Playing this including its sole DLC took a whole lot more time than I expected. In particular I didn’t realize that there is quite a bit of unmarked or hidden content that pops up only after you’ve visited certain places or done certain actions. Nonetheless it’s done and it’s been a blast. Players love this DLC because it gives you new, more powerful toys. But I especially appreciate that it includes a number of intense, heavy combat scenarios that finally allow you to make use of the full suite of your abilities. The main story is decent even if it’s oddly isolated from the events of the main game. But the new area of Dogtown, small as it is, is amazing and I’d rate this as a must-have DLC.
The main plot of Phantom Liberty kicks off when V happens to be near Dogtown, a fortified and independently-run enclave within Night City. A caller identifying herself as Songbird claims to be an aide of President Rosalind Myers of the NUSA and is aware of V’s predicament with the Relic. She is calling from the President’s personal jet Space Force One which has been remotely hijacked and put on a course to Dogtown. In exchange for a cure, V is asked to rescue the President. Songbird guides V past Dogtown’s perimeter and you watch as the jet is hit by missiles and crash lands. You’ll have to fight through an army of the Barghest troops of the warlord Kurt Hansen who controls Dogtown and get the President to a safehouse. After that you’d need to make contact with sleeper agent Solomon Reed for assistance in smuggling the President out of Dogtown. During the fight, you mysteriously lose contact with Songbird who seems to be connected to the Blackwall. You must then work together with Reed to find out what happened to her.
The opening act of the DLC is a very linear, action movie-style experience. It’s a little silly why a random mercenary of all people is tasked with saving the President even if the NUSA isn’t quite the superpower it used to be. It does make for a change in pace compared to the base game with its balls-to-the-wall action. It has some of the hardest fights I’ve experienced in the game and stealth builds will have a tough time against swarms of enemies coming at you from all sides. That’s a very good thing as I’d previously complained that the base game favors the stealth approach too much. The new characters are all very memorable and it’s particularly interesting that they’re from the NUSA/Militech side while the base game is so Arasaka-focused. Even after you succeed in saving the President, the remaining missions all have very James Bond-like superspy vibes, including a scene in a casino under disguise. It’s great and I’m amused that this might be the closest Idris Elba got to play Bond after all the rumors never panned out.
The new Dogtown zone occupies only a tiny portion of the overall map but CD Projekt Red did a fantastic job at making it look both distinctive from the rest of Night City and jaw-droppingly over-the-top. It’s like a giant zone of half-completed construction projects with garish neon lights and gloss to cover up the shoddy parts. Hansen’s Barghest heavily-armed troops patrol the streets in conjunction with mechs so it feels more militarized than the rest of the city. I believe it’s denser with detail too so there’s something interesting to see no matter what direction you look at. Best of all, the activities that are added to this new zone are rewarding and suitably challenging. These include the airdrops in which valuable cargo is intercepted and dropped. Various factions scramble to grab the loot, prompting a street battle. It’s a great excuse to have a fight out in the open and the reward is desirable even to endgame characters.
Better yet are the bosses placed on the map. Each of them are usually placed in a large battlespace that favors their particular abilities. They have plenty of mobility to make use of that space, are able to retreat and have special tricks unavailable to the player, so every fight has a surprise or two. Supported by their flunkies, they’re a worthy challenge to those who have already completed the main game. Quite a few of the optional gigs in Dogtown similarly feature a fight with a boss of some kind. All this is much appreciated content as most players agree that the game is too easy and there is a lack of tough battles to test your build against. Finally the DLC adds vehicle theft contracts which was always a strange omission given how closely this game feels like Grand Theft Auto in some ways. This offers an excuse to engage in vehicular combat which I find to be of dubious value. But it’s repeatable activity for those who just can’t bear to leave Night City and the reward in the form of skill shard are worthwhile as it can be difficult to grind.
I don’t always play the DLCs even of games that I like because I usually have enough of the gameplay in the main game. In the case of Cyberpunk 2077, I not only loved the gameplay enough to want more content but found Phantom Liberty to be so good as to be essential. Its story may be self-contained from the main game but it’s very well done and so different in tone that it’s worthwhile on its own. I did feel by the end that the developers in staying true to the theme that there is no happy ending in Night City forced binary choices that feel increasingly implausible. Since all choices are bad, it starts to feel like they’re all equally meaningless. In general, I find that the writing in this game works well enough in its broad strokes, it’s not all there yet when it comes to the fine details of characterization. The game needs to offer the player a lot more meaningful dialogue choices to give us a sense of agency and buy-in, instead of feeling like we’re being railroaded by the plot.
As my extensive playtime logged in this game so far indicates, I’m delighted by Cyberpunk 2077, especially since there are as yet so few open-world games with a futuristic setting. It’s great that Rockstar has a serious competitor in this space and I’m genuinely excited that they’ve already announced a sequel. CD Projekt Red isn’t at Rockstar’s level but this is effectively their first virtual city and it’s already very impressive what they’ve achieved, especially after making up for their mistakes since the poor launch. Their vision of Night City can only get better from here.