Cyberpunk 2077’s first (and only) paid expansion, Phantom Liberty, launches on September 26th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. While it adds a lot of new content and sees the return of Keanu Reeves as Johnny Silverhand, it’s launching with an update that changes the base game significantly. These will be available for all players, regardless if they own the expansion.
VGC recently saw a behind-closed-doors demo for the game and spoke to creative director Pawel Sasko about the change. The latter noted, “All the main systems of the game have been redone or updated in a major way. The biggest ones are the perks and skill trees, which have been rebuilt completely, and the next one is we’ve added vehicle combat which enables new car chases.
“We’ve also greatly expanded AI and completely redone the police system, which is rebuilt from the ground up and now has multiple levels with multiple archetypes of enemies who will chase you – it’s also different in Dog Town compared to Night City.
“We’ve also redone the loop and the whole progression of the game; the difficulty curve is different, the tiers and drops of loot are different, and the archetypes of enemies have been redone for more variety. Those are the core things that we’ve changed, and if you look into it there are very few systems that we didn’t change or update. Even the UI and UX have been greatly updated.”
Cyberware is also completely revamped, with a capacity for the amount of cyberware you can install before Cyberpsychosis sets in. Sasko says the team looked at criticism regarding the open world, noting, “When you play the base game versus Phantom Liberty, you will see the difference. For example, there are car chases that happen dynamically when factions fight. AI improvements mostly extend to enemies. Your followers, as you saw with Agent Reed in the demo, can also use it, but pedestrians are mostly bug fixes.”
As for Phantom Liberty, it includes a new area, Dog Town, which is “vast and densely populated.” It offers new activities, and Silverhand’s presence is almost as hefty as the base game.
Stay tuned for more details on the expansion, which is available to pre-order for $29.99.
