Gaming History 101

Additional content is often separated or piecemeal, feeling like an afterthought to the developer that most don’t play. For me, it’s a necessity to any title I enjoyed, because I am always curious where a developer goes from the originally conceived end of the game. It’s rare to see massive expansion packs like Phantom Liberty that manage to integrate into the main campaign, so much so that it can play out as an alternate timeline. Not only that, but zero corners were cut here. Keanu Reeves returns as Johnny Silverhand and is with you as much as he was in the original, plus a new cast of characters that includes personal favorite Idris Elba round out the experience. While the area you largely play in, Dogtown, is the anchor to the campaign, there’s nothing stopping you from exploring all of Night City, missions from the main game, and even unique circumstances and dialogue now unlocked through Phantom Liberty. This expansion doesn’t feel like it adds to the game, it feels like it rebuilds it.

Don’t worry, I’m not about to spoil any of the story content, but I will offer a few warnings that I wish I had known going in. First off, it is highly recommended to play this expansion just before going to meet Hanako at the Embers in the main campaign, which is the point of no return. Going in at this late point in the ensures that you are leveled properly for the tougher streets of Dogtown, but it also re-integrates Phantom Liberty into the main story with finesse. Second, there is a point of no return at the end of Phantom Liberty as well, which will provide its own series of endings to the main game, essentially bypassing the final mission mentioned above. The main game final mission is much stronger and should be experienced first before any of these alternate endings, so I recommend either save scumming or ignoring them completely. If you wish to save scum, the mission “Firestarter” marks where you start making decisions that lead to one of 4 possible Phantom Liberty endings, so it’s the best anchor to drop a save. If you wish to ignore these alternative endings, that is when you are prompted to head to the top of Misty’s and instead you go meet Hanako at the Embers. Either way, I didn’t as much care for the new endings (I received one and looked up the others), CDPR nailed it the first time through. The new endings are also much more dialogue and plot-heavy compared to the hybrid of action and dialogue the main game had.

Caveats aside, Phantom Liberty is a great 25+ hour side story to compliment the robust plots in the main game. From the Escape from New York homage that opens it to the player-driven completion where you make the difficult decisions this developer is best known for. Like the main game, the storyline missions are only part of the tale as Dogtown is robust with gangs, politics, and opportunities for your V to engage with. Admittedly, many of these missions rely on the concept of difficult stealth mission where you have to take out everyone if discovered. The random stories that provide the backdrop to these missions somewhat help to soften the blow, but if sneaking around or blasting a crew guns-a-blazing isn’t your cup of tea, the side content gets old fast. That said, it does all work together to feel like a living world because Dogtown does not stop evolving or reacting to you just because you complete its campaign. In fact, I was most surprised in how engaged it all is both along the way and after completion. There are even additional missions in Night City that were added with this expansion, all to help sell the concept that Phantom Liberty was part of the game all along.

There was one thing that constantly nagged at me, and it’s an update that came at or around Phantom Liberty (Version 2.1) rather than as a part of it: dating. If you have a partner – in my case I was doing a male run and was with Panam – there’s a new mission called “I Really Want To Stay At Your House.” This has you to meet your partner at one of your residences (you did buy all of them, didn’t you?) and hang out. You can cuddle, discuss various topics, dance, take a shower together, and fall asleep together. The first time you do this, it’s rather novel. It provides a slice of life that is rarely touched on in video games and is an essential part of having an actual partner, whether you’re a trained mercenary or simply the cashier at a convenience store. These evenings of enjoying the company of another person that brings you joy is something I adore in my personal life and will seek out if it’s ever missing. Once you leave your apartment after the date, the mission concludes with no perks or experience points, which makes sense because the date was the reward (and not just the shower scene, you perverts). The problem is that once complete, this mission will re-appear almost immediately and the push to replay it is constant. You’ll always have a text queued up on your phone to reach out to a partner and start the mission again, but for those shy types the game will also have your partner reach out on the reg to prompt the same. When you agree to another date, you are only given the same options over again. Sure, one or two topics get swapped out depending on certain missions, but by and large its deja vu. This is a problem because it’s either reminding you that you’re only playing a video game and thus breaking immersion, or it’s simply repetitive and therefore boring. Cynics may say that going on dates with the same person over and over actually is boring and perhaps it’s a condemnation on that, but I think it’s simply that CDPR threw in this fun new activity for partnered Vs and didn’t think about the long term. From what I can tell it doesn’t have any positive or negative effect on your relationship, your partner will still continue to contact you for unrelated topics even if you’ve gone weeks without a date, and I saw no indication of additional benefits after many dates. So while I think it was a good idea, the whole concept seems half-baked and should either be tweaked or ideally left as a player-engaged concept.

By the time I rolled credits on Phantom Liberty, my story as V had completely changed. I had new friends, a new understanding of the politics of the future, and a more complicated relationship with my brainmate Johnny. That said, I was also completely disappointed. My ending was depressing as hell, but knowing what I do about the world of Cyberpunk 2077, it’s probably what I deserved. Still, if that had been my overall ending to the game without knowing it was an alternative ending from Phantom Liberty, I would have been pissed. CDPR is always good at making you think and providing consequences from the grey area decisions it presents, all of which follow a set of concepts and rules established by the world. For that, it should be commended, although I still don’t like where my story went. It doesn’t matter, though, the journey was far more worthwhile and I’m glad I got to experience it. There was also nothing stopping me from either giving V another go from the start or putting down some strategic anchor points for saving (mentioned in the caveats paragraph above). Having now seen the complete package, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to play the vanilla version, it just feels so incomplete by comparison.

Platform: Steam (PC)
Total Playtime: 67 hours (approx 35 main game, 32 expansion)
Completion: Entire main and expansion campaigns, most major side missions
Source: Purchased
Note: I also played through the main campaign on version 1.5 on the Xbox Series X prior to the release of Phantom Liberty. While I find the graphical improvements of the PC version appealing, the experience of playing the console versions at that point were just as fun as the PC.