CD Projekt Red has released a new Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty deep dive video dissecting the game's most recent trailer. The two go into detail regarding elements like new characters, the setting of the DLC, and more, so if you want to learn about Dogtown and its relevance in Night City, you're in luck.
The new Cyberpunk 2077 expansion got its very own release date reveal trailer during yesterday's Xbox Games Showcase, but before it lands on September 26th, CDPR's Paweł Burza and Igor Sarzyński sat down to discuss what we saw in the trailer. It's a pretty packed presentation, so there's lots to talk about.
First up, the two discuss the setting of Dogtown, which is a sort of free-trade haven away from the corporate gaze of Night City. It's ruled over by Kurt Hansen and his Barghest faction, which is described as part-gang, part-military outfit. Dogtown offers an appealing mixture of authority and anarchy; you might see a rave happening in one part of the sector, but another part might be a no-go zone.
The new trailer also delves into the characters you'll meet in Phantom Liberty. Idris Elba's Solomon Reed, for instance, is a principled spy whose adherence to his principles often clashes internally; he's torn between loyalty to his state, loyalty to those he loves, and loyalty to his own moral compass.
CDPR says that there are three characters at the center of Phantom Liberty: Reed, V, and Songbird. The latter is a mysterious woman who the devs see as a "mirror" to V; she'll show you a new perspective on V's life and decisions, and Burza even admits that Songbird might be a character some players don't "enjoy" due to her obscure motivations and divisive personality.
Another of the new characters we meet in the trailer is Rosalind Meyers, whose spaceship crashlands in Dogtown at the outset of Phantom Liberty, triggering the events of the DLC's storyline. She's a hardline "badass" who's also a skilled politician, but she's also a human being with emotions. CDPR says it sets out to create "complex and interesting" characters and doesn't want any of its creations to be pigeonholed into "functional" boxes.
Influences on Phantom Liberty, according to Burza and Sarzyński, include classic spy literature like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the James Bond novels, as well as the Bourne stories. However, the principal inspiration was real life, with the team looking to real spy stories and operations to try and create a "grounded" base from which Phantom Liberty can leap.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launches for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on September 26th. In our preview of the DLC, TechRaptor's own Andrew Otton describes it as a "no-brainer" for Cyberpunk 2077 fans, praising its premise full of "wacky fun" and the "cool potential" of the Dogtown setting. Stay tuned for more info on this one.
