Regardless of a particularly rocky launch, I loved Cyberpunk 2077 loads. I beat it round its launch in 2020, and I’ve checked in just a few occasions to see how the CD Projekt Pink’s post-launch work has improved the sport, however these check-ins had been all the time just a few hours. I’d drive round, shoot some enemies, and hearken to Run The Jewels on the in-game radio. Happy with my V’s ending, I didn’t have a purpose to return to the meat of the marketing campaign, however when CDPR introduced its Phantom Liberty enlargement, I knew it’d be the rationale I wanted.
I performed an hour of this enlargement – what seems to be its opening hour – and I’m glad to say it’s good to be again in Evening Metropolis. Or, extra particularly, the town’s Pacifica district as a result of Phantom Liberty introduces the brand new Dogtown space into the sport. Pacifica was set to be a resort district of kinds, full with bustling casinos and the like, however the Unification Warfare prevented that concept from being realized. And a part of that turned what’s referred to as Dogtown, the beginning location for this new enlargement.
It’s a run-down space, plagued by remnants of what might have been, like a large pyramid constructing paying homage to Las Vegas’ Luxor Resort. There’s a variety of verticality in Dogtown, which I believe is very nice for quick and agile V builds, and the small style I acquired of it has me excited to take a look at extra within the full factor. However CDPR tells me that whereas Phantom Liberty begins in Dogtown, the narrative will take gamers all throughout Evening Metropolis.
CDPR has positioned Phantom Liberty as a spy thriller, injecting espionage into the bottom recreation’s in any other case action-heavy story. And proper from the bounce, that’s clear. Happening shortly after gamers attain Pacific within the Cyberpunk 2077 marketing campaign, netrunner Songbird speaks on to V, telling her she will treatment her of the ticking time bomb that’s the Relic program in her head, aka Keanu Reeve’s Johnny Silverhand.
However first, she should save none apart from the President of the New United States, Rosalind Myers, who’s aboard House Pressure One, which is about to crash land in Dogtown at any second. As Songbird and V watch this ship begin to descend towards Dogtown, it’s focused by missiles, making certain House Pressure One, and ideally President Myers, go down with it. And this units up the story of Phantom Liberty – V heads to the crashed ship, saves President Myers (though admittedly, she doesn’t want the saving, it appears), and the 2 shack up in an deserted high-rise constructing.
V’s final goal is to get Myers out of Dogtown, however that’s close to unimaginable as a result of there are targets all over the place on her and sure a large bounty to take her out. Myers says that getting out of Dogtown, then Evening Metropolis, and again to Washington shall be unimaginable except…Solomon Reed will help. That is Idris Elba’s character, and he’s basically a Sleeper Agent that used to work with Myers, and he or she’s assured he’s her ticket out. V’s job is to search out Reed so {that a} reverse-heist of kinds will be carried out to get Myers out of Evening Metropolis and again to Washington.
Elba performs the function effectively; he’s a hardened spy and seemingly a person of few phrases, not less than in comparison with Johnny Silverhand. The 2 are full opposites, and it’s a enjoyable distinction to look at V take care of the 2 in my quick time when V, Johnny Silverhand, and Reed are collectively.
I dabbled in some avenue fight, and it feels acquainted. CDPR says this enlargement and a free replace coming to the bottom recreation brings the flexibility to shoot out of your automobile to the sport alongside autos that may truly fireplace bullets and rockets out of mounted weapons as effectively. I didn’t get to expertise any of this, however I’m excited to see if and the way it adjustments the in any other case normal first-person fight current all through the remainder of Cyberpunk 2077.
I left Phantom Liberty excited to play extra. It appears like a return to the seedy residence of Evening Metropolis I loved in 2077, and it guarantees to carry a brand new kind of story to this world. With simply an hour of hands-on time, I can’t say Phantom Liberty feels or appears all that totally different. However I’m unsure it’s meant to. It’s an additive story to an present marketing campaign that takes place lengthy earlier than that marketing campaign involves an in depth. Nevertheless, CDPR says Phantom Liberty does add taste to the story of 2077, going as far as including a brand new ending to it, too.
However it’s a standalone enlargement in its personal proper, too. CDPR says you’ll be able to play the marketing campaign and if you attain Phantom Liberty content material, you’ll obtain a textual content that signifies you’ll be able to start the enlargement storyline. Or, you can begin a brand new recreation and “quick ahead” proper to the enlargement in the event you’d like. And those that beat 2077 may also bounce again into that save and play by this new story.
It’ll be the latter choice for me when Phantom Liberty is launched on Septembe 26, and this small style was simply sufficient to remind me that I take pleasure in taking part in round in Evening Metropolis. Proper now, it appears like extra 2077 – which is nice – but it surely’s the narrative of this enlargement that I count on will set it other than the bottom recreation. What I performed arrange that narrative properly, however I truthfully don’t know the place it might go. I’m excited to search out out.
