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Return to Night City
Cyberpunk 2077 did not have the smoothest of starts back in 2020. From delays to a buggy release, there were a number of issues that impacted this huge RPG. Despite that, I found myself really enjoying my time in Night City and in the years since it’s release, I have been tempted to replay it every time the game received an update. Nearly three years after the original release, CD Projekt Red gave us not just a rehauled skill tree and RPG systems, but also a paid expansion to the main game: Phantom Liberty. This expansion reinforces everything that I enjoyed about the base game and introduces a variety of brilliant characters in a story line that runs parallel to the main game, but could easily stand alone. I will be avoiding giving any specific story spoilers for both the expansion and the base game.
Mission Prep
My favourite part of the original Cyberpunk 2077 was the world itself and how engaging the story was throughout my time with it. There are several main story pillars that represent your character’s different leads in fixing their predicament with various large side quests that branch off from this, with gigs and other quests populating the city and offering opportunities for leveling up your character. The Phantom Liberty quest line acts in a similar way, being introduced via a phone call once one of the base game’s main quests is completed. From this point on, the Phantom Liberty story acts like another quest pillar, with other branches and gigs being added to the new Dogtown district. Now as much as I would love to talk more about the story specifics, I would be doing you a disservice, as the twists and turns of the espionage style campaign are far more interesting and impactful if you do not know what to expect. The quest line is packed with clever set pieces and brilliant characters. If you have seen or heard one thing about this expansion, it will be that Idris Elba has portrayed a key character, Solomon Reed. Both his performance and that of Minji Chang’s netrunner character Songbird are both very compelling and elevate the main plot of the expansion. There are several outcomes to the plot depending on the choices you make and it is quite clear where these choices are made for those who are concerned.
Gig Economy
The new region of Dogtown is quite a small one compared to the whole of Night City itself but it is one densely populated with jobs to do. Those who have played the base game will understand the different quest types: main story, side quests, and gigs. Main and side quests are self explanatory, whereas gigs are more bite-size jobs that usually involve you going into a building of enemies and completing a task, from rescuing a hostage to uploading a virus to a terminal. In the base game, I generally found the gigs to be interesting at first, but they soon became quite repetitive. The Dogtown gigs however are far more involved and feel more like actual quests that even have choices to how you can go about them. There is also a new type of repeatable gig that pops up across the whole city which involves stealing vehicles and driving them to drop off points. The big 2.0 update improved vehicle combat and I feel like this is to make investing skill points into that more worthwhile. The rewards for these gigs are genuinely great (especially at high character levels), but I found the vehicle combat quite frustrating as you are pursued throughout and sometimes the cars you are forced to steal are really not designed for speed.
Systems Update
The overhauled systems added in this 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty did far more than just add some skills linked to vehicle combat. The entire skill tree has been reworked and is now actually a tree! These skills are still linked to the ability scores of your character with these acting as a prerequisite and they now lead onto other skills that directly improve said skill or compliment that style of play. I kept my character on this play through to a general ‘cyber ninja’ theme, only using blades and pistols as weapons, and picking up stealth and slow motion skills to supplement this. By the end of the game, there was never a point where I felt that a skill had been a wasted investment for my character. A feature that I really appreciate that has been added is a free repeatable skill reset so if you fancy trying other skills, you can do some at any time out of combat for free. Phantom Liberty gives you access to a sixth skill tree that unlocks as you progress through the expansion, focusing on a few cyberware arm upgrades (like the Mantis Blades or Gorilla Arms) and a few other abilities. As a keen fan of the Mantis Blades, I naturally went for the few linked to that so I was soon leaping to and from enemies with my blades swinging. The other aspect that received some more attention is the cyberware system. This is not quite as exciting an update as it was for the skill trees, but it has made it more interesting than previously. Your character’s armour is now linked to the cyberware you have and they have an individual cost, so you have to be selective. There are now a number of skills linked to improving your cyberware capacity and effectiveness, which was where my spare skill points ended up going. Your hacking abilities are still tied to the cyberdeck you equip, although I decided to pick a slow motion enabling Sandevistan instead! I did not notice a huge amount of brand new cyberware, the main one I did notice (and use) was the optical camouflage which was basically limited invisibility which was very useful for sneaking about.
Verdict
Replaying Cyberpunk 2077 from the beginning with this new expansion has breathed new life into one of my favourite RPGs of recent years and I found the whole experience to be one of the more engaging I have had with a game in a while. The updated system made playing through the earlier sections that I know well more interesting and once I reached the Phantom Liberty sections, I really got hooked in by the story. Dogtown comes packed with some of the most in-depth side quests in the entire game and are well worth completing every one you come across. The 2.0 update also helps breathe new life into the game’s system and give you greater control of your character’s development throughout the game.
