When Phantom Liberty was first announced, I was very excited! "What will CDPR do?" my piggy brain wondered "How will they surprise me?" By introducing vehicle customization, perhaps? Or a deeper hacking mechanic? Being able to invite V's acquaintances to one of their many apartments? Or maybe by introducing fun new shenanigans like the family dinner or the diving session, so you can have a last hurrah of sorts? I couldn't wait to see how Cyberpunk's only expansion was going to pan out...

Then word got around about Phantom Liberty's plot and kind of took the wind out of my sails.

A spy thriller? Really? That was the grand reveal?

But other, more established, reviewers seemed positively awestruck: IGN, called Phantom Liberty "amazing" – awarding it 9/10 and saying it "completes Cyberpunk's redemption story"; Polygon described it as an "unmistakable bullseye" that's a "perfect incentive to start a new game"; Gamespot gave it a perfect 10, said it was "essential" and "Cyberpunk 2077 at its best"; and Rock Paper Shotgun went so far as to say it was "perhaps the best expansion pack ever made" (spoiler alert: it isn't).

So I figured "okay – don't jump the gun: play it, make up your own mind"... And now, about 40 hours later, I am here to say that Phantom Liberty, while good in its own right, is none of those other things (aside from, maybe, "essential" – but only because it does fill in a gap on the CP2077 world map). What the expansion most closely resembles to me is a "parts bin bike" (a term I learned from a Daily Rider episode): a product cobbled together out of whatever's on hand that works but lacks a unifying design. I know that might sound harsh, but — bear with me.

The core of the expansion centers around a rescue mission (to Save The President, no less </sigh>) but quickly spirals into intrigue in the new Night City area of Dogtown: an Escape From New York-ish self-contained city-state abutting Pacifica ruled by a soldier who came to liberate it and never left.

As befits CDPR's track record, the main 20 hour/18 mission narrative is Phantom Liberty's strongest component and offers some excellent characters (especially Song So Mi and Alex); stunning sights and tense situations. There, I have no real criticism – save for the fact that the whole "spy" theme was handled a little tritely. Ever watch a spy thriller where Everyone Double-Crosses Everyone Else, Nobody Can Be Trusted, Harsh Decisions Are Made and Things Are Seldom What They Seem? Yeah. Me too. And while the writing of the main plot is solid, it's stuff you've seen a dozen times before. Why, given the many, many more interesting topics of CP2020 CDPR settled on something so overused is beyond me.

Dogtown is interesting, different from the rest of NC and meticulously constructed, but does succumb to the dev tendency of overworking a smaller area to such an extent that it clashes with the rest of the game. There's so much crammed in such a small area that not only will your computer stutter, at times, but the sheer density of Dogtown makes the rest of NC seem sparse and bland by comparison. I can understand why this happened, but don't consider it a Good Design Decision. I would've much preferred Dogtown to be as detailed as the rest of Night City and have extra effort go into developing other unattended areas on the world map.

In terms of side content, most of the 21 new Side Jobs and 10 new Gigs are well made, but the writing is inconsistent and the excessive railroading (last seen in the lamentable Sinnerman) persists. Some missions also have Questionable Design, like an extensive platforming section (which – why would you?) and the game's first (and, thankfully, only) QTEs (which I always see as a sort of gameplay cop-out). There are also three new recurring activities that are introduced, but none of 'em are all that interesting.

The first – (three) areas of Increased Criminal Activity – are essentially protracted firefights capped with a boss at the end (there's one against Scavs, VDBs and Barghest). Once you clean them out, they re-populate with more enemies eventually, but the original loot – once collected – is gone for good, making them kind of one-shot-wonders.

The second – Supply Drops – are straight out of Dying Light and about as interesting: every now and again, an AV will drop a container which pops red smoke. Get there first (which rarely happens) and you can score some decent loot. More often than not, however, enemies will be present by the time you arrive and your take will be diminished. There's also a small chance the drops can have one of four iconic uniques, but they all have the same special ability and – anyway – Phantom Liberty chucks so many new weapons your way, it's not like you'll feel shortchanged if you don't get 'em.

Lastly, El Capitan has recurring driving missions where you steal/intercept a vehicle and deliver it someplace else. These offer a cumulative discount at the new AutoFixer stations (which replace parked purchaseable vehicles of yore) and eventually lead to a full-blown gig (but just the one – and in an area you've probably visited already). Unfortunately, CDPR's "overhaul" of 2.0 didn't stretch to fixing the wallowing driving mechanics, so more driving feels like a chore rather than an Exciting Addition.

Speaking of cars: Phantom Liberty adds more than 20 new ones into the mix (though not a single new motorcycle), most of which you can purchase and own; and the new Vehicle Combat mechanic, which lets you draw a weapon – or use built-in cannon and rockets – to shoot things from the comfort of the driver's seat. For netrunner builds, the expansion lets you hack vehicles (so you can control them, make them accelerate, stop suddenly or, y'know, explode).

Where content is concerned, Phantom Liberty doesn't disappoint and you can easily sink 40 hours into the expansion just snooping around and exploring the new areas...

What it doesn't do, however, is revolutionize gameplay, offer meaningful choices, expand the existing narrative or – indeed – complete any redemption stories.

I wrote before that CDPR might have used CP2077 as a way to test battle royale mechanics for future titles, but I think I got that backwards. Those new gameplay mechanics we got in the 2.0 patch? I think those came straight out of the multiplayer component CDPR abandoned because it took them two years to (sorta) fix the base game. And while I will happily concede that the new mechanics streamline the action and make it play better and more balanced, I'll also be the first to admit that they do so by making the game more of an FPS than an RPG. Any way you look at it, the game now offers fewer Things To Do outside of guns and – more guns.

The world map, which used to tease future content with its enigmatic "Turn back. Nothin' out there for you... Just yet" out of bounds message has gone full-grim by dropping "Just yet" altogether. All of those intriguing areas you've been wondering about for two years? They'll keep on being all empty and pointless forever. We will never get to find out what CDPR had in store for them.

And the crashes and bugs that have plagued the game since release? There's fewer of 'em, to be sure, but they're still around (my game crashed just yesterday, as I was driving someplace, for no apparent reason).

Where integrating into the existing game is concerned, Phantom Liberty does that – and only that: it exists seamlessly within the main narrative, letting you come and go as you please. But the ways in which it alters or expands it are miniscule (one phone call and a few text messages; that's about it). There are no further interactions with Judy or Kerry, no fun quests to undertake in NC and no updated interactions that would reflect your accomplishments. Show up in Judy's apartment and she'll greet you with the same canned response she had before and offer the same two dialogue trees you've seen prior to the expansion.

As for choices and affecting how the game ends, while (technically) Phantom Liberty can affect how you finish the main quest of the game, the choice is in the same vein as those you already had. It's kind of like being told "you'll be on fire, no matter what, but you get to pick the accelerant." I happen to think an expansion should do what the name implies: expand your options; offer you something you couldn't have done before... And as Phantom Liberty merely serves a different flavor of what was already on tap, I can't really stand behind it being all that amazing and great.

So, overall, is Phantom Liberty bad? Not at all. It's a competently assembled hodgepodge of new content, with some elements more refined than others. At the very least, it's more Cyberpunk (which is great); while – at its best – it gives you more insight into Johnny's thoughts and motivations, a chance to experience a competent new plot line and explore a fun new area. But is it fulfilling? Is it "amazing"? A "bullseye"? Or the "best expansion pack ever made"? Not even close.

Like the parts bin bike I mentioned at the beginning, Phantom Liberty tries – and mostly succeeds – in cobbling a lot of different components into a coherent whole: the new skill trees and action mechanics work better than ever, but cheapen the gameplay; the streamlined approach to inventory and crafting makes for a more straightforward system, but feels empty, underused and borderline unnecessary; the extra content is welcome, but standalone – with no real bearing on the rest of the game; and, at the end of the day, the expansion is simply not enough to live up to Cyberpunk 2077's promised full potential, leaving you in a small, brief oasis of activity in a vast expanse of emptiness that will forever stand as a reminder of What Might Have Been...

For better or worse, all Phantom Liberty delivers is more Cyberpunk. Hardly a revelation, but – if that's all you want – you won't be disappointed.

Pig Recommends:

• -turning off HDR and Ray Tracing: your game will look marginally worse, but it will crash less often;

• -trying some actual "amazing" expansions, like Mass Effect 3's Citadel, Fallout: New Vegas' Old World Blues, BG2's Throne of Bhaal, Witcher 3's Blood and Wine, NWN2's Mask of the Betrayer or even DA:O's Awakening; being older, none of them will top Phantom Liberty's visuals, but where content and innovation are concerned, these old fogies will leave CP2077's sole expansion in the dust;