Summary
Spoilers Ahead for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Advertised as a spy-thriller experience that can be enjoyed alongside the main game or on its own,Cyberpunk 2077’sDLC expansion Phantom Liberty had lofty expectations that it needed to go big or go home with. Luckily, thanks to CD Projekt Red’s endeavors to improveCP2077with its 2.0 update, those expectations aren’t entirely a huge leap to reach. With improved combat and cyberware being the main facet of players' armor stats,Phantom Liberty is set to redefine the game one last timeand plunge players into the dystopian mess that is Dogtown.
However, despite how derelict and run down Dogtown is, the protagonist ofCP2077, V, runs into some rather important characters at the very start of the expansion’s story. The star of Phantom Liberty’s first full set of quests is none other than President of the New United States, Rosalind Myers. Myers is key to V’s arrangement withNetrunner FIA agent Songbirdto potentially free V of the Relic chip’s slow, inevitable fate. However, where many players expected to interact plenty with Songbird, Rosalind Myers is made into a prominent example.
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Not Even President Myers is Safe in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Although it is always a staple in the “cyberpunk” genre of science fiction media, the world ofCyberpunk 2077’s Night City is full of corruption, crime, and plenty of people just trying to find ways to survive. The dystopian background is cyberpunk’s bread and butter, and it’s cranked up to 11 withPhantom Liberty’s Dogtown. Before players can truly see the Barghest-controlled area for themselves, they’re recruited to protect President Myers during the first section of the DLC. Saving her from the wreckage of the NSU’s Space Force One means V gets kicked down to the ground and questioned with a gun to their face by the lady herself.
It may be surprising to see the President be able to protect herself at thestart of Phantom Liberty, especially since V’s goal is to protect her, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Myers continues to protect her own throughout the journey to Songbird’s hideout, making the set of quests less like an escort mission and more like V has a temporary companion who just happens to be the most powerful person in the NUS. She comes in handy against the Chimera Songbird hacks into, but things take a turn for the worse as Rosalind realizes she’s giving away the party’s location as she has a tracker installed in her neck, which she quickly asks V to carve out of her skin.
The sequence of pulling the tracker out of Myers is unsettling, especially since the President explains it’s specifically kept right next to a critical artery, so any potential threats can’t cut it out without hurting her if they’re not careful. On paper, having a tracker inside thePresident of the New United Statessounds like the perfect security safeguard in case of emergencies such as a kidnapping. However, as Myers believes the crash of the Space Force One was led by a mole in Washington, the tracker is immediately made into the biggest security risk imaginable rather than the perfect defense it was meant to be.
Players are used to being at the bottom of the barrel and being a victim of the cruel, lawless world ofCP2077through the eyes of V, who has come up from practically nothing. That said, seeing President Myers be capable of combat in such a natural way, and have a tracker implanted in her that could easily be used against the government itself sends a message that the dystopia of the world goes all the way to the top. Not even the lives that V may envy in comparison are safe from being betrayed by those close to them, a theme that remains prevalent throughoutCyberpunk 2077:Phantom Liberty.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Libertyis available now for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
