• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

A graph explaining why Cyberpunk 2077 is a bad story [Spoilers]

TeamGhobad

Banned
WARNING THIS THREAD HAS SPOILERS FOR CP77, RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 AND THE MOVIE SCARFACE

This is something I've been thinking about for a while now, on why I like some stories and dislike others. Every story is really a rags to riches story, its about a protagonist that overcomes an obstacle or achieves a goal and is a better person for it. I didn't like the story of CP77 at all and I will try to explain why.

Here is my Fun-Time chart for the classic movie Scarface (1983), i will use Scarface because its the perfect example of a rags to riches story.
lPb7yfJ.jpg


IMO CP77 shares a lot of the same narrative elements as Red Dead Redemption 2 (another story I did not like) so I will draw some parallels to that game.
In RDR2 you follow a gang who is down on their luck trying to make it, yet suffers defeat at every turn while at the same time alludes to the good ol' times when they swindled, robbed banks, partied and lived it up. You the player feels cheated cause what you wanted was to play the game during the heydays of that gang when they were doing a bunch of cool shit. Instead we get a downtrodden gang that can't do anything, you feel cheated and robbed of a great story.
As you can see we never experienced any of the good times, the fun times with the gang, only the bad stuff.

r9l8fQN.jpg


Here is the chart for Cyberpunk 2077

09pq6dZ.jpg


Here we see we are cheated of the good times of V doing all the cool stuff we saw in the montage, doing heists, interacting with the different gangs, hanging out with Jackie, saving enough money to buy the apartment, moving up in the world ect ect. Instead we are bullrushed into a story of the protagonist dying who's condition keeps getting worse as time passes with no friends. The majority of Fun was left out of the game. This is not a good story structure, you just robbed the player of the best parts of the story. Of course the story has other issues as well, too much Badlands, no interaction with any gangs, dead city and so on.

In short CP77 was a game that alluded to a great story but we never got to play, and that is a shame. If you want to to do a tragedy story that is fine, but you need to show the good times first before the peak and then show the bad times, but here all we get are the bad times. I hope CDPR can bounce back and deliver a solid story for Cyberpunk 2 and avoids creating this kind of a story that is downtrodden and uninteresting.
 

x@3f*oo_e!

Member
Video games love to start with the protag taking a fall from grace.

I struggle to think of one that has a full arc - maybe Spec-Ops:The Line (didn't play)
 

Moriah20

Member
Well, videogames aren't movies. Especially long form ones like RDR 2 or CP77.

RDR 2 is more comparable to the structure of a TV show. There is a lot of character work, and the game spends a lot of time showing not just the bad stuff, but also the good stuff - while CH1 has some heavy implications as to where the story is heading, a lot of Ch2 and 3 are just showing the "regular days" of the gang, their inner workings, chemistry with eachother, etc. So that when shit hits the fan, it all has more weight.

CP77's story feels a little disjointed to me, especially with how rushed the life path stuff is, but I don't even think its comparable to RDR 2 because it's much more faster paced and in your face. I also don't understand that graph, because it implies Jackie dies AFTER the halfway point.. which is really not true, the first Act is considerably shorter than the 2nd act.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Jfc I’m sick of people wanting every game to be the same as Rockstar it is getting real annoying lol and this is next level silliness
 

RyRy93

Member
It's buggy and the performance on last gen consoles is shocking but it's a fucking amazing game when it works, wish these whiners would give it a rest.

"Gunplay isn't as good as Destiny"
"Physics aren't as good as GTA"
"Graphics aren't as good as TLOUII"
"Story isn't as fun as Scarface"
 
Last edited:
Where is the fun. Thats been my mantra for the past decade.
No fun movies, No fun songs, No Fun TV series, No fun books.
And games. dear lord the games. Dire, dreary, grrr, dark, brooding.
Even the colorfull Balan Wonderworld and Bugsnax. Dark, grueling,
The word is currently Que Sera Sera and I'm actually worried.
 

synce

Member
Storytelling in games will always be a joke to me, I always wonder any well read adult can take them seriously. If the writer knew how to tell a good story he'd be writing books or at least making movies. The bigger issue is when devs put all their effort into a shitty story and neglect the gameplay. You're left with nothing.
 
Storytelling in games will always be a joke to me,
I do think story in games should be far down on the list of priorities. But If there must be a story I think It should have some fun in it.
Here is some fun during this metal dino hunter game.



Waiting for the CP77 fun cut. Thats gonna be a short video.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Where is the fun. Thats been my mantra for the past decade.
No fun movies, No fun songs, No Fun TV series, No fun books.
And games. dear lord the games. Dire, dreary, grrr, dark, brooding.
Even the colorfull Balan Wonderworld and Bugsnax. Dark, grueling,
The word is currently Que Sera Sera and I'm actually worried.
Bowser’s fury... you are welcomed
 
Top Bottom