A few years ago whenever gamers thought about the game studio CD Projekt Red there was one game that came to mind that most people agreed was one of the best RPGs ever made, that game was, Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. So when CD Projekt Red announced back in May 2012 and the first trailer dropped in 2013 that they were working on Cyberpunk 2077, an RPG focused around cybernetically enhanced punks and gangs, people were hyped. However as time went on a lot of signs were popping up that should have indicated that the game might not live up to people’s expectations one of those issues being the multiple delays for the game which made the community very upset. Eventually CD Projekt Red made the decision to release the game on December 10th 2020 a few weeks before the holidays. This however didn’t end well for them. The game was released in an almost completely unplayable state with many bugs, glitches, clippings, texture drops, frame drops, and many other gameplay problems. However, instead of giving up they stuck to their guns and did everything they could to fix their game and after a couple of years Cyberpunk 2077 was able to make a comeback not only with brand new patches that fixed most of the games issues and revamped their gameplay features and mechanics, but also release the games first expansion Phantom Liberty.
The story of Phantom Liberty is set in the middle of the main campaign. After encountering the Voodoo Boys, and either helping them or Netwatch, V is contacted by a net runner named Songbird who tells them about having a way to cure them of the illness caused by the relic that is slotted into their head. You then met her outside of the newly added region Dogtown, a walled off region near Pacifica. V is tasked by Songbird to sneak into Dogtown, but before that she gives V access to a brand new skill tree that allows them access to new powerful abilities for the player to unlock and experiment with such as emergency clocking to new abilities that enhance any of the arm cyberware. Unlocking these abilities requires relic points that are scattered throughout Dogtown. Once inside V discovers the real reason they were sent inside which was to save the president of the N.U.S.A (New United States of America) Rosalind Myers. The president’s ship had been shot down and unfortunately landed in the middle of Dogtown and it was up to V with the help of Songbird to help get her to safety. After getting her to a safe house and Songbird being a no show President Myers tasks V with finding an agent that has been hiding in Dogtown for 7 years, this agent being Solomon Reed who in this game is played spectacularly by Idris Elba. After acquiring his services and getting the president to safety outside of Night City it is now up to V and Reed to discover what happened to Songbird and figure out whether or not this ‘cure’ is legitimate or not.
While the story isn’t very long what sets this expansion apart from the Main campaign is the dynamic between all the characters. Solomon Reed is especially an interesting character not just because he’s played by Idris Elba but because you can’t really tell if his angle is legitimate or just a hoax. The same can be said about Songbird who is also hard to read for the same reason. Both of these characters are very complex with both having compelling reasons as to why they are in the positions they are in. There comes a point in the story where the player needs to decide between which one to betray and unlike most games who offer this decision this game makes it nearly impossible to decide between the two because of how well written and believeable they are. Another element of the expansion I liked is how it expands the lore of the fixer Mr. Hands, who in the base game is a fixer that provides V with gigs and jobs, but unlike most fixers he keeps his face hidden which makes him a bigger mystery than the other fixers. In Phantom Liberty however not only do we discover he’s actually based out in Dogtown but we now finally get to see what he looks like in person. On top of that Mr Hands provides V with the Side quests of the expansion and he also helps out in the main story so he becomes a much more important character than he was in the main campaign. Another fixer who gets the expansion glow up is El Capitan who in the expansion is given a role that is similar to Simeon from GTA 5 online where V is tasked to find and deliver vehicles for him without taking damage. Unlike GTA Online however the rewards V receives depending on the vehicle’s condition are much more plentiful from a large amount of Eddie’s, clothing and weapons and even skill and money shards. These tasks and missions help to expand the world and gameplay of Cyberpunk 2077. They are great additions to the game that already has a lot to do.
Ever since the games release Cyberpunk 2077 has had a lot of patches to help the games stability and performance. The most recent patch is 2.0 which was released for free at the same time as the expansion. This update has revamped and fixed some of the biggest issues in the game and also added new gameplay features that will change the way players have experienced the game prior to the updates release. This update includes; a skill tree overhaul which is one of the biggest changes because of how it massively overhauled the attribute and character perk skill tree that now provides much more focused perks so the player can better craft a build that can suit their playthroughs. The player can now decide to sell their invested perk point in case they want to change their builds to something else. There was also now vehicle combat added in the open world. So now instead of the vehicle combat being confined to missions the player can now engage in vehicle combat anywhere at any time. Now players can either shoot from inside their vehicles or use newly added vehicles with mounted weapons that will either be armed with machine guns or missile launchers, however most of these vehicles are exclusive to the Phantom Liberty DLC. The player can now also hack other vehicles with the new Carhack perk that can help them in a chase. a newly updated Cyberware and Armor system that now sets a limit on how much cyberware can be installed at whatever level the player is at. Cyberware are also now tied to your character’s armor which now makes their installments more impactful. There is also now a revamped police A.I behavioral overhaul which now instead of just appearing out of thin air the police now respond to your actions similarly to police in Grand Theft Auto. revamped Stamina which now affects firing a weapon, dashing and dodging instead of just running. and other general tweaks and changes to the system.
While the game isn’t completely bug free I haven’t come across any major bugs that prevented me from progressing or kept me from having a fun experience overall. As a matter of fact I would say that Cyberpunk 2077 is much more enjoyable now than it was a couple years ago and that’s including the new expansion which adds more fun content for the overall experience.
Overall Score: 10 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5