Fem V has better voice acting

Nah, some lines V says come across way more threatening than a twink. Some lines fall flat for both, but male V definitely has his intimidation lines land harder

Fem V also lets you eat Judy's ass so it's not only canon but the best option possible.

i used to think so too, but fem v really falls flat when trying to use emotion, screaming, being angry, urgency, all that stuff, she always sounds stiff and lifeless.

You just have to get over male V's horrible fake new york accent

You just have to get over male V's horrible fake new york accent

Isnt the VA legit from Boston?

Unironically. Male V sounds like some twink faggot. Looks like one too, can't customize him to look like a man without mods.

nope lol

twink

retards really do just throw this word around anywhere

Fem V sounds cringe sometimes but its okay because she is a women and room hushing cringe just comes naturally to women.
The character makes more sense when you accept she is just kinda cringe jumped up gonk coasting along on johny protag energy.

My mistake, he's from Dublin.

Many such cases. Only game in recent memory where the guy sounds better is Asscreed valhalla

some bitter dyke must've made Judy exclusively lesbian

man, i just let maiko or w/e take control of the dollhouse, because i killed her on my male play through. judy was pissed when i killed her then, now shes really pissed.

she still loves me right, Anon Babble?

Never actually heard her myself but I do know male V sounds absolutely terrible, not though/threatening at all.
t. seen plenty of gameplay at fag friend's house

Judy lives in lala land where no other gang will bend the Moxes over and bank roll them.

So is this actually a fun RPG? how important is the DLC?

Fixes your male V voice

nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/10736

youtube.com/watch?v=kR6P7c3FJg0

I can more easily relate to the male than the female simple as.

she sounded like she wanted to cry all the time imo

So is this actually a fun RPG?

It is a great story driven immersive action game with RPG elements

how important is the DLC?

It is on par with Witcher 3 DLCs, pretty kino. Starts off like Escape from New York then goes full CIA nigger mode.

Seriously? I thought Judy wasn't a choice no matter V's gender.

Honestly one of the things I actually like about this game is at the very least the idea that the characters are concrete and definite in their identities and not just fuck sponges.

Yes. Buy the Ultimate Edition.
No, I will not elaborate.

It’s more shooter/action game than RPG but yeah the current state it’s worth your time. Nowhere near what they promised or people wanted and there’s huge swathes of wasted potential but you can easily drop 50+ hours.
DLC is better than the main game IMO and I wouldn’t recommend you only play the base game. The other anons comparison to Witcher 3 DLC is a good one.

Nope just your run of the mill dyke.

Go brother, eat Judy's delicious mutt ass.

this
i fucking hate games that make characters playersexual, it just screams pandering and makes the characters just feel like NPCs instead of people with actual preferences
panam going 'no way fag' to female v is based

The four characters with long questlines are all romance candidates.
Kerry = Male V
Judy = Female V
Panam = Male V
River = Female V

Depends.
Are you one of those retards who think RPG means sandbox/joining factions and shit like that, probably not.
V is pretty much a set character and the lifepath you choose only changes a few things.

The DLC is great but not important at all.

I'd say Cyberpunk is easily the best AAA game released in decades. It has SOUL out the ass and some legitimately good writing/scoring.

I only disliked male V during the bit when we just discover what biochip does. He really struggles to sound defeated and depressed, and just sounds like a bitch.
Other than that, he's absolutely fine. Even better in DLC, where his voice got even deeper and he got some experience in VA.

He sounds like he's panicking and on the verge of crying, which is a normal reaction to being told you're going to die in a few weeks.
Fem V just sounds like she's constipated at the time.

so no multiple endings or branching paths?

Honestly Cyberpunk's endings are pretty distinct. You pretty much always storm Arasaka. But the outcome means quite a bit of difference depending on who you do it for. Which I think people really want.

They are both alright. But male V is perfect as a streetkid and doesnt sound right as a corpo or nomad. Fem V is just fine at all 3. I also just dont think the story works as well with a Fem V and male V works especially better with the Johnny bro relationship.

I like Male Corpo V because he sounds like a fucking rat.

There are quite a few endings and they are very involved. Most quests have multiple outcomes and there's choices.
But the 'core' game is pretty linear. The DLC campaign is an exception since you make a choice around the middle point that sends you down branching paths with completely separate missions, locations and endings.

Best way to think of it is, it's like the Witcher 3, if you've played that, in terms of choices.

corpo male V all the way

The DLC ending and Arasaka endings don't involve storming the tower.

how is the toon building? Are there meaningful choices in how to play?
is it like deus ex?

You definitely do storm Arasaka tower in the Devil ending. It's just more styled as a coup d'etat than a siege. Which I think is pretty neat.

the DLC ending is bad writing and I'm tired of pretending it's not.

wouldn't know because i'm not a tranny faggot

Build variety is honestly great. I feel like the current iteration of the skill trees are overall improved and make for a lot of interesting mechanical interactions and dynamics. But I also feel like it pigeonholed a lot of builds into specifically using certain weapons.

That being said I made a Netrunner who also is insanely dangerous with pistols and it's very satisfying. I also made a Cyberpsycho melee character.

I really wish you could convince Hanako to exfat format Saburo's chip and then become Arasaka empress with her brother indentured under her.

Character building mainly affects things like combat abilities and stats, and dialog options. Some minor exceptions like high strength letting you pry open doors and rip turrets from their sockets and shit like that.

I'd say in terms of combat gameplay, yes, builds can be quite varied. But not much out of combat stuff.

is it like Deus Ex

I'd say it's very similar, yeah. Voice protag, first person, lots of different approaches, etc.

What's bad about it?

I just finished rejecting River as lesbo FemV and it's no joke a 1 for 1 of one of my previous rejections. I feel for River since he was literally just me, nice guy who mistook time together as a romantic gesture. But now I understand the female side too, I was just minding my own business trying to help a dude with his family issues, and he got attached to me thru osmosis. I guess the moral of the story is don't talk to women ever.

your game sucks and you're a little nigger

I wish there was a Takemura ending that didn't end up with you literally becoming mentally ill.

lesbo FemV

Even with River being the most contrived romance in the game, Judy is abject garbage and you know it.

I was sad when he rejected my male V

There's 5-ish big builds which you'll probably fall into, but each plays nicely and depending on how you engage with missions will have different outcomes (you get less pay for being too loud on stealthy missions, or gangers try to hunt you down).

Sande-Melee: Slow down time and chop chop chop with your flaming katana

Berserk+Shotguns: Go nuts and gorilla arm in CC plus shotgun people's faces off.

Stealth-Tech: Shoot through walls, go invisible.

Trad Solo: Power weapons only, just an old school gunslinger.

Netrunner: Hack brains and cameras and stuff. Really OP for a lot of the game as it's essentially a whole extra method of attack.

untrue

Kinda weird how he's the only one who actually comes onto you. None of the others do that.

To give more nuance

The dialogue / choices still feel pretty limiting. V will always come across as a street kid. The dialogue highlights options which actually move the plot forward, which I think is for the worse, since it makes dialogue flow in a pretty unnatural way. It feels like you are playing a preset character like Geralt except you only really keep a fraction of their personality.

The RPG systems are fun. There's legitimately a lot of different play styles which you can build towards which play differently.

The clothing system is legitimately a complete disaster and wasted potential, alongside the character builder in general.

Judy is abject garbage and you know it.

Bite my waifu's shiny Hispanic ass.

Panam is scared of rejection so she doesn't try until you do, Judy makes lots of passes at you if you're a woman, and Kerry is caught up in his own bullshit

netrunner

OP

until you have to fight bosses
The arasaka ninja was absolute cancer to fight as a pure netrunner

Judy doesn't make passes at you. Name one.

Yeah, he and Smasher both. It was a lazy move by the Dev team, but I can see why they did it. Netrunning makes bosses a breeze so they had to block it somehow. I rather they just reduced the effectiveness instead of entirely negate it.

I think netrunner was just incredibly unfun. Basically just freezing time and opening up menus and using the same exact combo over and over.

side shave

Nah, I'll shoot her with an iconic revolver right in her shaved head bullseye haircut

Judy generally flirts back if you do as a girl. Especially after her first quest chain. But I wouldn't say she really initiates too much until the diving scene. However she is really cute if you express genuine interest in her field of expertise.

women don't make for intimidating/realistic criminal protagonists

Eh, I actually feel like we the player make her garbage. She's just a bd autist who minds her own business until she gets caught up in something way over her head. Makes sense she would make terrible decisions and break down emotionally. She is literally the 'fixer-upper' romance route.
She does flirt with you, but if I remember you need to be the one who flirts first.

depends on how you use it
don't think it's really intended to be used purely on it's own, is the thing

but mods that remove the slowed time when scanning or let you hotkey quickhacks are pretty cool too
general sentiment that netrunning should've been more involved is common, really interested in seeing if they expand it in the sequel

gonna be real tiring when gta 6 comes out and everyone is bitching about the fem mc being a girlboss, etc etc. I can already see it

The thing isn't making a girl the main character, making her ugly is. FemMCs have always been a thing since old SNES Japanese games.

you'd be surprised
people call anything with females woke nowadays, unless they're half naked.

because it usually is

You flirt once with her as Fem V, she flirts pretty much anytime you see her or she calls or texts

So what does the tabletop say about the suicide hack? Is it just a gameplay thing that the hack is incredibly common, since I could see 30 people running around killing hundreds as not so sustainable. What stops an organaized group from rolling up to the ncpd and just making them all an hero?

yeah it's fucking boring, it's basically press button to skip half the content

That's a consequence of the current culture war. If you are not aligned with a specific set of thoughts you are immediately dismissed as opposition from the other side. Shit people say here is irrelevant these days anyway. This site doesn't have the same energy as it used to have.

So what does the tabletop say about the suicide hack?

This sort of stuff wasn't in 2020 - it's exclusive to 2077. They just introduced Quickhacks into an expansion for Cyberpunk RED (set in 2045), but I'm not familiar with how they work exactly.

Fem V doesn't get to smash beautiful, sweaty, nomad pussy

male corpo v on a path of revenge until the arasaka heist, where he gets humbled again and begins a path of redemption

I think it's mostly an issue to do with a certain laziness or pandering. No one cared about female protags until some really dysgenic people started complaining about there not being enough of them or them being too hot. When an outsider steps into your community and starts hanging shit on it, it's natural to be suspicions of their motivations. Then a decade later you've got a library of garbage games all following the same tired formula.

the game has very little to do with the tabletop or balancing
V would canonically be a continental level threat otherwise with some of the feats he pulls off
the amount of chrome v can install is insane and would not really be feasible in the tabletop.

There's a lot of handwaving in order to make combat cool and shit like that
but skilled netrunners in the setting are basically easily the most dangerous things alive

Panam is literally one of the most realistic women I've seen in videogames.

Not because of her appearance, but because she's so fucking insufferable and pissy, I unironically can't understand how anyone likes her.

I unironically can't understand how anyone likes her.

We all know why.

But she's still less insufferable and unlikeable than Judy

Games have been infiltrated and unfortunately having feMCs doesn't mean hot female main character who appeals to gamers anymore. Now it just means pathetic ugly self insert for feminists who hate gamers and everything they stand for. Older games didn't have this issue.

Pussy talk right there. Her bitchiness makes her hotter

I guess. But no ass is good enough for me to tolerate constant screeching and acting like a literal child.

Nah, Judy is pretty inoffensive.

You haven't had really good ass then.

Judy is pretty inoffensive

WAAAH MUH EVELYN

WAAAH MUH NCPD

WAAAH MUH CLOUDS

WAAAH MUH MAIKO

WAAAH MUH WHORES AT CLOUDS WANNA UNIONIZE AND MAIKO SAID NO WAAAH

it reminds of a time where she sends you a text where she's literally writing a melodramatic novel about not knowing what to do and hating her life and other teenage angst bullshit, and the game lets you respond with just 'ok'
and then she absolutely SEETHES at you
pic related is also a good one

Male V had a better range of emotion in his voice, the scene right after Konpeki where he finds out he's dying hits better with male V. From what I remember fem V just sounded mildly inconvenienced and sassy for some reason.

your best friend got gangraped and then killed herself

pretty good reason to be upset

muh ncpd

was the same situation as above

muh clouds/maiko

eeeh partially justified i guess

still nowhere near Panam levels of screeching at everyone who disagrees with her and doesn't let her do whatever she wants

I think this just speaks volumes as to how well written the characters were. You wouldn't have this variety of opinion and preferences if they were generic as shit. Turns out actually having a personality means some people will or wont like you.

her response if Anon Babble removes the biochip in PL is very fucking weird. she's apparently rabidly in love with you, but after you being a coma for two years, she wants nothing to do with you. you'd think V would have mentioned he's about to have a top secret experimental operation that might save his life. it felt pretty shoehorned as if CDPR just wanted a bleak and unhappy ending no matter how little it made sense

doesn't let her do whatever she wants

Like V gets to do?

evelyn

judy's best friend

That's just more proof that Judy has garbage sense in women and in friends.

didn't play shitton liberty never happened

her response if Anon Babble removes the biochip in PL is very fucking weird. she's apparently rabidly in love with you, but after you being a coma for two years, she wants nothing to do with you. you'd think V would have mentioned he's about to have a top secret experimental operation that might save his life. it felt pretty shoehorned as if CDPR just wanted a bleak and unhappy ending no matter how little it made sense

I agree. That was definitely handled badly. They could have easily said she was gonna wait for you, but 2 years in and she's drifted off to new places and met new people and feelings have faded. That's way more bleak and realistic than just "grr lady angry now"

Post your troo- I mean toons haha

V doesn't belong to a clan and therefore risk all their lives with his/her actions.
Panam gets treated like a special snowflake by everyone in the clan except Saul, STILL constantly goes against everything he says and does dumb shit, and STILL acts like she's some sort of victim.

Painfully realistic woman.

Not the games problem its you associating with gay twinks so much lol.

PL is kino though. The airport objective:survive thing with that music is literally one of the best sequences in the game. You're missing out.

play it as just story-based single player game, since rpg elements are almost non-existent

in the end game decides that you can only defeat Arasaka with power of friendship in a setting where everyone only cares about themselves

got the worst possible ending, mood is ruined

I enjoyed game and I know it's partly my fault for ignoring side quests, but I still felt like shit in the end.

Dibs on the center right one.

People always seem to forget that romancing Panam means romancing Aldecaldos. Their needs are a priority for Panam and her relationship with V threatens that if you don't leave with her in the end. Besides she only knows V for like a bit over a month, 2 years is plenty of time to move on from someone you have that short of a relationship with

You can also just let the plane crash and Myers die, all while getting insulted and chewed out by Songbird.

when the fuck is phantom liberty going on sale for more than 20%?

I enjoyed game and I know it's partly my fault for ignoring side quests, but I still felt like shit in the end.

They assume you'll play more than once, but that's just no realistic for a lot of older gamers who have jobs and kids and shit. It should have been more clear what paths would lead to what outcomes.
I missed out on (Dont) Fear the Reaper and I still don't know how. Did all the right dialogue and everything. Just wouldn't trigger.

only power of friendship endings

You didn't get the Fear the Reaper ending

Jokes on you, every ending is bad. That's the point. And you can storm Arasaka solo with Johnny if you have enough relationship with him and wait during the final decision.

Did you do the suicide ending? Lmao.

yeah I've only heard good things, I'll get to it eventually but that 2 year shit sounds like a bitch, I fucked panam!!!!

wtf ending did you even do, Aldecaldos? that's probably one of the more optimistic ones

the best ending is lone wolf

feel like a badass walking in the front door and mowing everyone down like neo

player's adrenaline is pumping since you only get one try

arasaka goons shitting themselves and wondering how just one guy is doing this

no collateral damage from the plan

it's pure power fantasy in a good way because you can still fuck up and have to restart the whole thing as a punishment for not being cool enough

That's not just panam, the whole point of that ending is everyone moves on because none of them knew you were alive. All the other characters, even the non-romanceable ones do the same. Vik sells out, Judy fucks off iirc, Kerry goes goes on drugs, I dunno about River because I didn't do his story when I did that ending.

Misty is the only one left and even she basically tells you she's moving on and leaving to start somewhere new. The whole point of the ending is exactly that. V gets a full reset as a complete normie.
It's basically a compromise. A good ending without being actually good. An actual good ending would be off-key with the rest of the game and setting.

Only fault is they reuse the credits dialogue from the suicide ending if you die. I honestly wouldn't mind a premature death in the lone wolf ending if it had unique dialogue.

I dunno about River because I didn't do his story when I did that ending.

He becomes another 'bad' merc in night city who takes hit jobs without a voice of reason like V in his head

Not all bad, each of them offer some degree of hope, even the Devil and suicide. Suicide spares anybody else from the coming bloodshed, Devil "saves" V or gives them a chance to enjoy their time left, Tower "saves" V as well, Temperance gives Johnny a new chance and V probably doesn't die, the Star costs more lives but V has opportunity to survive and if not live out his life with people he loves, and the Sun and Reaper endings imply that V will either die a legend or survive most optimally. Each one has a cost, but also offer some degree of hope for V

"You've just discovered what it takes to become a legend."

walks through weapon detector

"Time to party like it's 2023."

KINOOOOOOOOO
I wish it was a full independent ending and didn't just lead to others

Didn't read about other endings and don't want to replay game since my first outcome will always be 'true' no matter how bad I feel about it.
Could only take a pill or help Hanako in the end, and I thought commiting sudoku was just a dead end for story. After surgery didn't work I just said 'fuck it' and returned to Earth with 6 months left.

I guess most people would assume that charging into Arasaka HQ alone is essentially corpo-assisted suicide. Someone wouldn't do that unless they wanted to die

Never was never will be and it isn't an RPG but action adventure slop fest and years of additional dev time didn't do jack shit for the core of the game

True.

if you weren't a retard and you put an SSD in your PS4, the game ran fine

Didn't do the DLC? There's another ending option there too.

worked great for me on day 1 pc, sounds like a you problem

put on

It's her normal voice

Yeah, the hate is weird. I had some friends buy it Day 1 on last gen consoles and just fucking moaned about it. Like, did they not think for a second that it was never gonna run on that shit? I knew from the start it was gonna need another year or two of work, and just fucking waited that shit out. Got a good game out of it in the end - enjoyed the hell out of it. No bugs. Smooth. Aesthetic as fuck.

I actually did, helped Songbird and bitch just disappeared without saying a word. I skipped couple of in-game days, nothing happened and just went to meet Hanako. Quest was technically still active, but it didn't affect anything.

but Male V sounds like a dingus which fits his character more

helped Songbird and bitch just disappeared

Helped how? Like, did you end up underground in Alien: Isolation? Did you steal someone's face and impersonate them?

i played on the ps4 version everyone said was unplayable before they had to take it off the store. the only thing i had to deal with was slow loading and some crashes.

well yeah, did you pay attention? she used you. you get a sick implant out of it after a while though. the actual ending comes from allying with NUSA

I thought both did fine, but Fem V hits me harder for some of the more emotional moments.

Fem V hits me harder for some of the more emotional moments.

V whines at an incredibly entitled level throughout the game
"OH PLEASE VIC, YOU'LL FIX ME RIGHT? YOU ALWAYS KNEW HOW TO FIX ME BEFORE!"

I really wish Victor had a line that said "No, you went off on this job fair and square and you got hosed, you stupid gonk. You got exactly what you fucking deserve." Instead of coddling V like a bitch while they're whining in his clinic.

Yeah just suck it up guy in his early 20s that just lost everything and learned his brain is slowly dissolving, quit whining and begging for your life. Idiot. Retard.

"You took a mercenary job against the world's largest military corporation, you brat. How did you think it was gonna turn out?"

DAMN BRAT...

vic has a heart of gold, he's not going to be a dick

me when my friend is dying "lol get owned"

Anon doesn't understand why someone would act desperate and emotional upon hearing that they're terminally ill

Maybe you misread the characterization but Viktor isn't actually a piece of shit to his friends.

Making your friends acknowledge the harsh realities that they actively deny is the most 'friend' thing that you can do to them.

The big nomad raid after they accept you as one of their own

Drilling through some Night Corp construction (omni glowies) right into the basement

Crashing into the tower with Rogue and Weyland as Johnny for one final shot at redemption

Shooting your way from the top to the basement

Making a deal with the devil and have Hellman or Takemura if you saved him pick you up

Possible encounter with the incomplete Jackie contruct

Takemura is the only companion that doesn't get smashered by Adam

Directly responsible for bringing Saburo back

Schizoid episode epilogue where your brain gets referred to as a ship of Theseus

Takemura might actually be the best character in the game

"Welcome to Arasaka tower."

Rebel path kicks in

Johnny acts as your hype man throughout

Arasaka goons having a mental break that 1 (one, uno, ichi, eins) person butchers their way through their fortress

Even in the endings where you make it to Mikoshi, the V you were playing as might be gone depending on what your take on soulkiller is. The only ending where V gets to life with no asterisk and not on ~6 month timer is the Mayer's NUSA DLC ending that comes at the cost of becoming so incompatible with cyberware they essentially cannot function in society anymore and have to give up on all their dreams. The DLC also comes with Songbird getting fucked no matter whose side you pick, since you either deliver her to Blue Eye or Mayers. Mayers is also no better than Saburo and there is no reason to believe you get the pencil pusher job that Idris Elba promised you because even those guys run brain augments.

The game doesn't deliver on what the marketing has promised, but it ends strong regardless of what you pick. It's always a bang and doesn't just fade away. The Night Corp / Rogue AI sub plot is by far the most interesting part in the game and I hope they follow that one up with Orion.

Yeah friends make the lowers low and underestimate their friends ability to realize that themselves. He literally just woke up from being dead, you're insane.

Not in the same breath that you have to tell them that they have less than a fucking year to live.

I liked the writing in the Devil ending the most, even if it's ridiculously grim.

V is an undead reanimated corpse, thanks for playing.

Game tells you in the first hour that you either fade into obscurity, or go out with a bang.

Game delivers several takes on those two themes

Gamers: What do you mean there's no happy ending where I get everything I want?

kys lying nigger not even PC was exempt from the day 1 shitshow

Yes it was. Pirated 2077 1.03 on day1 immediately after it launched and it ran without hiccup.

SoMi DSL

My 5 playthroughs claim otherwise, retard.
The most stable/bugfree version was 1.6, 2.0 reintroduced a lot of shit which just reinforces the obvious notion that all the people who claim the game is 'fixed' never played it to begin with.

As for the differences in 1.0 and 1.6? Legitimately not a ton. The only bugs I experienced at launch were the occasional animation glitch. The only actual bug I had happened ONCE and it was that the combat music got stuck on loop, and reloading an earlier save fixed it.

You should stop watching less e-celebs/shitposting on here and playing games instead. Might be surprised at how much shit is overblown.

somi horny
me love you long time

Please.

didn't have any real issues on a GTX 970/4790k + SSD setup when it launched, and that config was really showing its age by that point. my only complaints at that time were gameplay related. it's fair to say that the game was PC first and that the consoles were afterthoughts

CDPR forces you to kill them

Probably the only thing in the DLC I really didn't like. Felt really weird how you didn't have a choice.

GTX 970/4790k + SSD

As a matter of fact, this is the setup I had in 2020. The game ran at almost always 60FPS because raytracing was off.

won't someone think of the international criminals that would've killed you in a heartbeat

Her accent was divine
That was the point though, even V is surprised at how Reed and Alex just murk them without any word beforehand.

becoming so incompatible with cyberware they essentially cannot function in society anymore and have to give up on all their dreams.

the ending overexaggerates how fucked V actually is because muscle atrophy
bioware is fine, passive cyberware is fine, hell even a netrunner V could make it work if they just learned to offload ram costs like AIs do instead of just taking it raw like an idiot

True, but it's actually the two black-ops USA special agents who do it, and even V is like "fuck me that's a bit cold-blooded".

As were her looks

I tried to make a mod where it replaced the fem V voice acting with AI lines from Uma Thurman sampled from kill bill but I couldn't get the model to work. I would like to see someone do it some day.

I remember Reed telling V that anything but the most basic communication cyberware is out of the picture and Viktor confirms this after doing a checkup. Netrunners are tricked out the ass, V has no chance in the field.

It's pure kino, the most fun ending to play and the best designed one. Really feels like what V would pick

The corpo origin is the best choice for male V. The wannabe tough guy remarks can make match up perfectly with the terrible manlet-esque voice acting. Not trolling, it helps with immersion. Reminds me of the VtM Malkavian playthrough.

1650

how fucked I am bros? any meme mod to boost up my performance?

if you're on 1080p, you'll be fine. Just don't turn raytracing on.

wasn't the game notorious for having a terrible performance on pee cee?

keep in mind that most people complaining about PC performance, especially on Anon Babble, are running 10 year old midrange shitboxes and complaining that devs can't optimize away the laws of physics

V has no chance in the field.

because V is a retard that can't into backdoors
or he can just use a non-implant cyberdeck
also V's problem is purely neurological, sandevistans and the like are out but there's nothing stopping V from having subdermal armor

I would agree

No, not really.
I mean, it IS a modern game and good looking one, so a potato can't run it, but it's not poorly optimized now or at launch.