CD Projekt Red Explains How (and Why) It Managed to Scare Every Gamer Playing Phantom Liberty in THAT Mission
Cyberpunk 2077's expansion is where CD Projekt Red shifted from the traditional action RPG and created a survival horror vibe.
- Cyberpunk 2077 brought an unexpected change that instantly switched up its vibe.
- This mission was designed to push the limits of the game.
- The developer wanted to make players feel helpless in front of the deadly AI enemy.
CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most popular action RPGs released in the last few years. While the base game managed to get mostly positive reviews, the 2023 expansion, Phantom Liberty, has taken it to a new height.
After playing Phantom Liberty, a lot of gamers have talked about a specific mission that scared them even more than some horror games have. This mission comes as a consequence of a choice, and the developer explained its idea behind this mission.
CD Projekt Red Turned Night City Into the City of Terror in Phantom Liberty
Throughout the entire Cyberpunk 2077 journey, players must roam around Night City multiple times, but when it comes to Phantom Liberty, the scenario changes as soon as Somewhat Damaged triggers. This is not a mandatory mission, and it only begins if players decide to betray Songbird and allow Reed to take her into NUSA custody.
This mission shows a devastated Songbird running away to Cynosure, an abandoned facility beneath Night City, and players need to find her there, where there’s a stalker always stalking them, creating a spooky vibe like survival horror games generally do.
During this mission, players will be inside a dark and ruined passage of a bunker, where a deadly AI is haunting them throughout to kill them. There’s no way you can fight and survive this deadly machine, so all you can do is run and hide.
This is scary, and players who have experienced Somewhat Damaged all agree to this point. Recently, the developer expressed its opinion about creating this scary vibe in the action RPG.
The Cyberpunk Team Was Eager to Try Something New to Push the Experience Forward
Cyberpunk is an established franchise with a widely popular expansion and a Netflix adaptation. Until Phantom Liberty appeared, there was no such horror element in the game; therefore, this unexpected twist shocked fans.
When the team was asked about this twist, Patrick Mills, who was responsible for Somewhat Damaged’s design, replied, “I really wanted to do something Eldritch horror.” Mills stated that he knew that not all Cyberpunk fans would accept it, but still, he was willing to give it a shot because “the people who do are really going to like it.”
When this topic surfaced, senior designer Miles Tost joined the discussion. According to him, he was interested because he also wanted to create something that would challenge his comfort zone. So, he pushed every possible limit to “create this truly unique experience for the player.”
Additionally, the team revealed that the idea behind this deadly AI was not to make a boss whom players could fight, but to make a monster that must be avoided at all costs. That’s the reason it disabled all the abilities that players would probably use to beat the invincible beast.
It wanted the beast to kill players the very first time to communicate the message that there’s nothing players can do except run for their lives and hide to survive.
