Cyberpunk 2077 for me was a good game as long as you stuck to the main storyline and just went from main storyline mission to main storyline mission. As soon as you stepped just slightly off of the path that CDPR wanted you to be on, the massive flaws became apparent. It was unfortunate, and it definitely caused me to finish the game and not return to it. However, with the release of the expansion Phantom Liberty, CDPR has made a massive attempt to get Cyberpunk 2077 to where it needs to be. Have they succeeded in this? Find out in our Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review!
Rocky Start
Cyberpunk 2077 was a game that had a rocky start to say the least. Thousands of articles have been written about it in the past. We will not be going into that too much today. CD Projekt Red’s reputation took a massive hit when the game was released, and in my opinion rightfully so. However, I played the game on Google Stadia, which was strangely one of the best ways to play it. That being said, I will reiterate my opinion that I had on the game back then.
The storyline in Phantom Liberty is slightly different from the original Cyberpunk one. Previously, most of what you did was related to getting a terrorist engram out of your brain before you die, all the while taking revenge for the path that you were put on. It felt like there was a sense of urgency. In the expansion, the story feels more like a spy thriller adventure. It takes you to Dogtown, an expansion to the city which you could previously not travel to.
Time to go to Dogtown
I restarted the complete storyline in order to really get into all the changes that have been put into the game. It was a choice I was reasonably happy with. I managed to make a few changes to my character and see more of the game. However, as soon as I got the call to go to Dogtown, I went as quickly as my legs could take me. Not even an hour later, I was saving the president in one of the most exciting sequences that I have played in a long time. I don’t really remember any point in the original game where it would take me to the heights it did here. It was an excellent start to the story and an even greater way for CDPR to show off what they could do. I loved it.
Most of the characters that you interact with frequently are fresh faces, but they all feel like they could be part of the original cast. The voiceover work is excellent this time around again and none of the characters felt out of place to me. This goes along with the excellent script. And the choices that are given to the player feel like they are slightly more impactful this time around. There are some morally ambiguous choices given to the player and I loved that about this expansion. It hits you hard. Obviously, Johnny Silverhand will still be kicking around your head throughout the story. But people like So Mi (Songbird) and Solomon Reed (voiced by Idris Elba) are all excellent additions to the game.
Relics
One big new feature is an addition to the skill tree that wasn’t available in the original game, the relic. I feel like all of the options that are made available work well with the character build that you’re going for. In my case, it made my mantis blades a force to be reckoned with. I think overall that whatever you choose as your go-to mechanic, you will eventually feel like a chromed out badass. There are only a few different upgrades, but they all felt relatively powerful. You unlock more Relics by going around Dogtown and finding Militech Data Terminals to get Relic points. Unlike Perk points, you don’t get Relic points from leveling up. This means, you have to look through different sections of Dogtown to find them.
Navigating your way through Dogtown is actually fun though. It feels like one of the districts in the game that is thought out well and very vertical to go with that. At times it felt like I was playing mirror’s edge with how much scaling I was doing to check the district out. And there is a lot more to it. It feels like CDPR really packed a lot of interesting things in a much smaller canvas. It’s only a section of the main city, but there were so many interesting characters and so many differences between the vendors that everything just seemed to stand out a lot more. This also made this expansion feel more like a standalone experience.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, I restarted the game entirely, and even though I had a reasonable experience on Google Stadia previously, there were definitely a lot of bugs present. Some were merely visual, others were almost gamebreaking, and some of them were just disappointing. This time around, I have to say that I only experienced a few small visual bugs here and there. Definitely a lot less than previously. It still irks me when I see a character behave in a strange manner or if his limbs are positioned oddly, but they have definitely managed to improve the game a lot there. I am actually happy that I restarted the game completely and I loved the experience that Phantom Liberty gave me. I will now continue to finish the rest of the game again and I can only strongly recommend people give it another chance if they still own it and didn’t enjoy their experience last time around. One might say that CDPR should have released the original game in this state. I would have to agree but I am so happy that I gave it another chance.
Pros:
- Great new setting within the original world, Dogtown
- Great story and strong opening
- Good characters
- Fixes to the original game
Cons:
- Some minor visual bugs remain
Grade: 9
That was it for our Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is available through Boosteroid and GeForce Now. You can follow our Twitter account to stay up to date with the latest changes.