10 Things To Know Before Playing Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
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VOICE OVER: Aaron Brown
WRITTEN BY: Caitlin Johnson
With "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty" around the corner, here's what you need to know before playing! For this list, we're going over all the necessary details surrounding "Cyberpunk 2077's" upcoming expansion. Our list of things to know before playing "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty" includes Idris Elba, Police AI, the Length, Radiant Quests, and more!
Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re looking at 10 things to know before playing “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty”. Will you be getting this hotly anticipated DLC?
Exploring Night City and seeing how detailed the world is was one of the best parts of “Cyberpunk 2077”, so we’re plenty excited about getting a brand-new corner of the map to explore. Dogtown is an adapted setting from the TTRPG, given a new name, but in short, it’s a completely lawless, decaying district that has been completely abandoned by the authorities. It’s also home to an extensive black market and controlled by a violent gang, Barghest, made up of former Militech soldiers. By the sounds of things, it’s going to be even deadlier than some of Night City’s existing regions, like the Badlands and Pacifica, adding a new level of challenge to the game.
Where the base game built much of its marketing around Keanu Reeves’ star-power, this DLC is bringing a new A-lister to Night City, Idris Elba. Elba will be playing Solomon Reed, an agent working for the Federal Intelligence Agency. Reed is also a sleeper agent who’s been in Dogtown for years by this point, and will show up to help – or potentially to hinder – V, as they enter Dogtown themselves. Reed is loyal to the New United States, but as always, V’s working in their own interest, which is why it’ll probably depend on your choices whether Reed is an ally or not. And yes, Keanu is back as well to provide more classic, Johnny Silverhand one-liners.
Though we’ve seen a decent amount in the trailers, CDPR will presumably still be keeping a lot to itself where the story is concerned. What we know so far is that V is contacted by a mysterious person named Songbird, who promises them the cure for their impending death. The catch is that they’re sent into Dogtown to rescue the President, Rosalind Myers, whose private plane, Space Force One, has crashed there. Everyone is after Myers, with the game’s villain Hansen likely trying to claim a large ransom for her, and V has to rescue them in the hope of ridding themselves of Johnny’s parasitic consciousness. It’s also going to be a spy thriller, involving politics and espionage, in an interesting change of pace.
Though the original game had plenty of content to sink your teeth into, a lot of it meticulously designed, you would still eventually run out of things to do if you were a completionist. So, a new quest type will be added to the game with the expansion, called “Courier missions”. Essentially, these are just simple quests you’ll get where you need to steal a car and get it back to a fixer in good condition. These quests are infinite, meaning “Cyberpunk” finally has radiant quests. Love them or hate them, radiant quests DO provide limitless, optional gameplay and more opportunities to make money.
One criticism some people had for the base game was the UI. It was difficult to read, with its light-pink on dark-red design, and some of the UI elements got in your way. Notably, the phone was extremely annoying at launch, with V getting phone calls constantly that they couldn’t decline. It was eventually added in a patch that you don’t have to answer the phone every time, but “Phantom Liberty” is promising to change this even more. We’re not sure exactly what’s going to change, but it’s going to be easier to hotkey different consumables and abilities, as well as to access your cyberdeck for quickhacks.
Another major issue with the game at launch were the cops. They had almost no AI, and would spawn out of thin air on top of V when they committed a crime, and were then extremely easy to avoid by just running away down the block. “Phantom Liberty” is totally overhauling it to create more intelligent police, meaning that there will actually be consequences to committing crimes in public. This puts “Cyberpunk” on a similar level to Rockstar, finally, because you actually will have to consider whether you can get in a firefight with the cops depending on how you choose to handle a mission or an encounter.
It’s been revealed that Songbird’s promise to cure V might not be a complete lie, because “Phantom Liberty” is going to add a new ending to the base game. As well as the DLC itself having multiple endings, it’s going to affect what happens back in the main city when you return to the story. This means that maybe there WILL be a new ending where V is able to separate their consciousness from Johnny. We’re sure it won’t be as simple as all that and that there will be some sort of downside to doing this – otherwise there wouldn’t really be an ending choice anymore – but it will still be fascinating to see what happens.
It’s not just the UI and the police that have been overhauled. The core gameplay loop has supposedly been changed significantly, with adjusted enemy behavior, vehicular combat, and even a totally overhauled skill tree. The skill tree has already been changed since launch, and now it’s getting an even bigger update to add new, more useful skills and change how progression works. Vehicular combat is particularly interesting, too, as some existing vehicles will be changed so that they support it. We saw all of this back in the notorious 2018 E3 demo, and now it’s finally going to be a part of the game, with unique, combat-ready cars to collect.
Currently, it’s looking like “Phantom Liberty” is going to be “Cyberpunk’s” only expansion, especially since the multiplayer mode has been completely dropped. It’s not surprising that this is the case, given how much extra work the base game needed to respond to feedback and actually become playable. But given its price tag, we imagine that “Phantom Liberty” is going to be pretty big with lots of optional extras and side quests to sink your teeth into. It took about thirty hours to beat “The Witcher 3’s” “Blood and Wine” DLC if you did all the side quests, so hopefully “Phantom Liberty” is comparable – or maybe even longer, since it’s substantially more expensive.
So, when can you get your hands on “Phantom Liberty”? Currently, it’s set to release on September 26th and will retail for $30. This is a hefty price tag for an expansion, but hopefully the quality-of-life improvements and vast amount of new content make up for it. Still, some people are worried they’re going to get burned again with a game that won’t work – but “Cyberpunk” has improved a lot in the last three years. As for what you can play it on, it’s only going to be on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, with last gen ditched entirely. This is probably for the best, given what happened with the base game’s launch. But the real question is whether we’ll all be done with “Starfield” in time to play “Phantom Liberty” three weeks later.
Dogtown
Exploring Night City and seeing how detailed the world is was one of the best parts of “Cyberpunk 2077”, so we’re plenty excited about getting a brand-new corner of the map to explore. Dogtown is an adapted setting from the TTRPG, given a new name, but in short, it’s a completely lawless, decaying district that has been completely abandoned by the authorities. It’s also home to an extensive black market and controlled by a violent gang, Barghest, made up of former Militech soldiers. By the sounds of things, it’s going to be even deadlier than some of Night City’s existing regions, like the Badlands and Pacifica, adding a new level of challenge to the game.
Idris Elba
Where the base game built much of its marketing around Keanu Reeves’ star-power, this DLC is bringing a new A-lister to Night City, Idris Elba. Elba will be playing Solomon Reed, an agent working for the Federal Intelligence Agency. Reed is also a sleeper agent who’s been in Dogtown for years by this point, and will show up to help – or potentially to hinder – V, as they enter Dogtown themselves. Reed is loyal to the New United States, but as always, V’s working in their own interest, which is why it’ll probably depend on your choices whether Reed is an ally or not. And yes, Keanu is back as well to provide more classic, Johnny Silverhand one-liners.
Story
Though we’ve seen a decent amount in the trailers, CDPR will presumably still be keeping a lot to itself where the story is concerned. What we know so far is that V is contacted by a mysterious person named Songbird, who promises them the cure for their impending death. The catch is that they’re sent into Dogtown to rescue the President, Rosalind Myers, whose private plane, Space Force One, has crashed there. Everyone is after Myers, with the game’s villain Hansen likely trying to claim a large ransom for her, and V has to rescue them in the hope of ridding themselves of Johnny’s parasitic consciousness. It’s also going to be a spy thriller, involving politics and espionage, in an interesting change of pace.
Radiant Quests
Though the original game had plenty of content to sink your teeth into, a lot of it meticulously designed, you would still eventually run out of things to do if you were a completionist. So, a new quest type will be added to the game with the expansion, called “Courier missions”. Essentially, these are just simple quests you’ll get where you need to steal a car and get it back to a fixer in good condition. These quests are infinite, meaning “Cyberpunk” finally has radiant quests. Love them or hate them, radiant quests DO provide limitless, optional gameplay and more opportunities to make money.
UI
One criticism some people had for the base game was the UI. It was difficult to read, with its light-pink on dark-red design, and some of the UI elements got in your way. Notably, the phone was extremely annoying at launch, with V getting phone calls constantly that they couldn’t decline. It was eventually added in a patch that you don’t have to answer the phone every time, but “Phantom Liberty” is promising to change this even more. We’re not sure exactly what’s going to change, but it’s going to be easier to hotkey different consumables and abilities, as well as to access your cyberdeck for quickhacks.
Police AI
Another major issue with the game at launch were the cops. They had almost no AI, and would spawn out of thin air on top of V when they committed a crime, and were then extremely easy to avoid by just running away down the block. “Phantom Liberty” is totally overhauling it to create more intelligent police, meaning that there will actually be consequences to committing crimes in public. This puts “Cyberpunk” on a similar level to Rockstar, finally, because you actually will have to consider whether you can get in a firefight with the cops depending on how you choose to handle a mission or an encounter.
Will V Survive?
It’s been revealed that Songbird’s promise to cure V might not be a complete lie, because “Phantom Liberty” is going to add a new ending to the base game. As well as the DLC itself having multiple endings, it’s going to affect what happens back in the main city when you return to the story. This means that maybe there WILL be a new ending where V is able to separate their consciousness from Johnny. We’re sure it won’t be as simple as all that and that there will be some sort of downside to doing this – otherwise there wouldn’t really be an ending choice anymore – but it will still be fascinating to see what happens.
New Gameplay
It’s not just the UI and the police that have been overhauled. The core gameplay loop has supposedly been changed significantly, with adjusted enemy behavior, vehicular combat, and even a totally overhauled skill tree. The skill tree has already been changed since launch, and now it’s getting an even bigger update to add new, more useful skills and change how progression works. Vehicular combat is particularly interesting, too, as some existing vehicles will be changed so that they support it. We saw all of this back in the notorious 2018 E3 demo, and now it’s finally going to be a part of the game, with unique, combat-ready cars to collect.
Length
Currently, it’s looking like “Phantom Liberty” is going to be “Cyberpunk’s” only expansion, especially since the multiplayer mode has been completely dropped. It’s not surprising that this is the case, given how much extra work the base game needed to respond to feedback and actually become playable. But given its price tag, we imagine that “Phantom Liberty” is going to be pretty big with lots of optional extras and side quests to sink your teeth into. It took about thirty hours to beat “The Witcher 3’s” “Blood and Wine” DLC if you did all the side quests, so hopefully “Phantom Liberty” is comparable – or maybe even longer, since it’s substantially more expensive.
Release Date
So, when can you get your hands on “Phantom Liberty”? Currently, it’s set to release on September 26th and will retail for $30. This is a hefty price tag for an expansion, but hopefully the quality-of-life improvements and vast amount of new content make up for it. Still, some people are worried they’re going to get burned again with a game that won’t work – but “Cyberpunk” has improved a lot in the last three years. As for what you can play it on, it’s only going to be on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, with last gen ditched entirely. This is probably for the best, given what happened with the base game’s launch. But the real question is whether we’ll all be done with “Starfield” in time to play “Phantom Liberty” three weeks later.
