TL;DR: This game is really good, though it obviously doesn't meet the expectations of many people. It has all the same strengths and weaknesses of the Witcher 3, just put into a new world.

I guess the big place to start for a lot of people is performance and graphics, because this game is basically the new Crysis. I ran the game at 1440p with a ryzen 7 3700x and an rtx 3080. In order to get a stable 60fps (or into the mid 70s in some locations) I ran the game with the ray tracing ultra preset, but tweaked rt lighting to psycho for global illumination and turned down the quality of clouds and fog slightly, and ran on DLSS Balanced, which I genuinely couldn't differentiate from DLSS Quality or DLSS Off in 95% of situations. Your mileage may vary depending on if you're using a different gpu or a different resolution monitor. With all this aside, this is by far the prettiest game I have ever played. Though I will say there's a bug with ray traced global illumination where it makes NPC's eyes glow in the dark. You really only notice this when you're in a car at night with an NPC. The game world is highly detailed and drop dead beautiful.

Bugs are something that get brought up a lot with this game, and yeah, it's pretty buggy. Most of the time it's no worse than GTA, with cars occasionally popping up and into the stratosphere, and, as such, they're rarely game breaking and more often just immersion breaking for a split-second. However, there are some more annoying bugs that I ran into. For example after playing some scenes where I let Johnny have control of my body I would have a blue bar stuck on my screen until I rebooted the game. I also had a similar issue but with the giant box reticle of smart weapons being stuck on my screen. But overall, these things were annoying, but not experience ruining. Then again, I play Fallout: New Vegas on a regular basis, so I have a high tolerance for bugs.

The gunplay in this game is decent. Not amazing, not terrible, but certainly serviceable and definitely still fun. Weapons feel weighty, and the different types of weapons feel very distinct, though once you discover smart assault rifles there's really no reason to use anything else. Melee is definitely less satisfying than the gunplay, but not bad. It feels a lot like the melee systems in games like Fallout or Far Cry; it's there, and you can make a build around it, but it doesn't have the same love that the guns have.

Crafting is a solid system, but desperately needs a rebalance. Component costs increase exponentially with every time you upgrade a weapon or armor piece, and epic and legendary components are nearly impossible to find until you're on the last mission. Upgrading weapons and armor also, in my opinion, doesn't improve them as much as they should for the massive input cost. However, crafting is a good way of giving players an alternative to buying weapon mods or scrounging up armor, as you can always craft new stuff if you have the parts, or improve your current setup if you prefer the style.

The police system in this game has drawn a lot of flak, as it's not like GTA at all. And honestly it deserves it. There's not dynamic car chases like in other open world games, it just starts spawning cops around you who you can outrun in seconds if you're in a car or motorcycle. Also, traffic is totally on rails, with NPCs never leaving their lanes and almost never stopping, which feels unimmersive once you notice. I definitely think this needs a change down the road.

But the story. Oh the story is where things come together and you remember that this is CD Projekt Red. Voice acting is mostly top notch (though I think male V fits better than female V, despite my preference towards playing female characters), and main characters really feel alive. It's also worth mentioning that V is like Geralt; they are not you, they are a predefined character, and your decisions are a list of things that this character would realistically choose between based on who they are. Keanu's performance sometimes falls flat when he's supposed to be angry, but overall his character is a ton of fun and one you really come to love. The romance options are also all very well written characters that you could picture your character falling in love with. I also adore the way that V and almost everyone you meet start out being total ♥♥♥♥♥ to each other because they hate being forced to work together until they finally end up becoming friends. The side quests are where the meat of the story really is, and, as good as the main story is, I think a lot of the best stories are in the side quests. Just make sure it's the side quests you're doing and not the side gigs. Side gigs are mostly boring and worthless (though a couple of them are how you get Johnny's Outfit), but I can't think of a single actual side quest that wasn't absolutely excellent. A lot of the best characters are found only in the side quests or are only elaborated on in the side quests after being introduced in the main quest. Also, what side quests you fulfill do, to some extent, influence what endings you can choose from, and your interactions with all the characters dictates who is talking to you in the ending credits. From my understanding, there are 8 main endings, of which I have experienced 3. Basically there are three permutations of the final mission, with each having two options at the end of it. There's also an ending where you do none of the final missions, as well as a secret permutation of one of the main three missions that's harder and requires certain conditions to be met. Of the endings I've experienced, they're all pretty bleak, though one has substantially more potential for hope than the others. Of course, in a Cyberpunk setting it's hard to picture a "happy" ending given the inherent dystopic nature of the genre.

To sum it up, this game is deeply flawed in many ways, but the soul of CD Projekt Red is on full display in its writing. Play all the main quests and side quests, ignore the gigs, and you'll have a fantastic time.

TL;DR: This game is really good, though it obviously doesn't meet the expectations of many people. It has all the same strengths and weaknesses of the Witcher 3, just put into a new world. I guess the big place to start for a lot of people is performance and graphics, because this game is basically the new Crysis. I ran the game at 1440p with a ryzen 7 3700x and an rtx 3080. In order to get a stable 60fps (or into the mid 70s in some locations) I ran the game with the ray tracing ultra preset, but tweaked rt lighting to psycho for global illumination and turned down the quality of clouds and fog slightly, and ran on DLSS Balanced, which I genuinely couldn't differentiate from DLSS Quality or DLSS Off in 95% of situations. Your mileage may vary depending on if you're using a different gpu or a different resolution monitor. With all this aside, this is by far the prettiest game I have ever played. Though I will say there's a bug with ray traced global illumination where it makes NPC's eyes glow in the dark. You really only notice this when you're in a car at night with an NPC. The game world is highly detailed and drop dead beautiful. Bugs are something that get brought up a lot with this game, and yeah, it's pretty buggy. Most of the time it's no worse than GTA, with cars occasionally popping up and into the stratosphere, and, as such, they're rarely game breaking and more often just immersion breaking for a split-second. However, there are some more annoying bugs that I ran into. For example after playing some scenes where I [spoiler] let Johnny have control of my body [/spoiler] I would have a blue bar stuck on my screen until I rebooted the game. I also had a similar issue but with the giant box reticle of smart weapons being stuck on my screen. But overall, these things were annoying, but not experience ruining. Then again, I play Fallout: New Vegas on a regular basis, so I have a high tolerance for bugs. The gunplay in this game is decent. Not amazing, not terrible, but certainly serviceable and definitely still fun. Weapons feel weighty, and the different types of weapons feel very distinct, though once you discover smart assault rifles there's really no reason to use anything else. Melee is definitely less satisfying than the gunplay, but not bad. It feels a lot like the melee systems in games like Fallout or Far Cry; it's there, and you can make a build around it, but it doesn't have the same love that the guns have. Crafting is a solid system, but desperately needs a rebalance. Component costs increase exponentially with every time you upgrade a weapon or armor piece, and epic and legendary components are nearly impossible to find until you're on the last mission. Upgrading weapons and armor also, in my opinion, doesn't improve them as much as they should for the massive input cost. However, crafting is a good way of giving players an alternative to buying weapon mods or scrounging up armor, as you can always craft new stuff if you have the parts, or improve your current setup if you prefer the style. The police system in this game has drawn a lot of flak, as it's not like GTA at all. And honestly it deserves it. There's not dynamic car chases like in other open world games, it just starts spawning cops around you who you can outrun in seconds if you're in a car or motorcycle. Also, traffic is totally on rails, with NPCs never leaving their lanes and almost never stopping, which feels unimmersive once you notice. I definitely think this needs a change down the road. But the story. Oh the story is where things come together and you remember that this is CD Projekt Red. Voice acting is mostly top notch (though I think male V fits better than female V, despite my preference towards playing female characters), and main characters really feel alive. It's also worth mentioning that V is like Geralt; they are not you, they are a predefined character, and your decisions are a list of things that this character would realistically choose between based on who they are. Keanu's performance sometimes falls flat when he's supposed to be angry, but overall his character is a ton of fun and one you really come to love. The romance options are also all very well written characters that you could picture your character falling in love with. I also adore the way that V and almost everyone you meet start out being total dicks to each other because they hate being forced to work together until they finally end up becoming friends. The side quests are where the meat of the story really is, and, as good as the main story is, I think a lot of the best stories are in the side quests. Just make sure it's the side quests you're doing and not the side gigs. Side gigs are mostly boring and worthless (though a couple of them are how you get Johnny's Outfit), but I can't think of a single actual side quest that wasn't absolutely excellent. A lot of the best characters are found only in the side quests or are only elaborated on in the side quests after being introduced in the main quest. Also, what side quests you fulfill do, to some extent, influence what endings you can choose from, and your interactions with all the characters dictates who is talking to you in the ending credits. From my understanding, there are 8 main endings, of which I have experienced 3. Basically there are three permutations of the final mission, with each having two options at the end of it. There's also an ending where you do none of the final missions, as well as a secret permutation of one of the main three missions that's harder and requires certain conditions to be met. Of the endings I've experienced, they're all pretty bleak, though one has substantially more potential for hope than the others. Of course, in a Cyberpunk setting it's hard to picture a "happy" ending given the inherent dystopic nature of the genre. To sum it up, this game is deeply flawed in many ways, but the soul of CD Projekt Red is on full display in its writing. Play all the main quests and side quests, ignore the gigs, and you'll have a fantastic time.