re: 20 hours into Cyberpunk 2077 (PS5)

I played on "normal" and got fairly OP fairly quickly. With that said, playing a glass canon netrunner, that felt appropriate.

This is the advice I'll give you: try to rotate between main story, side missions, gigs, and NCPD scanners. Don't do any one category for too long, especially if you feel yourself burning out (side missions being the one possible exception, as I can't fathom your burning out on those). If you meet someone new in game in person, do their missions. Respond to your text messages (if you see a number badge over the phone icon in the bottom left corner). There's a lot of world and character building in those, especially late game.

Honestly, my biggest complaint about the pace of the game is one I've been complaining about for basically my entire life as a gamer: the main mission is conveyed as uber time sensitive, and then they fill the world with content such that it punishes you for rushing the main mission. There are some games that you can get around this somewhat (the second time I played Oblivion, I literally avoided Kvatch for like 80 hours of gameplay, then once the first gate opened, I went full bore main quest), but with the way the game world is closed off in CP until you reach certain main quest milestones, that's not really possible. So suspend your disbelief and enjoy the world for all it offers. For all the flaws that still exist, it's really, really impressive, nonetheless.