Overall, Phantom Liberty has a much firmer grasp on what kinds of stories can be told in Night City. Phantom Liberty harnesses this wild energy into mature storytelling. Just wait until you meet Reed’s spy associate, Alex. At the intersection of performance and technology, CDPR has found something in Cyberpunk 2077 that can genuinely move you. But more than that, between Elba, Reeves, and Chang, Phantom Liberty does a great job highlighting just how advanced its character animations are compared to some other big-budget RPGs. Instead, the expanded story lets Reeves explore Silverhand’s mournful side, delving into his existence as a failed revolutionary imprisoned in someone else’s body. Honestly, I think it’s that he has better material to work with in Phantom Liberty, which requires him to rattle off fewer diatribes about screwing over the system. Maybe it’s the years since I last played, but I feel Reeves is actually better this time around, performance-wise. Keanu Reeves also makes a return as Johnny Silverhand. Phantom Liberty relies heavily on make-or-break decisions that can’t be taken back, and Reed is part of the reason why those choices become so difficult.

He’s definitely not phoning this role in either, delivering a thoroughly captivating performance as a secret agent who made me so desperately want to trust him even though he is Night City’s greatest spy, and therefore probably never telling the full truth.

From there you will meet the two most important new characters in the expansion, Song So-Mi, an NUSA hacker excellently played by Christine Minji Chang, and Solomon Reed, a sleeper agent who is brought back into commission portrayed by the iconic Idris Elba.Įlba is again channeling his city-wise American accent from The Wire, only this time on the other side of the law. Phantom Liberty begins with the President of the NUS crash landing in a self-governed district of Night City called Dogtown, and you’re hired by her Secret Service detail to rescue her.

But I imagine this stuff will appeal directly to fans of the tabletop game than inspired Cyberpunk 2077. It’s not so complicated that it’s impenetrable for the uninitiated, though, and CDPR does a good job of laying out the stakes clearly. Balancing the punk-rock verve of Mike Pondsmith’s tabletop RPG with an exquisitely crafted spy story and best-in-class visuals, Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077 at its best.Ī quick detour: the backstories of Dogtown, Night City, and the whole Cyberpunk tabletop universe are heavily referenced in Phantom Liberty, to the point I had to look up lore guides to figure out exactly what was happening. Phantom Liberty aims to right that dildo misalignment, and after some soul-searching, has seemingly found what kind of Cyberpunk story it wants to tell, and nails it. Lootable dildos weren’t necessarily a problem on their own, but their abundance was a good example of how Cyberpunk’s grand story could occasionally clash with the cheap shock humor found around it. Remember how many dildos were originally in Cyberpunk 2077? You couldn’t loot a corner in Night City without picking one up, to the point where CD Projekt Red actually had to patch a number of them out.

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