Witcher 3 is my top 3 RPG. I finished CP2077 main game twice with all endings, loved it, but not as crazy as I was with Witcher 3.
Finished the expansion last night, mind is still processing how much I am blown away by the quality.
- The main missions. In the base game there are highs and lows, but in the DLC pretty much every single one is designed with the highest standard - the narrative, the setpieces, and the packed action scenes, all put together with attention to details. I don't want to make major spoiler, but let me point out one tiny bit. In the Black Sapphire mission, you went from diving in flooded construction zone to infiltrating heavily guarded military base to playing spy in the most extravagant club in Night City to facing the main villain, all in a single building. The flow of the mission was just perfect. And I was absolutely amazed by the club's "special performance" CDPR put in there which you could be completely missing out.
- The side contents are much more meaningful. I am mainly talking about the gigs. In the base game those are pretty much open world fillers, but in the DLC those are essentially the sizable side missions. The mission variety is better, the plots are enjoyable, and most time you have to make those moral decisions at the end - do you fulfill your merc's duty, or do you do things differently to align with your V's values? Those are not, let's say, profound, but those gigs are much more engaging compared to the ones in base game, and they greatly depict the dystopia in the world of CP2077, and specifically in Dog Town. And a lot of time, you can actually see the consequence of your decisions made in those gigs in later game. CDPR went all in for attention to details for this expansion. I pretty much reloaded every gig to see different results from my choices. As for rewards? Got you covered too, in many of the gigs you can find iconic weapons.
(a goofy side job that actually has 4 ending variations.)
- The Dogtown map design. DT is much smaller compared to the main game, but I consider it also a great improvement - the verticality design is much superior, landmarks in the town are very striking, way more accessibly building inside, and the random airdrop events often led me to some wonderful viewpoints. It's a small area, but traversing with double jump and dash was a hell of fun.
- Lastly, the plots, the writings, and characters. Those are usually what I value most for playing RPG games. And I was beyond satisfied with the story of Phantom Liberty. The main game has great writings and stellar companion storylines. But for my taste, Phantom Liberty delivered an action spy story with much grander schemes rather than small persons's struggles in Night City. To this point, I still can't decide which ending I like most - that tells you how CDPR mastered writing the characters in the DLC, mature, complex, with their own confession and confusions that blurr the general what's good and evil line. The main characters are more multi-dimensional compared to the companions in the base game.
You guys know me, normally I make memes, but I think this DLC is so good that I have to make a serious face to write a long post. If the Phantom Liberty team is the main force working on Witcher 4, I have faith on them.
