Fans can feel the excitement in the air as the release of the next chapter of the Cyberpunk 2077 experience is on the horizon. CD Projekt Red has done a great job fixing a lot of the issues from the game’s original 2020 release, and as fans wander back into the game, we’ve seen some higher reviews compared to the game that launched back then.
Just when you thought they were done, the developers announced even more revamps and polishes to the upcoming expansion involving skills, itemization, and even police AI. Here’s our list of the top new features that are coming to Night City near you in Cyberpunk 2077.
Related: Cyberpunk 2.0 Update & Phantom Liberty DLC – Should You Start A New Game
10. New Music
This one is a big point of ours, as the music in the base game is simply outstanding. It was arguably the only thing that lived up to the hype when the game was originally released. The amount of genres the soundtrack covered was impressive, especially since the vast majority of it was from actual popular musicians and artists. Once we heard that the game was adding some more tracks to Phantom Liberty, the excitement level in the office rose exponentially. Even Idris Elba managed to get two tracks into the in-game radio.
9. More Weapons
So, the itemization in Cyberpunk 2077 is not really the best. In fact, it’s really counterintuitive, and it honestly seems like it was tacked on at the last minute with no thought on how it would affect the gameplay. We’ll come back to that thought later, but there is great news for those who have similar opinions: we’re getting new weapons! In fact, we’re getting something new in each category, including smart guns, revolvers, shotguns, SMGs, and sniper rifles.
8. Clothes No Longer Carry Stats
Well, now it’s time to continue the conversation about itemization in Cyberpunk 2077. Clothes were arguably the biggest head-scraper in the original game due to the random stats that accompanied each respective piece of clothing. Your fedora, for some reason, was way better than your beanie and offered more armor to boot. Now, your armor rating is tied to your body modifications, which makes way more sense. That leaves the clothing as a more aesthetic choice instead of the weird RPG monstrosity it was before.
7. A New Zone
New areas to cause chaos are always fun in these types of games. What’s even cooler is that the new area (Dogtown) is already technically in the game, but the area is so dangerous that the average citizen is barred from entering that part of the city. Knocking down that barrier is something that’s very in character with V, as they have nothing to really live for thanks to certain events in-game. We can only hope that the ending is a good one and that the city becomes safer after we handle some of the trash that’s stinking it up.
6. Airdrops
Great gear is hard to come by in Night City. In the original game, if you happened to be riding around the city, there was a chance you could pick up a bounty on one of the random crimes that popped up. While this one was fun the first dozen or so times, it quickly became routine and eventually obsolete as the game progressed. Fortunately, Phantom Liberty introduces a new random activity called Airdrops, which is similar in concept but promises more powerful loot and greater amounts of eddies.
Related: Cyberpunk 2077 Flexes Strong with Phantom Liberty, And It’s Great to Return to Night City
5. Additional Side Quests
One of the other great things about the Cyberpunk 2077 was the very cool sidequests. In our opinion, these side quests were very well done, and the number of choices within most of them was pretty varied and unique. To be honest, it could be argued that the side quests as a whole were better than most of the main story. Here’s hoping that the expansion will capture the same magic.
4. A New Ending
Let’s be clear: obviously, Phantom Liberty won’t change the ending completely, or even enough to make a difference. But for those who did complete the original game, you should know that the ending was pretty much a summary of the major choices and quests you completed throughout your playthrough. According to CD Projekt Red, we’re going to get some additional messages from the survivors of our escapades in Dogtown as well. Here’s hoping it isn’t as gloomy as some of the original ones.
3. Better police AI
Okay, we know this has been promised a few times now, but it has to be true this time, right? To be fair, the developers placed a band-aid on the problem by actually getting them to notice our heinous crimes. Now they’ll be able to actually be a threat to apprehend and possibly terminate you too! With a new GTA-esque wanted-level system, we expect bigger and badder problems from the boys in blue.
2. Idris Elba
When the team first announced that Keanu Reeves would be joining the cast, most fans were super excited to see the John Wick stars’ take on good’ol Johnny Silverhand. Now it’s confirmed that we’re getting some more Hollywood star power with the ever-popular Idris Elba taking on the role of NUSA agent Solomon Reed. We’re expecting to be tagging along with the disgraced agent for the majority of the expansion, so having a strong actor behind the mic is very appealing. Now all we need is some in-character quips about the prolific actors’ past roles in popular films.
1. New Skill Tree Progression
Remember that little talk we had about the stat-based equipment not making much sense? Well, the skill tree didn’t fare much better. In fact, they were quite boring and plain, and many choices ended up being more stat-based than skill-based, ironically. The good news is that the team has decided to revisit each tree and spruce up the way skills and abilities work. Now we’ll have to discover new ways to get around Night City and Dogtown comfortably—well, for us, maybe not for them.
