Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Could Be The Best RPG Of The Year

CD Projekt Red's controversial RPG is finally making a deserved comeback.

I once said that Cyberpunk 2077 didn’t deserve its redemption arc, an opinion which felt fully justified at the time. CD Projekt Red announced that the game’s only major expansion was set to skip the last-gen console versions which still ran and looked terrible, despite receiving several years of marketing promises for said platforms before the initial release crashed and burned. It felt dishonest, hypocritical, and a fall from grace the Polish studio is yet to recover from. But it’s come a long way since then, and I’m excited to explore Night City again.

Phantom Liberty launches next month, and its marketing thus far has been the antithesis of the base game that preceded it. Gameplay is front and centre, warts and all, while overblown CG trailers and empty statements have been replaced by devs who clearly spent the past two years rebuilding this Cyberpunk 2077 into what it was always meant to be.

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Everything has been overhauled to feel deeper and more significant, whether that be an all-new perk system or a police force that actually bothers to engage with the player in ways that feel natural in a futuristic dystopia. CDPR is either leaning into the success of Edgerunners or listening to fan concerns in ways that reminds me of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’s heyday, either because its failure has humoured the studio or it is finally being given freedom to make this game into what it always should have been. A good one, which it certainly is.

While Keanu Reeves is set to return as Johnny Silverhand and Idris Elba will play the role of newcomer FIA agent Solomon Reed, Phantom Liberty’s star power is arguably second fiddle to the game itself. Gamescom Opening Night Live featured a trailer which was all about new ways to play, placing a focus on sick new perks like deflecting bullets and dealing ample damage from above alongside the addition of overhauled AI systems and the introduction of vehicle combat which fans have been asking for in abundance. It’s finally on the way, and it seems CD Projekt Red has spent this year going back to the drawing board to consider what needs to change in Cyberpunk 2077 to make it better.

It’s reasonable not to forgive the studio for lying to our faces for so long, but I’m able to detach myself from the executives above them and the developers in the trenches who have now been given the freedom to shape this game into a more realistic experience, not an endless conveyor belt of vertical slices designed to impress shareholders and press while the actual game is cobbled together in desperation. That age is over, and I’m ready to give it a second chance now. It’s just a shame it took us this many failures to get here.

I dipped into Cyberpunk 2077 earlier this year during a dry spell, making a decent amount of progress into the campaign on Xbox Series X before calling it quits ahead of the expansion. I have made enough progress to embrace Idris Elba and company in the coming weeks, or at least continue my existing campaign with a laundry list of exciting new additions which are made not just for returning players like me, but also newcomers who are ready to take a dive into Night City and experience its many vices.

Truth is, it isn’t that buggy anymore, while its many updates and revisions serve to make the open world feel more alive, consequential, and ripe for experimentation. I’ve always viewed 2077 to be a step above its contemporaries when it comes to exploration and dialogue, but that true potential was never reached due to so many of its ideas being neutered or poorly thought out in order to reach the finish line.

The community seems to be turning over a new leaf when it comes to the game’s quality too, with solid sales figures and a stream of positive reviews on Steam helping to cement a more enthusiastic outlook on a game which was once little more than ammunition for memes and dunks on a studio that more than deserved to be raked across the coals. Things only change for the better when those responsible recognise their failure and seek to do something about it.

While the PS4 and Xbox One versions were left behind, this felt like it was decided with blunt honesty and technical impossibility, rather than trying to pull the wool over our eyes. All the general improvements are thankfully coming to older platforms, so CD Projekt Red has likely seen the outrage and sought to address it. This is how all big studios should operate, with a transparency that acknowledges mistakes and strives to do better, because we all know this sort of attitude results in better, more memorable games.

In a year when games like Starfield and Baldur’s Gate 3 are set to redefine what it means to be an RPG in the modern landscape, it’s hard to believe my excitement for Phantom Liberty has allowed Cyberpunk 2077 to sit proudly alongside them. It’s a title I’ve played before and enjoyed and despised in equal measure, but the coming expansion presents a promise that hopefully won’t be broken this time, delivering on hype that is years too late, but tangible enough to make me stand up and take notice.

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Jade King is Lead Features Editor for TheGamer. Previously Gaming Editor over at Trusted Reviews, she can be found talking about games, anime and retweeting Catradora fanart @KonaYMA6.