Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty looks impressive on PS5, Series X and PC
Early tech analysis of Cyberpunk 2077's only expansion.
Almost three years after the release of Cyberpunk 2077, its expansion Phantom Liberty was unveiled at Xbox Showcase 2023. Set to release on the 26th September, it's worth stressing Phantom Liberty is the only expansion currently planned for the game - and it's being developed just for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC this time. With the game unshackled from last-gen machines there's a unique opportunity here to push graphical boundaries - to create a more detailed, complex slice of Night City. Conveniently enough, we received high quality gameplay footage of PS5, Series X and PC running through the same mission, making a first look possible ahead of release - from PS5 vs Series X comparisons to PC-exclusive special features and console performance.
So what's in the footage? Well, this mission playthrough gives a perfect lead-in to Cyberpunk's new expansion, as protagonist V is given the simple task of saving President Myers from wreckage. Down the chute we go to Dog Town, Night City's most dangerous region. The darkened streets are alive with car chases, debris set aflame and surveilling aircraft. The night skies are filled with smoke. At the heart of the mission is a building complex, where V scales the scaffolds in a bid to find the President's crashed aircraft. Every level brings a new wave of enemies, and as the situation escalates CDPR's Red Engine gets an increasingly active workout on console and PC, with the latter set to its path-traced RT overdrive mode. The action builds to a climax around volumetric smoke, with flares and muzzle flashes from a new suite of weaponry adding a real depth to the scenery as we battle through.
It's exciting stuff to watch, but it also provides plenty of room for analysis. The PlayStation 5 and Series X footage runs at 60fps, suggesting we're looking at performance mode with its traditional rasterised techniques for lighting, ambient occlusion and shadows rather than RT techniques. The main Cyberpunk adventure on console does have a separate 30fps RT mode, which will hopefully translate to this expansion as well.
Taking a closer look at the Xbox Series X and PS5 footage, this updated Phantom Liberty build of Cyberpunk runs a bit differently to the base game, last tested on patch 1.61 patch. In the 60fps performance mode, we now have a max resolution target of 1440p on PS5 and Series X, but dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) can mean an internal resolution as low as 900p on both consoles with everything upscaled to 4K using FSR2 as we saw in the base game. It'll be interesting to see if we get similar readings when the expansion releases in September, not to mention seeing how the Xbox Series S build shapes up in comparison. For now though, there's nothing to split the two consoles visually, with identical use of volumetric effects, draw distance and more.
The PC footage is a different story. It emphasises visual fidelity over performance, with the frame-rate capped to 30fps and the RT Overdrive setting enabled. This RT Overdrive mode is pure showcase material on PC, using GPU-sapping path tracing to create incredibly realistic lighting and shadows - beyond the game's RT Psycho setting. For this demo, the dark interior areas showcase the indirect lighting possible with path tracing beautifully. The light bounce from a fire realistically bleeds onto nearby rubble, with the colour of the flames spilling into pockets of shade.
Running PC with RT Overdrive mode against PS5 reveals some clear graphical advantages, although given that PS5 is running at twice the frame-rate with RT disabled, the console doesn't come off too badly. Still, there are key points in this footage that showcase ray-traced shadows, lighting and reflections on PC brilliantly. For a start, the opening slide down the chute in RT Overdrive mode realistically simulating a near-complete absence of light until we get close to the bottom. at which point subtle gradients start to colour the chute's sides. By comparison, PS5 depends on a screen-space method for ambient shading, which creates a brighter result all the way down the route. It's easier to see the descent on PS5, but the path-traced solution is PC is much more dramatic - and truer to life result.
Moving further through Dog Town, there are a few other great moments showcasing PC's RT Overdrive mode. From the more thorough shading beneath construction machinery to the reflections on rain-slick streets - it all shines. Both platforms look superb, with little to split them in terms of their base settings otherwise, so it falls on ray tracing to make the biggest impact on PC. These ray traced ehancements are at times subtle in isolation - especially in outdoor areas. But indoors? The ray traced shadows in particular create a far more richly realised space, as long as you have the PC hardware to support it.
Based on the footage, Phantom Liberty is a great-looking expansion - even on the 60fps performance modes on PS5 and Series X - but it's those PC players that will enjoy perhaps the definitive edition of Dog Town.
Before we get to performance, there's a bit of a bonus comparison first. Surprisingly CDPR put out two versions of the same cinematic trailer alongside the gameplay footage. During the Xbox conference, for example, we had a two and a half minute trailer running on a PC, using what CDPR described as 'Xbox Series X equivalent settings' - a mixture of medium and high, essentially. Then, mysteriously, another trailer was uploaded to CDPR's own YouTube channel. It's the exact same edit, the same length, except with footage spliced in using a PC described as 'high-end'.
The exact settings of this high-end PC are a mystery but, based on comparisons between the two it looks like CDPR's trailer on the high-end PC is indeed running on the RT Overdrive mode. We see indirect lighting, shadow rendering and reflections differ between the two trailers, which gives us a nice early indication of how settings scale on PC in the final release - perhaps no surprise given the wide range of system requirements that accompanied the Phantom Liberty announcement.
If I had to guess as to why we have the same edit using different footage from two PC setups? Well, I have one theory. It's possible that CDPR produced the high-end PC version first. This would have been the ideal best-case paythrough - but then came a deal to announce Phantom Liberty in the Xbox conference after the edit was finished. At that point, the requirement from Microsoft may have been to show Phantom Liberty running on Xbox equivalent settings, hence the re-capture. It's just speculation on my part, but it would explain why we've ended up with two variations on the same concept.
Looking back at the 60fps Xbox Series X and PS5 footage, we can get an early indication of performance - at least in the current pre-release console builds. On Xbox Series X , there's clearly the ambition to run at 60fps in its performance mode, but this build is currently jumping between 50 and 60fps. Meanwhile, PS5 is a tad lower - in the 45 to 60fps range.
The area in most need of improvement is the driving sequence - in V's direct beeline to the President's crash site. Here, this build locks at around the 50fps line on average on Xbox and around 45fps on PS5. The fire effects, the car chases, the smog to the distance all make for a brutal obstacle course for each console's bid for 60fps. Once we get inside the skyscraper though, it's 60fps with drops into the 50s as we open fire. It's worth mentioning the game also has screen tearing in both the Xbox Series X and PS5 footage, just like the base game on these consoles.
There's still three months left to to improve on what's here and optimise performance in the final build, so there's no immediate cause for alarm - take this just as an early snapshot of where development stands right now.
All things considered, Phantom Liberty's showing at the Xbox showcase is a small sample - and an early one as well. Still, its vision of an urban wasteland smothered by pollution and lit by street fires is a bold direction to take CDPR's tech, whether you're playing on the 60fps modes on console or PC's taxing RT Overdrive mode. The team has confirmed it's using Phantom Liberty as a springboard to improve the entire Cyberpunk package, too - with overhauled vehicle combat, a new skill tree UI and upgraded AI systems - meaning there's a wealth of changes to come even ignoring the expansion. This new slice of V's adventure is clearly the main attraction though. With a little extra time to polish its performance on console, CDPR has the potential to achieve something really special here.