Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review

To say the original release of Cyberpunk 2077 was troubled is an understatement, over the years of development, it promised so much, be it the open world that was to offer so much with all of the factions at play, to a future multiplayer mode, none of it materialized and to make matters worse, it suffered delay after delay. When it finally did see a release in December 2020, it was clear that the game was still not ready for release as it was plagued with technical issues that were so disastrous that it saw the game pulled from Sony’s digital store with full refunds being issued at launch.

This was a massive shock to the system for developer CD Projekt Red who, before Cyberpunk’s release, were massively popular due to the success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in particular. They made it clear that they had listened to all of the feedback and set out on a path to fixing the game into something that fans had been expecting from the start. And so began the start of the redemption tour for Cyberpunk 2077. A long one that spanned just under three years, some large updates, a Netflix series, and now, today, the massive expansion, Phantom Liberty.

Beyond the initial fixes here and there, it wasn’t until September 2022 with the Edgerunners update that saw some changes to the game. Mainly some new Gigs and other side content to tie in with the Cyberpunk’s anime that was released on Netflix. It wasn’t long after that Phantom Liberty, and the 2.0 update, was announced, and for fans of CD Projekt’s previous expansions, the fantastic DLC to The Witcher 3, Blood & Wine, there was cause to get excited about this potential release.

Update 2.0 and New Beginnings

Before we get to the subject of Phantom Liberty, the main course, we’d be remiss to not take the time to address all of the changes that come with 2.0, as they’re a large part of the overall package of Phantom Liberty, even if they’re available to users without the DLC. There’s a whole host of changes to the core gameplay experience of Cyberpunk with this update, to the point where it almost feels like playing a different game, even if the moment-to-moment gameplay has not changed too much.

The Skill Tree and Perks system has been completely redesigned from the base game and has seen the addition of new perks altogether. You’ll still gain XP for performing specific feats, such as being quiet and using stealth kills to raise the Shinobi skill, or headshots increasing the Headhunter skill. This is crucial as for every five level increments, you’ll gain a bonus of some kind, be it a passive increase or a Perk Point for you to use on the newly designed Perk system. You can also increase these skills by finding Skill Shards on the bodies of your enemies or lying around in the environment and they’ll directly grant XP to the relevant skill.

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The new weak point system adds a bit more depth to the combat system.

The Perk system is now more of a typical tree you’d see in most other RPGs, where you’ll be required to raise the Attribute of the associated tree to gain access to the higher, and thus more useful, Perks. To aid in all of this, the game has seen an increased Level Cap to Level 60, giving players carrying over their characters some more levels to shoot for (more on that later). It’s a nice change, as it prevents you from having your V become too powerful, too quickly, as was often the case in the original vision of Cyberpunk.

Cyberware has seen a complete overhaul too, with the addition of the Capacity system adding a little twist to it. Now, when you upgrade the various Cyberware (and there’s some new Cyberware to look for in Dogtown), it will contribute to your Armor, which is mainly increased via the Cyberware system. You can increase your capacity by finding Shards or acquiring a few Perks that directly increase it, along with simply increasing your level. Once again, this is another change for the better as it prevents you from becoming too powerful too quickly.

Phantom Liberty and 2.0 also introduce vehicle combat, a much-needed addition after it was oddly missing from the initial launch of the game. Now, while driving, V can lean out and shoot at vehicles that are in pursuit, and you’ll come across some vehicles that come with mounted weapons. To make use of this new system, you’ll find vehicle missions in Dogtown (exclusive to Phantom Liberty) along with the new police system where you’ll need to put your skills behind the wheel to the test. The newly added Police System means that you’ll be properly punished for the mayhem you cause in Night City now. As with most games with a Police System, you’ll find a heat system that increases as your criminal activities escalate. This will see Police use barricades, deploy stronger enemies, and be overall more aggressive, a welcome change from the shallow experience it was at launch.

A Thrilling Story With Consequences

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The excellent cast really brings the story to life.

The main course, however, is the Phantom Liberty storyline, and you have two ways of gaining access to the new storyline. The first is to load your save from your previous V and so long as you’ve at least finished the events of the first Act of the game, you’ll get a call from the mysterious Songbird, asking for your help and directing you to the border of Dogtown, the new district that Phantom Liberty takes place in.

Alternatively, and the choice we took for the purpose of this review, you can start a new character from the main menu with access to Phantom Liberty. This will start you at Level 15, not far from the border of Dogtown, where you’ll get that same call. You’ll have your Perks and Attributes already assigned, but you’ll have the ability of a free respec where you can reallocate them however you wish. For those of you who have played Cyberpunk before, it’s a good idea to go ahead and create a fresh save for Phantom Liberty, not least because there is a danger of your base-game saves getting corrupted (an issue one of our colleagues was not so fortunate to have happen to their saves). Finishing Phantom Liberty allows you to continue your adventure in Night City with the rest of the game and Level 15 feels a nice level to start the new expansion.

Phantom Liberty has a clear theme in its story, one of a spy thriller and it is one that works extremely well for the location and characters that inhabit Night City. What starts as a rescue attempt for the downed ship of NUSA president, Rosalind Myers, who finds herself stranded in the enemy territory of Dogtown soon develops into a shadowy underworld where you’ll link up with FIA agent Solomon Reed played by the excellent Idris Elba to track down a missing comrade. It’s a great backdrop for a story in Night City and one that has major consequences for protagonist V and her co-pilot, Johnny Silverhand, who still has a role to play in this expansion despite not being the main focus.

The story comes in at a respectable length, offering over 10 Main Missions and taking us around 15 hours to see to completion when focusing mainly on the Main Mission. If you’re here just for the story, you will, at times, need to complete a few Gigs or Side Jobs to unlock the next mission, but that shouldn’t deter you much as all of the Gigs and Side Jobs had interesting stories to tell, with some choices that will make you really think.

As you may expect after playing the base game of Cyberpunk, there is a branching path to the main storyline as you approach the final third, and how your story ends will be impacted by the choices you make, one that we found was a difficult choice to make, helped by the fantastic performances of Solomon and Songbird (the other main character of this expansion). When our time with the story was done, we were eager to jump back in at an older save to see how the other path played out, and on top of that, there is a new ending to the base game depending on the events of Phantom Liberty.

You can decide to go straight for this ending following the completion of Phantom Liberty without playing through the rest of the base game’s main missions, and we won’t spoil this, but it’s recommended to play through the base game rather than going straight for the new ending. After all, V’s connection with the various people of Night City is one of the highlights of both the original game and Phantom Liberty. When all is said and done, we enjoyed the main story of Phantom Liberty, the new characters were fun to interact with and the spy thriller theme set up a few great missions.

Enter Dogtown

So Dogtown is the new district that comes with Phantom Liberty, and as you may expect by a district ruled with an iron fist with no influence outside of it, it’s a rough place to be. You’ll find little of the glitz and glamor that you found in the City Center, but there are still some beautiful areas to look at such as The Heavy Hearts club, where you’ll find the enigmatic Mr. Hands, to the Black Sapphire, the most exclusive club anywhere in Night City, of which sits atop a massive skyscraper, the views are definitely breathtaking. The overall area of Dogtown never feels too small, and especially for the missions that take place in its streets, always has something different to see and a story to tell.

The missions themselves don’t play out too much differently than what you found in the base game, but if you’re starting fresh with Phantom Liberty, you’ll find certain paths through some of the locales are cut off to you, depending on where you’ve focused on your Attributes. This may be a little downplayed when you’re bringing an existing character over, we often found 12 Attribute points in a specific stat was enough to get through a door or other such contraption so at Levels 50-60, with high attribute points, you’ll most likely have all routes available to you. Still, there are some fantastic mission scenarios, all of which play into the theme of living out a spy thriller and what we consider some of the best that Cyberpunk has to offer.

Aside from the changes 2.0 brings, Dogtown will also be home to Airdrops and Courier missions, content that will always give you something to do in Night City long after you’re done with all the various storylines. Airdrops will see cargo routinely dropped into Dogtown, marked with a flare, that is usually guarded by Barghest soldiers, but you can find rival faction gangs in a shootout and many more scenarios. It’s nothing special, but there is some useful loot to find if you can get there before the enemy and create opportunities where you can go wild with the combat system.

The other new activity, Courier missions, is an opportunity to put all of the new vehicle changes into action. Often, you’ll find a vehicle that needs to be relieved from its original owner and then driven back to El Capitan’s (a fixer) garages. As you may expect, you’ll be pursued so vehicle combat will be a large part of these missions, and the sole use (outside of Police chases) of the new vehicle Perks found in the redesigned Perk system as the main storyline offers little in the way of opportunities for it. They’re nothing special, but they do offer a way to break up the flow of just doing missions if you’re in the mood for that kind of thing.

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Boss fights are bigger and better than ever.

The one other new addition to Phantom Liberty over the 2.0 update is the new Relic Skill Tree, that you unlock near the beginning of the first mission. You’ll find three major new skills, with branches off that are an attempt to change up combat a little and they do help a little toward that goal. We spent most of our time with the new Vulnerability Analytics skill, where enemies will now show weak points that you can aim and shoot at, giving you increased armor penetration and critical damage chance alongside causing the weak points to explode and damage nearby enemies. On top of this, you have new abilities for the Mantis Blades, Gorilla Arms, Projectile Launch System, and Monowire, all adding a useful ability to them while you’ll now be able to activate optical camo in battle to have enemies lose sight of you.

You won’t be able to learn these skills the usual way, instead, you’ll have to track down Militech terminals throughout Dogtown and hack them to get a skill point. By the time you’re finished with Phantom Liberty, you’ll be able to learn all of the skills and carry them over to the rest of your adventure. This new system is the biggest change to the gameplay from the 2.0 update when it comes to Phantom Liberty exclusive content, so it may not feel too different if you’ve spent a lot of time with the 2.0 update by the time Phantom Liberty releases.

So, with all of the changes that the 2.0 update brings, and Phantom Liberty, where does Cyberpunk stack as a gameplay experience in 2023? The Perks and Cyberware system are an improvement over what was originally there, and the new Relic tree is fun to play with but as a whole, the moment-to-moment gameplay of Cyberpunk doesn’t feel too different. If you weren’t a fan of it before, Phantom Liberty won’t do much to change your mind, but if you got enjoyment out of the base game’s gameplay, Phantom Liberty adds upon that and refines it.

A Graphical Masterpiece

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Cyberpunk is jaw-dropping if you have a system capable of using all the bells and whistles.

Cyberpunk was a real mess when it launched, it had plenty of bugs (the console version especially was unacceptable), but it was still a real looker provided you had the means to really push it. Phantom Liberty is no different there, and we were fortunate to have a rig including a 4090 to really push Phantom Liberty to its maximum with all the bells and whistles it provides.

As such, we were really able to test the new Ray Tracing Overdrive Mode and Ray Reconstruction and the results are that it looks stunning. Make no mistake, Cyberpunk is still the benchmark for how good games can look and push your system. With the addition of DLSS 3.5, it runs smoothly on our rig too, at 4K and every available setting to the max, we very rarely dipped below 60 fps (and even then, it was around 55 fps). It helps that there are some areas, especially at night, such as the Heavy Hearts club or a mission that takes you to an exclusive club on top of a skyscraper that really shows it off and enhances the overall gameplay experience.

The new characters are all beautifully rendered, and Idris Elba’s model especially stands out as very impressive. Seeing all of these characters interact with each other really helps to immerse yourself in the game’s storyline and want to keep pressing forward. The lighting, especially, is the real winner here, with the way it bounces off surfaces, and the reflections, especially during the rain at night, is something to behold.

We’ve been fortunate in the way of any major bugs during our time with Phantom Liberty. We started a character from fresh for Phantom Liberty, something that CD Projekt themselves recommend, so there were no issues of corrupted saves, but a colleague on the console version did have the unfortunate issue appear when using a pre-existing character. Still, unless you’re a complete newcomer to Cyberpunk, we’d err on the side of caution and start a fresh character to avoid this potential hiccup.

There was the odd time when we found ourselves stuck in the corner, or behind some of the various junk littered around the areas while sneaking around, and even a few times we had to reload to get out of it. Likewise, vehicles on the road lead to times where you’ll get run over by NPC vehicles when you’re going about your business, something that became mildly frustrating as we decided to run around most of Dogtown rather than behind the wheel. We also had a situation where the game would not advance the main story when we were passing time waiting for a call from one of the game’s characters. Once again, we had to reload to an earlier save to fix this, as no matter how long we waited, the call would not come (upon a reload, it would after waiting a day or two).

A Better Product

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Take the time to soak in the atmosphere, especially during the main missions, as the visuals are breathtaking.

The one-two combo of Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty feels like it finally brings Cyberpunk to a position where it should have been at launch. It may be three years too late, but it’s a much better game today as a result of it and the Phantom Liberty storyline is a real highlight and arguably our favorite storyline in Cyberpunk. There are excellent performances from all of the new characters, and female V is as fantastic as she was in the original storyline, stealing almost every scene with her delivery.

At $29.99, there’s great value for money here, you’re getting a storyline that will take you around 10-15 hours to see to the end for one of the two main paths, a bunch of interesting new Gigs and Side Jobs, all that help to flesh out Dogtown and some of the more mysterious characters (such as Mr. Hands) from the original game and Dogtown itself is a sizeable location for you to explore. If you were already a fan of Cyberpunk 2077, Phantom Liberty gives you more of what you loved with some refined mechanics and excellent visuals. If you never cared for it, Phantom Liberty will do little to change your mind.