Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty | Review

Initial Release Date: September 26, 2023

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows

Developer: CD Projekt

Publisher: CD Projekt

Genres: Role-playing, Adventure, Shooter, Fighting

Engine: REDengine 4

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!

Introduction

I’m a cyberpunk guy through and through. From it’s aesthetics and ideas of mixing old with new tech across it’s mostly dystopian corpo driven cities. To loving films as a child such as the original Blade Runner, and Escape From New York. If you want to watch gameplay videos check out my Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Video Playlist.

Let’s not forget newer cyberpunk inspired films like Upgrade, Dredd and the more recent Blade Runner 2047. I also grew up in a household filled with James Bond fans so my spy espionage background is on point. When Cyberpunk 2077’s expansion Phantom Liberty was announced my interest was piqued.

Phantom Liberty does involve certain media, easter eggs and ideas from past and present movies in the cyberpunk genre but sets itself apart due to it’s own amazing story and great gameplay ideas that were much improved upon with it’s 2.0 update. So without further adieu let’s dive into my review of the best expansion I ever played, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Presentation

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty had a few issues on a technical level. Surprisingly, I had two hard crashes as well NPC’s freezing while playing in Dogtown. Now I say surprising because I haven’t experienced any of those problems since the launch of the base game or in Night City.

Over the years CD Projekt pretty much made all of the patches and updates that squashed those issues with the base game. I know this because I made over one thousand-three-hundred plus gameplay videos of the base game over the past few years.

For the record, I played Phantom Liberty on my Playstation 5. As for quest bugs I didn’t experience any of those. Asides from the tech issues Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was a masterpiece even with it’s tech flaws.

Story telling, gameplay, visuals and impact of choices weighed heavily on me emotionally. I mean, In the base Cyberpunk 2077 I felt some emotion during certain sequences but this? Phantom Liberty? CD Projekt said fuck it, let’s crank this shit up!

Dogtown as an area in it’s opening reminded me of Escape From New York wrapped in cyberpunk skin. The new main cast were excellent. The Main Jobs, Side Jobs and Gigs were all excellent, varied, interesting and filled with great writing with NPC encounters.

Side Jobs had important choices tied to the main story as well. Technically Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty isn’t perfect. No video game is since it’s all subjective in the end. Is Phantom Liberty perfect to me? Yes, it is so keep reading why.

Story

Cyberpunk: Phantom Liberty’s story centers around four key individuals via Phantom Liberty’s expansion. FIA agent Solomon Reed, NUSA President Rosalind Myers, Netrunner Song So Mi “Songbird” and Dogtown’s kingpin Kurt Hansen.

The story in my case which was dictated by my in-game choices made throughout Side Jobs and Main Jobs. Anyways, the story goes V (protagonist) has a defective Relic in her head that’s killing her yet tied to Johnny Silverhand.

Along comes Songbird who says she can help cure V (all lies). Songbird’s entire story revolves around her wanting out of being the President’s netrunner lapdog for Rosalind Myers who is a cutthroat of a NUSA President.

Songbird works with Kurt Hansen (Dogtown’s ruler) in taking down the ship she and Myers are on which was an escape plot for Songbird to reach Kurt Hansen in Dogtown. Songbird secures a Neural Matrix in Dogtown which can cure her and V’s condition allegedly.

Songbird is dying due to her using the power of the Blackwall AI which is super dangerous in general. Soon after rescuing Myers from the down flight V ends up meeting Solomon Reed played by Idris Alba who has his own depressing history connected to Myers and Songbird.

Years back, Myers and Songbird (following orders) worked together to ambush and kill Reed in order to cover up a negative NUSA story. Reed lived and ended up reuniting with Myers and helping Songbird escape Kurt Hansen who she was working with all along.

Most of Phantom Liberty’s Main Job had me trying to extract Songbird from Dogtown at this point. V meets Alex, another FIA agent along with Reed ending up extracting Songbird and the Neural Matrix.

In the Main Job “Firestarter” I made the choice to help Songbird escape the FIA and NUSA instantly turning Reed, Alex and Myers against V. Alex kills Kurt Hansen during this sequence. The whole time this is going on V believed Songbird when she said she could help cure her which is still a lie.

The Neutral Matrix only works for one person. Days later V helps Songbird reach the Orbital Shuttle launch pad (for her trip to the Moon) before telling V the truth while being confronted by Solomon Reed. At this point, V and I just learned Songbird lied about the cure.

V is still dying but Reed has a proposition. He says Langely can take out her Relic and cure her but Johnny Silverhand would be no more. I took Reed’s deal which takes V down a depressing rabbithole of being in a coma for two years.

Songbird ends up living but stuck with FIA and NUSA in DC. Myers is still President of NUSA. Solomon Reed visits V after she wakes up from her two year coma. Johnny Silverhand is no more due to the relic being destroyed.

V is tasked by Mr. Hands to help replace Dogtown’s leader with loyal military man Bennett. You accomplish this by becoming the famous Cuban assassin Aguilar Nubiola via cyberware surgery implants.

V calls her friends after being in a two year coma only to find out everyone moved on leaving her alone. V returns to Night City after two years. The hospital was in DC, Langley where Reed offered her a job.

Most importantly, V no longer can use or wear cyberware. Her life completely changed forever. Gone are her Merc days in Night City. She is but a face in Night City and by the end of my playthrough. After meeting with Viktor Vektor V runs into Misty (V’s friend) after two years who’s in the process of leaving Night City.

Misty gives V some sage advice and enters her Delamain. Ending cutscene roles as V is just another face amongst the crowd in Night City. Role credits. There are hundreds of dialogue sequences I left out because there were so many well written parts during playthrough. I’d be writing all day.

Just say for a video game Phantom Liberty nailed the choices and story aspects home for me. Keep in mind I did all Gigs, Side and Main Jobs. Also 100% the main vanilla game so this new different ending hit different. Just an amazing tale of espionage, intrigue and survival. Bravo CD Projekt.

Gameplay

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is a DLC expansion to Cyberpunk 2077 which is a first-person action role-playing game set in a cyberpunk universe created by Mike Pondsmith’s idea many moons ago as a table top game. Did I get the latter right?

Okay, so, as far as gameplay in Phantom Liberty is concerned it’s better in every facet from the vanilla Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. 2.0 update changed core gaming mechanics and added new ones such as vehicle combat, new camera views, stamina tied to shooting and not sprinting etc.

Cyberware management is now a real RPG mechanic that dictates everything your V can and can’t do. I love all of the changes. the game as a whole feels better to play. Night City is organic from the NPC AIs, to NCPD and MaxTac you name it.

Phantom Liberty brings in a plethora of new content to collect and explore in Dogtown. You have the new Relic Tree thanks to a Songbird Main Job. You can complete Air Drops and deliver cars for El Capitan. There are new Iconic Weapons and vehicles to purchase or collect.

Dogtown has it’s own collectibles and secrets to discover but so does the main Night City and Badlands areas via the 2.0 update. Just saying. My V was stacked. I was close to level capping at 60 by the end of Phantom Liberty.

I was double jumping mid-air dodging Jailbreak Mantis Blades bullet deflecting wreaking havoc. I played on normal difficulty which was fine due to the new level scaling system implemented. I love how shooting weapons is now tied to your stamina.

Shooting feels so good man. Boss fights in Phantom Liberty included a Chimera Militech Robot which was current gen all the way. I also slayed a powerful Mercenary Cyberpsycho named Ribakov in the Side Job “Spy In The Jungle”.

Visuals/Graphics

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is the most current gen video-game I can think of from a graphics standpoint with Forbidden West. The open world of Dogtown was stunning on my Playstation 5 with Raytracing on. I can only imagine playing this on PC with Path-tracing.

The lighting, details and character’s models in Phantom Liberty are some of the best in any game I played period. Just makes me think how last gen was a bad idea all along for Cyberpunk 2077. But then again I’m not a shareholder in CDPR. I just buy the game and play it.

Sound/Music

Idris Alba as the FIA Agent Solomon Reed was impressive in this, no joke. Keanu Reeves brought a more endearing, more cool less asshole Johnny Silverhand to the table. The writing and motion capture was top-notch for all players involved.

President Rosalind Myers was a ice cold NUSA President. Song So Mi “Songbird” was a desperate young woman trying to escape Myers. All voice actors and actresses really played their roles. Phantom Liberty was filled with belief and emotion thanks to the latter.

Tips & Tricks

Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Take your time and do all of the Gigs and Side Jobs as they are all awesome. I plan on going back to do Reed’s arc next. I suggest you make a save at the “Firestarter” Main Job which is where you make the critical choice on who to help the rest of the main story.

Final Thoughts/Score

Loving cyberpunk as a genre not withstanding Phantom Liberty is brilliant in it’s story telling coupled with fantastic gameplay, great missions and a plethora of added content. Dogtown as an expanded area was amazing and brimming with secrets and great content to explore.

I cannot emphasize how good the story and how high the stakes are in Phantom Liberty. It pulls no punches with the player’s emotions which I loved. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty up till now is the best piece of gaming content I played in 2023. It’s a masterpiece even with it’s few technical issues. All for just $29.99. Thanks for reading – Jason