CD Projekt Red explains how Phantom Liberty is rebuilding perks, skill trees, vehicle combat, AI…
Copying this from another comment /edit: all of these updates are coming to the base game
TL;DR: This is not a DLC. This is Cyberpunk 2.0.
• virtually every system of the main game has been changed and/or updated
• police system is completely reworked with multiple tiers of NCPD/mercs chasing you down in vehicles according to your wanted level, apparently on level 5 maxtac will chase you down and it will be some sort of bossfight against them (source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riK1i8lQwRM&t=511s)
• perks and skills have been completely overhauled, no longer simple passive stat boosts, much more active abilities like different melee finishers, a dash, or the ability to deflect bullets with melee weapons
• the difficulty curve is reworked/rebalanced
• the loot tiers are reworked
• archetypes of enemies have been redone for more variety in combat encounters
• an entirely new 6th skill tree that uses a different type of skill points (relic points) that will be used to add new abilities to your cyberware
• installing cyberware now has an effect on your body and you cant install too much or else you will go cyberpsycho (no idea what that looks like in game)
• installing cyberware now has a first person cutscene added to it, just like in the prologue at Vik’s clinic
• you can now “attune” cyberware to one of your attributes, making it more efficient if you have invested in that attribute; example here optical camo is attuned to the “cool” attribute: https://i.imgur.com/1UI9SEX.png
• armor is no longer tied to clothing, it instead tied to your cybernetics
• vehicle combat is added to the game, you can even use your katana on your bike
• vehicles are no longer bought from fixers, but bought through a website set up by mama welles
• some vehicles have guns installed on them (machine guns, rocket launchers)
• new type of infinitely replayable/repeatable missions are being added where you need to steal certain vehicles marked on your map
• new activity introduced “airdrops”, loot caches that drop randomly on the map that you can fight over and retrieve for yourself
• tons of new random events/activities are added to make the world feel more alive, like car chases and gang fights
So I bought and played the game on release. It wasn't great but it wasn't as bad as most people made it out to be. It was in the shadow of itself with its built-up hype. It was a fairly flat cyberpunk shooter with some hacking mechanics. I paid 60 dollars for an overall generic experience. This DLC seems to be aiming to resolve the game and turn it into what the hype built it up to.
When they first started fixing Cyberpunk they said the first DLC was going to be free in exchange for their mess up and that it would fix a lot of the game. They didn't seem to fix the game that much from a content perspective. One of the biggest arguments against this game at release was that even if it was technically well done, it was still a mediocre at best storyline with flat characters.
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Hell, the "BFF" montage was so silly to me that I immediately knew that Jackie was going to die.
So now we have their first paid DLC and it's half the price of the base game. While I understand it's 60 dollars now, that basically tells me "I shouldn't have bought it when it was shit." This means the next CDPR game that releases, I probably am going to skip it entirely until their first real DLC because clearly, they don't care about their on-release customers.
From what I read, most of these features are coming to the base game and aren’t tied to the DLC, I can’t wait to start a new playthrough with all these changes
Maybe I should finish the game, before the patch and then after, to experience the differences!
... Who am I kidding, I will probably procrastinate playing, since my backlog is too long and then maybe play it in September. Looking forward to the DLC, it sounds great!
It all sounds great but I'm bummed that you need to get the DLC to get all these overhauls. This is the game they promised us way back and now people will have to pay extra to get it. It's like paying twice to get what they promised.
Just wanting to clarify a difference from the copy paste edit, particularly the claim about cyberpsychosis. Here’s the paragraph from the article, parentheses are my addition:
A new Edgerunners perk allows you to even surpass that (the limit of cyberware), while accepting some penalties, like having a health debuff. “It’s all about this balance between risk and reward,” Sasko explained. “We are not going as far as the introduction of cyberpsychosis though, have that in mind.”
I would probably enjoy some gameplay mechanic of cyberpsychosis but I’m not sure how they would pull that off outside of a scripted story sequence. For the most part, players are already gunning down everyone in the room, so cyberpsychosis only has meaningful impact if you end up killing someone you wanted to protect. I imagine it would be hard for that situation to show up organically.
This feels like my all-time patient gamer W. Will keep an eye out for reviews. I feel fortunate that my first experience in Night City will hopefully be the best possible version.
I know I'm in the minority, but I think this game really missed out on not including third person toggle. I know they said it was an artistic choice, but to me RPGs and third person (at least as a toggle) go hand in hand.
The fact that I had so many options to customize my character and wear different stuff only for it to be never be seen except in the menu and some cutscenes was a bit of a let down.
I haven't played CP2077 since launch. I didn't have that many problems with it, I put in 60 hours and shelved it. Hopefully this increases the replay value of the game.
Sounds like they are finally adding some of the things they promised before launch. Won't pre-order that but will probably buy in a sale if it actually lives up to the hype this time.
One of the things I miss most about what was marketed was about the NPC's, and how each would have their own thing going, and so on. Currently I think everything inside the main quest is "mostly fine", but the rest of the world feels a bit dead. I haven't played since launch and maybe that changed, though.
Yea going to wait until user reviews start coming in before I purchase it. They promised a ton of shit at launch and it was lies plus the insane amount of bugs. Ended up playing it like a year later even though I bought it at launch.
I've been itching to play the base since release, despite the bugs.
I might finally bite the bullet get a rig that can play it. I may even convince myself to get the Steam Deck for it! Does the base game currently run smoothly on the Deck?
I played this game semi-recently (within the year) so I had a pretty good experience with it compared to a lot of the early players (via proton no less), but if this expansion lives up to all this then I'm pretty excited nonetheless.
Despite its obvious flaws I really enjoyed the game so anything that improves it is fine by me. Probably a next year purchase for me though as with Starfield and Baldurs Gate 3 coming out I can't see where I'd even find time to play it any time soon
Damn. I don't usually replay story-driven games like Cyberpunk (especially ones with the sort of... finality that Cyberpunk has) but it seems like CDPR is making it a much more immersive experience. We'll have to see how that rumored new ending turns out. I get that they had a story they wanted to tell (and I felt it was a good one), but it was more than a bit of a downer that
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all of V's efforts boiled down to a few different ways to be chewed up, spit out, and dying at the end.
I like for my RPGs to give me more than an illusion of freedom (Phantom Liberty, nudge nudge?) , or else why indulge in the escapism?
All of these changes are exciting. It's what we were promised in the initial game.
The entire trailer and images feel as if something massive happened in the previous game. Like the government went down or something, and it's chaos in the streets.
TBH I didn't finish the last mission. I got to it, and didn't finish it.
I was banking on starting a new playthrough before the DLC dropped but if these changes are coming with it vs before than perhaps I should wait. I’m curious on how the base game will feel with these kind of implementations.
Can anyone explain to me, a dumbass, what it means for my current save file? I haven't beaten the main quest yet because I've been doing everything else for over 120 hours (finally got all the gigs and NCPD scanners, at least), but I still don't see how an overhaul of that caliber is going to play well with the current balance of things. Judging by that one update that reset my skill and perk points, I think we can expect some resets again.
I think Phantom Liberty is my incentive to finally finish the game and then start a completely new playthrough, preferably with a consistent build and playstyle this time from start to finish. So much to choose from!
Very excited about any updates they can give to cyberpunk... despite the rocky launch, I really loved the game and wish people didn't glance over it so much.
This is actually really cool. Sounds like calling it a "DLC" is far short of the reality. I picked it up on release and played like 5 hours or so maybe, but when I tried it again a few days ago, I had no idea what I was doing anymore. Might be time to start a new game and give it a fresh try once the new DLC lands.
NGL, I just pre-ordered after reading this. I know folks HATE pre-ordering literally because of the first release of CP2077, but I loved that game so much and always felt like the internet just had a disproportionate tantrum over it.
This isn't to say that we shouldn't have been disappointed at all. I certainly wish that they didn't hype so hard, but I think of all the games to over-promise and under-deliver, Cyberpunk and the projektRED team didn't deserve poster child status.
Also, god damn Keanu as Johnny Silverhand fulfilled all of my Cyberpunk2020 dreams from my nerdy-ass childhood, and I don't want this IP to die. So I'll buy the game and expansion for PC. I know that I'll get it anyway, even if it has bad reviews, because I did the first time and didn't regret it for a second.
For me that game is Tears of the Kingdom. It has a lot of really good ideas and even execution but there are so many aspects of the game that make me wish to never return to it again. The battery power being held behind a grind, the time limit on some the things you can build (wings for example), the repetitive caves scattered all across the map, the repetitive grind of clearing all the shrines and all the light bulbs under ground. And worst of all the the intense babying of the player as if they have no awareness. I remember doing the wind temple and walking into a room with only a single thing in it and Tulin still paused the game to point out the only object in the entire room. That's just one example, every major dungeon and shrine will eventually pause gameplay to show / explain something to the player that is already clearly conveyed by the level design. I know if I press the button in the shrine that a door will open, but the game still pauses the game to show me the door opening, even if I am 1 foot away from the door when it opens.
The shrines in general are extremely disappointing to me, just as the BOTW ones were. They rarely make you think of a solution, instead making the solution appear incredibly obvious the moment you enter the shrine. There are combat tutorial shrines that you may miss and come back to 20 hours into your playthrough only to get stuck in an unskippable tutorial on how to block or something.
Another thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the re-use of the Hyrule map just with changes to it. I think they should've focused on the Sky Islands for the majority of the gameplay, you couldn't imagine my disappointment when 30 minutes into the game I jumped down to Hyrule and slowly realized I was going to spend most of my time in Hyrule (again) instead of the Sky. The underground area is really cool conceptually but I find myself just flying around on machines with lights attached to them because it feels so EMPTY. And the loot often isn't enticing enough to go explore the hundreds of rock-blocked tunnels in the game.
And the enemies are so incredibly easy, most of the time landing a single hit will stun the enemy, then you can just mash till you knock them on the ground, and if they're still alive you can shoot an arrow into them or run up and attack more. The combat isn't very deep, the flurry rush mechanic's timing seems inconsistent, and sometimes seems to not work at all. It's overall a good game, don't get me wrong, but IMO it's not the flawless masterpiece a lot of people are making it seem like.
I can't wait to play this game for the first time when this expansion goes live. I've been a patient gamer and haven't even bought the game yet. Glad to see it will probably pay off especially since people seem to be happy with the game as is. There's going to be SO much to play this fall.
I bought it on sale at Steam a while ago when I got my Steam Deck, but didn't play much and when I picked it up again it had glitched and replaced my save with something completely different. I'm happy they are updating it and making it into the game that was promised...maybe I'll give it another chance on decent hardware.
Super excited for this. I've been meaning to replay cyberpunk for some time now but i will hold of until this is released. For all its faults and bugs and rushed content, I am someone who thoroughly enjoyed cyberpunk and over about 120hours playtime I did almost everything that was possible to do on a single character.
In case anyone else is looking, it comes out in September. I am a bit excited about this, but I have not been gaming on desktop too much lately. I may have to make an exception.
Hope the game will be playable after this. I loved it when it first came out back in the day, also with all the bugs and glitches. I've been waiting for more than a year to re-play it after a consistent update, maybe this is the time!
The only thing I'm still missing is an actual open world mode that isn't tied to the storymode. It does seem a bit like the DLC might bring that, but I'm not too certain yet to be honest.
Not gonna lie, if they make good on their promises (I'm still rather suspicious of CDPR after the absolute mess that was 2077's launch), it might just tempt me to pick up 2077 and Phantom Liberty next time there's a big Steam sale.
This is great news, thanks. I played the game originally on Stadia (actually made $40 profit) and intended to replay it anyway, but this sounds even better.
I worry that people are reading too much into the police overhaul. It almost certainly won't be a GTA-style mechanism, but instead closer to "police enemies of various levels realistically spawn and pursue you."
Honestly the thing I'm looking forward to most is just the enemy AI overhaul.
Hot damn, I bought the game when it came out, never finished it, picked it up again earlier this year, beat the story (the updates they made by that time were awesome) and loved it. I saw the trailer yesterday for the DLC and looked really good, but dang the updates sound amazing.