Bullet Sponge Enemies
Any time guns and role-playing is combined in an experience that puts shooting right at the center of gameplay, there’s a cause for concern. It doesn’t feel natural. There’s something strange and frustrating about unloading clips of ammunition into an enemy that you just don’t feel as much with swordplay. It’s a realism thing, perhaps; it’s easier to accept that an enemy can endure a few slashes and stabs before hitting the deck, but an entire clip of a pistol? Not to mention, it’s so much less tedious striking an enemy with a melee weapon than it is shooting – there’s something in the mind that’s based on everything we know about guns: one-shot should mean curtains, and when that doesn’t happen, it’s irritating.
There are very few games that have got around this with any great success. The amount of ammo required to down some of Ubisoft’s The Division bosses bordered on parody. And although role-playing shooters such as the Mass Effect trilogy pulled it off, the far-flung futuristic setting somehow made it easier to stomach—laser zappers and high-tech body armor explain away having to shoot enemies 20 times before they fall.
Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t the same; everything feels grounded in a somewhat believable future, and firearms shoot very loud and weighty bullets. We saw some awesome gunplay during the demo, showcasing inventive ways of taking down enemies that looked more compelling than conventional shooting. Shotgunning an enemy’s legs, for example, and then blowing their head off as they fell forward. Powerful Cyberware abilities dispatched grunts in a single swipe on many an occasion, too. But there were signs of bullet sponge when using lesser caliber firearms and versus some heavier looking enemies that had us raising an eyebrow. Sure, many of the foes we’re likely to take on in Cyberpunk 2077 will be jacked up to the max with Cyberware and augmentations, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be fun unloading 30 rounds of ammo to bring them down. Let’s hope CDPR finds a way to make gunplay challenging without resorting to upping armor levels to silly levels.
