• 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
Seems awesome - I loved the base game (though playing modded on pc and 2y after launch might have helped) and wanted to do a fresh playthrough for the DLC. Looks like this will make it feel like a new game!
I enjoyed the original playthrough despite all it's warts, been waiting for it to get to "2.0" before picking it up again. Will have to wait to hear reviews on it, obviously, but everything sounds good so far.
So they managed to actually finish the game ~3 years after the release? Seems like a delay would have helped.
Of course the update looks good, but I’m still very disappointed in the original game at release, so I’m not too enthusiastic about giving this a chance.
Of course a delay would have helped, but they tried to rope in Hollywood and Keanu Reeves - which came with Hollywood contracts. They had to release in order to pay the actors, otherwise they would have been bankrupt from the penalty clauses.
The mechanics overhaul looks like it's going to be a free update for the base game, with the new story content and possibly the new 'relic' skill tree being the paid DLC.
They've said for sure that the base game is getting a significant update, but I don't think they've released an itemized list of what is going where yet. IMO I think it's safe to assume that the features REPLACING existing features like the new skill trees, cyberware system, etc. will all be free.
But stuff like vehicle combat might go either direction.
No idea why it's listed separately on GOG, towards the end of the article it says:
The developer says it’s still discussing the exact details of when and how base game owners will receive the new systems, but that its intention is to deploy them for free. So as well as adding a sizable chunk of new story to Night City, Phantom Liberty looks like it could finally do good on many of the promises the base game failed to live up to for many