Everything We Learned About Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty And Update 2.0 During Today’s Night City Wire

CD Projekt Red has announced in a Night City Wire special that Cyberpunk Update 2.0, which is a free update, will launch on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on the 21st of September. The Night City Wire also included new gameplay, music, cinematics and other details about Cyberpunk’s next expansion, Phantom Liberty. It will be released on September 26. Night City Wire lasted about 40 minutes, but we’ve summarized everything below. 

Cinematic Trailer Starring Edris Elba’s Solomon Reed

Night City Wire today began with the release of a brand new Phantom Liberty cinematic, which is a stunning trailer. Idris Elba as retired spy Solomon Reed boards a night train in Night City. The high-fidelity graphics are similar to the other cinematic scenes. On it, he speaks to Song So Mi (you might recognize her by her pseudonym Songbird), a new Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner that players’ V will encounter during Phantom Liberty. 

Reed realizes that his leave was compromised by Song So Mi and, after a brief fight with guards, is shot. Seven years later, we see Rosalind Myers as the president of the New United States of America on board a spaceship with Songbird. A missile crashes through the Spaceship while it is flying over Night City. The ship then goes down. And that’s where this trailer ends and, presumably, where players’ Phantom Liberty journey begins. 

Elba spoke a bit about his character afterward, explaining that he’s a complicated spy. You might know what he’s capable of, but you don’t know if you can trust him. He also teases that with Phantom Liberty being a spy story, players must watch everything happening because not all is as it seems. Elba describes Reed as someone who is extremely dedicated to his work, and he loves his job. 

He spoke a little about Phantom Liberty’s new Dogtown neighborhood of Night City. The militias and criminals who control the area make it one of the most hazardous parts of town. It also has an impressive size, he says.

Phantom Liberty: The Music

CD Projekt Red has revealed that the Phantom Liberty team is working on a brand new soundtrack, which will include additional radio stations in Night City. Composer Jack Paciorkowski says the score is more “cyberpunk” but with more “spy themes.” P.T. Adamczyk believes the music represents the dynamic triangle between V Reed Songbird of Phantom Liberty. 

Adamczyk has announced that the original Phantom Liberty Score is now available for streaming on all services. 

Dark Star Radio and Growl FM will all be new radio channels in the game. Paciorkowski says Dark Star Radio is all about “moody, dark tracks,” combining music from around the world. It also features two tracks from Edris Elba – he produced both tracks and raps on each. Adamczyk says that Elba has also created a DJ mix for Impulse Radio using unreleased songs. Growl FM, a radio station created by players with music from their community. 

CDPR revealed it had created a Growl FM document, with Night City Wire giving a sneak peek of the documentary. They then released a video teaser showing behind-the scenes footage of Dawid Podsiadlo, the musician who created Phantom Liberty’s theme song. Podsiadlo also made the excellent “Let You Down” song from Cyberpunk: EdgerunnersYou should watch this anime whether or not you are a Cyberpunk fan. 

This gameplay of Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0

Gabriel Amatangelo, the game director of Phantom Liberty and the 2.0 update spoke on Night City Wire today. Gabriel Amatangelo says that you can choose to be either a netrunner who is stealthy or someone else who wants to just blow up everything before diving into Relic, the skill tree tied in with the Phantom Liberty story. 

Songbird contacts you via the Relic. To prove that she is the real thing, Songbird clears some bad data from the Relic, and then sets your Cyberware up to make it more effective. You can enhance both your own abilities and disrupt the cyberware of enemies. Amatangelo, along with lead game designer Karlo Mathyasik, then showed three different possible updates in Update 2.0. 

He said his favorite build is “bullet time ninja,” which lets players utilize dashes and air dashes to get close to enemies without taking any damage. His favorite build is “bullet time ninja,” which allows players to use dashes and air dashes to get close to enemies without taking any damage. The build also allows you to jump off of motorcycles and cars in order to launch an attack, complete with slow-mo. With this build, he says your enemies won’t know what hit them. 

Yuliia Pryimak, a game designer from Yuliia Games inc. highlighted the “hack-and-slash” netrunner build. Cyberpunk 2077’s hacking is stronger than ever before, according to Pryimak. This is thanks to a quick hack queue which lets you stack four hacks at once on a single foe. The new hacks let players overtake vehicles remotely and cause them to explode. 

Lead gameplay designer Filip Downar showcased the “savage slugger solo” build, which is for players who want to hit things really hard, whether that’s with a hammer, shotgun, or your arms, which you can use to pick up enemies and throw them at others. Also, your gorillas arms can be supercharged to throw enemies into the air. 

The Night City Wire section concluded with a brief look at Maxtech’s security forces that players can expect to encounter after Update 2.0 is released next week. The showcase ended with a look at Maxtech. 

Cyberpunk Update 2.0 is now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (and PC) on September 21, 2018. All owners of the game will receive a free update. Cyberpunk’s Phantom Liberty is released less than a month later, September 26. 

After going hands-on, we spoke to the Phantom Liberty Team about the lessons they learned after the disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077. After that, read about our analysis of the 2.0 revamp from this past summer and our thoughts after having played Phantom Liberty in June. 

What do you think of Phantom Liberty and Update 2.0? Tell us in the comments!