JakobFel: It baffles me that people complain about it supposedly not being an RPG but it is, by definition, a roleplaying game and that is an objective fact. People can like or dislike it if they want -- to each their own -- but the argument that Cyberpunk 2077 isn't an RPG is just really silly. I love the Witcher series but 2077 is definitely a lot closer to being an RPG overall. If you like choice and freedom, I definitely recommend checking it out.
dtgreene: Could you explain why that game is an RPG? Note that this justification must relate to the core mechanics of the game, not on the structure of the game, or how much choice the game offers.
(Games like SimCity offer a lot of freedom, but I haven't seen anyone call those sort of games RPGs.)
Also, a game doesn't have to be an RPG to be good (see Celeste), and a game doesn't have to be good to be an RPG (see Hoshi wo Miru Hito or the NES version of Ultima 5).
(By the way, Ultima 5 is worth playing, as long as it's not the NES version. In particular, the version found on GOG is worth playing, as are the versions of Ultima 4 and 6 in the same collection.)
I won't respond to this part of the discussion beyond this post as I don't want to hijack the thread, but here we go.
You create and customize a character, including their starting attributes and one of three backgrounds. You are thrown into an open, explorable world that has many opportunities for the player to 'live' in the game world and interact with it. Throughout your time exploring the game world, you gain experience by doing quests and exercising your skills which allows you to level up and advance your character's build. Meanwhile, you decide what gear you use and you have the ability to modify said gear, upgrade it and even craft new gear. You play through a story that, depending on which background you chose, gives you the ability to talk to people differently. As you play, you discover that you have the ability to approach quests in just about any way you want, from ghost stealth gameplay to full guns-blazing and anywhere in between. You decide what quests you want to do, you can enjoy the game ONLY playing the MQ or you can just screw around in the game world and, again, "live" in it (which is the core of roleplaying). When you reach the end of the game, depending on how you played, you can get several different endings.
Again, I don't care if people like or dislike Cyberpunk, that's their right and I'd never tell them otherwise. However, the argument that it's not an RPG is just ridiculous. It is factually an RPG and trying to say "it's not an RPG" because CDPR has used "action-adventure" in marketing jargon, or because it wasn't what you (collectively speaking, I'm not targeting anyone) expected, that's just silly and childish. It's an RPG. It may not be everyone's type of RPG but it's basically meant to be a semi-sandbox narrative-driven RPG. Something in between modern Fallout and Mass Effect, as it were.
And yes, I agree that a game doesn't have to be an RPG to be good, I'm merely saying that people use the "it's not an RPG" argument because they don't like the game. It is factually an RPG and denying that just makes people look childish and bitter.
PS: Yes, Ultima is a great series in general. In fact, those games actually tend to have fewer of what most consider to be modern RPG elements than 2077 did, yet nobody would argue that Ultima isn't an RPG series.