Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty delivers on the promises the base game failed to deliver at launch – hands-on

When Mike Pondsmith first came up with the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, he wanted to make sure that punk… appropriate punk – was at the heart of it all. “It’s not just the philosophical attitude of the punk scene and it’s not just the music — everything about punk originally inspired cyberpunk,” he told me, years ago, in a crowded room at E3.

As development of the game based on his beloved property continued, and cyberpunk 2077 finally released, this initial seed of the universe was easily forgotten. It turns out that a world designed to question corporate greed and reflect the ugly reality of capitalist culture fell apart for some of the very things it set out to satirize.

So the sentiment towards Cyberpunk 2077 soured. Upon release, the game became a totem pole for pretty much everything gamers hate about the industry right now; Sales, broken promises, inconsistent messages: the list goes on. Class action lawsuits, the game’s removal from storefronts, major news about this sloppy and unsatisfactory release… what can go wrong did go wrong in Cyberpunk 2077. Even after years of refinements and improvements, and the patching of the game’s potential that is running out. Post-patch, public sentiment towards Phantom Liberty is lukewarm at best. Hostile, at worst.

But it’s worth remembering that CD Projekt Red isn’t just Cyberpunk 2077, it’s also The Witcher 3, one of the most beloved games of all time. A modern classic. They’re also the two main expansions for The Witcher 3 (Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone) – DLC packs that are widely hailed as some of the best value add-ons we’ve ever seen. A tonic for horse armor and battle passes that proliferate elsewhere.

“We’re creators and we wanted to make the most incredible expansion for the game that we couldn’t include everything in at launch,” says game director Gabriel Amatangelo when noting that Phantom Liberty has what it takes to redeem Cyberpunk 2077 in the eyes of the still cynical. “For the last two years, we’ve just put our heads down and carried on with this. ‘Let’s do more, let’s add things, let’s really find out what opportunities this world can bring,’ that’s what we’ve really been thinking about.”

And look at anyone who has played it, Phantom Liberty is good. Fast, angry, drenched in neon and blood, packed with the kind of performances you’d expect from one of our industry’s most prominent games. Production values ​​are through the roof. All of the voice talent, all of the ambient design, all of the bombast… is intact. Maybe even a little brighter and nicer now that the PS4 and Xbox One shaped albatross around CDPR’s neck has finally dropped into the ocean.

The premise is simple: you must work with NUS President Rosalin Myers after an attempt is made on her life. Songbird will inform and support you, a very nice name for someone with a very unpleasant skill set. Beyond that, details are scant, but suffice to say it’s a spy thriller: part Archer, part Alpha Protocol, part Ian Fleming. She takes you to a walled-off part of Night City, home to bastards and thugs, and dares you to come out. That is your goal; survive and find out what the hell is going on. Your actions in the DLC will also influence the ending of the full game.

You might think it’s strange that a game set in a genre obsessed with being anti-establishment and harnessing the righteous anger of rebellion, sets a story around the not-so-accurate President of the United States. “Myers is a realistic character, with complex emotions and agendas, and we want the player to navigate that and triangulate it with everything else in the world,” Amatangelo quips. “We’re certainly not afraid of challenges, and we want to be bold with the characters, the settings, the dynamics, and the characters, and we don’t want to go for the easy shortcuts. We want to go for the things that broaden people’s horizons and challenge your way of thinking.how’s that for a spoiler free answer?

In terms of gameplay, the two most significant updates I got were the armor/outfit mods and the new Relic skill tree. Combined, these new elements extend the depth of RPG systems in the game. On their own, they add more granularity to the way you build and refine your build.

Relic, as a skill tree, adds things like Vulnerability Analytics (see enemy weaknesses in the HUD), Emergency Cloaking (activates camouflage during combat), Spatial Mapping (increases critical hit and dismemberment chance with Mantis Blades), and Sensory Protocol (trigger slow motion when detected while crouched). It’s all about combat utility, interacting with whatever setup you’re running, and giving you more non-combat options if you find yourself in a firefight. I only had a chance to play ‘Fast Solo’ – think Raiden from MGS and you’ll have an idea of ​​the build.

I’m saying, without a doubt, that the Phantom Liberty combat feels even better than the main game; deflecting bullets against hired goons who move in to provide support as you slice and dice the doomed meatbags closest to you? Air-drop into a forward unit and slit their throats as they reel in shock? Put on your camouflage when you’re overwhelmed, flank the bastards, and come in with one of their own stolen shotguns? It feels more like Bulletstorm, or Shadow Warrior, or something – Cyberpunk wasn’t designed to be a game like those, but with the right build, it feels right at home in the genre.

“Visceral, it’s one of the keywords for us here,” Amatangelo nods when I drop that Bulletstorm reference into the conversation. “We want, when you’re playing our games, the realization of the fantasy. And a big part of fulfilling the fantasy in Cyberpunk 2077 is being this cyberwear superhuman, so in Phantom Liberty, we have all these new abilities and traits and abilities that play into that and allow you to fulfill this fantasy. Combining these abilities and skills for an emerging game? That’s the core of what we wanted to do.”

With Phantom Liberty, it seems that CDPR is back to being the same; interested in pedigree, dedicated to offering something worthwhile, respectful of your time and wallet. The DLC may cost more than both The Witcher 3 DLC sets combined, but it also promises to inject a significant amount of content—a mouthful of spit and a handful of polish—into the base game at the same time.

Seeing the confidence with which [Game director Gabriel Amatangelo] and his team, and the fluidity and frenzy of the DLC so far, I’m not worried about the value proposition of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. “Listen to punk and at a certain point you realize it’s not about the world, it’s about how you relate to the world on your level,” Pondsmith once told me. “That is important. [Punk’s] The anthem isn’t ‘let’s save the world, we’re all friends’, it’s ‘you got me in the face you son of a bitch’…followed by a headbutt”. Phantom Liberty seems to be living by that philosophy and making good on a cyberpunk promise that many have been yearning for the past three years.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Phantom Liberty launches on September 26 and will set you back £24.99.