Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty overhaul impresses at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023

No matter how you may feel about Cyberpunk 2077‘s turbulent launch, the game has sprung back in tremendous form—and promises to keep doing so with the upcoming launch of its first and only major expansion, Phantom Liberty. At Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, CD Projekt Red took the stage to show off the significant changes and overhauls coming to the game to help with immersion, balance and more, many of which will even be available for free upon Phantom Liberty‘s Sept. 26 release.

New weapons: A merc’s dream

As many mercs in Night City will tell you, a solo is only as good as their iron. Phantom Liberty sees V getting their hands on a significant arsenal upgrade courtesy of the newly-added Dogtown black market, which carries many illegal weapons you won’t find in the city proper. New weapons from energy-charged katanas to massive light machine guns were shown off, but the standout is definitely the Rasetsu sniper rifle, which looks to be, for all intents and purposes, a railgun with a scope slapped on it. Anyone within a three-mile radius of V would do well to start running. Preferably in a zig-zag.

Cyberware overhaul: Preem chrome

Given how cyberpsychosis is a major, constant theme of the original tabletop roleplaying game Cyberpunk 2077 is based on, not to mention the driving story element of the tie-in Edgerunners anime, it seemed a little odd that V could stuff themselves to the gills with chrome with seemingly no adverse effects. Not so with Phantom Liberty. It seems that every piece of cyberware now comes with a budget value—exceed your total allowed value, which is most likely determined by your Body stat, and you risk cyberpsychosis, although what exactly that entails remains to be seen. Given how creative CDPR usually gets, we’re expecting more here than a simple screen filter and health drain.

More perks, better perks

The skill system in CP2077 has always been a bit labyrinthine and confusing, so CDPR has opted to rip it out entirely and give it a complete rework. Now, perks are grouped under each of your core stats instead of split off further into sub-trees as with their previous implementation. In addition, many of them seem far flashier (and more useful), including the ability to trigger gory finisher animations at will, deflect bullets with your katana like you’re Deadpool, and shoot grenades right out of the air.

In addition, an entirely new skill tree will be unlocked: the Relic, which will harness the power of the biochip slowly killing you to give you some unprecedented new abilities. Who said there wasn’t a silver lining? Most of the Relic skills shown seem to enable you to overclock your cyberware past its ordinary limits, making V more than more than human.

Vehicle combat: Fast and furious

It’s not just in cutscenes anymore. As well as a host of new rides, Phantom Liberty and its associated base game update introduce chase scenes and vehicular combat that can be triggered at will, including vehicle-specific quickhacks that put Watch Dogs 2 to shame. If you take a more old-school approach to high-speed violence, though, you can still just lean out a window and take potshots at your foes, but you may just draw the ire of the law…

Police overhaul: NCPD crackdown

The police system has been one of the most contentious parts of Cyberpunk 2077’s open world, and CDPR is well aware of that. The NCPD has gotten an overhaul as well: No longer will cops suddenly appear behind you three seconds after you’ve committed a crime, but they’ll dynamically chase you down and set up roadblocks from realistic starting points on the map, and can naturally take full advantage of the new vehicle combat mechanics. Also new is the implementation of MaxTac (outside of that one story cutscene), the elite anti-cyberpsycho squad who will hunt V down with relentless efficiency if the player attracts their ire.

Cyberpunk fans are in for a host of improvements and overhauls, all of which seem to make an already immersive and intricate game world even more so. Make sure to take a moment in between cavorting around with Idris Elba and Keanu Reeves to stop and smell the roses—or just anger the police to take a look at their new combat AI.