Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. I returned to the game after three years. Couldn’t it have been this way from the beginning?

My last game save on PlayStation 5 was from January 4, 2021. After 100 hours of gameplay, fully completing the story and publishing a review, checking a few different endings, completing all side missions and contracts, and buying all the cars, I decided that I would return to the game only after the release of the announced story DLC. Back then, there was talk of two more such additions. I didn’t know that I would be waiting for this day for over 32 months, or almost three years. Now that I finally got it, I must say that it was definitely worth it.

Cyberpunk 2077 – return after many years

Since the last time I launched the game on my console, I have been following on the Internet how subsequent patches eliminated previously common errors and introduced the game to the new generation of consoles. However, I didn’t go back to the game myself, waiting for what CD Projekt RED does best – providing more hours of an amazing story and more unique characters.

Therefore, when we, as an editorial team, received from CD Projekt RED the opportunity to pre-release update 2.0 available for owners of the basic version of the game (available on PC, PS5 and XBOX Series consoles from September 21) and the paid add-on Widmo Wolności (available from September 26), I fully felt all the changes that made it to the game.

When I loaded my well-polished old save for the first time, it turned out that I had to redistribute all of my character’s perk points, i.e. skills. This is because most of them have changed dramatically and the attribute tree has been designed from scratch. By the way, the game allows you to redistribute attribute points only once – I took advantage of this opportunity, although I still tried to create a character as close as possible to my V from three years ago.

It should be emphasized here that the new character development system is more thought out and much better balanced than before. Choosing individual strengths is no longer primarily about increasing percentage bonuses to skills, but also about creating specific character builds from new abilities that will suit our playing style. Among other things, hacking skills have been developed, making it possible to queue several hacks against opponents, which significantly improves the netrunner character.

The system of implants has also been rebuilt, which additionally strengthens our heroine or hero. In this regard, a special implant limit indicator has been introduced, which limits the installation of too many body improvements. Finally, the installation of the implants themselves has been slightly enriched in the form of a special animation, so that when visiting ripperdoc we do not feel like we do in any other store.

In turn, the Phantom of Freedom expansion introduces a completely new skill tree for character development – the Relic perk tree. Its introduction is explained in the plot of the expansion, and the points used to purchase further, powerful skills are not gained when advancing to the next experience levels (the character level cap has been raised to 60 in the expansion), but can be found on the map in the new Dogtown district.

The Phantom of Freedom

As all those who completed the plot of the basic version of Cyberpunk 2077 surely remember, after watching the end credits, for plot reasons the game took us back to the moment before the last mission. And that is why the Phantom of Freedom expansion takes place before the finale of the basic version of the game, additionally introducing another possible ending.

The action of Phantom of Liberty takes place in Dogtown, a gated district of Night City run by a local warlord and his group of mercenaries. This area was inaccessible in the basic version of the game, but fans have long expected that this, a previously undeveloped place adjacent to the Pacifica district, would be where the DLC plot would take place. And that’s exactly what happened.

The plot of the expansion itself is in the style of a spy thriller, and the character played by Idris Elba plays an important role in it. The events take place alongside the main plot of the game, but there are numerous references to the story of V and Johnny Silverhand (played again by Keanu Reeves in the expansion), so if you are playing on old saves, it is worth refreshing the previous events, for example by watching summaries of the game’s plot on YouTube.