Scoring for empathy by warping convention in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
"This time around, we were dealing with a smaller and much more focused story. Although we were making a spy-thriller story, it was essential for me to bring out colors and emotions that went beyond what you might associate with a story in this genre," explains CD Projekt Red (CDPR) senior composer P.T. Adamczyk, discussing how he began creating the soundscape for Cyberpunk 2077's blockbuster expansion pack, Phantom Liberty.
Adamczyk helped create the original score for the acclaimed expansion—which plunges protagonist V into the middle of a high-stakes tale of espionage centered around the NUSA president, netrunner Song So Mi (a.k.a. Songbird), and secret agent Solomon Reed—alongside fellow CDPR composer Jacek Paciorkowski.
During an email interview with Game Developer, Adamczyk and Paciorkowski explain that crafting the music for Phantom Liberty was less about slavishly accommodating that subtle genre shift and more about helping players connect with a new cast of characters by scoring for empathy.
"It was crucial for me to start with a piece that could play under both So Mi and Reed and give the players more context about their shared past and the unfortunate situation they found themselves in," he explains. Adamczyk notes that the tone of the game was already established thanks to his work on Cyberpunk 2077, so iterating on that score "was more about finding the right [colors] from the already existing palette."
He also says that working on the original title left him feeling more confident about scoring Phantom Liberty's more interactive scenes, given he'd already been through that process with the rest of the CDPR team. "With the help of our great Tech Music Designer, Piotr Czub, we were able to add much more dynamic
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