Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review (PC)

Cyberpunk 2077 has come a long way since its released back in 2020. Despite having received high scores from the critics, CD Projekt RED’s sci-fi franchise wasn’t the game players expected. Even after taking away the high expectation that many of the developer’s fans after the Cyberpunk 2077’s initial announcement, no one expected such a buggy mess, especially on consoles.

Phantom Liberty is CD Projekt RED’s biggest expansion yet, and the only new content that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to receive. What makes Phantom Liberty even more impactful is the fact that it comes with update 2.0, which introduces a lot of new features and improvements, as well as a complete revamp of the skill tree and gear.

After spending around 30 hours in Phantom Liberty, I can safely say that this is one of the best pieces of content released by CD Projekt RED. There’s a big difference in tone between the base game and the expansion, but the same goes for everything else: visuals, atmosphere, quest, writing, soundtrack, and design level.

If you played the base game and enjoyed it, Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077 on steroids. While players can jump directly into Phantom Liberty without having finished Cyberpunk 2077, I strongly recommend getting the ending of the base game first and doing some of the more important side quests before tackling the expansion.

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I have been surprised to meet some of the characters that appeared in the base game in the expansion, and while they don’t really offer any new quests, they do provide more insights on what happened to them after their quests are done.

There’s one word that can accurately describe the opening mission in Phantom Liberty: exhilarating. Everything happens extremely fast, and you have to react and adapt to new threats on the fly or die trying. That’s not to say that the rest of the expansion isn’t captivating, it’s just that Phantom Liberty is paced very differently than the base game.

Smaller than an average district from the Night City, Dogtown is a subdistrict of Pacifica and it’s ruled by Colonel Kurt Hansen and his Barghest militia. This is a walled-off area that’s divided into four sections that look very different.

Players can start Phantom Liberty as soon as they are contacted by Songbird So Mi, presumably the best netrunner in the world. She offers to help V with the relic but wants something in return. Basically, V must protect and prevent the President of NUSA from being trapped in Dogtown.

The expansion smartly blends combat and infiltration missions to offer players different gameplay experiences. The writing elevates every main story mission to top-notch level, but the side quests are far superior to those from the base game.

Just like in Cyberpunk 2077, Dogtown has its own fixer who will provide V with various gigs that pay good money. Mr. Hands, marvelously played by Alex Jordan, is not just a fixer but a very important character throughout the entire expansion. He’s directly involved in Dogtown politics and depending on how good your relationship with him is, you’ll be able to call in some favors.

Obviously, the star of the expansion is Idris Elba who portrays a distinct and calculated spy, Solomon Reed. A sleeper agent driven by his principles, Reed is extremely loyal to the NUSA Federal Intelligence Agency and has an incredible sense of duty to his country.

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At the opposite side sits So Mi, Reed’s protegee, who’s driven by the will to live, so everything else comes second. Even for a top tier spy and best netrunner in the world, Songbird’s actions seem rather erratic and unconvincing, but that’s a reason why that’s happening and by the end of the game I thought it was one of the best portrayed characters.

When it comes to combat, Phantom Liberty is a joy to play. Apart from the completely revamped skill trees, the expansion brings a sixth skill tree related to the relic. It’s not as massive as the other five, but the abilities feel more powerful and even defining for specific builds.

Thanks to update 2.0, players can now combine various archetypes to create very powerful builds like sniper netrunner or hack ‘n’ slash slugger. Many times, it felt that I was playing another game, a much better one. Another interesting change is related to the armor, which is no longer tied to the clothing you find throughout the game.

Instead, you have a set amount of armor that goes higher as you gain new levels or unlock new abilities that augment the armor value. It’s an interesting approach that works much better than how it was originally and lets the clothing items solely for fashion.

Another major addition to the game is the cyberware that augments V’s body. There are multiple versions of the same piece of cyberware, but each is viable for a certain build. V can have more than a dozen cybernetic implants, and each can be upgraded with parts. They are very useful and powerful, especially if you’re considering a netrunner career.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion