I agree with almost everything. They clearly went overboard and threw several mechanics into the game just cater to "everyone" but it just feels directionless.

I really like the main and battle music but the radio stations are just some of the worst I've heard for the most part.

Don't think I've played a more annoying looter-shooter with all that loot that I couldn't care less for. They should have gone with a few weapon types and gone more for modifying these to full extent, so the only thing you constantly pick up are ammo, new weapon, and weapon mods. There are no weapon I can really know well and adjust because 5 seconds later I just receive 10 worse/better ones, and then I have to go over every one of them AGAIN just to find a better one and mod it. And then single out the ones with a red number and sell them. I feel i use so much needless time into this and the UI doesn't allow me to be efficient either, quite the contrary. After a few hours I just stopped looking at them and just sold everything.

Oh yeah, I personally don't like the ability to sell what I have on on the same list as those in my inventory, especially in light of what I just wrote. Witcher 3 did this so much better and simpler.

Crafting should be much better too like being able to reuse them f. ex.

Going higher on difficulty don't make enemies smarter, it only makes you weaker and the enemies much more like bullet sponges.

And combining all of this with stealth and not implement a combat system which favours a more tactical approach is a terrible idea. Especially since the AI is more or less not there and many perks are not what I would call good in this world. The game seriously need some re-balancing.

Lastly,, calling this a mainly RPG game is like calling a car with a combustion engine an electric car just because it has an electric computer, lights and a radio with a twin 17" bass in the backseat.

Levels are NOT a must in RPGs.

This is pure ignorance of the matter. The best TTRPGs (and CRPG) out there are leveless.

You have nearly no agency in terms of how the plot unfolds, you don't really have options in terms of dialogue, most missions are linear as all hell, and there's no character growth either. You get more stats and perks and loot. That's it. This is a looter-shooter action-adventure with some half-baked "RPG elements", much like the Borderlands games.

I would argue that in order for something to be an RPG, it has to be a game where you do role-playing (the pen and paper kind) in some form. So far there's no game that gets everything exactly right, but there are plenty of games that try to simulate one or more aspects of it. Planescape: Torment did a nice job on the narrative experience. The Baldur's Gate games did a good job on the "party adventure" experience. What exactly is Cyberpunk simulating? In what way does the game actually support role-playing in ways that the old Doom games did not?

And keep in mind that "stats" and "attributes" and "levels" and "items" in and of themselves are concepts that have very little to do with "role-playing". Those things can be part of a structure that makes the role-playing more well-defined, but simply having levels and attributes is not "role-playing". Much like putting a seatbelt on your armchair doesn't mean you start driving whenever you buckle it.

Your point 1 doesn't work for me. Many action-games with RPG elements that resort to loot grinding to maintain some form of gameplay loop will have item levels, but those games are not role-playing games. You are not role-playing while farming the same area over and over and over for a particular drop.

Off the top of my head, I cannot think of something I would consider a role-playing game that operates with the concept of "item level" in various gear that is already quality tiered. This is largely because the concept is complete anemic to common sense, even in a fantasy world.

Item levels effectively means that a level 50 wet noodle is a much more dangerous weapon than a level 1 bazooka. I cannot imagine a scenario where this enhances role-playing in any conceivable way. All it does is allow for more permutations of items, meaning more stuff can be thrown after players without just throwing "the same" item after the player over and over again, and which will also make it harder for a player to get exactly the right item they are looking for, forcing completion of the gameplay loop that rewards the item over and over and over again until the right permutation happens. Does that sound like something that has anything to do with role-playing to you? Because it sure doesn't to me.

Your point 2 does not work for me either. Not only is this absolutely a Borderlands clone of a looter-shooter action-adventure, but levels are not "a must" for something to be and RPG. Disco Elysium showed this nicely, being absolutely a role-playing game (albeit a very depressing one) but having no levels at all. Levels are a support element in order to help players and dungeon master (and developers and game designers) define characters and be able to tailor encounters. Levels themselves are not the role-playing, though.

Your point 3 is correct but overlooks how this game does also force tedious inventory management onto the player, since you need to raise money and components and the only way to do that is to pick up and sell everything or break it down. That's a whole heaping lot of clickety-clicking in a very boring inventory menu, for very little actual gain.

Your point 4 does not seem all that plausible to me but to each their own. But more objectively, there really is not a whole lot to actually make driving in this game fun. The AI is completely dead behind the wheels, crawling slowly along their preset lanes. Nothing dynamic ever happens. The physics are not merely "a bit wonky sometimes", the physics are simply not there. Try driving a bike at some point and bump into something. In case you are confused, no, driving a motorcycle DOES NOT WORK LIKE THAT!! Cars are weird also, grip is weird, braking is weird, the constant fishtailing is weird, and keyboard control is hit and miss.

Your point 5 is sort of missing the point. RPGs are not about endless loot hunts and having items "without stats" is perfectly reasonable, particularly in a game set in a world where style is everything. That being said, I reckon that having "style stats" on clothing, maybe with additional cool effects (harder to see, illuminates in the dark, protects from burn, insulated against shock, etc) but without direct combat stats like armour and weapon damage boosts would be the best case for clothing, since it removes the issue of bikini armor that the game is currently suffering very badly from.

Your point 6 is in my opinion missing the point. CDPR did not have to include a crafting system at all, and they certainly did not have to include an awful system like what they did. Many role-playing games do not have crafting. It is not vital for the purposes of role-playing. So why include crafting anyway and why make it this bad and unrewarding? Too many competing open world action-adventure games with some form of crafting to leave it out, and too many more important things to deal with for them to bother with anything beyond the most basic of placeholder crafting systems? But that's not really an excuse.

Your point 8 is not really on point, as I see it. Yes, freedom is nice, but combat right now is hugely factored on your level versus that of your enemy. At level, you will probably have some challenge but not too much. If you are under their level then prepare for bullet sponge mode to kick in, as your bullets will just bounce off doing very little. If you are over their level, there is no challenge whatsoever and you will walk over them while they will not be able to hurt you much. Bullets will just bounce off your face.

This is not good design, as there's not much fun factor in sleepwalking through fights nor in having bullet sponge enemies, and levels in this game come fast enough that your time of being at parity with enemies is extremely brief. Making the combat less level-based and more tactical would still allow freedom to approach combat in different ways, but the suspense and the thrill would be maintained longer. The sense of danger would not dissipate quite as fast. Thinking about your environment would be more important.

As it is, my level 40+ V's just run into almost any engagement and bang, bang, bang, bang, now the enemies are all dead. Then move to next encounter. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Then move on. Bang, bang, bang, bang. *sigh*

Your point 9 is rather missing the point. Aside from the leg enhancements, can you point out an implant that really does anything? Okay, cyberdeck for hacking or berserk or sandevistan for bullet time, nice gimmicks, but that's it. Where's the sense of sci-fi wonder with these options? It is almost exclusively just better stats for this or that, nothing that really sheds the limitations of ordinary mortals.

And your point 10 is true enough, but making this argument reduces street cred to being just another pointless level gate mechanic that is as interesting as Johnny's used shorts after that day he ate an out-of-date taco with extra chili. There's also not really a whole lot of argument as to what the difference between street cred and character level really is, and the name itself is completely at odds with what the mechanic does and how your earn experience for it.

Because ultimately, it's just a bloated alternative experience level for vendor access, and nobody in the world aside from fixers and merchants give even a half a fart about whether you are level 1 or level 50. And of course there's also no faction relevance either. Earn your street cred by murdering tygers or the VDB, it doesn't matter to anyone, tygers and VDB included.

So basically, change everything about the game?

Only the bad parts.