Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty delivers on the promises the base game failed to deliver at launch – hands-on

When Mike Pondsmith first got here up with the Cyberpunk 2077 universe, he wished to verify punk – correct punk – was on the coronary heart of it. “It’s not simply the philosophical angle of the punk scene and it’s not simply the music – the whole lot about punk impressed Cyberpunk initially,” he advised me, years in the past, in a crowded room at E3.

As the event of the sport based mostly on his beloved property continued, and Cyberpunk 2077 lastly launched, this preliminary seed of the universe was simply forgotten. A world designed to interrogate company greed and mirror the ugly actuality of capitalist tradition, it seems, was undone by among the very issues it got down to lampoon.

So sentiment in the direction of Cyberpunk 2077 soured. Publish-release, the sport grew to become a totem of roughly the whole lot players hate concerning the business in the intervening time; downgrades, damaged guarantees, inconsistent messaging – the record goes on. Class-action lawsuits, the removing of the sport from storefronts, mainstream information hits about this slipshod, unsatisfying launch… what can go incorrect did go incorrect for Cyberpunk 2077. Even after years of refinements and enhancements, and the sport’s potential being eked out patch after patch, public sentiment in the direction of Phantom Liberty is tepid at finest. Hostile, at worst.

However, it’s price remembering, CD Projekt Pink isn’t merely Cyberpunk 2077 – it’s additionally The Witcher 3, probably the most beloved video games of all time. A contemporary traditional. It’s additionally the 2 main expansions for The Witcher 3 (Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone) – DLC packages which are broadly hailed as among the finest worth add-ons we’ve ever seen. A tonic to the horse armours and battle passes that proliferate elsewhere.

“We’re creators, and we wished to take advantage of superior enlargement for the sport that we could not get the whole lot into at launch,” says sport director Gabriel Amatangelo once I word that Phantom Liberty has what it takes to redeem Cyberpunk 2077 within the eyes of these nonetheless cynical. “For the previous two years, we have simply put our heads down and acquired on with this. ‘Let’s do extra, let’s add stuff, let’s actually work out what oppertunities this world can present’ – that is what we have been actually serious about.”

And, take it from somebody that’s performed it, Phantom Liberty is nice. Quick, offended, drenched in neon and blood, full of the kind of performances you’d anticipate from probably the most high-profile video games in our business. The manufacturing values are via the roof. All of the voice expertise, all of the environmental design, all of the bombast… it’s intact. Perhaps even a bit shinier and nicer, now that the PS4 and Xbox One-shaped albatross round CDPR’s neck has lastly dropped into the ocean.

The premise is easy: you could work with with NUS president Rosalin Myers after an try is made on her life. You’ll be briefed and supported by Songbird, a really fairly identify for somebody with a really ugly set of expertise. Past that, particulars are scarce, however suffice to say it’s a spy-thriller – part-Archer, part-Alpha Protocol, part-Ian Fleming. It takes you right into a walled-off a part of Night time Metropolis, residence to bastards and thugs, and dares you to get out. That’s your aim; survive, and work out what the hell is happening. Your actions within the DLC could have a bearing on the tip of the complete sport, too.

You would possibly suppose it’s odd {that a} sport set in a style obsessive about being anti-establishment and harnessing the simply anger of rise up, setting a narrative across the President of the Not-Fairly-United-States. “Myers is a sensible character, with advanced feelings and agendas, and we wish the participant to navigate that and triangulate it with the whole lot else on the planet,” teases Amatangelo. “Actually, we’re not afraid of challenges, and we need to be daring with the characters and the settings and the dynamics and the characters, and we do not need to go for the straightforward shortcut stuff. We need to go for the stuff that broadens folks’s horizons, and challenges how they suppose. How’s that for a solution with out spoilers?!”

When it comes to gameplay, the 2 most significant updates I picked up on have been the alterations to armour/clothes, and the brand new Relic ability tree. Mixed, these new parts increase the depth of the RPG programs within the sport. On their very own, they add extra granularity to the way you develop and excellent your construct.

Relic, as a ability tree, provides issues like Vulnerability Analytics (see enemy weaknesses within the HUD), Emergency Cloaking (activate camo throughout fight), Spatial Mapping (enhance liklihood of crucial hits and dismemberments with Mantis Blades), and Sensory Protocol (activate slo mo when detected while crouching). It’s all about fight utility, and interacting with no matter construct you’re working, and providing you with extra non-combat choices should you do get drawn right into a gunfight. I solely had probability to play ‘Quick Solo’ – suppose MGS’ Raiden and also you’ve acquired an concept of the construct.

I say, with no shadow of a doubt, that fight Phantom Liberty feels even higher than the principle sport; parrying bullets into employed goons transferring in to supply assist as you slice and cube the doomed meatbags nearer to you? Airdashing right into a vanguard unit and slicing their throats open as they reel in shock? Popping your camo once you get overwhelmed, flanking the bastards and coming in with considered one of their very own pilfered shotguns? It feels extra like Bulletstorm, or Shadow Warrior, or one thing – Cyberpunk wasn’t designed to be a sport like these, but with the precise construct, it feels proper at residence within the style.

“Visceral, is likely one of the key phrases for us, right here,” nods Amatangelo once I drop that Bulletstorm reference in dialog. “We wish, once you’re taking part in our video games, fantasy fulfilment. And a giant a part of fantasy fulfilment in Cyberpunk 2077 is being this cyberwear superhuman – so in Phantom Liberty, we’ve all these new expertise and traits and talents that play into that and allow you to fulfil this fantasy. Combining these skills and expertise for emergent gameplay? That is the middle of what we wished to do.”

With Phantom Liberty, it seems to be like CDPR is again to its previous self; eager on the pedigree, devoted to delivering one thing worthwhile, respectful of your time and pockets. The DLC could value greater than each units of The Witcher 3’s DLC mixed, but it surely additionally guarantees to inject a significant quantity of content material – a mouthful of spit and a fistful of polish – to the bottom sport on the similar time.

Seeing the boldness with which [Game director Gabriel Amatangelo] and his group have come out with, and the fluidity and freneticism of the DLC thus far, I’m not involved concerning the worth proposition of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. “Take heed to punk and at a sure level you’ll realise it’s not speaking concerning the world, it’s about the way you relate to the world in your degree,” Pondsmith advised me, as soon as upon a time. “That’s vital. [Punk’s] anthem isn’t ‘let’s save the world, we’re all pals’, it’s ‘you bought in my face motherf***er’… adopted by a headbutt.” Phantom Liberty seems to be prefer it’s residing by that philosophy, and fulfilling a cyberpunk promise many have been yearning for the previous three years.

Cyberpunk 2077 is out there on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Collection X/S. Phantom Liberty launches September 26, and it will set you again £24.99.