Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review
Phantom Liberty. Let me start by being brief: If you own Cyberpunk 2077, you owe it to yourself to experience this expansion to the game…
Phantom Liberty. Let me start by being brief: If you own Cyberpunk 2077, you owe it to yourself to experience this expansion to the game. Why is that? There’s a myriad of reasons, but the one I wish all 2077 owners could experience is Dogtown. Why Dogtown? It is beautifully designed. You’ll first see it on the map, spanning just a couple of football fields out next to Pacifica, and you may think to yourself, “Dang. That is not a big area.” On paper, it’s not. But every INCH feels used for a quest or a hidden item or something. The verticality of places on top of places on top of places goes beyond anything that the base game has ever even tried attempting, and it just makes Dogtown feel so much more DENSE and alive than some of the busiest streets of Night City. It was something that I continued to play around with and explore for over 40 hours, hardly leaving to go into the base game. I hope the team takes the same approach as they expand Night City’s innards, in the successor game.
But what of the story, the characters, the new mechanics, gigs, etc.? They’re all fantastic. First, the main plotline. I thought this was done excellently. There are 4 endings to just Phantom Liberty, plus you can unlock a new ending to the base game. These are some of the best quests in the game, brought to life by the lovely combination of acting, writing, game design, and original score. Making decisions in Phantom Liberty feel like they matter, investigating characters beyond the required dialogue always feels relevant and rewarding, and the moments that are supposed to pack-a-punch, absolutely hit home.
I’ve played enough Phantom Liberty to have experienced all four of the expansion’s endings, and all four of them are powerful. Their finales rival many of the base games’ best moments. They all feel emotionally heavy, with their sense of gravitas. Not to mention the full-on base game ending, which surprisingly exceeded my expectations. Without spoiling much, I’ll say that I do not like the new ending — but I respect the developers for being bold enough to take me there, a place I never thought I would be curious about. It is marvelously done. It is an ending the game needs. It is one you should experience.
The new character inclusions of Reed and Songbird are great. They have excellent dialogue. Their motivations are clear and clever. I think “spy-craft” was the perfect genre for this story and these characters, all the elements work well together. I didn’t get attached to Reed/SoMi as much as say, Judy, but they both give powerful performances, enough to make me care about their characters and the story at hand. Other characters around Dogtown are excellent as well, and the stories told through gigs, and optional dialogue I thought were some of the better world-building in this entire game. The developers did a fantastic job.
Speaking of gigs, I think all of Dogtown’s gigs are pretty fun and memorable. It’s amazing how environmentally different the gigs are in such a small area. Dilapidated cyberware museum, overgrown greenhouse, construction site, fancy bar, I mean the variety of the locations is just awe-inspiring, I am so impressed that they were able to cohesively shove all of this in here, and they all make a big impact in helping each gig feel unique.
There are a couple of gigs that don’t feel unique… after you’ve played them a few times. A bunch of airdrops land around Dogtown from time to time and spawn a bunch of difficult henchmen. These have some exceptionally great loot, and getting to it can be a bit of a challenge. While these constantly spawn, there is a noticeable finite amount of locations, so you’re bound to experience all of the scenarios eventually. The other activity is this car-jacking gig that’ll randomly appear, where you steal a car, and get it to a safehouse. This also has some random elements like, where to drop off, if enemies are chasing you, if there’s a time limit, that sort of thing. These, like airdrops, are fun at first, but quickly wear out their welcome. I’m glad they both exist in the game though, for what it’s worth.
Beyond all of this, there are some new abilities that you can get in Phantom Liberty that make V insanely overpowered. This, combined with the ripperdoc who sells iconic cyberware allowed me to kick things up a notch. It was really fun unlocking these, and becoming an unkillable cyberpsychotic god-being in Dogtown. No notes!
Overall, again, I can’t express how excellent Phantom Liberty is. I’ve played over 200 hours of the base game, and I’m here to say this expansion is some of the best that it has to offer. That said, I encourage new players to play through the entire base game first, THEN purchase Phantom Liberty. It’ll be much easier to appreciate the genius of the expansion after you’ve played it all through. For returning players… I wish I were you and could experience it all for the first time over again. This is something special. Again, congrats to the devs for making an extraordinarily fun, timeless banger of a video game expansion. Catch me on the streets of NC, and remember chooms: The Game is Fixed.
Originally published at https://backloggd.com.