Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty review: All thriller, some filler

This cyberpunk spy thriller is classic CD Projekt Red at the top of their storytelling game, though some of the gameplay additions feel superfluous.

Ian Stokes

Published 20 Sep 2023

Cyberpunk 2077 had a... difficult launch, if we’re being generous. A consequence of a hype train out of control, some terrible PR decisions, and a game littered with game-breaking bugs meant that when it dropped in late 2020 it was met with fan outrage and mixed reviews.

I loved Cyberpunk 2077, as it happens. I was playing on Xbox One X, the least buggy of the launch platforms, which helped a lot, but even beyond that, I was enthralled with the story that CD Projekt Red had put together. After three years of bug fixes and content patches, the rest of the world has retracted its claws a little too. Now the devs are back with Phantom Liberty, the first (and only) major DLC that Cyberpunk will be getting.

Phantom Liberty offers everything you’d expect from a major expansion. There is a main plotline to run through, a new area of the city to explore (hello Dogtown), and a whole host of side missions to avail yourself of.

The main story is a rollercoaster of spy thriller cliches that manages to hold itself on the right side of absurdity most of the time. V receives a call from a mysterious stranger called Songbird, who offers a cure for the Relic in exchange for a small favor – rescuing the president whose plane is about to crash into Dogtown, a militarised ghetto bolted onto the side of Night City. Songbird stops just short of saying, "The president has been kidnapped by ninjas. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?"

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty DLC review

Idris Elba's Solomon Reed might be the big marketable name, but the entire supporting cast does a fantastic job of drawing you into the story. Coming off the back of Starfield, the quality of writing, voice acting, and character animation during conversations is just night and day. They feel like real people, not just exposition machines. Minji Chang, who voices Songbird, deserves a special shoutout for her convincing turn as the femme fatale whose motives are always in question.

The plot itself is a pretty standard spy thriller passed through a neon filter. Bombastic action sequences, tense standoffs, people yappering about duty, inevitable betrayals, and even a bit of espionage using gadgets that could have come straight out of Q branch. Despite the predictability of it, the campaign is near-expertly paced, ensuring that you never run a similar style mission back to back. And, of course, Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand is around throughout to provide his cutting commentary.

There is a major divergence point that I won’t spoil for you, but you end up making a choice that drastically affects how the final few missions play out. Your choices can even lead to a new ending to the main game too, though I haven’t seen that yet due to starting a new save (got another 40 hours in Night City before I can report back there). In its own bubble, though, the Phantom Liberty storyline reached a suitably gritty and spectacular crescendo, such that it felt like I’d wrapped a nice little bow on the story by itself. If my choices lead to some extra flavor or options for closing out V’s story too, that’s just icing on the cake.

There are a couple of screeching halts in the pacing along the way when it asks you to bum around town for a day or two, presumably to help the campaign mesh into the main story more, but these are easily skipped by just resting.

If you load up your old save, you can jump straight into the action. However, you can also start a new game and skip forward in the story to the point where the DLC becomes available (after you resolve the Voodoo Boys plotline). I opted for a completely new game as a Corpo rat, and did the legwork to get to the point where the DLC would let me in; I wanted to experience the swanky new perks system as it’s intended, not with a level 50 character who will just turbo through it in five minutes.

The perks system has been overhauled to provide more direction to players – instead of a spider web of skills that sprawl out in all directions, you’re set along paths that lead to similar skills. An upgrade for melee combat will lead to more upgrades for melee combat. Nothing was stopping you from doing that before, but this new system makes the path a lot simpler to follow.

Alongside the new layout, a lot of abilities have been tweaked. Some useless skills have been removed, while new skills have also been added. This makes leveling up feel a bit more meaningful, though it comes with the downside of feeling more limiting. There are also new Relic skills, which theoretically offer more substantial buffs, but the points needed for this tree can only be found in a few locations, not via regular leveling up.

Since I’m normally a stealthy boy, I decided to mix things up and take a more guns-blazing approach to things, putting all my points into the Body tree to unlock shotgun abilities. Before long, I was making short work of anything on two legs, and with some mobility options from the Reflexes tree, it wasn’t long before I was a power-sliding, kneecapping machine to be feared.

Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty review: All thriller, some filler

Boss fights are one of the biggest improvements in Phantom Liberty when compared to the base game. There are still plenty of dudes with big health bars to deal with, but there are some more exotic enemies to face off against. A big battle in the earlier stages of the DLC is a true standout moment, more akin to a Destiny boss than anything else I’ve faced in Night City.

Combat in general feels great. How much of that comes from the 2.0 patch and how much of it came in preceding updates is hard to tell, but I never regretted my decision to go run and gun on this playthrough. Between enhancements, perks, weapons, and mobility options, there are plenty of ways to approach every combat encounter. At the same time, enemies seem a little more intelligent in how they attack you. They use grenades to flush you out and send flanking units around your side while keeping you pinned down.

Some of the other features that have been added in this latest update fell flat for me, though. The cops actually chase and hunt you down now a la GTA, which is fine, and really what it should have been at launch, but, honestly, I barely noticed them. This isn’t GTA. It’s not a systemic game where I’m creating my own kicks. It’s a story-driven narrative with a city slapped around it for immersion’s sake. As a result, I rarely stopped to cause any chaos and get chased by the fuzz.

Vehicle combat is also a bit of a letdown. It comes up in maybe two missions, and both times I just got fed up and got out of my car to off my pursuers. It might be more engaging if you pour a load of skill points into vehicle buffs, but it’s a big investment to put into something that just barely comes up.

And yet, none of that matters because none of it is what Cyberpunk 2077 is about. The open world has always been a facade to serve as the backdrop for our hero’s journey. The illusion now holds up better under scrutiny, but it’s not why any of us tuned in. Fortunately, none of what we loved was sacrificed on the altar of better cop AI. The story is good, the writing is excellent, and the mission variety is stellar.

Summary

Is this the big shift that will win over people who bounced off Cyberpunk 2077 at launch? No. Instead what Phantom Liberty represents is a small slice of the best that Cyberpunk 2077 and CD Projekt Red has to offer.

* A copy of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty was provided by the publisher for this review.

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Written by Ian Stokes

After a decade of using TA for achievement guides, Ian has ascended the mountaintop and now runs the place (under Rich, our benevolent leader). He plays almost every genre, but especially loves RPGs & shooters. He’s also a bit of a fiend for indie titles.

With 10 years experience as a games journalist, he's worked on sites like GamesRadar, VICE, IGN, Space.com, and more. Ian graduated from Keele University with a BA in Biology and a PhD in Chemistry.