I finally installed the demo myself. I ain't quite certain if it's wasted potential or just suckage. Since I like Cyberpunk and have been waiting for the chance to prep my char with a few implants, I'd say the latter.
I like some ideas, the graphics and the interface, which is pretty neat.
Now the complaints start. The first thing that annoyed me tremendously when I head it was that you just share your profits with the pilot. That's stupid. He should additionally demand a fee up front. It would have worked too, since there is a loan shark in the town! Talk about wasting a good idea. You could have been forced to loan money just to start your first mission; that would have hit the spot!
The game sports a worthless zoom feature. The lowest setting has a very low visual range already, the highest is a joke. If they had made the current lowest the highest instead, and the lowest setting Diablo2-like, they might have been on to something.
As it is, they merely force the player to shoot blindly (not a biggie, thanks to unlimited ammo) and run away from enemies alot. That isn't tight, fast-paced gameplay, it's lame.
The same goes for the lack of enemies with ranged weapons. Maybe it's just the demo, but that is still their fault.
There could have been a kneel-button, and the environment could have provided cover. That would have made ranged combat more interesting.
And there are the implants of course. Popping them in on the field, and the doc reduced to a shopkeep? Fuck that.
Btw, I don't think that failing the mission if you leave the battle zone is actually bad. It makes sense, and since you have to share your profit with the pilot, it might not make so much sense to carry home every little bit of junk either. Just finish the goddamn mission, then visit the doc to get this cool new cyberarm attached.
I get the feeling they made too much effort to "streamline the gameplay" as the saying goes. Or maybe they just suck.
The demo looked like a diablo clone. Not too cheap, I've seen alot worse, but not too great either.
PS:
One reason that finally made me install it were some comments from these disturbing RA-bashers above. I don't know what made these people that hardly ever post crawl out of whatever dark holes they live in, but they seem to posses an irrational disdain for the game.
Anyway, the game has NO pathfinding, and probably isn't supposed to. The character runs directly in the direction of the mouspointer, I didn't seem to have any trouble with the concept.
Overall, not really what I wanted to see, but not awful either. Of course, the demo may not have presented the game in the best way possible. The different stories and missions for each character do sound interesting.
