Maybe it ’s time to move on .
Few games have been release to as bad a reception as Cyberpunk 2077 . But now , 3 geezerhood after its initial ruinous launching , the team at CD Projekt Red has attempt to tear the game from the grave with all - new DLC and ahuge 2.0 patch . This update is being released with definite trepidation on both the fans ’ side and the studios , but is it enough to revive the original game , and does Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty deliver on what was promised all those class ago ?
V’s new venture
The first thing to really lend up is the plot and plot line of Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty . The blurb of the expansion advertises it as a high - octane spy thriller delve you deep into the world of spycraft and espionage . Many games have run this route before , a lot of them really nailing it . However , I find Phantom Liberty miss the cross .
Now , I am a fan of the gamey criminal offence fabrication genre . Raymond Chandlers Philip Marlowe was always feature on my shelves . The smokey room , lit by half - open blinds , playing server to damsels in distress . Hopeless Femme Fatales leading our boozy heroes ’ pursuit into black alleyway and the extraction of information that would never suffer up in court due to its crimson methods .
cyber-terrorist try all too hard to capture this essence , even boast the banality unlighted office and underhanded information gathering . Despite their good efforts , the effort at mirroring the dour underworld just gets buried under the gossamer amount of expo .
Oh so predictable
I was require some long , drawn - out conversations at the beginning of the elaboration . The biz is introducing new characters and a whole Modern billet , and the team at CD Projekt Red obviously want to make the most of Idris Elba ’s dulcet tones . I did n’t expect 90 % of the expansion to be me listen to the lineament speak at me . The storyline is predictable , uninspiring , and due to its lewdly wordy nature , hard to focalise on .
There is a unclouded case of betrayal in the game , as there always is in the spirited crime fabrication genre , but it comes from such obvious angle that I chose to walk into it just to see if would surprise me . The twists and turn of events are simple meanders , as your choices seem to have little to no effect on how the plot thickens . This is a trouble the original plot also suffered from , as players felt they had less selection in the style the biz play and alternatively had only the illusion of choice , end up with the same outcome anyway .
However , the hacker 2077 : Phantom Liberty expansion does pop the question a new ending for the biz , which will certainly have some players coming back . The option is an interesting one that is the chief justification for the expansion , I feel . I consider CD Projekt Red is stress to further payers to try again with the game now they have freshly revamped it with the 2.0 update .
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Choices choices
The expansion promises personal playthroughs , and the musical theme behind Cyberpunk 2077 ’s original release was a huge plethora of freedom and alternative . One of the tumid gripes of the community is the agency the game kettles players into very few outcomes , and few of the choices made any difference of opinion . The enlargement does n’t fix this , nor does the 2.0 update .
I did n’t want to play as a pawn to the governing , my theatrical role is anti - establishment to the heart , and there looked to be some much cooler bad guy out there I could side with . However , Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty generate you no alternative as to the guidance you take , and rather , I terminate up struggle against a foe I deliberate more of a champion . The sides quint is forced to take do n’t finger fitting for the ratter they are .
I understand that the Phantom Liberty update has a tale to say , and being able to give too much choice in that would , well , take a pot of work . Phantom Liberty gives small pick you could make and a few large ones near the end , changing the final termination . However , I really felt that the newfangled characters and situations could have given much more than the rather linear and basic story that was played out .
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With game like Baldur ’s Gate 3 set all - new highs for RPGs and choice , I think it can be expected that other huge studios step up to the mug . However , not all RPGs are created equal . If you are expecting diversity and choice in Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty , await elsewhere . If you want a straightforward , single - thread story with a selection at the ending , you wo n’t be disappointed .
A celebrity selling point
I love Idris Elba , his role in The Wire as Stringer Bell is one of my favorites of all time , so finding out he was the latest celebrity Cyberpunk 2077 had roped in was not a disappointment . It ’s a effective thing the military man has a interpreter like smooth peanut butter , too , because goddamn does he talk a passel .
Both Elba ’s likeness and articulation have been used in the expansion , and it is used constantly . As I mentioned before , the amount of time talking in this game outweighs the time actually playing the game 4 to 1 . A pile of this prison term is expend clicking through rather vapid conversations intended to flesh out a story that needs less flesh and more clappers . By hour 10 of hear to Idris explain on the dot what is happening , you kind of want to inquire , “ Could this have just been an email ” ?
However , I am very pleased they used Idris Elba in the Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty expanding upon and not some care , lease ’s say , Gilbert Gottfried . My ear would have bled .
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Poor pacing
The cyber-terrorist 2077 : Phantom Liberty expansion has an interesting pacing . I am inclined to think that it is done on purpose and styled to suit an audience that prefers kick downstairs gum to firing ordnance . There is a huge amount of crawl around in corridor listening to expo , standing in avowedly well - designed rooms listening to exposition and drive around in now easier - to - handle cars , you venture it , listening to exposition .
cyber-terrorist 2077 : Phantom Liberty is 75 % waiting for a character reference to explain the plot to you , 15 % wait for ‘ So and So to call you , ’ and 10 % existent action . Of course , if you ’re a histrion who enjoys a luck of plot , this is ideal . However , the force waiting between missions is very intelligibly just a way to hang back the game out and encourage players to delve into some of the samey go - here - and - shoot / grab - this side missions .
There are a number of skillful placed spell , such as the Chimera at the beginning , that get the blood pumping . It ’s nothing new from the cornerstone Cyberpunk 2077 game , but that was one of the in force bite of it anyway . The build - up to each magnanimous face-off take hours , and the payoff rarely take more than 2 attempts to get correct , even play on hard . I feel that there were more quick - time event than the game called for in situations where it would have been much more fun really to play through it myself .
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Gameplay 2.0
cyber-terrorist 2077 : Phantom Liberty promised lot of new weapons , along with cyberware , gigs , and missions . They certainly delivered , but in a universe already so full , it ’s backbreaking to pick out the gold .
Tons of guns
Cyberpunk never had a trouble with the bold amount of weapons they had mug up into the biz . With a bag of a nice swathe of guns and melee arm , it was rare you would n’t find some new , bring up , legendary every half hour or so . This has n’t change , and it does add a good element to the Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty enlargement .
I blame up a preciseness arm quite ahead of time on in the novel expansion call in Hypercritical . It has explosive bullets , and the final shot is always decisive . It has no scope and no pick to tot one , but it absolutely slap and stick with me from the beginning to the end . I thoroughly enjoy it .
But , in this praise also lies the problem . Although they have added a vast amount of new guns to the pocket billiards , a sight of them simply do n’t weigh up and just end up as another gun thrown into your stash for later . Of naturally , you could give each of the guns a effort and see how each one compare , but with the plain amount of new alone weapons thrown at you , it ’s hard to pick .
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This may be a problem with my playstyle . Perhaps I ’m not adventuresome enough , but the sheer number was overpowering . That being said , the guns I did use felt fantastic , and each one felt whole unique , with equal boons and bonuses . The variety of weapons does mean that no two players are likely to terminate up with the same arsenal , although I ’m sure I ’ll be compose an article on the most overpowered Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty guns in no time .
Airdrops and side missions
New to Cyberpunk 2077 are the airdrop side missions , introduced by a side character early in the plot . Now I think of it , they existed only to bring up the air drops , then all disappeared from the plot . I go for they ’re okay …
The airdrop come vaporize down from the sky to land somewhere in Dogtown ; the new field opened up on the map . The cherry-red weed will be a prey for gangs all over the city to get their hands on whatever is inside the cache . It ’s up to you to get to it and hack it undecided before they do , or you die .
However , I did n’t once discover an airdrop I could n’t just walk up to , access , repeatedly fail to crack , finally get it right , and pillage the whole thing . You ca n’t be spite while hacking , and the AI is so bad at shoot that it is very well-off to just stroll up to it . They ’re hardly a challenge and a gravid way to get your bridge player on a load of new gear .
The driving missions are another recovery military mission that is the bain of every RPG , I ’m looking at you , Far Cry . Around the map are a few car that require foot up and deliver to a spot . The variety of cable car is fun , and some of the chases are diverting , but again , the AI let it all down . machine Chase are more of a challenge to stay in than escape from . So the mission becomes a simple case of drive to a location and leaving the car . Sometimes , there is a trivial extra to do , such as shooting a few bad guy rope , but nothing too original .
Relic revival
The shining star of the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty elaboration is the relic system . This whole young skill tree diagram concenter in the main on your augment arms . you could ameliorate Mantis blades , Monowire , Projectile Launch system , and Gorilla arms directly from the get - go and then further supercharge them with more Relic points .
The Relic system is a skillful addition and encourages the function of your subdivision augmentation . They feature heavily in the reanimate series on Netflix , and now with the tardy expansion , they can be used properly .
The other two branches , which cost significantly more to unlock , concenter on either stealth or fighting , giving room for either build . And do n’t worry ; all points can be repay reckon on how you require to destroy Dogtown that twenty-four hours .
A whole new world
Dogtown and its residents are the exclusive new area for you to explore in the Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty update . Although lock off from the sleep of the world , it does n’t offer all that much more , visually or culturally , to the radix game .
Dogtown
move into through some heavily guarded gates lands you in another part of the map , equally drenched in concrete and atomic number 10 as the repose of it . Of course , the tannoys are blaring pro - Hansen propaganda , and there are a few more buildings , but the metropolis is n’t all that inspiring .
The idea is that the area was catch and shut away off by Hanson in a top executive grab , turning it into his own mini kingdom , and that ’s all it really looks like . Hanson is a military man , not a designer . This being tell , the Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty expansion does have a figure of rather nice set pieces . You ’ll know what I mean when you find a certain casino - based melodic telephone number .
New characters
Mr Hands shows his facial expression , Hanson sport heavily , and Idris Elba talk your bloody ear off . The characters are nothing to write home about , and I receive myself siding much more with Hanson than the government side . However , the choice to rag alongside the braggart valet in Dogtown is n’t an alternative , so you ’ll have to adhere with the government activity stooge and Songbird , the eternally weak Femme Fatale .
For characters that spend , quite candidly , far too long talking , they come across as very one - dimensional . Perhaps there is more profoundness hidden within the 18,000,000 lines of dialogue , but if there is , it missed me .
To sum it all up
Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty is trying to establish higher on a substructure that is unsound and crumbling . Even with the 2.0 update , the game was already a soulless , neon - dowse failure . The trouble with Cyberpunk 2077 lie so much deeper than broken coding and poor optimization , and it really becomes glaringly obvious in the Phantom Liberty update .
The problem with the original release , for those who could die hard it , was that it did n’t feel like an RPG ; it felt linear , written , and kettled . The Cyberpunk 2077 : Phantom Liberty update feels no unlike . This is a straightforward action secret plan with one or two small alternative to make . Do n’t go ask the huge , sprawling web of option that could be find in something like Baldur ’s Gate 3 .
The 20 or so hour I buried into the enlargement felt more like I was encounter a text escapade as I trawl through 60 minutes of exposition . However , my replies made little to no difference of opinion to how the existent story played out , and I had very little choice as to how the narrative travel . It feel like I was sitting outside of the game until they had the need for me to shoot some spoilt hombre , and even these moment were few and far between .
hacker 2077 : Phantom Liberty is n’t the expansion that is going to earn this game any awards , and for certain is n’t the reason to go playing again . It ’s a cry shame , as the studio can absolutely nail it sometimes .
