Phantom Liberty is such an improvement it hurts.

[N00B]

I don't like base Cyberpunk.
I think many of its aspects, even when ignoring the glitches are just badly designed.
Its attempt at combining different genres ends up ruining all of them with ability and enemy design that doesn't actually engage with different playstyles but simply allows them to exist optionally.

Phantom Liberty fixes most of that.

Cyberwear:
The upgrades you can give your cyberwear actually make them useful and intuitive to use in combat.

Gorilla Arms: Regular melee combat is a toss up since stagger is rng based and on higher difficulties enemies can just ignore them to shoot you in the face. Abilities like quake or your grenades can knock enemies down, bur punching/stabbing a downed enemy is inconvenient and limiting it to cooldown-based abilities puts a hefty cap on your time-to-kill. The charged punch does away with the RPG RNG BS by combining the precision timing and positioning needed for a tactical shooter with the resource management of an RPG, letting you deliver a single punch that consistently and satisfyingly deals with an enemy without leaving you a sitting duck.

Mantis Blades:
The MOBILITY!!!
These aren't Mantis Blades. These are Mantis WINGS!!!

PLS:
PLS was always useless.
It does less damage than the grenade, you can't arc it over cover and for some reason without adding some piece of plastic on your other hand that's meant to simply interface your eyes with your gun, its projectiles will pass through MFs whenever you try to hit them directly.
Having it instead function as a rapid-fire carpet bomber that rewards good positioning and commitment by doing a fudge-ton of damage when charged is an amazing addition.

Monowire:
Quick-hacking always sucked gameplay wise. Its not useless or weak. Its actually quite OP if done right. However, pausing the game to scroll through options and select enemies to apply them to just decapitates whatever momentum you had going in combat even when you reach the point where you can quick-hack in less than a second. Being able to instead apply all of those effect in actual gameplay without pausing it just feels like a great QoL change.

Weakpoints:
CP77's attempts to combine RPG and shooter elements, similar to other games of its ilk tends to be more annoying that fun most of the time, but this additions massively improves the experience. Letting us choose between damage and versatility allowing for the tactical thinking of an RPG and doing so by rewarding the precision of a shooter is conceptually genius and in practice is a straight upgrade to the fun-factor of fire-fights.

Optical Camo:
CP77's often tries to be different for absolutely no reason. Adding a dodge and then giving it 50% damage resistance instead of i-frames, for example. Optical Camo has gotten the worst of it because instead of doing what most games would do by letting you go invisible, the optical camo is a BS stat boost that decreases enemy hit chance. That's stupid. That's unfun.
PL simply fixed the camo by actually making it work as invisibility. You can actually use it for stealth, meaning that you don't need to rely on Dorph-Head + Blind Spot to get a -100% detection speed for 2 seconds per hypo. You can now use your cloak to cloak yourself. It also works in active combat, allowing for quick escapes and repositioning when overwhelmed, putting it on par with Berzerker and Sandevistan as the "get out of jail free" card of abilities.

Enemies:
PL hasn't really added many enemy types. The enemy selection when seen at face value is still barren.

What PL has done however is actually show you the full selection. Instead of 99.9999998% of the enemies being "dude with a gun", you actually get to see enemy types otherwise reserved for very specific locations and missions populating the levels and streets.

Militech Exoskeletons have been upgraded from "cool but underwhelming mini-boss" to "badass heavy enemy type". They do a much better job of area denial and forcing caution than the fatties with HMGs ever did. Having them fight alongside other enemies instead of being on their own in mini-arenas makes their design shine even more since they often throw you out of your comfort zone.

The exact same thing applies to the androids, drones and big drones. You'd be hard-pressed to find them in the base game. In PL they're everywhere.


Story
I myself don't really care for CP77's story. It feels like its abandoned the cynical but enthusiastic tone that some of the trailers presented and focused on a more gritty and "serious" tone that makes it often feel pompous and inconsistent. You can absolutely tell when the game is trying to be funny or lighthearted because it always feels like a tonal whiplash.
Another issue is that it can't seem to hold on to its ideas. The "ticking clock" of V dying, which you absolutely can make work in an RPG as Fallout 1 proved, is abandoned and picked up again constantly. Quests that aren't strictly the main quest but aren't side-quests either, such as the companion quest lines feel like they should have a far bigger impact on the story or world than they end up doing due to the time and effort the player invests in them.

A massive improvement I see in PL though is how much more focused it feels as an experience and a story.
It has very few side-quests as far as I know. It sets up all of the "pieces" very early on and instead of constantly introducing new characters over time, it just introduces them rapidly at the beginning and then lets them play out fully. It feels more intriguing to have characters that are actual parts of the story as opposed to cameos basically telling you "Hi. I'm a side-quest. I will never be relevant to the main story again but let me enjoy my 15 seconds of fame here".

I rag on Cyberpunk a lot.
Phantom Liberty shows me what the rest of the game could have looked like if the game wasn't rushed to high hell and was generally more "focused".
I hope I can enjoy the sequel more than I did base CP77 because I see a lot of potential simply mishandled.

[BroadsidedOtter]

I have to agree that the game really felt like it came together with phantom liberty. An especially smart move to make it part of the open world rather than a separate story. I spent most of my eighty hour playthrough dipping in and out of dogtown to spread the excellence throughout the rest of the still pretty good game rather than having to do it in one burst.

[Blur]

phantom liberty is literally 'cooler cyberpunk' almost in every aspect. gigs especially

[Chrisme]

Leaving mechanics aside... I don't know why people keep praising the DLC. Storywise it's a catastrophe in my opinion. I haven't gotten super far yet but the first missions alone feel totally over the top. Rescueing the president, you of all people get contacted for that, nobody else survived the crash, giant robot spider, getting thrown around a million times and pretending like it's nothing. Base game is less exaggerated action, slower and emotionally gripping and that makes it better. And while I understand that it has to happen before the the point of no return the timing is also horrible. You're supposed to go to an urgent meeting with a very important person but no... you have to save the president first instead. Maybe I was just unlucky because I did the Vodoo Boys last but that felt totally inappropriate nonetheless.

Doing the DLC missions is not fun for me, it's an annoying distraction from the main story.

That being said Dogtown market is top notch. Both for the atmosphere and for the utlity. The tons of clothing you can loot in the DLC is also much appreciated. Base game is quite tight on those items. Better loot also makes crafting more viable which I found to be in a bad spot (buying new items is usually simply better than upgrading because otherwise you waste resources that should be used for endgame gear).

[N00B]

Originally posted by Chrisme:

...

Respectfully, the main story is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.
A "ticking clock" story line that only comes up so V can dramatically collapse for side-charaxter reactions. Countless characters and storylines introduced like easter eggs in the main story meant to get you interested in the side quests while only serving to distract from the main story. And a main story that constantly uses the illusion of choice by letting you play as an existing character. The main story is a mess of different ideas with no payoff for any of them.

PL is at least focused on its story. It uses the existing character of V as a way to enable the story instead of limiting it. And its action has actual design and spectacle behind it instead of loose pieces in a shapeless sandbox.

[Chrisme]

It's true that the main game story is very unbelievable when you take a distanced look at it but the moment you play it - at least for me - the inconsistencies can be pushed aside in favour of the emotional trip the game offers. It's good enough for me that V vomits every now and then or sees Johnny in the mirror.
Meanwhile all I have seen from PL so far has been hollywood blockbuster action. Maybe it gets better later on... I don't know right now because I have set the quests on hold in favour of doing the remaining side quests of the main story. I think I also hate the characters from PL, Songbird and Myers in particular. Doesn't work out for me at the moment.

One thing I can agree on is that the million side stories should have been integrated more fluidly into the main story. It does not feel good forcefully having to do them all before the point of no return and it's dumb timing too because the quest implies a sense of urgency. Somehow the main story is pretty short compared to all the side quests. Then again, I also very much like the idea that you get more choices for the ending depending on how much time you invested into other characters. And that must be an act of free choice or it would be pointless.

[Old Surehand]

I only played the game after Phantom Liberty, but I still experience many issues and bugs and glitches. Stealth was completely broken, even with all the cyberware and camo.

I also hated what they did to my beloved Aurore.

[daddy chill]

the game doesn't even have an aircraft you can manually fly.

I appreciate the time and blood/sweat/tears blah blah blah that they put into this game...but coming off of witcher 3 (and I am not even a fantasy/medieval fan) witcher 3 was just amazing- great story- i cared about the characters....meh...maybe it's just me.

[Xaliber]

Pretty good review, also Chrisme's comments are pretty good read too. I don't have anything to add, just wanted to appreciate that. Maybe just one thing: I think a lot that you talked about is actually 2.0, not Phantom Liberty? Like the cyberwear changes.

[Milly <3]

I don't like it because of the way it makes everyone abandon V, Panam would have stuck by his side she wouldn't have left him, nor would his friends it just makes no sense why the expansion has the worst endings. Panam has contacts who would have knew about V's condition as would the rest.
For me the only ending is V leaving with the Aldecados in base game.

[meghostryder]

I've been in dog town for maybe an hour...and all I've experienced is constant Parkour jumping and endless gunfights...to the point of exhausting. When does any break happen for God's sake?! When do I actually experience any story elements?! How is this better?! I don't even think the old DOOM game was this mindless endless garbage.....

[AngryBeaver316]

Im doing a replay of the game after only playing it once when it came out how may years ago. Seeing what Ive seen on the internet about the PL DLC is discouraging. But we are all different and I hope I enjoy it a little bit.

[Lahoo Eckbert]

I bought cyberpunk 1-1.5 years after the release, when they implemented their first giant patch to fix the game. I didn't like it too much because the combat, skill system and cybernetics felt underwhelming and the content felt too short. I was at the "meet hanako at embers" around 20 hour mark and I've done some side quests too.

Despite all that I really liked the main quest and Silverhand side quests. I really think Keanu carried the game for me. But after they implemented patch 2.0 and phantom liberty, I did a brand new play through and that's when I thought everything came together. That's when it felt like it became the game it was supposed to.

Now with patch 2.2 I'm doing another playthrough and it feels great. Granted I do mod the game a lot to make it look more atmospheric(my 4070's 12gig vram is at it's limit), but the game looks and plays really well. I hope they make another cyberpunk game(hell I'd love these guys to purchase world of darkness IP rights and make an actual Vampire Masquerade game with a similar setting).

[N00B]

Originally posted by meghostryder:

...

This is mainly a matter of opinion, but I do believe that since the game devoted so much to its gameplay with things like Cyberwear abilities, Cyberwear weapons, multiple weapon types, multiple additional functionality to those weapons, quickhacks, super abilities (Berzerker and Sandevistan), a shallow but present stealth option, an entire city full of fight-able NPCs, the entirety of NCPD missions and Cyberpsychos, multiple skill trees and what else...


... I think having it actually remember that its a game with gameplay is the exact opposite of an issue.

If you want to spend ridiculous cash on a PC that can run it just to watch the pwetty cinematics and read the lore, that's on you, but most people can just get that from Let's Plays.

[Xaliber]

Originally posted by N00B:

Originally posted by meghostryder:

...

This is mainly a matter of opinion, but I do believe that since the game devoted so much to its gameplay with things like Cyberwear abilities, Cyberwear weapons, multiple weapon types, multiple additional functionality to those weapons, quickhacks, super abilities (Berzerker and Sandevistan), a shallow but present stealth option, an entire city full of fight-able NPCs, the entirety of NCPD missions and Cyberpsychos, multiple skill trees and what else...


... I think having it actually remember that its a game with gameplay is the exact opposite of an issue.

If you want to spend ridiculous cash on a PC that can run it just to watch the pwetty cinematics and read the lore, that's on you, but most people can just get that from Let's Plays.

Your point is a bit strange, because what is a game without gameplay? Is gameplay supposed to be opposed to storytelling? Can you even separate the two?

I think meghostryder was talking more about pacing. Compare Phantom Liberty to Deus Ex.

CP77 has always been terrible at pacing even in the base game. The fixer jobs should tell you as much.

[Chaosolous]

Phantom Liberty is basically what Cyberpunk would have been had the upper management not rushed the product out the door and given them like, another year or so to really cook.

They did not do that though so you got a so-so game that needed a lot of fixing to be acceptable, then no way to update the story with better set pieces because you already shipped it.

Twas greed that killed all the things we could have had.