Cyberpunk 2077 was once one of the most talked about games around, but often for the wrong reason. The hype it received prior to its 2020 release put it in an impossible position – it surely couldn't meet such lofty expectations. And that proved to be the case.
The last-gen console editions were bug-riddled and moved as smoothly as an arthritic snail, while there wasn't even the sniff of the much promised "next-gen" upgrades for more than a year. It was, for the once loved Polish developer, a disaster.
It may surprise you then to learn that I stuck with the game, even with its numerous failings, and even finished the Xbox One code on an Xbox Series X. And, I even enjoyed it, managing to overlook the frame rate issues and the occasions when characters seemingly floated in mid-air.
But, I couldn't bring myself to revisit it even after the numerous patches, fixes and reportedly superb upgrade to run natively on the latest machines.
Now I most certainly will.
That's because I have played a brief demo of Phantom Liberty – the first major expansion DLC for the game and it's brilliant. I enjoyed it so much that I'll happily start Cyberpunk 2077 from the very beginning, just to experience the game as it was originally intended.
Played on a booth at Gamescom in Germany, the Phantom Liberty demo saw us once again control "V", who this time is tasked with rescuing the President from an attack on her ship over Night City. The craft crashes into Dogtown, a whole new open world zone for the game, and you therefore get to travel and fight your way to the wreckage to discover whether she has survived.
Sign up to the T3 newsletter for smarter living straight to your inbox
Get all the latest news, reviews, deals and buying guides on gorgeous tech, home and active products from the T3 experts
It was fairly short – lasting no more than 10 minutes – but my couple of takeaways are that Dogtown is a far more dangerous place than the rest of Night City, and that gunplay has been vastly improved since we last played the action-RPG.
Taking out enemies is even more visceral than before, while the speed of the combat is more akin to a dedicated FPS. It is, quite frankly, more fun.
The expansion also looks great, giving me hope that the overall game will also benefit from the tweaks CD Projekt Red has made here and there for v2.0 of the game engine.
There are new, more powerful abilities to master and a Relic tree to utilise. There's also a redesign perks system and a host of new weapons and clothing items to pick up. Police activity has clearly been improved too, which was something quite frankly hopeless before.
And there is vehicle combat now, which I didn't get to experience much at Gamescom, but seems to be much welcomed nonetheless.
Oh, and NPCs didn't float a foot above a chair when in a sitting position, neither, which was nice.
Certainly, my demo playthrough was enough to get me excited enough to revisit NIght City once more. And, with Phantom Liberty out on Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC on 26 September 2023, I'll be doing so very soon indeed.
Rik is T3’s news editor, which means he looks after the news team and the up-to-the-minute coverage of all the hottest gadgets and products you’ll definitely want to read about. And, with more than 35 years of experience in tech and entertainment journalism, including editing and writing for numerous websites, magazines, and newspapers, he’s always got an eye on the next big thing.
Rik also has extensive knowledge of AV, TV streaming and smart home kit, plus just about everything to do with games since the late 80s. Prior to T3, he spent 13 years at Pocket-lint heading up its news team, and was a TV producer and presenter on such shows as Channel 4's GamesMaster, plus Sky's Games World, Game Over, and Virtual World of Sport.
-
A Week on the Wrist with the Leica ZM11 – retro chic with luxury photographic nods
Purveyors of luxury cameras, Leica, have something tasty for your wrist
By Sam Cross Published
-
You'd have to pay me more than $5 million to be on this massive new Prime Video show
Beast Games looks like terrifying pressure
By Max Freeman-Mills Published