Cyberpunk 2077 Director Reveals When Phantom Liberty's Story Takes Place

06/18/2023 02:59 pm EDT

The director of the forthcoming Phantom Liberty expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 has revealed when the add-on's storyline takes place within the larger game. Rather than having Phantom Liberty pick up after the events of the main story, those at CD Projekt Red have designed the add-on to fit in near the middle of Cyberpunk 2077's campaign. Now, thanks to new clarification, it's known where exactly the content found in Phantom Liberty will become accessible. 

During a recent conversation with ComicBook.com, Phantom Liberty director Gabe Abatangelo compared Cyberpunk 2077's DLC to those seen with The Witcher 3. Specifically, Abatangelo said that Phantom Liberty becomes available to players after progressing past a certain point within the main story of Cyberpunk 2077. For those that merely want to experience Phantom Liberty and nothing else, though, it was also made clear that players will be able to start a fresh save and jump immediately into the DLC rather than having to begin from scratch. 

"So it's very similar for those who know Blood and Wine and Hearts of Stone," Abatangelo explained. "It's within the scope of the main game but at a certain point in the main story you unlock it. And again, it's very similar to what we did in [The Witcher 3] where players coming into the game or coming back to the game, they can do a New Game and skip ahead to where [Phantom Liberty] begins. Or they can do a New Game and get to it naturally. Specifically, it's around the time with the Voodoo Boys and Brigitte. Soon after that is when the Phantom Liberty story unlocks."

Considering that Cyberpunk 2077 launched nearly three years ago, it's good to see that CD Projekt Red won't require players to have to start over completely in order to play Phantom Liberty. With how popular both Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine were with The Witcher 3 players, it's also not a surprise to see the studio go about things in a similar manner with its Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. Hopefully, Phantom Liberty ends up reaching the same level of quality when compared to what was seen with The Witcher 3. 

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is set to release later this year on September 26 and will come to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. Alongside the release of this expansion, CD Projekt Red will also be pushing out a massive free update for Cyberpunk 2077 that will overhaul a number of mechanics and systems found in the base game. 

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