Cyberpunk 2077 to have shorter campaign due to The Witcher 3

submitted by JoyFreak from joyfreak.com

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[–]scrubking 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Not sounding too good

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

too lazy to make more of a game, try to say gamers don't want a long story.

[–]FediNetizen 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Too lazy? Game devs work crazy hours for not that great of pay. The company spent about $80 million making Witcher 3, and they've spent about $120 million making 2077, so it's not a matter of the decision-makers being cheap either.

There were totally parts where the Witcher 3 storyline felt kind of slow, but the last quarter of the game was amazing, and if you didn't finish it you might be left with a less positive impression of the game overall. If they have data indicating that a lot of players didn't finish, and your goal is to make a product that the most amount of people will find the most enjoyable, then it makes sense to shorten some of the campaign, and maybe create more involved side storylines for the people that really want to get immersed in the game for 100+ hours.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I normally think what you say is pretty insightful but I hate how the game industry has been dumbing down games for the least common denominator of players. What's the point of a game if there's no challenge. I spent 3 days with four people taking turns trying to survive the landing at Normandy in early COD back in the day on realistic mode. I don't want games dumbed down so every 8yr old can beat them. They should be hard, fill you with rage, and make you turn to illegal substances to assuage the pain of dying time and time again.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I don't think The Witcher 3's main story was TOO LONG. But I gave up long before the end, not because the main story was too long, but because of the innumerable side quests. You really need to pick and choose which ones you will need to do. Moreover, doing even half the side quests had you overlevelling for the main quest, to the point where you might be level 20 and still have level 8 side quests that weren't done and the main quest progression had you looking to do level 13 quests. By that time, you aren't interested. Not because the quest isn't interesting per se, but because you're already WAY over-levelled for it, it will provide no challenge AND it will yet increase your progress to even higher levels.

Now I understand such a progression mechanic might be useful if you are playing on the hardest difficulties, but that's a problem, since some people are completionists on the first playthrough and don't want to set the game to the highest difficulty just yet.

So I don't think shortening the main quest is a good decision. I think not letting the side quests create a story spaghetti nightmare is the key. But that depends on how the game is structured to begin with. If they are keeping The Witcher 3's structure, then I really don't know how they can achieve this other than, sadly, shortening the main quest.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Did you play it when it first came out? The balancing was totally out of whack. I sailed through that game cause like you're saying, you become OP early on. It wasn't supposed to be a mindless button smasher but that's what I experienced. I heard they fixed that in the patches but I was already finished before that happened.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I did, and then I waited a good long while to give it another go. I haven't done a full playthrough yet.

[–]FediNetizen 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I loved the long story, but if they have data that a lot of players didn't finish because of the length, then making the main story shorter seems OK.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

alot of us like these types of games because of those long stories and gargantuan amounts of content.