Escape from Dogtown.

September 22, 2023 8:15 AM

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Phantom Liberty Is the Game It Should’ve Always Been [Siliconera] “Though examples of other titles having a redemption from its initial launch exist, such as No Man’s Sky, I never had the motivation to give these games a second chance. But this changed with the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC, as CD Projekt RED finally made good on the promises the RPG made when it was originally released in 2020. Even for those who don’t purchase the Phantom Liberty DLC, you’re in for a treat, as the base game feels much more exciting than ever before with the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update. [...] Everything from the action sequences to the terrific performances to even the storytelling, this is what I hoped Cyberpunk 2077 would have been from the start. I enjoyed my time with the DLC, and the 2.0 update changes so much that I actually plan to finally beat the base game and see the new ending now. If, like me, you’ve been on the fence about this game or were disappointed in the RPG in the past, I recommend giving Cyberpunk 2077 a second chance.” [Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty | Update 2.0 Overview] [Phantom Liberty - Official Cinematic Trailer]

• How Cyberpunk 2077 clawed its way back from disaster to complete one of the greatest redemption arcs in gaming history [PC Gamer]

“Cyberpunk 2077 may be the most successful flop of all time. Within weeks of launch, the RPG had sold 13 million copies, even accounting for dissatisfied players refunding the game. It made its eight year budget back in a single day. But those accomplishments couldn't stop Cyberpunk from widely being seen as a disappointment. It was buggy as hell. The last-gen console version was so bad, it was pulled from sale on PlayStation. It was briefly a particularly dangerous game for players who are prone to seizures. Some investors were so miffed at how CD Projekt Red handled the launch, they filed a class action lawsuit over the share price, which dropped from its high of $31 on December 4, 2020 to only $16 a month later. It's now down to under $9. CD Projekt's stock price may not have recovered over the last three years, but Cyberpunk 2077 has. In his Phantom Liberty review, associate editor Ted Litchfield called the expansion "a thrilling capstone for Cyberpunk 2077's 3-year redemption arc." The big 2.0 patch released to everyone for free, meanwhile, completely remakes Cyberpunk's progression system, cyberware, vehicle combat, and police. For the last three years, CD Projekt has seemingly been determined to deliver on the potential Cyberpunk 2077 had, but failed to reach, in December 2020. Here's how Cyberpunk clawed its way back.”

• Lessons Learned From Cyberpunk 2077's Terrible Launch And Hands-On With Phantom Liberty [Gamer Informer]

“It was a disaster, and fingers were pointed in many directions at developer/publisher CD Projekt toward myriad culprits. Management pushed the game out too early, the developers were working on an ultimately impossible task, or maybe marketing just raised expectations unfairly. In truth, there is no one singular issue that sank the public’s first interaction with Cyberpunk 2077. And since then, CD Projekt has been working hard to push the game in the right direction. Cyberpunk has received numerous updates addressing bugs and improving mechanics. Studio Trigger’s anime adaptation, Cyberpunk: Edge‑ runners, inspired players to engage with the setting and lore of the world at a level they simply couldn’t at launch. CD Projekt has been fixing its massive first-person shooter, open-world RPG for the last three years, but Phantom Liberty is the biggest update the game has received yet. It represents an opportunity for many to give Cyberpunk 2077 another shot, bring in new players, and see if it can finally live up to the impossible expectations. Quest director Paweł Sasko and art directors Jakub Knapik and Paweł Mielniczuk know this and are eager for players to see what the team has been hard at work on.”

• The RPG’s only expansion reflects on how we got here, and the results are bittersweet [Kotaku]

“It’s ironic that a game about the vice grip of capitalism was so beholden to it that it launched the way it did three years ago. Cyberpunk 2077 was always trying to comment on and satirize the same forces that cut it off at the knees. The game’s development cycle was plagued with stories of developers crunching leading up to launch, and layoffs when CD Projekt Red realized it hadn’t scaled properly for all its projects. And the inclination to call the developers behind Cyberpunk 2077 incompetent simply doesn’t hold up to scrutiny when, after years of work, they’ve managed to raise their game to new heights. That CD Projekt Red wasn’t able to release the game in this state to begin with speaks more to systemic issues in how video games are made, released, maintained, and consumed. It’s a shame it took churning staff through the grinder and years of additional work to get it there. This cannot continue, but some days my cynicism takes over and I fear the machine can’t be stopped. Cyberpunk 2077 is all about showing how the gristmill comes for us all, but to its detriment, it often falls into the same cynicism I tend to feel when things are relentlessly hard. We can’t give in to that, and like V, I sometimes find comfort in those around me, who are being crushed under the heel of every system that chews us up and spits us out, but still, in the face of everything, never stop believing that a better world is possible. Phantom Liberty is a succinct summation of the best parts of Cyberpunk 2077 and all the strife it took to reach this point.”

posted by Fizz (34 comments total)

Always wanted to like this game, what with its lineage from cyberpunk 2020, and it feels like it has fought me every step of the way, becoming one of the most bizarrely cursed games of all time.

Maybe now it turns the corner?
posted by Artw at 8:24 AM on September 22, 2023

I keep poking at the build planner, trying to remember how I was playing last year when I finished the game (brutal netrunner, I think? like I'd sneak around popping guys with contagion and whatever before rushing in with a shotgun or maybe a smart shotgun?), and kind of feeling a little lost. Now I'm trying to decide if I just want to start from the beginning again, and whether I want to romance Judy or Panam this time...

I assume the DLC mission is just a "hey V, I've been hearing about this thing" breadcrumb start, yeah?

And yeah, I played mostly after the nextgen console patch dropped, and it was _generally_ fine, although there were some odd bugs towards the end of the game - not outright t-posing NPCs, but some NPCs floating their way up steps sorts of things. I played through the Nomad start and it was fine on my last gen PS4 _until_ we got to Night City and hooooo-eeeee it started having streaming failures. But my PS5 was basically fine. Generally. I'm mildly jealous of the PC mods, but I don't think my PC with its old 1060 is even remotely up for it.
posted by Kyol at 8:27 AM on September 22, 2023

I doubt I'll ever have as much fun playing Cyberpunk 2077 as I did watching Tim Rogers talk about it (and his gaming chair) for 11 hours

Now you may ask: "why would you watch an 11 hour review of a game you didn't and likely will never play?"

And if you have an answer, please DM me. I would also love to know.
posted by Reyturner at 8:31 AM on September 22, 2023 [11 favorites]

I played the main game last year after the major bug fix releases. It was quite good! The visual design in particular was fantastic, remarkably good textures for clothes etc. I also liked the writing quite a bit, lots of memorable characters and quests. Game balance was a bit off (the magic spells quickhacks got super powerful very early) but it was fun.

I can't wait to play the new Phantom Liberty DLC. The reviews are very strong. I gather the 2.0 changes to the base game also improve things significantly. I don't have any need to revisit that story but I do envy folks playing it anew.

I worry these stories of game redemption are becoming a thing of themselves. Cyberpunk 2077 was a broken disaster when it was sold to the public. No Man's Sky was also awful but is now quite good. Both games simply should not have been released when they were. Look how great Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was. They held it for a year after planned launch to improve it and it shows. Folks shouldn't pay $70+ for a broken product. (And for every story of redemption there's 10 stories of games that stayed bad. Gollum and Saints Row are two recent studio-destroying examples.)
posted by Nelson at 8:41 AM on September 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

I've been on this entire roller-coaster of a game. I purchased it on a PS4 Pro and it was pretty unplayable when it first released. After a few months of patches, it finally ended up in a playable state but because I was on a last-gen machine, it was a bit lacking (not as many NPCs in the world, graphical fidelity not as high as it was on more current gen consoles and higher end PCs), and I sort of set it aside as a game that just wasn't worth pushing through in the state it was in.

I'm now on a current gen console (Xbox Series X) and I can confirm that the game runs and feels like the game I thought it would be. It should have never been released on last-gen consoles. And it honestly needed more time in the oven. The 2.0 update has so many quality of life features and it completely overhauls the combat system and the perk/skill tree in a way that makes the game feel more like an actual RPG where your version of V feels powerful and interesting and you can create some really unique and fun builds as you explore Night City.

This is in contrast to the pre 1.5 patch version of the game that honestly just felt like a weird cinematic cut-scene simulator with janky GTA-esque open-world gameplay. It feels like Cyberpunk 2077 now. That being said, if you never vibed with this particular interpretation of Cyberpunk, then it might still not work for you, but for anyone else who was straddling that fence. The revamped gameplay and skill tree and upgraded graphics and NPC combat behavior, it all just works and feels better, feels right.
posted by Fizz at 8:44 AM on September 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Man. I'm feeling like there isn't going to be a PS5 slim this year after all. The frigging window is closing before the holidays. Since I'm pretty sure I'm putting off upgrading my iPhone until next year that frees up some reserves for a console bump but I'd rather not get the power sucking launch model if I can help it.
posted by seanmpuckett at 8:50 AM on September 22, 2023

Now you may ask: "why would you watch an 11 hour review of a game you didn't and likely will never play?"

Because the review is only partly about Cyberpunk 2077, and like great sci fi, great commentary on sci fi is often as much about the situation of our present as much as it is an exploration of the text itself. And Tim Rogers, for whatever flaws he may have (and opinions vary widely on those anyway), is very deeply knowledgeable about video games and knows how to synthesize that knowledge with the larger cultural milieu in a fun way.

If you want to go directly to the commentary not on Cyberpunk 2077 but Cyberpunk as a subgenre, check out the section of the review titled "Season of Trash".

For a surprisingly moving contemplation on nostalgia, memory and personal history, consider his segment in the Boku no Natsuyasumi review called "meanwhile our shattering animals."

Note: the reason I believe these segments start more than 2/3 of the way through the reviews is because the viewer gets the most out of them after walking alongside Tim for a while to get to it. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

That all said, I ordered a new PC specifically so I could play Phantom Liberty (and later this year Cities Skylines 2) on a PC with a modern video card. Unfortunately I'm getting jerked around by the vendor, and the new PC which I ordered in July and crashed within minutes of starting it up in August, is probably headed for a dispute/chargeback with my credit card company. So I'm kinda bummed at the prospect of playing these glossy new games on a six year old machine with a video card that was the new hotness eight years ago.
posted by tclark at 9:18 AM on September 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

I had an amazing time playing this at release and didn't really have big technical issues (the bugs I saw were at the level of a Bethesda game) so I'm glad the DLC is finally here so I have an excuse to replay the game. All the patches and mechanical changes are simply the icing on the cake for me.
posted by simmering octagon at 9:24 AM on September 22, 2023

Well, I have a ps5 to play it on finally so there's that, but I'm still less than 1/4 through Saints Row that came with psplus so no rush.
posted by juv3nal at 10:07 AM on September 22, 2023

Seems like kind of a great time to be into opulent single-player RPGs, dang. When it rains it pours.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 10:12 AM on September 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

On Steam: currently on sale, US$36 for the base game, $60 with the DLC. Verified for the Deck. Meh, maybe when it’s down to like $20 for both.
posted by egypturnash at 10:22 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Looking forward to the DLC. I played at launch on PC and was fortunate enough to avoid the worst bugs. In those days if you lucked out on your setup, you really just had to deal with a little bit of jank, and I think a good chunk of its reputation for being awful came from consoles, where it was borderline unplayable. Their decision to push it out without apparently even trying to optimize the console experience was a poor one.

I felt like Keanu Reeves’s performance was great, and hiring that sort of caliber talent was a good move, one I hope studios will continue (even though it surely means even stupider budgets). I adore Idris Elba and expect great things from him.
posted by Room 101 at 10:35 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

It'll be interesting to see what happens to sales for any future CD Projekt Red game. Will people wait up to three years to see if it will come out good eventually and get it at the reduced price.

the inclination to call the developers behind Cyberpunk 2077 incompetent

Selling something that doesn't work isn't incompetence, it's crooked.
posted by biffa at 10:46 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

I played this on PS5 about 6 months ago. It had its moments. It had some fantastic set pieces, some great writing. But as a moment-to-moment game, it was a dull letdown. I didn't like the gunfights all that much. The "net hacking" felt like casting generic magic spells (that weren't even as interesting as typical fantasy game spells), and the loot and crafting system was just tacked on and felt so hollow it was a joke. You can literally disassemble 17 guns/rifles while walking down the street. And reassemble them into other kinds of weapons.

Would forcing you to do this at a "workbench" make the game better? Probably not. But that's true of so many issues with this game. It exists in a weird space where it's not that fun, and there's no particular reason why it's not that fun. It's just a game that missed its mark. Over and over.

I honestly don't know how they could fix the game. I didn't hate it. I finished it, but I just wanted to get from one story part to the next. And yes, as everyone has said before: the city felt empty and deserted, even with a bunch of weirdly dressed zombies shambling about. The vehicles weren't very fun to drive (and there's hardly any traffic in the Future!).

I had so much fun in Witcher 3 just vibing and hanging out with the characters. Geralt was such a great player-character. Gruff, "seen it all before" (because as a gamer, you HAVE seen much of that stuff before!) so it was a sly way of stepping into his shoes. The combat wasn't great, but it was more fun than cyberpunk.

I had a few bugs, but nothing terrible. I know I could jump back in and try this new version of Cyberpunk, but I just have no urge to do so. The game simply missed its mark for me.
posted by SoberHighland at 10:57 AM on September 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

There's a new ending in 2.0?

I basically bought the game for the crazy raytracing stuff and was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I am decidedly not a fan of first person view, but otherwise the gameplay was fine by the time I played it early this year. Not great, but not bothersome, either. Good enough to make it worth playing through the story and side content, anyway.

I'm actually kinda dreading the update with all its..updates. Still, I liked it enough that I'll definitely be picking up Phantom Liberty when it hits $20.
posted by wierdo at 11:43 AM on September 22, 2023

It'll be interesting to see what happens to sales for any future CD Projekt Red game. Will people wait up to three years to see if it will come out good eventually and get it at the reduced price.

I mean, that's my general operating principle already - and I got Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man's Sky new off the shelf for $20 each, each around the point when the reviews started going "wait, this is actually pretty good now..." Buying games at release for full price is a poor bet, unless if you absolutely have to play it at the same time as your peer group, which is legit.

Honestly, the only company that really doesn't work for is Nintendo.
posted by Kyol at 11:59 AM on September 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Both games simply should not have been released when they were.

I say this in no way to justify the state in which they were initially sold, but it's very likely that without those initial sales they wouldn't have had the money (or business case?) needed to fix them. Which imo is a strong argument for a BG3-like lengthy early access approach.
posted by juv3nal at 12:56 PM on September 22, 2023

“Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Review (PS5) - It's Ready.”—Electric Playground, 21 September 2023
posted by ob1quixote at 1:33 PM on September 22, 2023

it's very likely that without those initial sales they wouldn't have had the money (or business case?) needed to fix them.

If they wanted crowdfunding they needed to sell crowdfunding, not sell an incomplete game as complete. Informed consent is key.
posted by biffa at 3:04 PM on September 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

"The last-gen console version was so bad..."

Has this been patched? Because I tried to play it on my Xbox One and it was unplayably stuttery.
posted by brundlefly at 3:14 PM on September 22, 2023

Holy shite, there's an action button review of cyberpunk??? And I haven't seen it?

/me clears six hours of calendar time, descends into madness
posted by kaibutsu at 5:43 PM on September 22, 2023

Anyway, the weird thing for me is that the more I read up on the gameplay changes and systems changes for 2.0, the more it feels like CDPR looked at how the game was actually being played and realized they hadn't really focused on the core concepts with their original stats and perks progression, so they put a solid polish on all of that after three years of tweaking and tuning. And great! Here's a new DLC to take advantage of all of these improvements! You're gonna love it!

And, from what I've heard, it's also the last DLC they're going to create for CP2077, they're retiring the engine, it's been fun but it's time to migrate to ... unity? UE? I forget where they said they were going. I mean, I guess they were kind of committed to updating the fundamental rules of the system with the changes in Phantom Liberty, so it probably wasn't all that much extra work, but it still feels weird, somehow.
posted by Kyol at 5:45 PM on September 22, 2023

There was supposed to be a Switch version at some point, LOL.
posted by Artw at 6:37 PM on September 22, 2023

Holy shite, there's an action button review of cyberpunk??? And I haven't seen it?

/me clears six hours of calendar time, descends into madness

You're gonna need a bigger boat space in your calendar.
posted by tclark at 7:37 PM on September 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Cyberpunk was really good on a high end PC at launch and its only gotten better since. I'm so glad they've been allowed to keep working on patches and what sounds like an excellent DLC.

I think popular opinion on it really started shifting when a lot of people who watched Edgerunners gave it a chance.
posted by zymil at 1:57 AM on September 23, 2023

Has this been patched? Because I tried to play it on my Xbox One and it was unplayably stuttery.

I believe last gen consoles got the 1.5 patch but the 2.0 is only on current gen consoles and PC. It is definitely playable and more stable but it does lack a lot of the quality of life stuff that you're going to see in vods and trailers for this latest patch and DLC. I think they had to just make the decision to not support those consoles because of how big and heavy this game is on machines.
posted by Fizz at 4:45 AM on September 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I played this game when it was released, knowing how buggy it was purported to be. It's a gorgeous game, absolutely top-notch graphics and amazing environments. Very immersive. And for the first hour or so I encountered no glitches at all, but then they started coming. I was driving a car and it sort of disappeared and kept flashing in and out of existence. Other stuff like that. The weird thing was it was still a gorgeous game, so the glitches almost seemed like part of the storyline. Eventually it became unplayable, but I would love to explore that world again. With Idris Elba no less!

I sold my PC for a Mac, though. Now I'd need to buy a new Windows machine to play it...
posted by zardoz at 4:57 AM on September 23, 2023

I played at launch, just after the first hotfix patch was released, on a mid/low range PC. It worked fine for the most part with some funny occasional physics glitches (cars flying into the air) and such. I didn’t follow the pre-release hype, and just played it for what it was.

I very much enjoyed the game and its stories. There are some definite poignant moments with various characters, and the Edgerunners anime did a fantastic job of adding more. I played the pen and paper RPG way back in college, and Mike Pondsmith’s involvement shines through.

I think it’s unfortunate how Youtube bros turned public opinion into a clickbait rage farming hate train that made death threats against the developers, and continues to this day. You’ll find entitled gamer bros complaining in any comment thread about what they were “promised” with some sort of weird “never forget” attitudes.

I’m doing a new playthrough now, since it has been well over two years since I touched the game. The rework of skills, crafting, and many other things is thorough, and I recommend it if you have a current gen console or PC that can run it.
posted by Fleebnork at 5:50 AM on September 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

I sold my PC for a Mac, though. Now I'd need to buy a new Windows machine to play it...

Depends on what Mac you bought, and whether Apple continues providing the Game Porting Toolkit after macOS Sonoma's public release next week and maybe some of the weirdness gets filed off. (Where's your steam install, actually? Are your saves going to the steam cloud properly, or are they all local? etc etc etc.) M1 Max seems to play CP2077 decently well for running without a massive honkin' dedicated GPU. At least PS4/5 level, I suspect.
posted by Kyol at 6:00 AM on September 23, 2023

Dang entitled YouTube bros ruining all the cyberpunking. Dunno why you need to put “promised” in quotes like there wasn’t a bunch of very specific marketing with direct conversations from developers. Doesn’t really matter now though, didn’t really matter then, but one weird diatribe deserves another.

I’m planning to play it sometime soon. I bought it at launch, refunded it because it wasn’t my cup of tea (I decided this on my own as it was 2 hours into launch, reviews were universally 9/10 except one lone 7/10 from gamespot, no YouTube radicalization required) … and bought it later on sale because I figured 2.0 and Phantom Liberty would be cool.

I should probably also replay The Witcher 3 as the next-gen update added a bunch of mods baked in like a complete combat overhaul that’s supposed to be cool.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 11:37 AM on September 23, 2023

Now I'd need to buy a new Windows machine to play it...

GeForce Now is your friend. If you can get through it in a month it's either ten or twenty bucks to play it on Nvidia's hardware, depending on how much you care about resolution and framerate. (1.62 was perfectly playable on Priority, but it does look better on Ultimate)

I played 2.0 for a couple of hours last night and I'm not really sure I like it better, but I'm one of those assholes who prefers to sneak around and never get into a gunfight. At the moment stealth netrunning seems very nerfed, but maybe with some more time to figure out new strategies it may be less fucked than I'm thinking. That said, from what I'm reading (and based on what I've seen myself I believe it to be true unless they radically revamped the missions) it may be literally impossible to sneak through some side gigs where you are explicitly told to sneak.

The funny thing is that some of the changes seem at cross purposes to me. With the old system, you could crawl through 80% of the game at a snail's pace with quickhacks. I can understand wanting to force players to get their ass in gear by making it impossible to avoid detection by eliminating the specific enemy that was hacked. However, with the increase in the cost of quickhacks, the elimination of area of effect buffs from and equipment, and the much slower regen rate, you can't quickhack your way through more than a few enemies without being forced into combat.
posted by wierdo at 12:04 PM on September 23, 2023

Netrunning is less fucked than I thought. However, it is bizarre that the game now gives you a pretty strong incentive to use lower level versions of certain hacks. In a cruel twist of irony, the changes don't accomplish the apparent goal, they just require you to press more buttons for the same effect.

TBH it feels a lot more like cheesing the system now. Probably because it is. Queue hacks you know will never run because the target will already be dead from earlier hacks and have their cost halved from ordering bonuses and then the 85% you get back with a certain perk is more than it cost to put the hack in the queue to begin with since it's 85% of the full freight. If anything it rewards creeping along slow AF even more than before.
posted by wierdo at 1:13 AM on September 26, 2023

Yeah, judging from the 2.0 previews, it feels like CDPR have maybe decided that what the public really wants is to be a goddamn unstoppable death dealing machine, whether they're doing it through quickhacks, monofilament, sniping, or sledgehammers.

I don't know if it's a new change or if I'm just applying lessons I learned from my last playthrough, but tooling around and doing NCPD alerts and cyberpsychos before I get into the main story and it feels like enemies aren't nearly the bullet sponges they used to be. I guess I'll know when I go to the Maelstrom mission with Jackie, that was the first one where I felt like I was getting overwhelmed by enemies no matter how sneaky I was trying to be.
posted by Kyol at 7:47 AM on September 26, 2023

Dang entitled YouTube bros ruining all the cyberpunking. Dunno why you need to put “promised” in quotes like there wasn’t a bunch of very specific marketing with direct conversations from developers. Doesn’t really matter now though, didn’t really matter then, but one weird diatribe deserves another.

You think it’s a “weird diatribe” that I find the angry gamer bros to be ridiculous? Do you think the developers deserved death threats? Probably not, right?

What’s weird to me isn’t that people were disappointed, it’s that people were ANGRY and HATEFUL. Sometimes stuff doesn’t work out in software development. It happens.

But sure, I’m the one with weird diatribes. Never forget, huh?
posted by Fleebnork at 5:58 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]