Review: Cyberpunk 2077 Explores Another Lawless Dystopia

In the game's Phantom Liberty expansion, those who make the laws rarely follow them.

In Cyberpunk 2077, a video game based on the 1988 tabletop game Cyberpunk, players assumed the role of V, a technologically modified denizen of Night City, a sprawling West Coast megalopolis populated by outlaws, criminals, and corrupt politicians. Phantom Liberty, an expansion and follow-up to the original game, takes players to Dogtown, a quasi-anarchist society walled off from Night City. It's run by a militia, and laws barely apply.

In the game's opening moments, the president of what remains of the United States crashes into militia territory. V must escort the president to safety while working with a mysterious AI and unraveling a secretive conspiracy that reaches to the top levels of government as well as to influential private military contractors. Both installments paint a dark portrait of a technologically enhanced future in which those who make laws rarely follow them.