Summer Game Fest 2023: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Is More Than Just An Excuse To Chill With Idris Elba

mmorpg.com:

'm sitting in the CD Projekt Red booth at Summer Game Fest, and I'm playing the new Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. I'm blasting my way through bad guys, traveling around Night City like a total badass, and hanging out with Idris Elba which is pretty cool. As I'm playing, I'm thinking to myself, «hm, there's not a whole lot new going on here, it's pretty standard shooter stuff. Just feels like more Cyberpunk.»

However, that's when it hit me: after the disastrous launch of the game at the end of 2020, CDPR had a ton of work ahead of it to get the game where the studio wanted it to be. I'm seeing the fruits of that labor right now, as it plays more like the Cyberpunk we were promised leading up to the game's launch. Gunplay is tight, movement is smooth, and there's nary a glitch to be found.Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is shaping up to be the redemption story of the generation, as the beleaguered project is looking and playing better than ever. 

Phantom Liberty takes place adjacent to the main storyline, as it will be plopped right into the experience whenever it's downloaded. The DLC adds a new section of the city in Dogtown, a sequestered and barricaded neighborhood that seems to be overseen by a brute named Colonel Hansen. Hansen somehow orchestrates a plane crash – with the plane in question carrying the president of the New United States Of America – and V must not only rescue President Myers, but then figure out how to deal with Hansen and his trigger-happy henchmen. 

My demo took me through the early moments of the story, from the plane crash over Dogtown to the rescue of the president, and then eventually to my meeting with Solomon Reed, the stoic ex-military man who can help protect Myers. I