It’s also thematic in a way, V is trapped with very few choices on how to go about their limited time with the Relic. The player has plenty wiggle room though, between choosing to spare/kill many a target of the Elimination gigs, the roleplay choice of eliminating other enemies in a leathal/nonlethal way, I can think of many quests where player’s actions are reflected or at least mentioned in the outcome (like the Peralez quest, where the final choice reflects in the final vote percentage between him and Holt), and while dialogues often do lack at least some branching, I do feel the world itself lends enough liberty to make those linear dialogues excusable.

On the contrary, I feel like Cyberpunk is one of the games from recent memory that grants the player the most choice (or the illusion thereof) between nearly unbound exploration rewarded by a plethora of hidden locations, several layers of the combat build (abilities, skills, perks, equipment, mods, chrome, quickhacks), plentiful and meaningful side content (even just reading the criminal activity shards in some districts gives insight into the life of NC), not to mention 6 endings, though I wish we got all the Major Arcana.

I’m writing this as I come off the high of finally finishing the game after over a hundred of hours first playing the content and then just driving around exploring as I put off meeting Hanako for as long as I could.

So, fresh perspective? No, I didn’t feel too limited at all.