Phantom Liberty

An expansion pack for Cyberpunk 2077 (2020), it introduces a new district and a new quest line. Set in a dystopian cyberpunk universe, the player assumes the role of "V", a mercenary who must rescue the President of the New United States whose aircraft has crashed in the lawless district of Dogtown. It was released for Windows PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S in September 2023. The expansion received critical acclaim, and it has sold more than 5 million copies since release.

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Developer(s)	CD Projekt RED
Publisher(s)	CD Projekt
Director(s)	Gabriel Amantangelo
Programmer(s)	Kacper Kościeński
Artist(s)	Paweł Mielniczuk Jakub Knapik
Writer(s)	Tomasz Marchewka
Composer(s)	P.T. Adamczyk Jacek Paciorkowski
Series	Cyberpunk
Engine	REDengine 4
Platform(s)	Windows PlayStation 5 Xbox Series X/S
Release	26 September 2023
Genre(s)	Action role-playing
Mode(s)	Single-player

Similar to the base game, Phantom Liberty is an action role-playing video game played from a first-person perspective. The story of the game is set in a new district named "Dogtown", which has its own unique characters, quests and gigs. Phantom Liberty introduces a new Relic skill tree with nine abilities. To unlock new Relic skills, players must progress the story of Phantom Liberty, or access restricted data terminals found in Dogtown. The DLC also raises the level cap to 60, and adds new weapons and vehicles into the game. New quickhacks are also added to the game, allowing players to perform actions such as air dashing, seeing through walls, or changing V's appearance on the fly. Vehicular combat is also added, allowing players to drive cars armed with missile launchers and machine guns. Depending on player's decision, a new ending for the base game will be unlocked.

Setting and characters

Cyberpunk 2077 takes place in Night City, an American megacity in the Free State of North California, controlled by corporations and unassailed by the laws of both country and state. Players take on the role of Vincent / Valerie, also known as "V" (Gavin Drea / Cherami Leigh), a mercenary who was killed, then revived by an experimental Arasaka biochip called "the Relic", and ends up with a digitized engram of legendary rock star Johnny Silverhand (Keanu Reeves) existing within their mind. Together, V and Johnny search for a way to prevent the Relic from killing the former and replacing their mind with Johnny's.

In addition to some of the characters from the main story, the Phantom Liberty expansion features additional appearances by the following characters: Song "Songbird" So Mi (Minji Chang), a netrunner working for the New United States of America (NUSA) Government; Solomon Reed (Idris Elba), a Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) operative who works for the NUSA Government as a sleeper agent; Rosalind Myers (Kay Bess), the President of the NUSA; Alena "Alex" Xenakis (Yvonne Senat Jones), Reed's former FIA partner who went undercover in the Dogtown district of Night City as a bartender; and Kurt Hansen (Eliah Mountjoy), leader of the Barghest militia who controls Dogtown.

Plot

Following a venture into the Pacifica district of Night City, the mercenary V is contacted by Song "Songbird" So Mi, the aide of NUSA President Rosalind Myers. She explains that their aircraft has been hacked and is about to crash in the lawless district of Dogtown, ruled by warlord Kurt Hansen. Songbird asks V to help rescue Myers in return for her assistance in preventing the Relic from destroying V's brain. V saves Myers and escorts her to a safehouse, but they lose contact with Songbird on the way.

With Songbird missing in action, Myers asks V to contact Solomon Reed, a NUSA sleeper agent, for help. Reed successfully extracts Myers from Dogtown, after which Myers gives V and Reed a new task: rescue Songbird. Reed enlists the aid of fellow agent Alena "Alex" Xenakis and netrunner Slider in order to locate Songbird. Slider reestablishes contact with Songbird and is shocked to learn that she has been using the Blackwall, the firewall that protects the world from rogue AIs, to contact V. Songbird tells V she has been captured by Kurt, while Slider is killed when the Blackwall overwhelms him.

Reed reveals that Songbird has been probing the Blackwall under Myers' orders, which is prohibited by international law. V and Reed infiltrate a party held by Kurt and meet Songbird, who explains that her mind is being corrupted by the Blackwall, and a device in Kurt's possession called the Neural Matrix can cure both her and V's conditions. She sets up a plan to steal the matrix from Kurt and escape, while Reed and V deduce that Songbird orchestrated the plane crash as part of a deal with Kurt. Reed resolves to rescue Songbird anyway, using a device that will knock her unconscious. Meanwhile, Songbird contacts V separately, asking V's help to escape from both Kurt and the NUSA. V, along with Alex, again infiltrates Kurt's headquarters and is then faced with a choice: help Songbird escape, or betray her so that Reed can take her into custody.

If V helps Songbird, Alex kills Kurt while V and Songbird flee the area. Songbird then enlists V to help her escape from Night City's spaceport to the Moon. The NUSA, under Myers' personal direction, attacks the spaceport to secure Songbird. V and Songbird fend them off, but Songbird is severely weakened. She admits to V that the matrix can only be used once and will only save one of them, intending to betray V by using the cure on herself. V is left with the decision to surrender Songbird into Reed's custody, or kill Reed in a standoff and assist Songbird's launch to the Moon.

If V betrays Songbird, Kurt kills Alex and is then killed by V, while Songbird secures the matrix but falls into cyberpsychosis after recognizing the treachery. She flees to Cynosure, an old Militech bunker facility, in order to connect to the Blackwall. While evading an AI construct sent after them by Songbird, V learns about her tragic past: she was forcibly augmented by Myers to use as a link between the Blackwall and the real world. By the time V catches up, Songbird is already succumbing to the Blackwall's effects. Depending on V's choices, they either euthanize Songbird at her request to prevent her from falling into NUSA custody, or hand her over to Reed, who promises to help her.

If Songbird is taken into custody, a new ending to the game is unlocked. Myers congratulates V for completing their mission and Reed informs them that the matrix can be used to cure V. If V accepts, NUSA surgeons successfully remove the Relic from V's brain, but the surgery fully deletes the digital engram of Johnny Silverhand, puts V in a two-year coma (during which most of V's friends move on), and causes irreparable damage to V's brain that renders them unable to use combat implants. Reed has taken a desk job at NUSA but has no further updates on Songbird, who he presumes is still working for Myers. Unable to return to their old life as a mercenary, V is forced to accept that they must live quietly as a regular civilian from now on, with Reed helping them. If Songbird is not given over to the NUSA, V continues looking for a cure through other avenues.

Development of Phantom Liberty cost more than $60 million. On 6 September 2022, CD Projekt Red confirmed that Phantom Liberty, would be released for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 in 2023. It is the only planned expansion for the game, with Reeves reprising his role of Johnny Silverhand. On 16 November 2022, it was confirmed that Phantom Liberty will be a paid expansion pack, akin to Witcher 3 expansions Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone. A trailer for Phantom Liberty was released during The Game Awards 2022 which revealed Idris Elba had joined the project. A release date of 26 September 2023 for the Phantom Liberty expansion was revealed during the 2023 Xbox showcase as part of the Summer Game Fest. Pre-orders of Phantom Liberty grant the player a bonus in-game vehicle. Ahead of the release of Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt released a major title update titled Update 2.0 on 21 September for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, which introduces the features that were announced alongside Phantom Liberty. In December 2023, CD Projekt RED released Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, which bundles Phantom Liberty and the base game together. Phantom Liberty was designed to be the sole expansion for Cyberpunk 2077.

For the development of Phantom Liberty, the team was inspired by spy thriller. Dogtown is described to be a "rougher area" ruled by a militia leader, and a place where "unsavory characters escape to" because the corporals and the police are denied entry. The area, therefore, was designed to be "oppressive". Speaking about the game's story, senior writer Magda Zych added that Phantom Liberty's narrative supplemented the base game's themes by "extending them to politicians at higher levels and to state agencies". Idris Elba joined the project fairly early during its development. He portrayed Solomon Reed, a spy for the NUSA. Elba described him as the player character's "guide, or protector in some cases", but they do not know if he is fully trustworthy. Elba, who had a side-career as a DJ, picked music for the in-game's radio station as well as creating three unique tracks for the expansion. P.T. Adamczyk and Jacek Paciorkowski composed the score. Dawid Podsiadło created the theme song for the game.

Phantom Liberty received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Ted Litchfield from PC Gamer described Phantom Liberty as "a tense spy thriller" filled with "gruesome" choices, and "a thrilling capstone for Cyberpunk 2077's 3-year redemption arc". Wesley LeBlanc from Game Informer praised Phantom Liberty, along with the 2.0 update as a "culmination" of work CD Projekt spent on reworking Cyberpunk 2077 following its initial launch in 2020. He liked the new ending, and praised the gameplay improvements which made stealth gameplay enjoyable. Writing for GameSpot, Michael Higham gave the game a perfect score, giving strong praise to the game's story, side content and characters. He concluded his review by saying that "Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk 2077 at its best", and praised it for respecting genre traditions and delivering a story that is "cruel, sobering, and bittersweet".

Sales

As of October 2023, Phantom Liberty has sold 3 million units in a week after release. By November 2023, Phantom Liberty had sold 4.3 million units. In January 2024, CD Projekt Red announced that the expansion had sold over 5 million units.

Accolades