Don't worry the game isn't preachy. It's just the nature of cyberpunk stories to touch on ''Big bad corporations'' and other dystopian shiet.

The most annoying parts to me would be the other AI-drivers, they do not break the game, the pacing or make driving unplayable. Just basically 'This AI is a jackass for descending on my face'' while driving in your car around the city on the highways. You can fly anywhere, Over, under, between and through buildings. The AI cars are basically restricted to the pathways the map.

Other part is while waiting on NPCs to finish talking and you're stuck there waiting to move your character, you can move your camera and enjoy the sights on foot before you to continue on your current mission. Though I must say this is NOT EVERY NPC or every piece of dialogue. Though you don't wait too long. Maybe a minute or two for it to finish then you can move on.

The preachy level is a highly subjective thing. It's not necessarily politically preachy, but more that the main character has a "holier-than-thou" complex for most of the game. There's a story reason for this, being a recent immigrant to the city, but it comes off as her pre-judging everyone she meets. That being said, there are some good moments where she gets proven wrong, or at least learns another side of the story. I personally just don't find her that well written. She's not all that likeable but the game never really comments on it and her character growth isn't that well done. She's not awful though and you could do a lot worse. This isn't Life is Strange levels of preachy and self-indulgent writing.

A bunch of side characters lack subtlety, for better and worse. There are a few choices in the game where you can choose to help rude or dismissive people you've met earlier, or choose not to help them. The payoff for choosing either is different dialogue and it's thought-provoking no matter what you choice was.

I would recommend the game, just not on story alone. It's gorgeous, has good music, plays even better now that you can do it all in 1st person. Got it on Steam when it first released and waited for it to come here before picking up the DLC, which is supposed to be better than the base game. So yeah, great atmosphere, average writing, novel and pretty art style.

Thanks for the feedback!

(1) What's the premise of the story anyway? Do you try to achieve world domination? Do you foil the plans of an evil tyrant?

(2) I liked Life is Strange 1, but I hated the second part.

(3) I love Alpha Centauri, because that's politics in games done right.

I left a 4 star review for the game, and I think that's fair. I bet most of the 5-star reviews are exaggerating a bit because of all the 1-star reviews that it is getting inappropriately. So, why all the 1-star reviews? I think it's probably because of the gender issues in the game. That doesn't bother me -- on the contrary, I think it's worth exploring. What gender is an android anyway? Do androids get to label themselves once they are sentient? Seems like a deep topic that cyberpunk creators should write about. But it triggers the Last-of-Us-is-evil types.

The main weakness of the game for me is that a country farmer who grew up playing Bach on the flute (the main character), would be talking like a person with that background, instead of talking like an English major, complaining how other characters are mixing metaphors (real example). The writer needs to touch grass just as much as the critics do.

Yes, but what's the goal of the game? You are just driving around in a taxi? Or do you uncover a secret plot or something?

In Mass Effect you had Edi, who was struggling with her identity. In Twokinds you have Natani. Btw., very good comic and free. But it is a big difference whether game designers create such characters because they are genuinely interested in the philosophical implications & questions - or they are just searching a cheap verhicle to preach. And as a PhD cell biology, my "faith" of course dictates that genes determine the gender of a human.

As a someone who lives in and grew up in farm country, a girl playing Bach on the flute while also farming is completely believable. I'm not all the way through yet (7.5 hours in, not sure how long the game actually is but it seems to be wrapping up), but I thought the girl-out-of-her-element part works pretty well. It shows how there's two completely different worlds in the game & this girl put herself in an alien one. Like I said, not done yet, but you start out as uber package delivery & as you travel around you start to uncover weird things & find out there's a lot more going on then just a city in shambles. I'm not sure yet if it's a corporate/government thing or a natural disaster thing (I don't want to post any spoilers) but I do have my ideas as what's going on.

I'm not sure if the choices you make actually change the outcome of the game but there is one choice where after I made it I thought "Hmm, I wish I made the other one." There's no slave slots either, so when you make a decision it's made. That's a nice change of pace from the "I can save here & see if I kill everyone by doing this" gameplay in AAA games.

There's several side characters/missions that explain some things that you don't NEED to do, but you get background on what's going on in people's lives & you can connect the dots between people's stories but other people in the city don't seem to care about what happens to others.

I just finished the game. I liked the story.

I'm glad!

The whole plot is pretty much standard cyberpunk/neon noir fare - you'll never get in a position of power, you'll never be able to improve on your main character's fucked up life, but somehow some of those cranks and levers of society come into your possession ... you just don't know what they do exactly.

The characters were cool, and the cityscape somewhat impressive. ;)

It was advertised as an exploration game and it fit the bill pretty well. I thought they dragged the character in to the city events pretty nicely by doing it indirectly.

In Shadowrun Dragonfall - which I love - you determine the fate of an entire species + humanity. In Satellite Reign you unwittingly cause the destruction of all major cities. In Ghost in the Shell, mayor Kusanagi merges with an AI.

The purely "dystopian" Cyberpunk games seems to be just a subset.

Shadowrun is of course originally a pen & paper roleplaying game (as is Cyberpunk). The neon noir genre itself is pretty bleak in its outcomes for the main character and his/her influence on the dystopian world. But I guess if you're setting up a roleplaying campaign for a bunch of friends, that hopelessness might just not be what you're trying to get across, it's not fun for your players. So you're veering in a different direction.