At Summer Game Fest 2023’s Play Days, we had the chance to finally check out the long-awaited Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077. After a presentation held by CD Projekt RED, we interviewed Gabe Amatangelo, Game Director and VP at the Polish studio, to go over the finer details of Phantom Liberty.
You can check out our overview article on the newly released official details, including the release date, here.
One of the big things that fans are wondering about is Phantom Liberty’s scope. Cyberpunk 2077 once had two announced DLCs and it feels like it’s been kind of merged into a single one with Phantom Liberty. Can you share anything on this and why you’re calling it a spy/thriller expansion?
So, certainly, this is a full expansion with a lot of content and features. As to why we’re calling it a spy thriller, well, I mean, what did you just play? You just rescued the president and you’ve got this mysterious netrunner agent that’s chatting with you, right? It’s the story we went for and it’s the genre we went for because we felt that it was fun, but also introduced a kind of new category of complex characters and we like doing them, we like complex characters.
They broaden your horizons and create new dynamics and ways to get attached or opposed to and have a feeling about.
You’ve mentioned characters. Who else is going to be there beyond Songbird as far as the new characters you want to focus on?
So, I certainly don’t want to do spoilers. We got Songbird, this mysterious New United States of America agent and netrunner and I was hesitating there because I’m trying to not say certain things.
And then you’ve seen, we did an introduction with Idris Elba as Reed. He’s also a sort of sleeper agent and we’ve got the president that you just rescued, Rosalind Myers. We’ve got some of the fixers that you saw a little bit of in the base game. They play a bigger role because of course, you as V are an important role in this whole situation, so you pull in some of your fixer relationships and it becomes part of the story, which is very cool. I don’t think I want to say any other ones.
Oh, Kurt, of course, we talked about Kurt Hansen who’s an ex New United States of America colonel who’s now this kind of military tyrant in this district that’s broken off of Night City. He’s got control and authority and his own ways of doing stuff there. And then we want that district to feel very different and there’s a number of ways we went about that.
Will the new Dogtown district be separated into smaller components or just primary, that one district?
Dogtown does have subdistricts within it. Kurt Hansen has his control over all of them. He’s got a lot of wealth and strength through some weapons dealing as well as how he runs the town. There’s so much more I want to say, but it would be spoilers and I’m not going to.
But yeah, it’s broken up in three areas like the upper district, the main kind of strip, and then the lower district. There’s citizens in Dogtown, there’s also outcasts in Dogtown and of course, there’s Barghest, his military militia that’s throughout downtown.
Why did you pick Idris Elba to play the role of Solomon Reed?
Idris Elba is a phenomenal actor. We saw him as a great… Well, let me put it this way. When you look at the world of Cyberpunk 2077, you got the legends, like V, the cyberware fixers, and you’ve got military individuals with Cyber, you’ve got agents.
There’s certain badasses with cyberware that have a kind of, what’s the word I’m looking for, presence, a presence and Idris Elma just has this strong presence just through his eyes and glances. As we started flushing out the world, he just felt so perfect for the Reed character. Like, we kind of flushed it in mind with him for the Reed character because it is a sleeper agent who is a believer in the New United States of America, but he’s got some really complex situations with regards to his relationships with NUSA, which again, I’m trying not to spoil stuff, but he is a badass sleeper agent. He is like the go-to one and you kind of just feel it in the way he walks in his presence. When he was in the booth and we started giving him some direction on what Reed character is. He just like went right into it. He’s so pro, he’s such a badass, and then he started like kind of growing it even beyond what we were thinking. I’m just super excited about Reed. Again, I want to say more, but I’m not going to spoil it, but he’s a badass. He’s kind of a father figure in this situation and comes with complex relationships.
Speaking of famous actors, did you guys bring back Keanu Reeves to record any new lines for Phantom Liberty?
Oh, yeah. Keanu Reeves is in this. Yeah, he’s throughout it. I mean, you saw some of our teaser trailers and stuff and he, Johnny rather, through the story is going to have some new perspectives and outlooks. He’s going to change again in his demeanor based on kind of what happens and what plays out, which is very exciting.
With Phantom Liberty, are you picking up from one of the endings of Cyberpunk 2077, and if so, which one?
No, this takes place in the midst of it. You get to a certain point in the game and this unlocks, but of course, we let you skip right to it much like it was done in The Witcher 3’s expansions.
It’s the same thing as it takes place during. Now it has endings, different endings based on how things play out. Then, based on the ending within Phantom Liberty, you can unlock a new ending in the base game.
Ok. So is there just one new ending for the base game, or are there going to be multiple, depending on multiple endings of Phantom Liberty?
There’s one new ending in the base game because there’s already a bunch in the base game endings. But there’s a new one that has to do with your new relationships and characters and situations here.
All right. How far do you have to get into the base game before you can start out Phantom Liberty?
I’m not sure if we said specifically, but you got to get to the part with Brigitte and the Voodoo Boys. Once you get to that part, it unlocks this next step. Then again, from the menu, you can skip right ahead to that to create a new character or go from the beginning.
Is there going to be a lot of new side content in Phantom Liberty?
Oh my God. Yes, so much. There’s so much like, it’s not just the main storyline, there’s a bunch of different sort of side quests and side activities and I don’t know if we have enough time, but we created all these new things that other characters in the world do and it takes place with or without you. The world is alive and you can intercept or interfere or they can just play out and there’s a bunch of new activities like this in the world.
That’s the really quick version, but there’s a lot of details there and I guess kind of the last one to kind of wrap it up.
Do you have any details on the anticipated improvements for the police system and the vehicular combat?
I have tons, but we don’t have much time. Goodness, what do I say? Basically, they have all kinds of new tactics and they’ll pull all these new tactics on you depending on how much mayhem – or, in the case of Dogtown, not mayhem because they are kind of a militia. Obviously, if you escalate all the way to that, we’re going to have a bunch of different possible conflicts as the situation escalates.
Thank you for your time.
