Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Review – Is the Game Fixed?

Is Cyberpunk fixed? The release of its story DLC titled Phantom Liberty may finally answer the question.

*Minor spoilers ahead*

Introduction

Cyberpunk 2077 arguably holds two titles in the gaming world, most anticipated release and most disappointing release. The new DLC however came mere days after a V.2 patch that changes some gameplay mechanics and fixes some of the games oldest problems. 

Developer CD Projekt Red shared via an investor’s presentation that Phantom Liberty cost around $84 million to create and market, around half the cost of the base game as well reporting that around 3600 people have worked on the game overall. All of this cost goes hand in hand with the $40 million reported to upgrade the game to next gen with the V.2 update.

Story

Cyberpunk 2077 has you explore the hub of Night City and play as protagonist ‘V’, barring some dialogue nothing changes depending on the gender you select for the character. You get three backstories to choose from:

Corpo: You start off working for a corrupt and power-hungry corporation until you get burnt by them.

Streetkid: Night City is your home; you grew up on the streets and fall into the life of a merc.

Nomad: You desire freedom, living in the badlands outside of the confines of Night City, you work as a smuggler and take odd jobs to support your nomad family. 

There are some slight differences in the opening of the game as well as certain dialogue options becoming available to you depending on your start in life, but once you meet Jackie Welles whichever background you select begins to converge on the same path. 

V and Jackie become friends start doing odd jobs together until they are approached by legendary fixer Dexter DeShawn about a risky but profitable gig, stealing a piece of the tech called ‘the relic’ from the worlds most dangerous corp, Arasaka. 

The relic was an experimental bit of tech that allowed a users memories and personality to be uploaded as an engram, allowing whoever was uploaded to take over the host and control a new body. All it takes is one bullet to the head to awaken Johnny Silverhand, rock and roll star and rebel played by Keanu Reeves. 

Thats the basics you need to know for the story, upon starting a new game you get the option of whether you start the game from the usual spot or start a little later in the game (with some perks) at the start of the Phantom Liberty story. Both ways give you the mission via a phonecall from the presidents netrunner Songbird. If you want to play this expansion with an existing character you need to be around 10 hours into the story around the time you meet Alt with the Voodoo Boys. 

Songbird phones you with a gig and promises of fixing the damaged relic in V’s head. Upon meeting her you find out that the president of the NUSA has been shot down over an area called ‘Dogtown’, you are tasked with sneaking into Dogtown and saving the president. 

Upon rescue you discover the makings of a conspiracy and President Myers enrolls you as an agent of the FIA and gives you the contact details of an inactive sleeper agent based in Dogtown. This sleeper agent turns out to be Reed, played brilliantly by Idris Elba. 

The following few hours of gameplay has you use your contacts like Mr Hands to gain information on your enemy, commander of the faction known as Barghest called Kurt Hansen. It turns out Hansen is holding Songbird to open a secret AI with information on the Blackspace behind the firewall you previously visit with the Voodoo Boys. 

It follows the Cyberpunk formula of branching narratives and meaningful choices that determine future outcomes, along with a whole new ending to the game. While trying not to spoil the game the new ending is “happy” to a point, really emphasising the Cyberpunk story about how much should you sacrifice to live as a legend for a while or live as another face in the crowd for a longer time. 

Gameplay

This DLC has been released after the most recent update top Cyberpunk 2077, but to call it an update doesn’t give it justice, it really is a full overhaul. Watch this space for full details of the update coming soon. 

Some of the new overhauled mechanics include being able to shoot from your vehicle, hack into other vehicles and a whole new skill tree. The DLC however has Songbird make a modification to the relic in V’s head. Deleting some redundant files and replacing them with a whole new skill tree, that focuses on increasing the usability of certain augmentations. The augmentations effected are the combat ones so improvements to the nanowires, mantis blades and that kind of thing. 

Cyberpunk 2077 did a great job of having varied mission types but Phantom Liberty has taken this to a new level. With a sniper overwatch mission, a stealth mission hiding from an insta-killing robot and infiltrating a swanky party. 

Graphics and Sound

Even with the bugs and crashing issues at the games launch in 2020, Cyberpunk has always been a very pretty game, the V.2 upgrade has also effected some of the graphical parts. Cyberpunk can go down into history as one of the best looking games that I can’t see aging over the next few years. The likeness of Idris Elba that was used was absolutely flawless, just like that of Keanu Reeves.

The sounds have stayed the same with some minor improvements from the base game. The voice acting throughout the whole of Phantom Liberty has been completely stellar, truly award worthy.  

Replayability

A key aspect of a game to make it more replayable is the chance of different endings, even arcade machines like House of the Dead had multiple endings. Cyberpunk is very much the same with your in-game choices deciding your outcome. Cyberpunk as a whole let alone this new DLC Phantom Liberty is great to replay. While working through some missions the thought came into my head of “when I play through this again i’ll try it this way” so a game that can make you want to replay it while actually playing it must be good.

Conclusion

The players who looked past the previous issues in the game of Cyberpunk will love this new DLC and for people who have been holding off after hearing the issues, Phantom Liberty along with the overhaul update is a great reason to push those worries aside and play the game. Comment below chooms and let us know what you think about the game, and make sure to check out the information about the Cyberpunk 2077 live action confirmation here.