Cyberpunk 2077 Preview – Phantom Liberty Preview – It’s Good To Be Back

Cyberpunk was a great game, despite a rocky start. I beat it around its release in 2020, and I’ve checked in a few times to see how the CD Projekt Red’s post-launch work has improved the game, but those check-ins were always a few hours. I’d drive around, shoot some enemies, and listen to Run The Jewels on the in-game radio. Satisfied with my V’s ending, I didn’t have a reason to return to the meat of the campaign, but when CDPR announced its Phantom Liberty expansion, I knew it’d be the reason I needed. 

I played an hour of this expansion – what appears to be its opening hour – and I’m happy to say it’s good to be back in Night City. Or, more specifically, the city’s Pacifica district because Phantom Liberty introduces the new Dogtown area into the game. Pacifica had been planned to be an exciting resort area, with casinos, hotels, and other attractions. However, the Unification War prevented this from happening. And part of that became what’s known as Dogtown, the starting location for this new expansion. 

It’s a run-down area, littered with remnants of what could have been, like a massive pyramid building reminiscent of Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel. There’s a lot of verticality in Dogtown, which I think is especially great for fast and agile V builds, and the small taste I got of it has me excited to check out more in the full thing. CDPR told me, however, that although Phantom Liberty starts in Dogtown the story will span Night City.

CDPR has positioned Phantom Liberty as a spy thriller, injecting espionage into the base game’s otherwise action-heavy story. And right from the jump, that’s clear. Taking place shortly after players reach Pacific in the Cyberpunk 2077 campaign, netrunner Songbird speaks directly to V, telling her she can cure her of the ticking time bomb that is the Relic program in her head, aka Keanu Reeve’s Johnny Silverhand. 

She must first save Rosalind Myers who is on Space Force One and is about to crash-land in Dogtown. As Songbird and V watch this ship start to descend toward Dogtown, it’s targeted by missiles, ensuring Space Force One, and ideally President Myers, go down with it. And this sets up the story of Phantom Liberty – V heads to the crashed ship, saves President Myers (although admittedly, she doesn’t need the saving, it seems), and the two shack up in an abandoned high-rise building. 

V’s ultimate objective is to get Myers out of Dogtown, but that’s near impossible because there are targets everywhere on her and likely a massive bounty to take her out. Myers says that getting out of Dogtown, then Night City, and back to Washington will be impossible unless…Solomon Reed can help. This is Idris Elba’s character, and he’s essentially a Sleeper Agent that used to work with Myers, and she’s confident he’s her ticket out. V’s job is to find Reed so that a reverse-heist of sorts can be performed to get Myers out of Night City and back to Washington. 

Elba plays the role well; he’s a hardened spy and seemingly a man of few words, at least compared to Johnny Silverhand. The two are complete opposites, and it’s a fun contrast to watch V deal with the two in my short time when V, Johnny Silverhand, and Reed are together. 

It feels like I’ve played street combat before. CDPR said that the free update and expansion to the base version will allow players to shoot from their car, as well as vehicles with mounted rockets and bullets. I didn’t get to experience any of this, but I’m excited to see if and how it changes the otherwise standard first-person combat present throughout the rest of Cyberpunk 2077. 

Phantom Liberty left me wanting to play it more. The game is reminiscent of the Night City of 2077. A new story will be told in this world. With just an hour of hands-on time, I can’t say Phantom Liberty feels or looks all that different. But I’m not sure it’s meant to. It’s an additive story to an existing campaign that takes place long before that campaign comes to a close. CDPR claims Phantom Liberty adds flavor to 2077’s story, even going as far to give it a different ending. 

But it’s a standalone expansion in its own right, too. CDPR says you can play the campaign and when you reach Phantom Liberty content, you’ll receive a text that indicates you can begin the expansion storyline. Or, you can start a new game and “fast forward” right to the expansion if you’d like. The players who completed the game 2077 may also go back to their saved file and replay this story. 

It’ll be the latter option for me when Phantom Liberty is released on Septembe 26, and this small taste was just enough to remind me that I enjoy playing around in Night City. Right now, it feels like more 2077 – which is great – but it’s the narrative of this expansion that I expect will set it apart from the base game. It was a nice way to set the narrative up, but I don’t know where it will go. I’m excited to find out.