Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty’s release is fast approaching, and with it, promise of a new start for the developers, CD Projekt Red. It’s no secret that the original launch of the base game went badly. In fact, it could barely have gone any worse. However, over the last two years since launch, the developers of the sci-fi RPG have worked to reduce or remove game-breaking bugs completely, rework core components of the game and in some cases, effectively develop a whole new game to fix their mistakes.
Recently news broke that the game has finally hit a ‘mostly positive’ milestone with 80% of Steam reviews being positive, which is a huge milestone for a game that upon release, ended up giving refunds to a huge section of its customers.
Related: Cyberpunk 2077 Took Its Time, But Steam Reviews Are Finally Very Positive for the Sci-fi RPG
Now we come closer to the release of the game’s first and only major piece of story DLC, some fans are understandably nervous, but unlike the main game, it looks like a lot of issues with the original game have stuck in the minds of the developers, and they’ve planned everything down to a tee, including who was involved.
Cyberpunk 2077 and Idris Elba, a Match Made in Heaven?
As you’ll no doubt be aware, the nicest man in Hollywood, Keanu Reeves, has a huge part to play in the base game, as well as the upcoming Phantom Liberty. His inclusion in the game was a huge selling point, but unfortunately many fans and critics weren’t overly fond of his portrayal of Johnny Silverhand, with some calling it flat and uninspired, whilst others didn’t vibe with the supposed angry character coming across as emotionless.
Apparently this isn’t necessarily all on Reeves, with the story, setting and major character choices all having been made way before he even joined the project, meaning a lot of what he could offer was already taken away. It seems in the case of Idris Elba’s Solomon Reed, this has all been turned on its head. Recently Cyberpunk 2077 game director Gabe Abatangelo was speaking to Comicbook.com about the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion, and had this to say regarding Elba and his character.
“We approached him and, as I understand it, Idris was like, ‘Yeah, hell yeah, let’s do this.’ And then when we got him in the booth, it was kind of like, ‘Okay, so this is what Solomon Reed’s about.’ And obviously, we fleshed him out more knowing that Idris was in this role. It was like a collaboration offline. And then when we got him in the booth, it was a collaboration online, so to speak. He just jumped right into it. He’s so pro. And it grew as he was in the sessions in the booth and it’s perfect. It’s perfect.”
I’m sure many actors will agree that having input from the start aids in their performance, making it more nuanced and believable, so with this admission from Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Pawel Sasko, hopefully we’ll have a better time of immersing ourselves with the characters in Phantom Liberty.
“When we were designing a story for and then decided to cast Keanu Reeves, it was slightly different than with Idris Elba… with Keanu Reeves, we already had a story that we knew we wanted to tell, and we were on the level of scenarios when we casted an actor. Then this is where Keanu Reeves came in. With Idris Elba, it was slightly different because we were on the level of story outlines. So, even before you go into screenplays and scenarios, so just very general. Then we started thinking about an actor that could actually fill that role.”
As well as the care and love the development team look to be giving the characters and setting of Phantom Liberty, they’ve also announced a completely reworking of every major facet of the game, from the much maligned driving mechanics, to how the police respond to crimes depending on severity and location, and much more. What’s more, this update isn’t tied into Phantom Liberty, and is free for everyone, regardless if they purchase the DLC.
The age of broken, unplayable games is definitely upon us, but like No Man’s Sky before it, Cyberpunk 2077 is beginning to look a lot like the game that we were promised originally. That doesn’t make the original launch or condition of the game any better, but it’s at least an easier pill to swallow two years on.
What do you make of the upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion? Or the inclusion of another Hollywood star in Idris Elba? Will you be jumping back into Cyberpunk 2077 to try out the new update? Let us know in the comments!
Source: ComicBook.com
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