Summary
Many gamers would agree that right now is the best time to be aCyberpunk 2077fan. With the release of the 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty, the game is finally able to live up to the expectations it completely dropped the ball on back in 2020.Cyberpunk 2077may still be a little rough around the edges, but it offers a living, breathing, dystopian futuristic world for players to explore at their leisure. The ideas presented inCP2077are most certainly creative, and Phantom Liberty is no different even three years later.
Phantom Liberty isn’t exactly revolutionary in its offerings, but it makes due on its promises as a standalone addition toCyberpunkitself that players can easily jump into and explore at any time. It tells a story about secret agents and their thrilling exploits, while also going into the weight of what it takes to serve a service like the FIA. While it can be said thatPhantom Liberty’s spy elements fall a bit short, what can be found within it spices theCyberpunk 2077experience in such a way that many players will likely find its execution on espionage satisfying. Other places of the DLC can feel like missed opportunities, however, such as the introduction and lack of proper use of the Deep Dive drug.
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Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Hardly Uses the New Deep Dive Drug
Balls to the Wall is an early-expansion questfound in Phantom Liberty that deals with players finding two Barghest lackeys who are having a bit of trouble. One of them, Paco, is rather worse for wear, as he’s sporting a black eye and plenty of cuts and scrapes. He’s also in quite a bind as he stole extra generators that the leader’s right-hand man Yuri smuggled to sell, and sold them himself. to tell his story to V, though, Paco offers V a drug called Deep Dive, saying that it’ll allow the merc to feel just as he did.
With the help of the fumes and Paco’s narration, this drug works so well that players get to experience the story as Kurt Hansen, the leader of Barghest, as a playable character. Through this, players get to initiate Paco into the group, and also experience one of their convoy shipments going wrong in Kurt’s point of view. The surprise of playable Kurt is an incredibly interesting mechanic, as it makes players wonder just how potent the Deep Dive drug is and whatotherCyberpunk 2077NPCswill be made into surprise playable characters.
As fans go throughout the story of Phantom Liberty, they may begin to feel like time is running out on when CD Projekt Red could justify the use of another Deep Dive. Eventually, players may realize that there are not many sequences left with the drug left in the game, which serves as a let-down for anyone hoping that the character-changing drug would put them in the shoes of their favorite non-playable character. Even as the party V creates out ofUnification War veterans, their stories are only told orally, and not through the welcomed change in perspective Deep Dive offers.
Deep Dive was only introduced in this one rather small side quest and then never used again in the game afterward. ThisPhantom Liberty mission certainly impresseswith the unexpected playable character that isn’t V for once, but it doesn’t double down on that wow factor despite how great the opportunity is. While V does put on an interesting disguise later in the game, it isn’t exactly the same as truly playing as said character. Ultimately, the Deep Dive feature doesn’t live up to its first shocking appearance, which ends up being one of Phantom Liberty’s most disappointing flaws.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libertyis available for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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