CD Project Red is finally rolling out the long-awaited Patch 2.0, with which they are almost completely overhauling Cyberpunk 2077 and releasing the DLC Phantom Liberty on September 26. MyMMO editor Sophia dusted off her V and made a dive into the expansion for you.
December 2020: CD Project Red releases Cyberpunk 2077 on Steam. Bugs, a relatively short main story, and missing features put the community in an uproar. Now, around two and a half years later and numerous patches later, the studio promises with Update 2.0 and the DLC Phantom Liberty finally the game they once announced.
As a reminder: In the game, you control V, a mercenary who can be male or female. V lives in Night City, an autonomous city in a dystopian future scenario of the United States of America. V steadily rises in the mercenary food chain until a heist goes terribly wrong.
For V, a race against time begins: A broken biochip is now lodged in his head and will kill him in the coming weeks and months. Of course, it cannot simply be removed, which drives V to desperation.
Here, I have summarized my first impressions of about 13 hours in 2.0 and Phantom Liberty in words. For detailed reviews of Phantom Liberty, I recommend our sister sites:
- GameStar Test: Phantom Liberty makes the best of Cyberpunk 2077 even better
- GamePro Test: Even better than the fantastic main game
My Relationship with Cyberpunk 2077
My journey with Cyberpunk 2077 began two years after its release when the game was on sale. Upon release, I was still too busy with other games. So waiting for the bug fixes was no problem.
And so, on a cold February evening, I sat with a glass of whiskey in front of my then relatively new gaming PC: “Let’s see what Cyberpunk 2077 can do in 2022.” And it could do quite a lot!
Cyberpunk was the first game where I could really stretch my graphics card muscles. With ray tracing, Night City looked incredibly impressive back then.
As a Street Kid, I started in a neon bar and was supposed to steal an expensive car as my first mission. Unfortunately, that didn’t quite work out. But instead of the cash for the car, I got my new best friend.
If I hadn’t wanted to see more than just the first area, I would have easily gotten stuck in the first act. Unfortunately, the allure of the main quest was too great.
To this day, I passionately explore every corner of Night City that is available to me, stick V’s nose into other people’s affairs, and seek the favor of the contract-giving fixers. Even today, occasionally with a nice glass of whiskey.
However, I must admit: I have not finished Cyberpunk to this day. On the one hand, there is far too much to do, and on the other hand, I am very concerned about the ending of “my” V.
Eventually, I will find out how it ends. But until then, I hope that I will be done with the new DLC Phantom Liberty – because there are many opportunities to make right and wrong decisions.
Let’s talk about 2.0 – because without it, Phantom Liberty would just be more of the same
CD Project Red released version 2.0 of Cyberpunk 2077 on September 21, which is actually less of a patch and more of a 2/3 overhaul of the game.
After activating my press access and installing all downloads, the new skill tree was my first new opponent in the game.
To dive directly into Phantom Liberty, I had loaded my old save file. One of the prerequisites for starting the DLC quests is to have completed the quest line about the Voodoo Boys in Pacifica. Knowing myself, I would have comfortably played another 25 hours with a new game save before even starting the quests.
The new skill tree confused me in that suddenly nothing I had skilled made sense. My approach to the game was never that I wanted to play completely optimized. I enjoyed myself casually and skilled what seemed sensible and fun to me. Apparently, that has not been well implemented in the new update.
The game gave me a free respec, and I used it – even if now with a click on the mouse wheel all specs can simply be reset. My currently chosen skills and the distributed points may not be optimal, but everything works as I wish.
I’ve recorded a deeper insight into the skill tree topic here:
Cyberpunk 2077 has a new skill tree with Update 2.0 – This is how you level up correctly
“Want some new chrome, Chicka?” A perpetual mobile of new to-dos
I had a very similar problem with my cyberware. A correspondingly necessary visit to the next Ripperdoc, the specialist for inserting and upgrading cyberware, put me directly in front of the next problem: My V was broke.
No problem – Eddies are earned pretty quickly in Night City. But I thought the last quests in my log were still there because they were quite difficult.
However, the risk assessment has completely fallen away in the new presentation. My reluctance towards certain tasks as well. So I rolled up my sleeves and went: Eddies farming like crazy!
During this, I also got acquainted with the new police AI! Before 2.0, the law enforcement officers were little to no concerned about whether I was law-abiding. But now? I hit exactly one pedestrian with my motorcycle – which I can’t handle at all – and already the announcement came over the police radio.
After the many gang shootings that were announced on the radio and which I clarified for the Night City Police Department, the chase after me was quite funny. And in a way also cool. I just had to switch cars and drive to another district to throw off the law enforcement officers from my trail.
Round Gameplay with Minor Flaws
All in all, I had a pleasant gameplay round with the base game content updated to version 2.0. The update has polished the functionality of Cyberpunk 2077 to a high gloss without taking away its own charm:
Night City remains Night City. The plaster still crumbles from the walls. The neon-colored, garish advertisements still advertise the same absurd luxury goods. Gangs still roam the streets. Cars stop at green traffic lights. Just Night City.
Until I found a “suitable” chrome and Eurodollar stand, I also enjoyed one or the other new or still existing bug. My personal highlight was the pedestrians who stood wildly in the street intersections and did not move despite the heavy traffic.
Before I tell you about my first adventures in and around Dog Town, a small tip: The update 2.0 is released five days before the DLC. I recommend you to use this time to bring an old save file to 2.0 or to start with a new V. That way you will already be familiar with the new mechanics and layouts when Phantom Liberty is released.
In our news here, we have summarized an overview of all updates that come for free with 2.0 for all Cyberpunk 2077 owners:
Cyberpunk 2077: Everything about the free Update 2.0 and 3 things you should do now
Now for the major expansion: This is Phantom Liberty
The last hurdle before entering the “new” district Dog Town is a quest: Only when the quests “M’ap Tann Pelen, I walk the Line” to “Transmissions” are marked as completed in your quest logs, the DLC story content starts.
That we should take care of the crashed plane of the NUSA president and its recovery, I already knew from the announcements. However, I did not expect a call like “Hey – I can help you with your Relic if you help me! Come to Dog Town.”
Dog Town is the new district introduced by Phantom Liberty. The southeastern half of Pacifica has been cut off from Night City for years and is ruled by a local military dictatorship under Colonel Kurt Hansen. Accordingly, it looks like a war zone.
But before I can really take a look around, time is pressing: Our mysterious caller Songbird is waiting for us at the main entrance. She first forces us to our knees: She is a netrunner, one of the best, and is tinkering with our biochip, the Relic.
Now comes the moment I have been waiting for since the beginning of the base game: We finally unlock the mysterious Relic functions!
The Relic button came with the biochip. But until it was unlocked in the DLC, it had no function. Whoever clicked it only saw a blinking, distorted button. Since I didn’t want any spoilers, I thought for a long time that I needed to befriend Johnny Silverhand to make something of it.
As it turns out, the feature simply was not in the game before Phantom Liberty. I don’t regret being nice to Johnny. But maybe I should have chosen my dialogue options a bit less cautiously.
Back to the Relic function. We start with three Relic points and three selectable base functions: Emergency Cloak, Jailbreak, and Weakness Analysis.
Equipped with my new abilities, I follow the instructions of my new netrunner friend into the depths of Dog Town. What follows is a sequence of gameplay and cutscenes that matches the intensity and length of the beginnings of the base game.
It’s a damn wild ride. Songbird leads me through a dilapidated garage labyrinth into Dog Town, to a viewpoint, and through more than one intense confrontation with the “law enforcement” of the district.
At this point, I could now indulge in memories of the last gameplay hours and tell you in detail what happened to me. But then you wouldn’t need to play the expansion anymore.
Just this much: I found President Myers. With her, I had perhaps the coolest buddy cop experience I have ever had in a game. I can only say: Yes, Madam President!
The start in Phantom Liberty is exhausting. But with reaching the safe house, calm returns for a moment. But also the everyday life of Cyberpunk.
Relaxed: What else is in Phantom Liberty?
Now the “classic” Cyberpunk missions begin for me: Talk to the character, choose dialogue options wisely, visit locations from A to Z, and explore the world. It never gets quiet in Dog Town and if needed, you can dive into new cyberpsychos, stalkers, or gang wars. Many new boss fights await you too.
In all the action, I almost forgot that there is more to Phantom Liberty than just a new main story. One of the first innovations announces itself directly on the phone, as soon as you have some breathing room in the story: the fixer Mr. Hands. He has his base in Dog Town and looks forward to working with V.
Despite good cooperation in the base game, he doesn’t want to meet us right away. To console us, he gives V a new car and almost right away sends him a new lucrative job – one of 17 new side quests and tasks.
On the way from point A of the main mission to point B, I directly stumbled upon one of the new courier missions: A blinking point on my map made me curious. It turned out to be a car that I had to steal for a fixer outside of Dog Town.
Seconds after I discovered the blinking point, my V was in the middle of a wild chase through Night City. But this time not with the police, but with one of the factions from Dog Town! I was so perplexed that I don’t even remember who had me on the hook.
By the way: Anyone who owns and plays Phantom Liberty can unlock a new ending for the base game. So if you are dissatisfied with your previous ending or, like me, have never seen one, you should definitely try out Dog Town before reaching the next ending.
2.0 is the highlight – Phantom Liberty is simply more good Cyberpunk
As you may have noted while reading, I had a really good time with Phantom Liberty and Cyberpunk 2077 2.0. As the game is now, it might be the best version it can be.
Of course, some things are still missing. Without wanting to rehash old issues, but the monorail as a means of transport would have been cool. Or wandering through Night City with my friends in multiplayer. I keep my fingers crossed that the latter might still be possible someday – as a patch or standalone game. The main thing is that Night City remains as flashy and colorful as we know it.
The 2.0 adjustments make the game much more playable and clearer for me personally. Even though I first had to get used to the fact that some things now work differently. From a still somewhat “clunky” game, it has become a smooth gaming experience.
After the initial adjustment phase, the new skill tree, the tidy quest log, and the changes to the cyberware make playing considerably easier for me. I can level up faster and more easily according to my play style. If I once “skilled” incorrectly, I can also quickly revert the adjustments.
Additionally, the update has brought new life to Night City. The now very active NCPD, the shooting from cars, and the consequences for my actions outside of quests.
Cyberpunk 2077 was a good game with flaws. But with 2.0, it finally becomes really damn good. Almost a completely new game – with the caveat that I have (yet) not seen everything from the DLC and this is just a first impression.
Moreover, Dog Town has incredible potential for stories and characters that have only been mentioned in passing so far. Mr. Hands is such a character. His first fixer gigs momentarily made me doubt: Could I have done that differently? And the answer is probably yes.
And if I may express an honest hope: I roughly know how it can end for V – in all scenarios. Maybe Phantom Liberty rewards us with something … satisfying.
I am very curious about your impressions and expectations for the game. Feel free to leave a few comments. But don’t take it personally; I will read them later.
The article here is now finished, and I have a date with Solomon Reed in Dog Town.
