Review of the long-awaited Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and patch 2.0. It’s just a BOMB

This week saw the full release of the only story-based addition for Cyberpunk 2077 (our review) – Phantom Liberty.

CD Projekt RED has already announced that it will stop supporting the game. In the near future, several more small patches will be released for it and all that, the studio will completely focus on the new project.

During the release of “Phantom Freedom,” various scandals have already flared up online, including some bugs with saves on the PlayStation 5 and Ukrainian localization. A fix patch should be released very soon to fix these bugs.

We completed the new expansion on PS5 and PC. We’ll tell you how it’s played on these platforms.

Let’s figure out how the release of the long-awaited DLC turned out. Spoiler: overall impressions were excellent.

Cyberpunk 2.0

A week before the release of CDPR, a powerful update 2.0 was announced. In it we have provided radical improvements and fixes.

This patch is free for all platforms, unlike DLC. What can I say to briefly evaluate the new release? This game should have been like this from the very beginning.

The unrealized promises of 2020 have now been realized. Almost everything. Yes, there is still no metro here, but even without it the game has literally transformed almost beyond recognition.

The developers have reworked almost all the basic mechanics and character development system. I especially liked the last moment.

Briefly, what’s new in patch 2.0?

• new weapons and cars
• improved system of shooting, close combat and movement in vehicles.
• full-fledged car chases appeared
• the police system has been redesigned from scratch, they now monitor the player even in a car
• with a high wanted list, Max-tak fighters are sent for the player
• changed progression and character customization
• new and reworked perks

And now more details.

Previously, all stops in the design of instruments played only numbers. You didn’t discover anything truly new with each new level. Now everything is different. The tree has become really thoughtful, the development of which is noticeable to the naked eye. Now you not only add critical damage percentages, script speed, and so on.

Now you need to deal not with mathematics, but with the development of V’s abilities. As you level up, you unlock more and more advanced abilities, including netrunner skills. In the last aspect, the game has become one step closer to Watch Dogs – now you really Control of most smart technology.

Ridiculously: You can even control some doors, which was not possible before, if you do not follow the plot. Now V can even take over remote control of the car; he has new pathological abilities that were not there before.

Best Achievements in Steel Innovation chase system. This is probably one of the best implementations among analogues. Now V can shoot from behind the wheel, while political opponents rush behind him at the same time. The drive that conveys these chases is difficult to convey words: an insane series of explosions, shootouts, broken cars and much more.

The same thing plays a role with the police. Yes, yes, now copy ensures serious prosecution against you. They no longer teleport or generate behind your back, but literally arrive when called in cars.

At the same time, you hear all their words in English. After CDPR officially abandoned Russian voice acting with new additions, the company was clearly finalizing this point even before various restrictions. Perhaps logic dialogues were studied during the development of the main game.

The police behave as they should. The player has a rating of five stars, with each new wave of reinforcements changing: from simple police cars to armored ones.

On the fifth star it becomes very difficult for you to survive, because the famous Max-Tak comes into play. This is a kind of analogue of special forces with advanced combat implants. And I’ll tell you what’s real with them it’s hard to express. Even with full upgrades, the fighters have dealt you enormous damage, and they deftly dodge your attacks.

It is better to bring the “Max-Taks” to the armed teeth. Even escaping from them is problematic if the levels are not vertical. It is much easier to jump off the bridge and get away from the criminal’s place than to get into a car; the soldiers blocked it at that very second.

A good dismemberment appeared. Enemies take part of their body from explosions, their heads are blown off by shotguns, and so on. It looks a little clumsy, but much better than it was before.

Let’s move on to the addition.

Phantom Freedom

The new name perfectly reflects not only its essence, but also the promises of the developers of the original Cyberpunk 2077 release.

Many elements were brought to fruition, but some were simply done as they should be with the release of patch 2.0. And even now there is still a feeling of the illusory nature of freedom of choice. This applies not only to the plot, but also to the game as a whole. Those who have played Cyberpunk 2077 will understand what I mean.

Phantom Liberty has added a completely new storyline to us. Quite extensive and voluminous, comparable in volume to “Blood and Wine” for the third “The Witcher”.

Here players encounter the new location Dog Town (Dogtown). Previously, it was closed to entry, but now the developers have finalized it and opened it to everyone.

🚨Minor spoilers🚨

According to the plot, a certain mysterious girl named Songbird is connected with us. She asks V to urgently help save the President of the United States (New United States of America), who crashes his Avi and will soon fall in Dogtown.

However, everything turns out to be not so simple. After rescuing the President, Jay disappears from radar and you are asked to find her. It is around this girl that the plot unfolds, since she gave V the “cure for the biochip” and saved her life.

🚨End of spoilers🚨

Dog City, a new location in Cyberpunk 2077, borders the West Wind residential complex and the Pacific coasts. This is a closed battle zone surrounded by a wall. A real dilapidated territory, led by paramilitary groups and a former military man.

Dog City is divided into three districts, all dominated by the Barghest paramilitary group of Colonel Kurt Hansen. He also gave the name to this territory.

In fact, this is a fairly compact location. But it doesn’t swell at all, since it places great emphasis on verticality. Even on the narrowest streets there are many passages and loopholes. So you have plenty of room for creativity here, even despite the small walls.

The plot itself reveals more about the security of cyberpunk. Here the plot is built on financial showdowns and behind-the-scenes games. Evil lurks not only in corporations, but also in the political elite.

The addition itself is made in the best traditions of spy action films. It has many references not only to Bond, but also to Mission: Impossible. In particular, the mechanics of changing appearance were taken from the latter. You can literally transform into a different person, and this plays a role not only in the main plot, but also in key missions.

In general, there is enough content here for ten hours. The main plot, if you really want, you can run for 10-15 hours, the same number of highlights and sides, many of which are no less interesting. This is especially true for Mister Hands, the mysterious fixer from the main game.

In the new additions, players will find all the popular things from the world of spies: top combat incidents, blackmail, deception, betrayal, double agents, lavish banquets and much more.

To talk about anything in more detail would spoil the experience of the game. So I won’t focus on this point.

With the addition, another branch of character development opens up to us. Now you can upgrade the biochip itself for Militech’s counting technology. They need to be collected from boxes scattered around Dogtown.

Total available 10 tools for biochip, which you can unlock during the challenge. They are divided into three main branches: camouflage (invisibility), vulnerability analysis and flashing. The first is all clear, the second is the ability to find vulnerabilities in the armor of enemies, the third is new skills for implants, like the hands of a mantis or a monostring.

These techniques further enhance your gaming options and increase your mobility. There are even more tactical decisions, and you demand a level of dynamics with them.

Overall, the plot itself turned out to be simple, but quite strong. At the best of spy action films. A total of four new endings are available, but only two of them are fundamentally different from each other.

What about optimization?

We played through Phantom Liberty on PlayStation 5 and PC with a GTX 1070 Ti and 16GB of RAM.

On these platforms the game looks great and works the same. 3 years of continuous improvements on the part of the developers have made their presence felt. Yes, there are still minor bugs, but they are rare. And FPS never sags.

Since I had a problem on PS5 while connecting with a large combat robot, towards the end of the battle the frame rate dropped from 60 FPS to, probably, 30. And then for 5 seconds. There have been many more similar problems.

The same goes for the computer. The game provides stable FPS throughout the entire playthrough from start to finish.

Great addition, must get it

If you’re wondering whether to download the Phantom Liberty, I can confidently say that it’s definitely worth doing.

As for even those who found the main plot drawn out and boring. There is drive at every turn, the story is simple and slightly complicated, but still has its merits and unexpected twists.

The DLC does not have Russian voice acting, but Russian subtitles are available. In general, I didn’t see any big problems with this, although I myself am not a fan of subtitles.

This is the best addition of the year. Definitely.