With the rocky launch and numerous updates behind us, the grand finale of CD Projekt Red’s magnum opus attracts close to. Will Cyberpunk 2077 be identified within the annals of gaming historical past as one of many all-time greats, or will it stay a tragic lesson in overhyping one thing? Regardless, primarily based on what’s been proven, we couldn’t be extra hyped for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. Night City was already a blast, however the DLC growth is about to propel issues out of orbit. In explicit, these are 10 of the most important causes Phantom Liberty may stay up to the hype.
A Spy-Thriller Storyline
The Cyberpunk setting was completely made for espionage tales. While we obtained some snippets of genuine spy narratives within the base recreation, there weren’t any really devoted ones. Most of Cyberpunk’s covert escapades got here within the type of Gigs and the way you really performed by means of the sport moderately than a sweeping spy plot. Sneaking by means of illicit hideouts and snuffing out safety cams with a silencer was a reasonably widespread technique for me, however it wasn’t essentially the core story focus.
That all adjustments in Phantom Liberty. V’s level of contact for the story is an intelligence analyst by the title of Songbird. She’s going to be a serious character within the story, guiding V all through his psuedo-undercover NUS agent profession. Songbird was talked about varied instances within the base Cyberpunk expertise as one of the adept netrunners round too, so there’s little doubt she’ll show a strong ally.
She additionally has an intimate historical past with Phantom Liberty’s different star of the present, Solomon Reed. How deep these connections are although, and the way they’ll play into the story, gained’t develop into clear till we are able to all dig into the narrative ourselves.
Idris Elba’s Character, Solomon
That brings us to Songbird’s relationship curiosity, Solomon Reed.
Solomon is performed by none aside from actor Idris Elba, and if the trailers are any indication, his voice work goes to be phenomenal. CD Projekt Red are clearly going full cinematic mode with this character too: The animations we’ve seen from gameplay footage of the brand new character are among the many finest within the business, and you’ll see Idris Elba’s mo-cap performances right here demonstrating his excellence.
But we’re not simply excited for the efficiency behind Idris Elba’s character. Solomon Reed can be primed to be one of many extra fleshed-out characters in your entire recreation.
The remaining trailer to Phantom Liberty reveals us Solomon getting backstabbed by somebody he trusted. It’s unimaginable to inform which character is in the best and who’s going to find yourself as an antagonist on the finish of the day, however it’s clear that CD Projekt Red is pouring an amazing quantity of effort into this character.
More Johnny Silverhand
I don’t find out about you, however Keanu Reaves’ portrayal as Johnny Silverhand was one of many standout facets of Cyberpunk 2077.
Some of essentially the most memorable moments within the recreation featured the wise-cracking Johnny being an antagonizing jerk to V. The curler coaster experience between Johnny and V confirmed a real facet to Johnny we’d love to see extra of in Phantom Liberty. The alternative is rife for tons of recent memorable Silverhand moments, particularly since CDPR introduced Keanu Reaves again to reprise his function one final time.
Even although he’s a grade-A jerk, we can’t wait to pay attention to extra rants and quips from Night City’s most infamous rocker boy.
A New District to Explore
Exploration is certainly one of Cyberpunk’s best accomplishments. The environments feel and appear lived-in and are genuine to the supply materials. While you can’t enter each constructing you see, you possibly can definitely climb them and stroll beneath their seedy underbelly.
Luckily, Phantom Liberty is primed to present much more of that. The DLC options a completely new district east of Pacifica referred to as Dogtown. This disputed warzone has three subdistricts and its personal territorial gang to deal with, in addition to a slew of recent sights for gamers to partake in. Expect many new distributors, retailers, flats, characters, and extra quests than you in all probability have time for scattered all through the big new district.
To add to Dogtown, the spaceport on Morro Rock can even be explorable as a brand new zone accessible from the City Center district.
Morro Rock is one thing we haven’t seen a lot of within the Phantom Liberty protection, so it’ll be thrilling to lastly discover that island with the large rocket ship we saved getting teased with all through the primary recreation.
New Gigs and Side Jobs
As long-time followers might need guessed, CD Projekt Red isn’t going to simply let the primary story take all of the glory. Side Jobs and Gigs are going to be an enormous focus in Phantom Liberty too.
The facet jobs in Cyberpunk 2077 had been simply among the finest content material in your entire recreation, so we’re keen to see what’s in retailer for Phantom Liberty. All these new characters and factions will inevitably play a task in these facet missions too.
One contractor specifically who by no means actually gave V a lot work in Cyberpunk 2077 was Mr. Hands. He’s accountable for gigs for Pacifica, and it appears he covers the Dogtown area too. We’ve by no means seen his hideout within the base recreation, so little question we’ll lastly be ready to discover the elusive contractor’s lair in Phantom Liberty.
More Amazing Vehicles
The wide selection of automobiles in Cyberpunk 2077 was certainly one of my favourite facets of your entire recreation. The automobile designs and sounds had been so good that they even sparked my curiosity in real-life automobile tradition. We can count on that very same degree of automotive element to return for Phantom Liberty, after which some added ridiculousness on high.
What we’ve seen of Phantom Liberty’s unique automobiles is already tantalizing. Sports automobile producer Quadra is making one other look with this new mannequin seemingly impressed by the basic 70s Plymouth Baracuda.
The new Quadra Sport R-7 Vigilante demonstrates simply how cool a fictional automobile can be. The fashion matches Cyberpunk completely, after which there’s the dealing with and sound. Cyberpunk’s design workforce goes out to the easiest of the most effective real-world examples and takes notes and sound samples. We know that the devs went out and recorded real-world automobile symphonies just like the Lexus LFA to later combine of their sound sales space for the bottom recreation’s Rayfield Caliburn.
But that’s not all. Phantom Liberty options the brand new addition of missile-mounted fight automobiles. If you’ve ever wished to trigger mayhem in your personal decked-out tank round Night City, Phantom Liberty has you coated.
A New Faction to Take on
The new district of Dogtown doesn’t simply run itself, the territorial Barghest is a strong faction prepared to pounce on any that get of their method. Barghest is a personal military of ex-Militech troopers led by NUSA colonial Kurt Hansen. It’s very clear that Barghest will be the hardest of all of the factions but, totally difficult V’s newfound Relic powers.
Besides the difficult new battles to be had, Barghest delivers an ideal piece of the espionage pie. Comprised of former NUSA personnel and the strongest thugs Dogtown has to supply, Barghest is entangled on the coronary heart of the battle that V and Solomon discover themselves in. They may find yourself being essentially the most story-relevant faction in all of Cyberpunk 2077, and play an enormous function within the tales surrounding Night City.
The Relic Skill Tree
Phantom Liberty will lastly allow us to dig into that mysterious locked talent tree on the backside of V’s character menu, identified solely as Relic.
V’s collaboration with the NUSA permits the latent Relic powers inside to be absolutely unleashed. While at first look it appears to be like like there aren’t all that many perks within the new Relic tree, each can improve V’s expertise previous the restrict.
Fitting the espionage theme of Phantom Liberty is the Emergency Cloaking tree inside Relic. Emergency Cloaking instantaneously forces enemies to lose monitor of V whereas invisible, whereas the Sensory Protocol perk slows time if caught whereas crouched. These look like small servings of icing on a large cake, and also you wouldn’t be incorrect, however this explicit icing goes a great distance on this occasion.
The perk I’m most excited to check out is Spatial Mapping, which permits V to immediately warp strike to enemies after chaining kills.
There are additionally a number of perks devoted to the arm augmentations you can also make to your self through Cyberware, and the Vulnerability Analytics capacity may give gamers the prospect to decimate enemies with assured crits.
Relic appears to be the ultimate capstone in reworking V right into a cybernetic powerhouse. Even if it doesn’t actually remodel the gameplay with all-new mechanics, it ought to nonetheless present some enjoyable new toys for gamers to add to their toolkits.
More Lizzy Wizzy
‘Violence’ is a peculiar and engaging Side Job in Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s the one quest within the recreation that includes what could be the wackiest and most deranged character in your entire setting: Lizzy Wizzy.
As Night City’s most well-known pop icon, she’s keen to do something for extra publicity. Flatlining herself on stage solely to end the live performance off in a brand new chromed-out physique is just one of many stunts she’s pulled.
There was initially supposed to be extra Lizzy Wizzy content material within the base recreation earlier than it obtained lower, so we’re excited CDPR is bringing her again in preem fashion for Phantom Liberty.
New Radio Stations
Last however not least, we’re excited to have some new radio stations to pay attention to as we drive by means of Dogtown and the brand new environs of Phantom Liberty.
Music is an ambient a part of any immersive online game, however Cyberpunk’s soundtrack represents Night City itself. Pop icon Lizzy Wizzy and rocker Johnny Silverhand had been talked about earlier, however there’s a bunch of different musicians the participant interacts with in Night City. Their songs play throughout the totally different themed radio stations, and their adverts are plastered throughout floating neon billboards. The music performed throughout Night City is a direct illustration of Cyberpunk’s immersive and lived-in lore.
To reveal how obsessed CDPR is with Cyberpunk’s diegetic music, they even put out a 45-minute documentary on the making of certainly one of Phantom Liberty’s new stations, Growl FM.
Might we get a sizzling new single from pop trio Us Cracks? Will the ever-enduring Kerry Eurodine launch his comeback album, perhaps even reference V instantly within the music? Cyberpunk 2077 is a residing, respiration world, and maybe nothing helps remind us of this higher than the music enjoying on the radio.
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