Cyberpunk 2077’s triumph was that it provided a sprawling story, dozens of hours lengthy, which cohered round only a small variety of themes. Or perhaps even a single thesis: that the cynical, defensive, self-centred voice in your head – personified by historical, soul-trapped, anarcho-rockstar Johnny Silverhand – provided solely a literal dead-end, and that actual rebel within the face of a messed-up world lay in serving to mates. It was Frank Capra with robotic arms and samurai swords, and I ate it up.
V would not go to Washington in Phantom Liberty, however Washington involves her. CD Projekt Crimson’s main growth to the first-person RPG opens up a brand new district and a brand new forged of characters, together with the President of the New United States and an getting older sleeper spy performed by Idris Elba. The themes stay the identical, however the thesis is being examined: how will you assist your pals if you do not know who they’re, and if their objectives are mutually unique?
Lengthy earlier than it’s essential take into consideration that, you may meet Songbird. She’s a authorities hacker, and she or he’ll name you with a job round two-thirds of the best way into Cyberpunk 2077’s foremost storyline – or instantly, in the event you selected to skip direct to Phantom Liberty’s missions from character creation.
The job includes heading to Dogtown, a beforehand inaccessible district of Night time Metropolis that’s underneath management of Barghest, a personal military led by former NUSA soldier Colonel Kurt Hansen. The police do not go there and entry is strictly managed, however the bait for V is that Songbird says she will repair the chip in your head – the one which lets you have common pow-wows with Keanu Reeves, and the one that’s killing you.
The bait for gamers is that Dogtown is probably essentially the most dense Cyberpunk district but. After a short sequence within the deserted parking construction of a half-completed sports activities stadium, you may emerge into the market now held in what was as soon as the stadium’s concourse. I can solely examine this stepping-out to my first moments in Half-Life 2’s Metropolis 17, almost twenty years in the past, when a surveillance droid, Dr. Breen public service bulletins, and a taunting Mix soldier let me know I would arrived in a brand new world.
Dogtown’s market does the identical factor, however to 2023 requirements. The cries of avenue hawkers rise above the blaring information stories enjoying from TV screens positioned above the countertop of a noodle bar behind which the cooks shake and stir their pans. A jawless cyborg needs to point out you his elbow flamethrowers, a few familiar-looking braindance salesmen are plotting revolution from the again of their renovated van buried underneath a mountain of trash, and a child stands on a stool so he may be seen from behind the desk the place he advertises his preem cyberware. Within the areas between these distributors, there are folks all over the place – consuming, consuming, spraypainting, dancing, chatting, perusing, sleeping, or simply passing by way of.
Then you definitely step out once more – or reasonably, slide, in a way I will not spoil – into the streets of Dogtown outdoors. What strikes you first is perhaps the glowing pyramid, which you may later study homes a nightclub, or perhaps the floating barge within the sky with the large image of Kurt Hansen’s face on the facet, which you may study has a behavior of drifting into the background of scenes as a reminder of the place you are headed.
Narrative urgency takes over at this level, and also you’re away – assembly subsequent the President, after which Solomon Reed, the spy performed by the aforementioned Elba. You may spend quite a lot of your time in Phantom Liberty speaking to those characters and others, and the writing and performances are as sturdy and even stronger than they have been within the unique sport.
It is exhausting to speak about why with out spoilers, significantly since Phantom Liberty’s set-piece missions are as prone to characteristic fascinating, high-stakes conversations as they’re fight situations. There’s one explicit mission which hits peak Bond as you infiltrate an unique excessive society get together, speak your means out of bother with a suspicious villain, then play a number of video games of roulette as you try and con info out of two arms sellers. Every new dialog ratchets up the strain, and when that stress is damaged midway by way of the mission it is by a musical efficiency, not a gunfight.
Whereas Phantom Liberty hits these spy-thriller marks properly, I used to be most struck by how pure and human Cyberpunk’s characters appear in smaller, intimate moments. I obtained to know the President of the NUSA whereas sipping beers and listening to the radio collectively, and I danced and shared desires with a spy on the lookout for a means out on the evening earlier than an enormous op. It helps that just about the entire characters you meet already know one another earlier than you present up, which signifies that the exposition – about political manoeuvring, company wars, undercover ops gone incorrect – is all the time made to really feel private. None of this must be as exceptional as it’s, however Phantom Liberty manages to make worldbuilding, stage design, and writing work collectively, cyberhand in powerglove, like few different large finances video games do.
When it’s time for the speaking to cease, there’s fight and stealth and hacking, all of that are improved by the free-to-all Replace 2.0 and its solely revamped RPG techniques. Perks are the obvious beneficiary: gone are the umpteen share stat will increase that diminished the time it took to purpose down sights by 10% or elevated your SMG accuracy by 3%. Now, a perk tree comparable to Reflex provides the power to air-dash and to dam bullets with a sword, and share will increase are principally confined to satisfying, stackable strategies of, say, regaining stamina for dismembering folks.
The adjustments to all of those development techniques are substantial sufficient that booting up an outdated save post-patch results in all of your earlier improve factors being refunded so you possibly can re-invest them, and a Ripperdoc inviting you to return in and reimplement your newly rebalanced cyberware. No matter selections you make along with your do-over, it appears a lot simpler to craft a coherent character construct. I respecced from Hugh Jackman in Swordfish to Gerard Butler in actually any Gerard Butler movie and I did not remorse it. It is even price visiting a wardrobe, since garments are not a type of armour and also you due to this fact not want to decorate like John le Carré’s Biker Hippie Rodeo Clown simply to get a couple of additional stat factors.
Is it honest to evaluate this free replace in a overview of the paid growth? I am undecided. For Phantom Liberty’s half, it provides a sixth perk tree, Relic, with its personal improve factors. Relic provides totally different choices for various playstyles, with skills that allow auto-cloaking and vulnerability detection, though the principle enchantment for me is an improve to arm cyberware that makes punching folks along with your robotic arms till they burst a viable tactic.
With or with out the growth, and at the same time as somebody who loved Cyberpunk 2077 upon launch, it is clearly now a lot improved. Does that imply that Replace 2.0 and/or Phantom Liberty make Cyberpunk 2077 excellent, and even bug free? No and no. I skilled, for instance, a handful of animation glitches and one occasion wherein Idris Elba obtained caught throughout a scripted fight encounter and I wanted to reload to the final save. What’s modified, for my part, is that these points now exist inside acceptable bounds. I not really feel like I’ve to caveat all my reward for the issues the sport will get proper.
And it will get rather a lot proper. When Phantom Liberty was first introduced, I used to be a bit dissatisfied that it wasn’t persevering with V’s story onwards from the top of Cyberpunk 2077. Given all that ending entails, or can entail, I could not see how a mid-game growth might add something of narrative significance. I needn’t have apprehensive. One in all Phantom Liberty’s nice strengths is that, regardless of Dogtown’s safe borders, it is not ringfenced in any means from the remainder of the story. You possibly can depart Dogtown halfway to tackle a couple of missed sidequests, or give your gal Judy a name to debate what you bought as much as with the President the evening earlier than. The result’s an growth that displays, refracts and enriches the sport round it. In the event you’ve by no means performed Cyberpunk 2077 earlier than and purchase the growth, Phantom Liberty is an absurdly lush, thrilling, 20-hour-long facet quest; when you have performed it earlier than, it is an unmissable alternative to examine in on outdated mates, and to make a couple of new ones, in Night time Metropolis.
This overview relies on a overview construct of the sport offered by builders CD Projekt Crimson.
