Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty review: "The culmination of CD Projekt Red's efforts"

I'm sneaking into a fancy, exclusive party in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty with Idris Elba – aka Soloman Reed, FIA sleeper agent. He's donned a dark, purple sequin suit and has passed me a slinky green number. We're oozing cool at the bar, listening in on conversations between criminals, city officials, and celebrities alike. I wander the crowds, a glass of champagne in one manicured hand, feeding Reed the next piece of super-charged gossip. It's all in the name of blending in, but I instantly feel like I've stepped into one of the best James Bond movies – but somehow we're both 007. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty has gone all in on its promise to deliver a spy-thriller. Within minutes of taking the call that triggers the Phantom Liberty DLC, I'm taking directions to a secret back entrance into Dogtown – the previously off-limits, heavily bordered southern district of Night City. This is the location for most of the Phantom Liberty expansion, albeit with a few jaunts back through the security-barricaded walls to familiar Night City haunts. 

It's an intimidating place, apparently once intended to be a paradise for the ultrarich, but is now a ruin of poverty and crime under the control of former soldier turned arms-dealer Kurt Hansen. His Barghest troops patrol Dogtown constantly, watching your every move and providing a constant low-key hum of crime and manipulation. Something's constantly on fire in Dogtown, a stark contrast to the neon lights and holograms which sit across the horizon of Night City's other districts, and that's not just the president's plane that gets brought down in the opening act of the expansion.  

Down with the dogs

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty channels many filmic influences, from Bond to other thrillers like Escape from New York. It's exciting, fast-paced, and scattered in hectic cyberware-infused boss fights that do well to balance the tenser stealth sections. The story packs plenty of emotional punches, particularly with how CDPR handles new faces like Reed, netrunner Songbird, and fellow FIA agent Alex – each are as flawed and complex as the other characters you might have met in the core Cyberpunk 2077 campaign.. Reed is exactly the gruff, experienced spy you'd hope he'd be, and hey, if Cyberpunk 2077 is the closest thing to seeing Elba as 007, I'll take it. 

But Phantom Liberty also lets CDPR get creative with gameplay. While I would never accuse the base game of having repetitive quests, there is an impressive amount of variation to enjoy here. From protecting the president to covering Reed from a sniper's nest, Phantom Liberty always kept me guessing – there are even elements of some of my favorite Call of Duty missions here too. 

There's a surprising level of complexity to the Phantom Liberty quest design too, with the expansion introducing missions that require more investigation, or layers of optional objectives, to get a different version of a story or outcome. While they can be ignored if you want to power through, but there's often a lengthy and rewarding detour to be found if you follow those optional paths. Routes may even be locked to having specific character builds and unlocks, more so than I remember experiencing in the base game. 

Cyber Warfare

Of course, a lot has changed since the base game was first released back in 2020. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is launching on September 26, just a few days after the long-awaited Update 2.0, which essentially acts as a kind of soft reboot for the game. The perk tree has been completely re-written, meaning you must reassign all those points you've accrued if you're diving back in on an old save. Perks now have a much greater impact on the gameplay, including the allowance to stack hacks on enemies. 

It's a lot to take in at first, but handily you can refund any perk purchase you've made with a touch of a button, so you needn't worry too much about where you spend initially. It's a nice touch, and one which encourages experimentation as you begin to rebuild your life in Night City. There are also ability points, which allow you to rank up your character level in elements like tech or body, which also unlock further perks. 

Exclusive to the Phantom Liberty DLC, there's also the Relic skill tree, which introduces additional spy-like powers. They include a cloaking device to use in combat, and the ability to analyze enemies for armor or cyberware weaknesses, which is super handy against some of the intense boss fights in the expansion. Although they're chunky new abilities, it's not exactly easy to figure out how to get Relic skill points – some are provided by Songbird through the story, but others I've discovered through random hacks while exploring. It's not entirely clear how many points are actually available to spend, which means this addition does get a little lost in the wider skill rework for 2.0,  

Update 2.0 also changes police behavior – this can make life in Dogtown a little tricky, particularly when you're also trying to stay on the good side of patrolling Barghest troops. Accidentally running over a pedestrian in a car chase immediately upped my heat level, causing one lone police officer to arrive in the area on a motorbike. The worse your behavior, the hotter your heat will become – rank that all the way up, and a hyper-aggressive, super-tough MaxTac will hunt you down. I will certainly avoid doing that again. 

There are other shifts too, each with varying degrees of impact on the core feel of Cyberpunk 2077. For example, the ability to shoot from your car is a genuine game-changer, to the point I can't believe we couldn't do that before. Armor stats have thankfully been uncoupled from your clothes, instead moving into the cyberware upgrades available at Ripperdocs across the city; in fact, clothing now just seems to be purely aesthetic – or in Phantom Liberty's case, mission-critical for disguises – meaning no longer are you wandering around Night City looking like someone who's never seen a mirror before. My V now looks more badass than ever without having to skimp on stats. 

I will say that there's so much new and changed all throughout Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty that I would have appreciated a little more signposting. There's a pop-up to explain the new perk system briefly, but it took me multiple hours to spot the change in armor assignments, for example. Some vehicle combat options are also locked behind perks too, so there's quite a bit of digging around to be done to appreciate just how much is new here. 

Between the 2.0 Update and Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk 2077 is a different game now. It not only looks more beautiful than ever, but it's also vast. The Phantom Liberty expansion adds 13 core missions, 17 new side quests and gigs, and a brand new ending for the base game. That's a lot of content without even thinking about what's been added in the three years between now and launch. For $29.99/£24.99, you're getting a wealth of content with Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, and I'd say it's well worth the investment.