This review contains spoilers
In line with CDPR's expansions for TW3, Phantom Liberty was a pleasant surprise and a step up from the base game's dialogue, narrative and character work, and it finally engaged me thoroughly on a cast of characters that is beautifully acted, and captured the thematic atmosphere of the genre.
Just like the base game, Dogtown is drop-dead gorgeous. The sheer use of volumetric lighting and path-tracing puts every other game I've ever played to shame, and CDPR's engineers deserve heavy commendation for what they've achieved with the whole game, PL included.
Unlike the base game, the characters here feel alive. Reed struggles to uphold and maintain his ideals and principles in a city that never rewards them, Alex yearns for peace and quiet in a world that has none, and Songbird wishes for freedom in an environment that gives zero of it.
Songbird might be the biggest connection I've felt to a character in Cyberpunk 2077. The narrative truly makes her feel deeply human and emotionally scarred, and its pacing forced me to make tough choices and judgment calls that, right up to the end of the expansion, are always at least slightly morally grey and difficult to live with.
The endings were another massive improvement from the base game. Here, you truly align with your moral compass in choosing the outcome.
Thematically, CDPR finally cracked the code and was able to talk about freedom and trust in a way that didn't feel shallow. PL explores the hopelessness of hyper-capitalism and the dehumanizing effect of technology on its real, human characters. Alex and Reed clash, and made me wonder how we can trust anyone when everything and everyone has been taken over by power, by corporations and governments that only wish to control.
The dialogue is another massive upgrade, with timed dialogue pressuring the player in such a way that made me feel as if I was in a high-stakes spy encounter with little room for error. Combined with the always amazing sets, this helped PL have me in awe at certain scenes, the casino being especially memorable among them.
The voice performances are phenomenal, with Reed playing the part to perfection and being so captivating that he almost made me trust NC's greatest spy, followed closely by Songbird and Alex. Reed's part, especially, made it tough and heart-wrenching for me in the final moments of the expansion, and made me hate the system almost as much as Johnny for dealing such an awful hand to everyone involved, lamenting things couldn't turn out differently.
Johnny Silverhand also saw quite an improvement, both in delivery and material for both the narrative and his random interjections in conversation. Here, he went from a long-gone anarchist to a mournful failed revolutionary, wondering what life he could've led, if he simply lacked a last shred of determination, regretting not being able to attain his only goal, and not even being remembered at all for any of it.
Just like the base game, Dogtown is drop-dead gorgeous. The sheer use of volumetric lighting and path-tracing puts every other game I've ever played to shame, and CDPR's engineers deserve heavy commendation for what they've achieved with the whole game, PL included.
Unlike the base game, the characters here feel alive. Reed struggles to uphold and maintain his ideals and principles in a city that never rewards them, Alex yearns for peace and quiet in a world that has none, and Songbird wishes for freedom in an environment that gives zero of it.
Songbird might be the biggest connection I've felt to a character in Cyberpunk 2077. The narrative truly makes her feel deeply human and emotionally scarred, and its pacing forced me to make tough choices and judgment calls that, right up to the end of the expansion, are always at least slightly morally grey and difficult to live with.
The endings were another massive improvement from the base game. Here, you truly align with your moral compass in choosing the outcome.
Thematically, CDPR finally cracked the code and was able to talk about freedom and trust in a way that didn't feel shallow. PL explores the hopelessness of hyper-capitalism and the dehumanizing effect of technology on its real, human characters. Alex and Reed clash, and made me wonder how we can trust anyone when everything and everyone has been taken over by power, by corporations and governments that only wish to control.
The dialogue is another massive upgrade, with timed dialogue pressuring the player in such a way that made me feel as if I was in a high-stakes spy encounter with little room for error. Combined with the always amazing sets, this helped PL have me in awe at certain scenes, the casino being especially memorable among them.
The voice performances are phenomenal, with Reed playing the part to perfection and being so captivating that he almost made me trust NC's greatest spy, followed closely by Songbird and Alex. Reed's part, especially, made it tough and heart-wrenching for me in the final moments of the expansion, and made me hate the system almost as much as Johnny for dealing such an awful hand to everyone involved, lamenting things couldn't turn out differently.
Johnny Silverhand also saw quite an improvement, both in delivery and material for both the narrative and his random interjections in conversation. Here, he went from a long-gone anarchist to a mournful failed revolutionary, wondering what life he could've led, if he simply lacked a last shred of determination, regretting not being able to attain his only goal, and not even being remembered at all for any of it.