Phantom Liberty is built around what made Cyberpunk 2077 great

Phantom Liberty reminds us what made Cyberpunk 2077 great, but is this really a reboot?

Cyberpunk 2077 has always felt glitzy and glamorous – well, as long as you ignore the issues surrounding the original launch. The neon of Night City and the gorgeous presentation – on a high-end PC, at least – make it feel like a dystopian hybrid of Hollywood and Las Vegas, and appearances from celebs like Grimes and Keanu Reeves helped bring that world to life.

Phantom Liberty somehow manages to take things a step further, retaining Keanu Reeves with some brand new Johnny Silverhand performances, but also adding the legendary Idris Elba as Solomon Reed has somehow made Phantom Liberty feel like a fully-fledged event.

And it just might be. Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the biggest and most controversial game launches of 2020, making history as the first title to be pulled from PlayStation Store, with Sony offering buyers refunds. It was a troubled launch, with most of the issues seen on the older generation of PC and console hardware – with the new hardware, PC or console, being mostly out of stock.

Idris Elba's Solomon Reed is a great addition to the game / CD Projekt RED

Phantom Liberty is skipping last-gen, and the PC version has been refined considerably since launch, which is why CD Projekt Red is unofficially touting this as a reboot of the game.

The team wants a second chance. Cyberpunk 2077, once you waded through the issues, was a great game, with a strong story, some brilliant visuals, and excellent cinematic and animation design. So it just might deserve one, assuming Phantom Liberty and the swathe of updates since launch can bring Cyberpunk 2077 up to standard people expect from triple-A open world games.

It’s tough to say from a very scripted demonstration, but the opening minutes of Phantom Liberty hammer home what made Cyberpunk 2077 a special game in the first place. The demo I played (on Xbox Series X, at a solid 60fps) gave me several player loadout options, with different backgrounds and specialties. My corpo (ew) character came equipped with legs that allow the player to double jump and an arsenal of weapons to take down foes.

New and familiar locations look better than ever / CD Projekt RED

The president’s plane has crashed near Night City, and you get tasked with shooting your way through an army of hostiles, braving the flames of the wreckage, and saving the president before it’s too late. I settled into my old Cyberpunk patterns almost immediately. I couldn’t help but sprint directly toward enemies, slashing at them with a sword or peppering them with cybernetic ammo from a distance, leaping through the air and doing a second jump just to get a bit more air time while I rain bullets on enemies below.

At its best, Cyberpunk’s combat can be a brutal, chaotic ballet, much closer to Doom than Call of Duty in terms of movement and gunplay. Also, you can attack from a vehicle now, and wielding a sword from a motorbike just looks cool.

Once the president is safely away from the crash site, Cyberpunk swaps to one of its greatest strengths: cinematics. I rest with the president of the United States in an abandoned tower block, hiding out from whoever is chasing her down, getting some detailed scenes of them talking, hiding from attackers, and just hanging out with some food.

You'll be diving deeper into some sections of Night City that were previously out of reach / CD Projekt RED

That’s when the president mentions the one man that can help her, Solomon Reed, played by Idris Elba. Once you finally manage to make contact, he approaches from behind and refuses to let you turn around, so all you get is Idris’ dulcet tones vibrating through your ears. Once you meet up with Mr. Elba properly, he’ll drive you around Night City, authentically exuding the calm and cool exterior of a calculated and dangerous man. It’s perfect casting.

When I take a step back and think about everything I played of Phantom Liberty, it really feels like a highlight reel of Cyberpunk 2077’s best moments. The characters have always been fleshed out, and the cinematics have always been engaging, and the combat can be brilliant if you have the modifications you need. Phantom Liberty gave me all of this from the start, and I really enjoyed my time with it.

But is this the fresh new start for Cyberpunk 2077, the unofficial reboot? Well, Cyberpunk 2077 is certainly better than it ever has been before, but the staff overlooking my demo couldn’t help but remark “oh, I’ve never seen that before” as I double-jumped over obstacles in the environment, and as I jumped in Elba’s car, a truck driving past dematerialized, leaving only the driver floating past.

Get ready to explore some unique locales in the full DLC / CD Projekt RED

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s demo really felt like the best the game has ever been, even on Xbox Series X – but it’s still got distinctly rough edges. Hopefully by the time Phantom Liberty on September 26, those rough edges will be smoothed over, and we’ll finally see Cyberpunk 2077 as it was always meant to be.