Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Extremely Fun Random Skirmish - Cyberpunk 2077 Diary

I am writing this post to commemorate last night's gaming session. I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, and its probably the most fun I've had with an RPG in a very long time.

Years from now, I want to look back on this gaming session and remember the fun time. There are a many such gaming memories over the years, some over 20 years old. That one time when I started playing Tomb Raider 3 demo when I first got my computer back in 2000, when I played the tutorial level of Tomb Raider 4 late at night, that one session of Quake 3 with my neighbor where I won the round with about 5 seconds to spare (we talk about it to this day, after 15 years), when I beat Commandos after playing all night, that super frustrating session of GTA 3 where I resorted to using cheats to finish the level, the ending of Half Life 2 Episode 2, when I first stepped out of the vault in Fallout 3, when I played the beta of Battlefield 4 early in the morning and knew that it was going be a special game, I could go on.

So what was so great about last evening's gaming session that inspired me to write this?

Its hard to articulate, but I will try.

I am generally not a fan of replaying sections of a single player game over and over again. I find it a complete waste of time. I've got a big backlog of games to get through, so I don't want to "waste" time replaying a section of the game. Last night was different. I was playing Cyberpunk 2077. The game is in a fairly decent state now by the way. I was on my way to start a side mission, navigating through the traffic at high speed on a random bike I found, when a notification on the mini map popped up, that there was an assault in progress. I decided to engage.

What ensued is the most fun I've had in an RPG in a very long time. Reminded me of the time I spent playing Witcher 3.

This seemingly random encounter with a bunch of enemies turned into a quite a battle. I don't have the best gear, and I am quite under powered to take on the enemies. I went into the battle head on, and I was defeated almost immediately. I was not prepared for that. This started a 1 hour battle where I kept retrying different strategies, and eventually took out all the enemies.

I discovered that enemies have weaknesses, and learned to exploit them. It took about 7 or 8 tries to win this skirmish. I could have easily left and leveled up, and returned when I had better weapons etc., but it was just too much fun to try and "beat" the game. For about 1 hour, I forgot about life, and I Was immersed in the game. I could have gone on for another hour.

I know this will be one of those moments that I am going to look back fondly years from now.

I am going to spend the rest of the evening playing more Cyberpunk 2077.