Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC Review

🌆 A New Chapter in Night City

When CD Projekt Red announced Phantom Liberty, the expansion promised not just new missions but an entirely new experience inside Night City. For many gamers burned by Cyberpunk 2077’s rocky launch, this DLC carried a heavy burden: redemption. The good news? Phantom Liberty delivers a thrilling spy-thriller storyline, polished mechanics, and a technical uplift that makes it feel like the game finally reached the vision we were promised in 2020.

NerdChips has covered how the AI revolution in gaming is reshaping player experiences, but this DLC proves that traditional narrative-driven expansions still carry immense weight. Instead of just adding more content, Phantom Liberty rebuilds trust by showing how much refinement a developer can achieve with persistence.

🎭 Storytelling: A Gritty Spy Thriller

Phantom Liberty centers on Dogtown, a militarized district locked away from the rest of Night City. You play a mercenary caught in a political conspiracy involving espionage, betrayal, and high-stakes diplomacy. The standout is Idris Elba as Solomon Reed, a government agent who brings gravitas and depth to the role. His dynamic with V, combined with the moral ambiguity of the missions, creates a tension that recalls the best of espionage thrillers.

The writing feels tighter than the base game, with fewer filler quests and more weight behind each choice. Instead of endless fetch missions, you’re drawn into morally complex situations where consequences feel lasting. Players on X have praised the branching outcomes, with one noting, “Phantom Liberty is the first time I genuinely hesitated for 10 minutes before making a choice. That’s how you do RPG storytelling.”

⚙️ Technical Improvements: From Glitch to Glory

One of the most noticeable upgrades in Phantom Liberty is stability. The base game at launch was notorious for bugs, frame drops, and broken NPC behaviors. With this DLC—running alongside the 2.0 patch—Cyberpunk finally feels optimized.

On high-end rigs powered by cards like the Nvidia RTX 5090, players are reporting silky smooth frame rates with ray tracing enabled, even in the dense chaos of Dogtown. But more impressive is how much better the game performs on mid-tier systems and consoles. While not perfect, the technical polish reduces immersion-breaking bugs, making Night City feel alive rather than broken.

For handheld gamers, playing Phantom Liberty on devices like Steam Deck vs ASUS ROG Ally also shows how far optimization has come. It’s not flawless, but portable play is finally viable—a milestone that broadens the DLC’s accessibility.

🔫 Combat and Systems Reworked

Phantom Liberty isn’t just about the story; it’s about a revamped gameplay loop. CD Projekt overhauled the skill tree, making builds feel more meaningful. Whether you’re a netrunner, a gunslinger, or a stealth operative, choices now carry more weight.

Combat AI has improved noticeably. Enemies flank, use cover more intelligently, and adapt mid-fight. Boss battles feel cinematic rather than bullet-spongy, and new weapons add both style and substance. The inclusion of car combat—something fans begged for since launch—finally injects vehicular chaos into the experience.

As one Redditor put it: “This isn’t just DLC. It feels like a soft relaunch of the entire game.”

🎶 Atmosphere and Sound Design

Night City always had atmosphere, but Phantom Liberty pushes it further. Dogtown has a distinct aesthetic: gritty, militarized, and dripping with Cold War tension. The sound design deserves special mention—thick basslines pulse during firefights, while haunting melodies punctuate moments of quiet dread.

CD Projekt also reworked crowd AI, making the streets more believable. Bars feel lively, black markets buzz with activity, and dialogue has sharper delivery. Combined with the stunning soundtrack, the expansion immerses you in a cyberpunk world that feels more authentic than ever.

🕹️ Comparison: Phantom Liberty vs. Elden Ring DLC

NerdChips recently previewed the Elden Ring DLC, another highly anticipated expansion. The contrast is striking. Where Elden Ring’s DLC leans into raw difficulty and expanded world-building, Phantom Liberty focuses on narrative density and systemic refinement. Both showcase how DLCs can redefine a base game, but Cyberpunk’s expansion feels more like a redemption arc than a simple content drop.

This duality highlights how 2025 is shaping up to be a golden year for expansions, reinforcing what we outlined in Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2025: DLC is no longer an afterthought—it’s the main event.

💻 Performance Benchmarks

Independent benchmarks show Phantom Liberty running at 90–100 FPS on RTX 5090 with DLSS 3.5, compared to the original game’s 50–60 FPS average on similar settings at launch. Even on older cards like RTX 3070, performance hovers around a respectable 60 FPS on high settings.

Console players on PS5 and Xbox Series X report far fewer crashes, with Digital Foundry noting the DLC is “the most stable Cyberpunk has ever been.” The improvements demonstrate how post-launch support can transform a troubled title into a polished product.

🎮 Player Experience Layer: Voices from the Community

While official patch notes and critic reviews highlight the polished mechanics, the most powerful validation comes from the community itself. Players on forums like Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) have been vocal about their renewed faith in Cyberpunk 2077 after diving into Phantom Liberty. One player wrote, “After three years, I finally feel like the money I spent on Cyberpunk was worth it. This expansion is what the base game should have been.” Another added that Night City feels alive for the first time, thanks to the improved AI and new story arcs that carry genuine weight.

What’s striking is that these aren’t just nostalgic fans—they include players who refunded the game in 2020 and came back years later to give it another chance. Many now compare the experience to The Witcher 3’s Blood and Wine DLC, noting that Phantom Liberty feels less like an add-on and more like an alternate chapter of the game’s universe. This transformation in perception underscores how CD Projekt Red has shifted from disappointment to redemption in the eyes of gamers.

📊 Industry Impact and Sales Performance

Beyond personal impressions, Phantom Liberty has had tangible success in the market. According to CD Projekt Red’s official data, the expansion sold over 3 million copies in its first week, with more than 60% of sales coming from PC players. This momentum gave the studio its highest quarterly revenue since the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 itself, signaling that trust—once thought irreparably damaged—could actually be rebuilt.

Financial analysts point out that the DLC model itself has evolved. Where once expansions were modest revenue boosts, now they function as essential lifelines for blockbuster franchises. Phantom Liberty not only restored player enthusiasm but also revitalized CDPR’s standing with investors. In many ways, this DLC demonstrates that the gaming industry has entered an era where major expansions can rewrite the legacy of troubled launches, setting a precedent for studios managing ambitious, high-risk titles.

🖥️ Hardware Scaling and the Future of Tech

Phantom Liberty isn’t just a narrative experience; it’s a technical showcase. The DLC has been praised as one of the best benchmarks for next-gen hardware, pushing graphical fidelity to limits rarely seen in open-world titles. On high-end rigs powered by the Nvidia RTX 5090, players are testing full ray tracing with path tracing enabled, achieving visuals that resemble CGI films more than traditional gameplay. Benchmarks show stable 70–80 FPS performance at 4K with DLSS 3.5, turning Phantom Liberty into a go-to stress test for GPU enthusiasts.

But it’s not only about cutting-edge PCs. The game also scales surprisingly well to handheld devices like the Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally. While compromises in resolution and effects are necessary, players report a smooth experience in the 30–40 FPS range—proving that even a narrative-heavy, technically ambitious DLC can be enjoyed portably. For NerdChips readers who follow both game reviews and hardware trends, Phantom Liberty is a rare example of software that actively drives the hardware conversation forward.

⚖️ Ethical and Cultural Commentary

No review of Phantom Liberty would be complete without addressing the elephant in the room: should this level of polish have been there from day one? It’s a valid criticism, and many players still feel betrayed by the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 in 2020. Phantom Liberty, in many ways, feels like the true vision finally realized, but it also raises difficult ethical questions about how long players should have to wait—and pay—for a game to reach its promised potential.

At the same time, the DLC demonstrates the cultural resilience of the gaming community. Instead of abandoning the title completely, players gave CD Projekt Red a second chance. The developer’s willingness to overhaul systems, rebuild AI, and release a content-rich expansion has led to a rare redemption arc. This conversation matters because it highlights the growing tension between corporate timelines and artistic integrity in the gaming industry. Phantom Liberty is a triumph, but it is also a reminder of how fragile gamer trust can be when launches fail.

🔮 DLCs as the New Era of Gaming

Phantom Liberty doesn’t just matter as an expansion—it reflects a broader industry shift. DLCs are no longer seen as optional extras or small bonuses; they are becoming strategic pillars of a game’s lifecycle. Titles like Elden Ring are preparing major expansions that will function almost like standalone experiences, while franchises like Destiny and Final Fantasy XIV rely on expansions as their primary growth engines.

Phantom Liberty proves that expansions can redefine a game’s reputation, not just extend its lifespan. By offering 20+ hours of high-quality story content, revamped mechanics, and technical overhauls, CD Projekt Red has shown that DLCs can stand shoulder to shoulder with full releases in terms of cultural impact. For gamers looking at the Top 10 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2025, this trend suggests that the lines between “full game” and “expansion” will continue to blur. NerdChips readers who keep an eye on these industry currents will see DLCs as less of a side dish and more of a main course in the future of gaming.

🧠 Nerd Verdict

Phantom Liberty isn’t just a DLC—it’s Cyberpunk 2077 reborn. With gripping storytelling, massive technical improvements, and refined combat systems, it delivers on the promise of a game that was once dismissed as broken. While no expansion can erase the launch debacle, this one shows that redemption is possible in gaming when developers commit long-term.

For gamers who abandoned Night City, now might be the time to return. And for those who stuck it out, Phantom Liberty is the reward: a thrilling, polished, and deeply satisfying cyberpunk adventure.

❓ FAQ: Nerds Ask, We Answer

💬 Would You Bite?

Do you think Phantom Liberty represents true redemption for Cyberpunk 2077, or is it too late to rebuild trust? Would you dive back into Night City now that it finally feels complete?