If you had told me about it a few years ago, when Cyberpunk 2077’s main development was the same, I would have run far away. We don’t really need to explain why the game was such a mess when it launched—that was done a lot. But it was hard to recommend to anyone, it wasn’t much fun to play, and it was a damn shame to see what was clearly a very ambitious and unique game buried under all the rubbish.
Fast forward a few years and CD Projekt RED has done the job Cyberpunk 2077, the game we all knew was awesome,. The game that left me so cold when I reviewed it on the PlayStation 5 has grown into a phenomenal RPG. The strange bugs and broken world have been tweaked and polished so that we can enjoy the night city as a truly fascinating digital metropolis. When I returned to it in 2022, I was obsessed with just wandering the streets and enjoying the atmosphere, which was much easier to do when the game didn’t pause every 10 minutes.
Having gone hand in hand with the significant and long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Freedom expansion, I’m happy to announce that the RPG redemption arc is complete. It’s a polished, cinematic new adventure with plenty of new content to enjoy and an engaging new main quest that promises to match the highs of previous CD Projekt RED expansions such as Witch 3‘s Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.
Most Phantom Freedom takes place around Dogtown, a gated district of Night City ruled by a brutal militia that lives by its own code. He somehow manages to make the rest of the nighttime city look like Butlins. V and Johnny (yes, Keanu Reeves is officially back) are drawn into the shadowy world of political conspiracy and espionage as they try to save the president from the ruthless leader of Dogtown.
It’s hard to really get a feel for this kind of expansion in less than an hour of playtime, but the segments I played felt like a real statement of intent. For one thing, the action is much bigger. In one particularly explosive scene, V was seen sprinting through a collapsing war zone and blasting militia in the face with a shotgun as he tried to bring the president back to safety. I should emphasize that Cyberpunk 2077 it’s still not a first-person shooter and you can look at the combat in any way you want, but being stuck in the thick of the action definitely feels a lot better than before.
There are still plenty of quieter moments and choices, and it seems as if they will have any real impact on the story. At one point, V takes the president to hide out in an abandoned apartment as the two guys stumble around looking for a place to crash. After raising my gun at them to politely tell them the seat was taken, I was happy to let them leave in peace… until they recognized the president. Considering our fearless leader was supposed to be incognito, I figured it probably wasn’t the best idea to let two strangers get lost knowing her location. Things got bloody. I suspect that letting them go would lead to more problems, and CDPR promises that there will be many twists and turns depending on who you choose to trust.
Dog Town itself is very different from all the other areas of Night City, with crumbling buildings and happy gongs on every corner. The remaining part Cyberpunk 2077It’s hardly a world full of tulips, but Dogtown’s sense of constant danger and bubbling tension makes it that much more dangerous to explore. In addition to the main story, of course, there are tons of new side quests and mercenary missions to complete, so expect to spend a lot of time getting used to Dogtown’s unique charms.
Then there’s Idris Elba, who plays an old presidential spy called Solomon Red, and is really your main partner and guide in the world of espionage. He didn’t appear until the very end of the demo, but it’s Idris Elba. He’s obviously great here, as he is in everything. Will we be able to make it? I suspect not, but damn if I’m not going to do a damn good job of it. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll see if the president is committed to it.
Perhaps the most expected surprise Phantom freedom thus he makes Johnny Silverhand stand out even more. I really didn’t expect Keanu Reeves to make a massive return, but as V goes further down the rabbit hole, we learn a whole new side to Silverhand and his days in the military. There were one or two moments in my preview where Silverhand ditched the punk rock and showed a rare vulnerability, allowing Reeves to unleash his talents. I won’t spoil anything here, but you can say Phantom freedom will only deepen V and Johnny’s complicated relationship and I can’t wait to see where it goes.
Phantom freedom forming like a victory lap Cyberpunk 2077 deserves This is a massive expansion that promises to be filled with immersive new stories and unexpected adventures. I can’t wait to dive back into them and discover them all. If the quality of the rest of the expansion is as high as I’ve experienced, it’s safe to say Cyberpunk 2077 goes out with a bang. And who ever thought that would happen?