Well, I couldn't help myself. Even though my system really isn't up to snuff to play this game in its full graphical glory, I broke down and got it, and in fact it looks great even on Low/Medium settings, and plays smoothly.
First impressions: turns out all that Chicken Little stuff a few days ago was premature. The gunplay's actually fairly decent even after just a couple of level-ups, there are only a few graphical glitches here and there, and I haven't encountered a T-Pose or any of that horroshow stuff yet. Yeah, it could do with a bit more polish, there are a few annoyances here and there, but basically it's a really good storyfag experience. There's an awful lot on offer in terms of potential side-quests and distractions, but for me the main story and the sense of relationship with the other main characters is so absorbing I've just been pursuing that, and haven't touched a single thing outside it. It's not that it feels on-rails, it's that I don't want to go off the rails because the story has such momentum in the way it's presented.
What it reminds me of more than anything else, actually, is the immersive sim type of experience. Not in terms of there being a rich smorgasbord of choices of different ways of going about things (although there's a reasonably wide choice in terms of different styles of melee and gunplay), but in terms of the almost hallucinatory sense of virtual reality one sometimes gets from an immersive sim. You know that feeling, when you come up for air for a moment, step back, and realize you've been totally inside the virtual world, and what you've been experiencing has been fooling your reality-detection pretty well. That aspect of the game is maybe the best I've yet experienced in an RPG. I've experienced it to this depth only in playing things like System Shock for the first time, or (bizarrely enough) in some MMOs.
In the sense of RPG as a rich progression system it's not that great (though it's not terrible either, at least so far), and while there have been some choices that seem to be pregnant with different consequences for later in the game, I don't know if that actually pans out or not yet. But in the sense of feeling like you really are your avatar, forming relationships with the characters, it's very much an RPG, and in that sense it doesn't disappoint at all. That alone isn't going to be every Codexer's cup of tea, I know, but speaking for myself, I'm finding it hugely entertaining. But by the same token, I'm not sure it's going to have much replayability - unless the other careers are different enough from the one I've chosen (Corpo). But I should imagine they are - there have been quite a lot of dialogue options that have come up based on my career that have given me special little edges and insights, which is nice, and if it's the same with the other 2 careers, then it might have some replayability.
There's one particular sub-form of gameplay in the game that I don't want to spoil, because it really is quite amazing and creatively done and presented (in the way that the other characters interact with you wrt it), and you have to experience it for yourself - it's a special kind of detective work. (A clue: the 1983 movie Brainstorm.) I've no idea whether it only happens the once in the game or not yet (probably yes), but even just the once it's quite stunning to experience, and again, gives you that hallucinatory virtual reality feeling, and fits very well with the cyberpunk theme.
Something else that's surprised me is the music. Most of the clips I've seen have a lot of that buzzsaw synth and ass-spanking drum sound, and I though I'd find it really wearing; and it is what you get in combat. But actually, when there are key story points in the offing, there's a rather lovely kind of subdued synth padding that sounds quite portentous and fits the feeling of the world very well.
Anyway: the sky isn't falling, and this isn't CDPR's Waterloo. Far from it.