phantom liberty takes everything that makes the base game great and enhances it, telling a political spy thriller centered around 2 key characters who are both complex and written with incredible moral ambiguity and nuance. taking place in a dictatorship on the edge of night city, the map is relatively small in size but uses the setting of slums and destroyed streets to play with verticality and have a massive amount of new content. and obviously, being a cdpr dlc, the side quests are a masterclass. lots of these side quests are better than the main missions in most triple A games.

obviously the main point of comparison for most people will be the witcher 3’s blood & wine, and while this doesnt surpass it in scope, scale or the fantastical setting, phantom liberty does tell a more complex and emotionally resonant story that frequently hits higher highs than anything from it. it hasn’t surpassed blood & wine as the highest standard for all video game expansions, but this is as close as anything will come for a LONG time.

if you enjoy phenomenal writing and world presentation with some of the best fps gameplay in history, you CANNOT skip out on this.