It’s no secret that CD Projekt Red has had a very difficult 2-3 years behind it. Although “Cyberpunk 2077” was released at the end of 2020, numerous bugs and glitches as well as the failure to fulfill many promises made to players completely changed the narrative around CDPR and caused a “snowball effect”.
As a result, the title of “Reds” was generally considered a big disappointment, which was both a harsh and unfair assessment. However, the creators did not hide their heads in the sand. They got to work and in the following months released a number of patches and updates that eliminated numerous bugs, added new content to the game, and, above all, improved the optimization of the title on (almost) all platforms.
It was supposed to be the culmination of this specific “path to redemption”. Update 2.0 (introducing many new mechanics to the game – including combat in vehicles) and (or rather above all) ““The Specter of Freedom”, the first and only story expansion for “Cyberpunk 2077”.
Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt Red
welcome to Hell
“The Phantom of Freedom” takes us to a new and darkest district Night City. Dogtown was supposed to be an oasis for the rich, but as a result of the armed conflict between the New United States of America (NUSA) and the authorities of the American metropolis, it became a real a battlefield.
After the fighting ended, this place was completely cut off from other districts of the city. NCPD officers are not allowed into Dogtown, and the local warlord rules here with a strong hand. Kurt Hansen and an army of mercenaries led by him.
We get to Dogtown completely by accident. V receives Telephone from a mysterious netrunner Songbird, which asks us for urgent help. He stayed above Night City shot down plane, which includes Rosylind Myers, president of NUSA. The machine is about to make an emergency landing in Dogtown, and we have to get to Myers before the mercenaries of Kurt Hansen, who is a mortal enemy of the government.
In exchange for saving Myers, Songbird offers something we care deeply about. Nutrunner claims she knows how to remove the Relic chip from V’s brain, which is slowly killing us. So we get to Dogtown and help Rosylind Myers hide from Kurt Hansenen. The problem is that in the meantime we lose contact with Songbird. What happened to her? Who is responsible for the attack on the Myers plane? And what about the promise made?
To answer these questions we need to thoroughly infiltrate Dogtown. Learn all the secrets of this closed world and infiltrate its elites – including Kurt Hansen himself. Fortunately, we are not alone. Songbird offers help in findingSolomon Reeda “sleeper” agent of the NUSA special services, who had a very personal, tragic history with the mysterious netrunner.
He plays the role of Solomon Reed Idris Elba, an outstanding British actor. And it must be admitted that entrusting him with this role was a bull’s-eye. Elba excellent finds itself as a fallen hero torn by remorse and torn by internal conflictswho on the one hand wants to remain faithful to his principles, but on the other hand is perfectly aware that the organization to which he has devoted his entire life does not serve a good cause at all.
Reed, with his moral dilemmas, is almost the complete opposite of Johnny Silverhend, a rockerboy who breaks (not to use a stronger word) all the rules and who, thanks to the Relic chip, is still “in V’s head.” Johnny (played again by Keanu Reeves) , also accompanies us during our adventure in Dogtown. In addition – as you might expect – he is not thrilled with the fact that we cooperate with the federal government and he expresses this with his numerous sarcastic remarks.
Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt Red
Like Hitchcock – first an earthquake, and then the tension increases
“The Phantom of Liberty”, as befits a true spy thriller, delights with its scale and pace of action. Already in the first mission, we will have to fight a fight that surpasses almost everything we faced in the basic version of the game. And then it gets even better. You can even say that – just like in Hitchcock’s films – first there is an earthquake, and then the tension increases.
The creators should be praised for this variety of tasks. Nothing happens twice here. Each mission has its own unique character. In one of them, we grab a sniper rifle and help Reed get through a location full of enemies, in another we assume a false identity to infiltrate the Dogtown elites, and in yet another we will come face to face with a cybernetic threat similar to the Alien from “Alien: Isolation”.
The hallmark of CD Projekt’s games has almost always been moral choices and numerous dilemmas that the creators pose to us. It is no different in the case of “The Phantom of Freedom”. During our adventure in Dogtown, we will often have to choose the “lesser evil”. What’s more, one of these choices will have a fundamental impact on the ending – the creators created two alternative paths to the finale of the story, which include completely different missions and locations.
As a “freebie” we also received an alternative ending for the basic version of Cyberpunk 2077. And what an ending! I must admit that even though several days have passed since the end credits, I am still fascinated by the new ending that the game’s creators prepared for us. It’s moments like these that I play video games for.
Cyberpunk 2077 photo: CD Projekt Red
What’s new in Night City?
Some relief in this espionage chase are contracts commissioned by Mr. Hands – the most mysterious fixer in Night City, who also has business to attend to in Dogtown. These are slightly shorter and simpler tasks. But even they retain their unique character. Moreover, we can execute some of these contracts in several ways. And while performing one of them, we meet himself… Okay, I promised not to reveal it.
There are also two new types of tasks – supply drops and courier missions. The former allow us to acquire powerful weapons, and the latter take advantage of the technology introduced by Update 2.0 vehicle combat. Individual missions are randomly generated, which means we can complete them virtually endlessly.
When it comes to new gameplay mechanics, apart from the above-mentioned vehicle combat, the following also deserve attention: atimproved enemy AI and rebuilt sapling skills – it makes our character more specialized. It is now more difficult to build a “universal soldier” – who would also specialize in hand-to-hand combat, rifles, melee weapons and netrunning.
Other new features introduced in Update 2.0 and “The Phantom of Freedom” include:
- New police system – the police are now equipped with more advanced AI that allows them to dynamically respond to our actions based on new levels of escalation;
- Implants and armor – clothes are no longer responsible for armor, the creators also introduced a limit of implants that V can have in his body at a given moment, related to the character’s level.
- Visits to ripperdocs – the interface that accompanies the use of services provided by rippers has been rebuilt, making viewing available implants and the process of applying them easier;
- Resilience – this resource is no longer used for sprinting. Instead, they now use it to shoot guns and dodge.
Right after starting the adventure with “The Phantom of Freedom”, V receives a gift from Songbird new set of attributes – these are the so-called skills Relic. To unlock them, we must earn Relic points by hacking terminals scattered around the map. The new skills include:
- System jailbreak – unlocks access to additional skills when using mantis blades, gorilla fists, rocket launchers and monostrings;
- Inversion of priorities – increases the number of charges fired by the rocket launcher;
- Hide the pattern – improves the operation of optical camouflage. Activating camouflage during combat will make enemies lose sight of us;
- Vulnerability scanning – During combat, we can detect temporarily vulnerable parts of the enemy’s armor and implants – its defects. Hitting a defect gives an increased chance of a critical hit and penetrating the enemy’s armor.
CD Projekt Red has decided that “The Phantom of Liberty” will only be released on PCs and next-generation consoles. Abandoning PS4 and Xbox One in this case turned out to be not so much a good, but even a necessary decision. This is due to the fact that Dogtown is not only the richest in detail and the most “live”, but also the most hardware-demanding district of Night City.
Unfortunately, I cannot comment on the game’s performance on PS5 and Xbox Series X, as I played the expansion on PC. I have to admit though, That optimization for this platform is really good. On a configuration with GeForce RTX 360 Ti, 32 GB RAM and an i5-11400 processor, I managed to maintain 70-80 frames per second at a resolution 1440p and details High/Ultra. After turning on ray tracing, the smoothness dropped below 60 FPS, but still remained at a decent level.
While playing, of course, I encountered occasional bugs and glitches. There were figures hanging in the air, and enemy AI sometimes it was stupid, the phone froze and the game threw me to the desktop several times. However, these were isolated incidents that in no way affect the final reception of the game.
Cyberpunk 2077 photo: CD Projekt Red
Summary
“The Phantom of Freedom” is both a thorough spy thriller and a story about the mistakes of the past, an attempt to correct them and the path to redemption. These topics also resonate to some extent with the situation in which CD Projekt itself found itself after the premiere of “Cyberpunk 2077”. I don’t know if “Redzi” treats this project as a kind of catharsis and a nod to loyal players who, after all, have been a bit disappointed in the past. Perhaps this is so, or perhaps it is my over-interpretation.
I know one thing: this is the best possible ending to V’s story and saying goodbye to the world that the creators will soon abandon for some time. At least until work on it starts Orion project, i.e. the sequel to Cyberpunk 2077. In the meantime, I will allow myself to remain in this world. For many hours.
RATING: 9.5/10
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
