Cyberpunk 2077 – Phantom Liberty: The Kotaku Evaluation

Whilst Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty enlargement tells a brand new, largely standalone story, there are a number of factors all through when V, the protagonist of CD Projekt Crimson’s long-troubled RPG, displays on the job that acquired them into this mess: the heist on Konpeki Plaza. Whereas Cyberpunk 2077 and now Phantom Liberty have many branching paths to select from as you form your character, that job gone improper, through which V misplaced their greatest good friend Jackie and acquired the ghost of rocker-boy-turned-terrorist Johnny Silverhand caught into their head, is a common fixed.

Phantom Liberty calls again to this job a number of instances, and it’s clear that at the same time as my V is going through a doable life-saving answer to the artificial parasite in his head, he can’t fairly neglect the errors he’s made that acquired him right here. In that approach, V felt like an extension of myself in Cyberpunk 2077, a recreation that I’ve gone from having a begrudging, rose-colored appreciation of in 2020, to legitimately liking in 2022 after ending a year-long replay/retrospective of it for a podcast.

Now, after taking part in Phantom Liberty, coupled with the foremost updates within the 2.0 patch, I’m beginning to really feel like I would like it, and it’s taken an extra three years of improvement time, fixes, tweaks, and this enlargement to succeed in that time. However Phantom Liberty is the one enlargement we’re getting, and given simply how good it’s, I can’t assist however mourn the sport we may’ve gotten, and want that I may look ahead to extra.

I don’t assume I’m able to go but. However I’ve to just accept that this, the sport as it’s now, is what Cyberpunk 2077 is and all the time can be. And like V, I can’t cease excited about how I acquired right here, and the curler coaster of frustration and success this recreation’s given me over the previous three years.

One in every of Cyberpunk 2077’s major themes was that the pure endgame of late-stage capitalism is for companies to personal each aspect of our lives. Phantom Liberty additional posits that patriotism is simply as a lot a poison that may rot individuals away from the within, inspiring the identical blind devotion that folks evince for the manufacturers they love or the roles that put meals on their desk. Its self-contained story feels far more exact within the issues it desires to say than the bottom recreation did in all its open-world glut, and by extension feels prefer it elevates 2077’s personal themes, which had been already sturdy when the sport was at its greatest.

Phantom Liberty kicks off when V hears from Songbird, a netrunner employed by the president of the New United States of America, each of whom are about to crash-land in Dogtown, a brand new district in Cyberpunk 2077’s open world that’s walled off from the remainder of the already-dangerous metropolis. However V’s busy dying to an AI assemble of their head and has no time to cope with the petty squabbles of presidency figures. Songbird claims she will be able to save V from their destiny and proves herself to be one of the crucial succesful netrunners the sport’s ever proven, even making V’s in-head Keanu Reeves shut up for a spell.

Ultimately shit goes improper, and the president asks you to succeed in out to Solomon Reed, a sleeper agent for the NUSA who’s been in Evening Metropolis for a number of years and is performed by Luther / Sonic the Hedgehog 2 actor Idris Elba, who places his entire Idrussy into the efficiency as a tortured, devoted-to-a-fault spy. He ultimately leads you to Alex, a fellow Evening Metropolis agent who shouldn’t be so happy to be known as again into the road of responsibility, and now you’ve acquired a brand new crew and a recipe for a dramatic spy thriller.

Phantom Liberty is fairly disruptive to 2077’s story, and even when I do like its characters, themes, and the brand new ending it provides, I do have bother reconciling it as a “conclusion” to the sport’s story when it takes so many storylines and characters off the board to inform a unique story. The brand new ending route, which we gained’t spoil right here, particularly appears like a “what if” state of affairs, although I discover its exploration of V and their story fascinating in a approach I’ll most likely write about another time. However I recognize how tied Phantom Liberty feels thematically to 2077, even with a number of the authentic recreation’s most impactful characters stored at arm’s size for almost all of the enlargement.

Even Johnny Silverhand, who’s an incessant chatterbox in the primary recreation, is used extra sparingly in Phantom Liberty. It offers new characters time to shine, however the strains Silverhand does take pleasure in are a number of the most compelling writing Reeves’ character has had. Johnny is a navy veteran, so he’s primed for his standard grandstanding and searching down his nostril at everybody concerned, together with V for getting caught up in the entire mess. However Phantom Liberty had me keen to listen to the bastard out.

In the primary recreation, my V and Silverhand butted heads over his fixed dismissive perspective towards everybody simply attempting to get by in Evening Metropolis’s hellscape. We discovered frequent floor by the top, and the gradual enemies-to-friends relationship between my V and Johnny was paramount to why Cyberpunk 2077 landed so properly for me. However in Phantom Liberty, I discovered him really insightful. His dismissiveness right here didn’t come from a self-righteous place, however from actual, long-held disillusionment over a rustic that was completely satisfied to feed him into the machine and a need to guard V from any such exploitation.

Johnny isn’t the one character making that case. Nearly everybody in Phantom Liberty has been chewed up, spit out, or devoured by the NUSA and its president. Solomon and Songbird are two sides of the identical coin, with one holding on to his devotion to his nation with conviction, even within the face of some gutting betrayals, and the opposite keen to do something in her energy to interrupt the chains. For a lot of Phantom Liberty’s runtime V is a passive observer, right here to get their treatment and stroll away. However by spending time with every of the NUSA brokers, I noticed them for the individuals they had been, in a approach their president refused to. As I watched, three individuals who clearly cared about one another had been pressured into inconceivable conditions by a rustic that solely seen them as instruments for use, discarded, then fished out of the trash when it was handy.

Upon reaching Phantom Liberty’s major crossroads, I confronted one of many hardest selections I’ve made in all of Cyberpunk 2077. It wasn’t as a result of I didn’t have conviction in what I needed to do, however as a result of I had spent sufficient time with every of those spies to grasp the ramifications for every, in addition to for myself. What began as an opportunity to avoid wasting V’s life had turn into an online of interconnected fates much more sophisticated, inconceivable to carelessly barrel by with out weighing on my conscience.

Dogtown is without doubt one of the greatest realizations of the Evening Metropolis setting in Cyberpunk 2077. A lot as with the narrative, Phantom Liberty’s smaller scope does so much for the open world of Cyberpunk 2077, making Dogtown probably the most believable-feeling district of town. The residents on this small slice of the map really look like they reside in Dogtown, reasonably than merely stroll round it to trick you into pondering they do. It’s all smoke and mirrors, in fact, however all video video games are.

Small situations like discovering individuals gathered round a memorial tree in a small settlement or taking part in basketball on a court docket when you’re being interrogated by Idris Elba add to the sensation that Dogtown is a populated space, reasonably than a collection of streets to tear by in your sick vehicles whereas individuals stroll by. The smaller scale makes taking place upon moments like this extra frequent, and the tales of Dogtown begin forming in my head as I drive by.

Even with Dogtown being a fraction of the scale of Evening Metropolis’s map, it has so much crammed in. I actually loved the vast majority of the side-quests, which alternate between being far-reaching of their consequence and meaningless within the grand scheme of issues. Whether or not wheeling and dealing for political energy on the behest of Mr. Palms or discovering somebody whose mind was damaged by a VR simulation into pondering they had been their favourite actor, Phantom Liberty makes the many of the setting with minimal open-world glut creating lifeless house.

All of that is elevated by the massive 2.0 replace that’s come out alongside Phantom Liberty. We shared a prolonged dialogue on that already, however the patch basically guts the unique recreation’s development and tools techniques. Every talent tree now presents a extra tangible playstyle to craft, reasonably than solely making numbers go up with every subsequent degree. My V is a stealth-based hacker, and earlier than, that largely boiled right down to sneaking and turning individuals’s artificial eyes off. Now, I can flip invisible with a brand new cyberware implant, dash whereas crouched to get to cowl extra rapidly than a strength-based character may dream of, or land exact headshots with a silenced pistol because of a perk that virtually aimbots at an enemy’s skull after I look down sights.

Between Phantom Liberty and the two.0 replace, Cyberpunk 2077 has by no means felt extra accommodating to me as a stealth participant. There’s a prolonged, action-filled setpiece within the enlargement’s opening hour that culminates in a fairly nice boss struggle in opposition to a tank-like struggle machine. The instruments I had as a high-level character who stuffed out the “Cool” stealth talent tree had been greater than sufficient to tackle some actual heavy artillery, letting me flip invisible after I needed to discover new cowl and decelerate time to purpose at its weak factors. So many boss fights in Cyberpunk 2077 felt solely supposed for a model of V who may shoot actual good and face up to massive hits. Due to 2.0’s adjustments, my V who excels within the shadows nonetheless feels viable when dragged into the highlight.

Even with all of the adjustments from 2.0, some blemishes from the primary recreation bleed into Phantom Liberty. Probably the most notable is the sport’s insistence on making you wait real-world time for quests to activate, which interrupts progress always. Certain, you should use the sport’s time skip mechanic to leap ahead till the sport is glad, however a number of instances you’re not instructed a selected time you’ll have to attend, and it’s exhausting attempting to trick the sport into letting you proceed.

Once I was within the thick of Phantom Liberty’s story, I ended up leaving Dogtown and heading again to my boyfriend Kerry’s mansion to sleep simply to move nonetheless a lot time the sport arbitrarily determined I wanted to. I perceive the intention behind this design choice is to make it really feel just like the world is alive and never fully centered round me, however for fuck’s sake, let me do the factor I got here right here to do.

That apart, as a stealth participant, I felt particularly rewarded by Phantom Liberty’s spy thriller focus, as a result of it turns on the market are numerous transferable abilities between being a spy and being a merc who snaps necks and easy talks by conditions. A number of the enlargement’s greatest moments occur when it leans in onerous on tried-and-true style tropes, however with a Cyberpunk twist.

One of many standout sections had myself and Solomon attending a celebration thrown by a Dogtown gang chief. I shook arms and placed on a pretend smile as we gathered intel, but additionally needed to speak to a pair of criminals to gather sufficient information on them to recreate their photographs and mannerisms for a digital disguise. This meant taking part in a on line casino recreation with them whereas additionally candy speaking in order that they’d keep on the desk lengthy sufficient for me to seize sufficient information. The sport captured this high-stakes, high-tension second with the suave route of a spy thriller.

This confidence to delve into totally different genres in Cyberpunk 2077’s world is what makes Phantom Liberty’s finality for the sport all of the extra bittersweet, as a result of it solely makes me surprise what different tales V may inhabit. However maybe V isn’t probably the most applicable avatar for additional tales, when their mortality and race in opposition to the clock is so paramount. Whilst Phantom Liberty ties itself to that story and riffs on it, it nonetheless feels beholden to it. It’s comforting that Phantom Liberty doesn’t really feel flippant or prefer it’s dismissing the gravity of the unique recreation’s excessive stakes, nevertheless it does imply that all the things V does has to tie again into it. In order a lot as I’m not fairly prepared to maneuver on from my homosexual, fashionista, stealthy, hacker merc and his trashbag rocker boyfriend Kerry Eurodyne, possibly it’s time to go.

Cyberpunk 2077 – Phantom Liberty

As Phantom Liberty brings Cyberpunk 2077 to a detailed, there are numerous questions as as to if or not CD Projekt Crimson “saved” a recreation that was as soon as so busted it was taken off the PlayStation Retailer. Some would possibly argue it was all the time good, however at the same time as an individual who a pair thousand phrases in the past stated he loves the sport, I can’t again that. And even now, it has points that no quantity of gutting its techniques can repair.

For instance, my talent tree for a stealth-driven construct giving me tangible instruments doesn’t handle Cyberpunk 2077’s bizarre stereotyping of virtually each non-named minority character (and a few named ones, too), or get the sport to do something greater than recreate dehumanizing capitalist commercials with out ever really critiquing them. Permitting you to vary your look and doubling down on the fluidity of kind doesn’t change that V’s pronouns are decided by their voice, which you’ll’t change alongside each different aspect of their look.

A lot of Cyberpunk 2077’s inherent issues come up from its deeply rooted cynicism. It creates an elaborate present of how companies have commodified each facet of our lives, then usually solely says, “Properly that was fucked up, huh?” and strikes onto the subsequent atrocity V has to witness and probably participate in. Phantom Liberty builds upon this by observing how an individual’s devotion to their nation can have the identical decaying impact, however very similar to the bottom recreation, any expressions of hope solely sneak in on the eleventh hour by its human connections. Little or no actually adjustments, we simply survive as greatest we will.

Not even all of the cyberware in my head can hack by Evening Metropolis’s systemic issues to snap their necks. However I can speak to Songbird about rising up in Brooklyn, and we will daydream in one of many small secure areas in Dogtown concerning the life she desires exterior of the NUSA’s clutches. I can dance with Alex to the jukebox in her bar as she goals of retiring, not caught in Evening Metropolis on the whims of political leaders who’ve forgotten her. I can go dwelling to Kerry and he can play me a track from his subsequent report. And possibly if I get to the top and Songbird’s strategies can’t save me, I’ll discover my very own salvation, or die attempting.

I’m positive CD Projekt Crimson has loads of tweaks and adjustments they’d nonetheless wish to implement, had been it doable. However that’s not the online game trade. At a sure level, if it’s not a live-service recreation, you must put down the hammer and chisel and transfer onto the subsequent factor. No matter finish purpose the studio had on the mission’s outset, it’s now accomplished all it may. Taken all collectively, Cyberpunk’s post-launch updates represent greater than most studios may afford, and maybe greater than the sport felt prefer it deserved in 2020. However I suppose that’s what occurs when, regardless of all the things, your recreation sells 20 million copies: You get a second likelihood to create one thing nearer to what you most likely needed to launch within the first place.

Not many big-budget misfires are so fortunate. Whereas Mass Impact: Andromeda was deserted by EA and had its DLC canceled, Cyberpunk 2077 lastly feels nearer to the sport individuals needed. However that is solely after three years’ of patching, and dropping help for PS4 and Xbox One variations which most likely shouldn’t have existed within the first place.

It’s ironic {that a} recreation concerning the vice grip of capitalism was so beholden to it that it launched the way in which it did three years in the past. Cyberpunk 2077 was all the time attempting to touch upon and satirize the identical forces that minimize it off on the knees. The sport’s improvement cycle was plagued with tales of builders crunching main as much as launch, and layoffs when CD Projekt Crimson realized it hadn’t scaled correctly for all its tasks. And the inclination to name the builders behind Cyberpunk 2077 incompetent merely doesn’t maintain as much as scrutiny when, after years of labor, they’ve managed to boost their recreation to new heights. That CD Projekt Crimson wasn’t capable of launch the sport on this state to start with speaks extra to systemic points in how video video games are made, launched, maintained, and consumed. It’s a disgrace it took churning employees by the grinder and years of further work to get it there.

This can not proceed, however some days my cynicism takes over and I concern the machine can’t be stopped. Cyberpunk 2077 is all about displaying how the gristmill comes for us all, however to its detriment, it usually falls into the identical cynicism I are likely to really feel when issues are relentlessly onerous. We will’t give in to that, and like V, I typically discover consolation in these round me, who’re being crushed underneath the heel of each system that chews us up and spits us out, however nonetheless, within the face of all the things, by no means cease believing that a greater world is feasible.

Phantom Liberty is a succinct summation of the perfect components of Cyberpunk 2077 and all of the strife it took to succeed in this level. It displays on V’s story in a brand new, insightful approach, and it’s maddening that it’s pretty much as good as it’s, as a result of I really feel like I simply acquired right here. There aren’t many video games that’ve made me really feel such a push and pull, so possibly it’s becoming to observe it self-destruct in a spectacular explosion simply because it course corrects. Very similar to V, my time in Evening Metropolis is proscribed. I higher take advantage of it.

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