Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Interview: The Most Important Improvements, Making Dogtown, and More

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is a major moment for CD Projekt Red's big RPG. Aside from a major new story and the inclusion of Idris Elba, it will include a host of major improvements, all of which will be available in the base game for free.

Speaking with IGN, director Gabriel Amatangelo talked about these big changes as well as the creation of Dogtown, the new vehicle combat, and much more. Read the full Cyberpunk 2077 interview below, then go check out the full recap of all the announcements as gamescom 2023 continues!

IGN: Okay, so I want to talk about the levels, because obviously we're getting into a completely new town and new area in Cyberpunk. So tell me about it. How many buildings can we go into? Are there lots of little secrets hidden around?

Gabriel Amatangelo, Director: Yeah, so Dogtown is ruled by Kurt Hansen and he is a defacto colonel from the New United States and he seized the area and so he rules it with an iron fist, if you will. He's like a militia leader and he exploits with various different weapons, dealing and trading and other Black Market goods, and some of which the players can get ahold of. So, generally speaking, we wanted it to have an oppressive feel. So you see his militia, his units around, and you are on edge. The communities are ruled strictly, if you will, but at the same time, the NCPD and the corporals are not allowed there, so it's a place that some unsavory characters escape to, so it's a rougher area.

Could we be one of those unsavory characters?

GA: Certainly. It's a role-playing game, after all…I think we talked about a little bit last time, if you start committing crimes or getting out of order in that area, he will send his units after you and it can escalate, escalate, escalate. And they can bring out APCs, vehicles with mounted weapons, so on and so forth.

Vehicle combat is a big addition to Phantom Liberty. How did that influence the streets and the quests of Dogtown?

GA: Yeah, so I mean, as you're going from location to location, there's a lot of dynamic events that can happen. For example, I said that he deals with some Black Market goods. There could be some airdrops or some caravans, and you can intercept them, and there's an emergent encounter that happens from it. And you can get some loot, find some goodies, that kind of stuff. And you can do it on foot, you can do it in your vehicle, pull out an SMG, you can do drive-bys on your bike, and slash them with your Katana blade. And so there's a lot of emergent activities and events that happen throughout.

That's awesome. So what will players get if they do intercept one of those airdrops? Do they get a new weapon?

GA: They can, they can. You can get various new weapons. You can also get different kind of upgrades, skill shards, things of this nature. It's a surprise. It's a RPG. I'm sorry to interrupt, but there's also little story segments and stuff as well that you can find in it, some Easter eggs.

So there's a big push for you to want to go and grab those airdrops, then?

GA: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, previously, the lead level designer did talk about wanting to reward the players the maximum choice and effort and reward from discovery and explorations. So does Phantom Liberty increase the amount of freedom of choice for players?

GA: In so many ways. Like I was saying, the freedom of choice of just exploring the world and having emergent encounters. There's a lot of different, as the story progresses, different things happen in the story, and I don't want to give away any Easter eggs, but you can find little pieces and props and things that support different events that happen offscreen, if you will. And as far as the player characters we introduced, we revamped the skill system, and so now there's so many different ways that you can fulfill your fantasy on how you want to play as a cyberpunk with new Cyberware and stuff like that. So I think that's along the lines of what he was speaking to before. Yeah.

What was the biggest challenge you faced with creating Dogtown?

GA: Trying to strike the balance between having that oppressive feel, if you will, and that danger and also encouraging exploration. We think we struck a good balance with how you can get in and out of encounters and all the different tools you have now to escape. For example, Air Dash and the new… You can cloak and get out of combat, a lot of different stuff like that, but I would say that was probably the biggest challenge in the overall level design of it.

I think previously when we talked, you said that travel here would be pretty seamless, being able to get from one part of town to Dogtown, right?

GA: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, at the beginning, you approach a very intimidating gate, and there's a story sequence there on how you're going to get through it. And I don't want to spoil any of that, but as you get farther in, you're going to, because V as a merc, have some fixer connections, you're going to get some connections to be able to pass in and out. But, yeah, it's contiguous from the beginning of the story, it's contiguous all the way in. And then as you want to come and go, and you can go back into base game quests, back into Phantom Liberty quest, you can go back and forth at your leisure.

The police system and how that is very organic and it escalates to where, like I was saying, at certain points they'll start bringing out the big guns, vehicle combat

So if you were to recommend this to a new player, would you say, 'Hey, play through the main story first,' or would you say that they could play this and then also incorporate Dogtown in their full playthrough?

GA: I mean, the most fun is definitely both parts, but we are introducing so much in 2.0 that you get it for free, without Phantom Liberty, so it's the best time to come back. I mean, I don't know how else to answer that. There's so much. I could go on forever. There's so much I can speak to of what specifically in 2.0 versus Phantom Liberty. I don't know if we want to get into that, but I could.

What are your favorite parts of 2.0 that you're very excited for players to get their hands on?

GA: The police system and how that is very organic and it escalates to where, like I was saying, at certain points they'll start bringing out the big guns, vehicle combat. You can get into a fight with MaxTac. There's five different MaxTac archetypes, four of them come down in the Navy at once. They can hack your vehicle and stop you. This is probably the part I'm the most excited about.

I'm equally excited about all the new ways you can play, the new skill trees. You can be a Terminator now. You can pick up a heavy machine gun. Before, you were like this when you're shooting it, and now you can steady shot it. You can pick up bodies and throw it at people. You can leap and smash. You can push your Cyberware to limit and get into a fury mode, very much inspired by David in Edgerunners, and your health starts going down. But the more you press your attack and that build, the more you're getting your health back. So it's a new way to play right in the mix of the action.

We still have the traditional cover fire and stuff like that, but we've got new AI, new mechanics. The Netrunners have a new way to play, the Netrunner NPCs have a new way they come at you. They can proxy their hacks through devices. Like I said, I could go on for so long. There's so much new stuff to talk about.

Yeah, that makes me so happy to hear you get so excited, and I'm really excited. I feel like I'm just taking your energy and absorbing it…So, I do have to ask, obviously last time we talked, this was going to be the last expansion for Cyberpunk. So is this going to be, I know you're going to have more mini updates for balancing and such, but is this pretty much the end of the big expansions for Cyberpunk and basically full steam on the sequel?

GA: Yes. This is the last big expansion, and yeah, we'll have some smaller updates afterwards, but yeah, and then it's going to be Cyberpunk 2.

Okay. So what is your favorite weapon that has come out from this next update?

GA: I'm terrible at remembering skill names and weapon names because we've changed them a few times through development, but there's the new sniper rifle…Phantom Liberty is very inspired by the spy thriller genre. I want to leave it for discovery, but it's got some new features to it. That's one of them. That's one of my favorites, yeah.

I do love just feeling this power of a sniper rifle, right? Usually like going guns blazing and just going in headfirst, but I'll take a sniper rifle. I'll play it slow, just for you.

GA: Right on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fun.

Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion releases on September 26.

Kat Bailey is IGN's News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.