The Good.
- Mr Hands: he's arguably the most enjoyable addition to this DLC, his fixer storyline is definitely a lot of fun and leads to one of the best side missions for me personally, where you get to play "Aguilar"
-The endings to the DLC are very impactful and can feel almost as weighty as the endings to the main story. In part, this is because one of the DLC endings also acts as a separate conclusion to the entire game, replacing "meet hanako in embers", and if you liked the bittersweet nature of the Temperance ending, you'll love this.
- Dogtown is a cool area to wreak havoc in, in part due to the atmosphere of the area- great work nailing this, CDPR. From the moment you see the barriers in and out of dogtown, you can feel the atmosphere of this section of the city where martial law rules. Honestly it serves to just make pacifica cooler because "barren section of the city" is okay, but "barren section of the city with a walled off district inside it" is cooler. Ah wait maybe I just like dogtown because it reminds me ever so slightly of the atmosphere of Arkham City.
The issues are with what leads up to the endings of the DLC. The writing.
The issues: investment into the story
-A DLC that was sold as a spy thriller in the cyberpunk world. And sure, it is exactly that, but personally I feel like it didn't have very strong writing in that regard. It feels out of place for the character's story- which everybody mentions- and ultimately just feels like a series of fun missions with V moonlighting as a spy.
- I played it in one sitting, but playing it between other missions must make this feel even more jarring
- I felt like I had no reason to be invested in the characters in this, other than Songbird. I really wanted Idris Elba's character to be more interesting- the actor does well at playing him, but I wasn't so invested.
- Mr Hands: he's arguably the most enjoyable addition to this DLC, his fixer storyline is definitely a lot of fun and leads to one of the best side missions for me personally, where you get to play "Aguilar"
-The endings to the DLC are very impactful and can feel almost as weighty as the endings to the main story. In part, this is because one of the DLC endings also acts as a separate conclusion to the entire game, replacing "meet hanako in embers", and if you liked the bittersweet nature of the Temperance ending, you'll love this.
- Dogtown is a cool area to wreak havoc in, in part due to the atmosphere of the area- great work nailing this, CDPR. From the moment you see the barriers in and out of dogtown, you can feel the atmosphere of this section of the city where martial law rules. Honestly it serves to just make pacifica cooler because "barren section of the city" is okay, but "barren section of the city with a walled off district inside it" is cooler. Ah wait maybe I just like dogtown because it reminds me ever so slightly of the atmosphere of Arkham City.
The issues are with what leads up to the endings of the DLC. The writing.
The issues: investment into the story
-A DLC that was sold as a spy thriller in the cyberpunk world. And sure, it is exactly that, but personally I feel like it didn't have very strong writing in that regard. It feels out of place for the character's story- which everybody mentions- and ultimately just feels like a series of fun missions with V moonlighting as a spy.
- I played it in one sitting, but playing it between other missions must make this feel even more jarring
- I felt like I had no reason to be invested in the characters in this, other than Songbird. I really wanted Idris Elba's character to be more interesting- the actor does well at playing him, but I wasn't so invested.