Let’s be honest, you all know the history of Cyberpunk 2077. It was arguably one of the most highly anticipated games of all time, until it released and became an absolute PR disaster for CD Projekt RED. With many people having sworn off the game for a variety of reasons, with probably the biggest of them all being the abominable performance on anything that wasn’t a high-end PC. But almost three years, an incredible tv show, and a thorough overhaul later in form of the 2.0 Update later, and Cyberpunk 2077 has gotten back on people’s good side. Just in time for its first – and last – big expansion, Phantom Liberty.
Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world action-adventure RPG, but out of those many words used as descriptors for its genre, action is where the focus lies. This was especially true for the launch version of Cyberpunk 2077, but even now, after overhauling many of the RPG systems to turn them into… actually functioning RPG systems, the combat stands out mechanically as the highlight for me. Phantom Liberty slots in there quite nicely, and maybe even more so than the base game, as the team at CD Projekt RED who developed and published the title, have clearly put a lot of thought into encounter design for Phantom Liberty.
There are more bosses than I remember from the base game – relative to their respective length, I mean – like a massive spider tank you fight early on, that makes one thing perfectly clear. You are not welcome in Dogtown. But it’s not just those big fights. Most missions include a moment where you need to get into a place you’re not supposed to and inevitably have to fight through a small army to reach your target. Although technically, stealth is an option the game will always give you. The architecture of the buildings you’re infiltrating usually offers plenty of cover to either duck under in the case of a shootout, or hide behind to sneak past enemies. Enemy guards have routines they follow that allow you to get rid of them without being seen if you catch them at the right moment. And of course, all the tech you might run into, like security cameras or automated turrets, can be deactivated or otherwise messed with by hacking them from afar. Allied NPCs will also always prefer a stealthy approach, as long as you don’t run in guns blazing yourself. Since I didn’t go with a stealth build, getting past all of them was never a real option for me, and I also got the feeling enemies were much more strategically placed than I remember from the base game, but if you’re good enough at stealth and that’s your build’s focus, it should be possible. Regardless, for me, it usually turned into a massacre, and in those moments, Phantom Liberty makes you feel like an absolute unit that could take on the entire world.
Part of that is the soundtrack. For whatever qualms you had with Cyberpunk 2077 at launch, it would be hard to argue against the game’s outstanding soundtrack, and Phantom Liberty continues this trend. The combat tracks get your adrenaline pumping and just makes you want to run in there and shoot everything you see in a similar manner to the Doom soundtrack. Phantom Liberty’s soundtrack doesn’t have many calm songs, given the genres it largely consists of, like EDM, techno, drum’n’bass, industrial, and so on, but the ones that are at least somewhat calmer exude a sense of loneliness and existential dread that almost gives you chills.
This is no coincidence, of course. Existential dread is the key word to describe the core of basically every character in Phantom Liberty. While it was already a major factor in the plot of the base game, death looms largely over Phantom Liberty and its cast. Some of them are looking death right in the eye and are only waiting for it to arrive, some don’t see it coming until it’s too late, some of them are sort of dead already and get to keep living anyway. It’s a major theme in the game and sets a clear tone for every party involved.
Where Cyberpunk 2077 tells a story of the little guy on the street against the big corporation and its ivory towers, gang wars, and finding your place to belong, Phantom Liberty moves towards political espionage. The aircraft of the President of the New United States has been shot down and has landed in Dogtown out of all places. It’s maybe the most unsafe place in all of Night City, and it’s where you happen to find a number of people that might be interested in the safety, or lack thereof, of the President. Like Songbird, an extremely talented netrunner and the right hand to the President. Then there’s Kurt Hansen, a dangerous master criminal (and former Militech commander) who rules over Dogtown. And, of course, Solomon Reed, a sleeper agent who’s better at his craft than most everyone else, played by the incredible Idris Elba. He gives a fantastic performance, but to be fair, so does the entire cast. He just happens to stand out because… well, because he’s Idris Elba.
As you navigate Dogtown and its strong personalities, you’ll be making decisions that hugely impact the narrative. They’re certainly big enough that you might want to do a second playthrough after you finished your first. Like the base game, the writing in Phantom Liberty is very strong, with characters that have clear wants and needs that make their position understandable and relatable. As it is a story filled with spies and politicians, it features twists and turns that keep you guessing who’s on which side and your decisions make you an active participant in this web of lies that’s spun over the course of the game.
Phantom Liberty also features great set pieces during its missions, really leaning into the spy feeling of it all. The James Bond kind of spy to be specific. As such, you might have to engage in a game of poker to get important information out of its players, or disguise yourself as a high-profile person of interest and withstand the scrutiny you might be put under. As you might be able to tell, Phantom Liberty features set pieces that are more dialogue focused – which I love to be honest, especially in a game with such fantastic writing – but you also get your fair amount of action, as I mentioned previously.
Playing Phantom Liberty also reminded me that Cyberpunk 2077 is up there as one of the best looking games I’ve ever played. Its dark city hallways drenched in neon are stunning with some fantastic lighting work, and the art direction of the whole cyberpunk aesthetic is second to none. Dogtown stands out from the Night City districts of the main game, in that it’s way grungier and run-down, with lots of ruins made functional again. I was almost impressed with the verticality of the place. While Dogtown isn’t too big, it’s a city that operates on multiple levels with you climbing up and down buildings or tunnels all the time. This time around, I also really noticed, that while Cyberpunk 2077 obviously looks incredible in its classic night settings, it can be really beautiful at day as well. Particularly, the way the bloom of the sun wraps around the architecture of Dogtown’s buildings is a joy to watch.
Knowing that Phantom Liberty is the final swan song for this entry of the Cyberpunk 2077 franchise is a bit depressing, as the game has come around to be one of the best open-world action-adventure RPGs on the market, and has created a world that’s filled with so many interesting characters, and Phantom Liberty only further proved that. Because damn, is this a good game!
Nairon played Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty on PC with a review key. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is also available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
