Okay my thoughts having plays circa 6 hours or so.
1) Ray tracing. I effectively described ray tracing to my wife as a really GPU demanding effect that if it works properly, it’s hard to notice. RT is aimed at creating a realistic effect, recreating a basic form of the physics of light. This suggest to me that the better it works, the less noticeable it should be, as our minds see this as normal rather than stylised/exaggerated. I think this is where the tech should be heading. The difference between this and CP2077 is the lack of neon signs plastered around the world to really showcase the effect. But it works well and looks great.
2) overall graphics, not to triple AAA standards but then do we expect that from Techland? They’re not a AAA developer as far as I’m concerned, and I think classing every developer who’s made a hit game (CDPR, Techland etc) as a AAA developer straight away sets unfair expectations. They don’t have a huge publisher backing them as far as I’m aware, nor the money pool like Gearbox, Valve, Activision etc..
3) the gameplay: fantastic. If you liked DY1 I can’t see how you could possibly dislike DY2. One of the very very very few games where I actively put off the main quest because I’m enjoying doing the side quests. I typically find open works games monotonous and laborious but this one keeps the side quests enjoyable and quick. Whoever raged about the side quest about finding the guys fish; the joke here is, you don’t. You just talk to him, he tells a long story, quest complete.
4) the price: a lot of people scored this cheaper via pre-order (and did right to do so), I managed to pick it up via Kinguin for £33. At £55, any game is overpriced to me, but I don’t think Valve etc are truly expecting your average Joe to pay that from them. However, cost of development of games is much higher than 10 years ago, inflation etc - I do think people need to accept the rising prices of release date games. Further to this, I think smaller developers like Techland need the support more. They’re not going to sell the sheer amount of units that GTA5 or even an unsuccessful CoD release do, and thus they’ll be relying on less units at a higher price.
5) expectations: players and expectations have gone wild lately. Here we have something against the grain of your standard gaming experience (free running, 4p coop, zombie fighting, story heavy, tech pushing) and when it does finally come out, reviewers and gamers are quick to compare it merely to other AAA games rather than on its own merits.
I actually bought this game to play through with my son and I’m having a great time playing it, surpassing my expectations.