mission was totally worthless. Well here, do..." rinse and repeat. So you never actually believe this already thin story is going anywhere. Plus every ending is a total dud. Just miserable even if it did play correctly, which it doesn't.
But the story is its biggest sore spot, I think - because in fits and starts there is a ton of potential here. This is CDPR after all, so there are rock-solid characters (Judy Alvarez, Takemura, and Keanu's charisma-machine Johnny Silverhand are standouts) and moments of poignancy which I was just craving to be in a better game because it's all promptly undercut by the butt-ugly modernization of it. This was originally intended as something darker and more intriguing, but ended up being another drab GTA clone instead. Serious Dead Island storytelling going on here too which I hate - i.e. "do this thing to have x happen, uh oh... x didn't happen after all so that mission was totally worthless. Well here, do this and maybe y will happen, uh oh... y didn't happen after all so that mission was totally worthless. Well here, do..." rinse and repeat. So you never actually believe this already thin story is going anywhere. Plus every ending is a total dud. Just miserable even if it did play correctly, which it doesn't.