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Quick Introduction

Spoiler-Free Review
In Phantom Liberty, V will be contacted, at some point during the main storyline, by an enigmatic netrunner called Songbird, who apparently has a way to solve V’s Relic issue, and prevent their impending doom. This will bring you to an all-new district of Night City: Dogtown. If you thought Pacifica or perhaps the Badlands were lawless and dangerous, well… let’s just say even those two will look like the local church's Sunday picnic, when compared to Dogtown. This de-facto-independent enclave, despite being part of NC geographically, is ruled with an iron fist by Colonel Kurt Hansen, head of Barghest, his personal army mostly composed by war veterans and ruthless mercenaries - any other gang in NC doesn’t remotely compare to them - sheer firepower, training or resources may that be.
After a key event takes place, V will find themselves waist-deep into political intrigue, international espionage and secret Corp military programs - the full 2077 ‘standard issue adventure package’ in short, but turned up to eleven - with stakes and characters of a caliber far surpassing those of the main story… exception made for Adam Smasher perhaps (but then again, he’s Adam Smasher, how could you even compare him?).

DLC Content Analysis

Brand-new main-quest set in Dogtown and environs.
As mentioned above, this new storyline -is- the main thing here. It introduces a handful of well-written and well-diversified characters that do feel plausible in their actions and motives, stay coherent throughout, and can be easily related to. The amount of choices you’ll be able to make throughout this DLC will be an upgrade in comparison to the array available to you in the main campaign, particularly towards the later segments, where depending on your choices you can get vastly different outcomes and situations, but more than that, different interactions with the characters themselves.
The story itself is well-written and interesting, however its main fault is having too many pointless waiting sections and filler dialogues: you’ll talk way more than you’re supposed to in a situation with this much urgency at hand, and even about things not at all concerning your objective - so much for ‘staying focused on the task’, which will be one of the main characters’ go-to quote above all else. At some point, it became tiresome for me to have this deluge of sequences reminiscing the past of this or that character just for the sake of it, when none of those past events mattered in the current, practical scheme of things. This is especially evident with Songbird, as trips down memory lane with her will be in far excessive amounts, and inconsequential at that in most cases.
Aside from that, there will also be plentiful of interesting dialogues and unique sequences, such as deciding on how to set up an ambush with the aid of 3D scans, impersonating someone else and having to remember past interactions in order to not get your cover blown, and even mingling at social events in a rather organic way. Overall it is a good tale worth experiencing, but it would be much better without such pacing problems. The ending of it all, at least, the one I got, wasn’t particularly exciting and lacked pathos, as opposed to the other events insofar to that point.
Plenty of side-missions, some of which are completely new categories.
There won’t be new NCPD Scanner alerts or Cyberpsychos to hunt with this DLC, simply because Dogtown doesn’t have police to begin with - and if they see anyone remotely looking like a cyberpsycho, Barghest will pump it full of lead - they don’t need V, or MaxTac, to do that for them. However, there’s still plenty of new stuff to do. First of all, the already-known Pacifica fixer, Mr. Hands will have an expanded role in Phantom Liberty, with not only new gigs and assignments coming from him, but also a dive in his backstory and lore which is surely interesting.
Some of his later contracts will put you against some of the hardest encounters and bosses of the entire game, too. Next on the menu, Increased Criminal Activity zones: imagine NCPD scanner alerts, but with steroids, Sandevistan and cyberpsychosis - that’s what you’ll get in venturing into these longer-than-average, multi-fight ‘dungeons’ of sorts, with often Iconic grade stuff waiting for you at the end, if you survive. They’re few, but they’re tough as hell.
Last and -definitely- least, El Capitan whipped up a new way to extend your misery: vehicle recovery contracts, having you bring randomly-selected vehicles to distant locations, always following randomly-generated rules such as not damaging the car, arriving within a certain time, or going all the way while being pursued by hostiles. These are not fun for several reasons: they feel all the same, they’re repetitive, and the rewards aren’t that good - sure, new vehicles are preem, but none of them is really better than the ones you can already get from missions or the Autofixer catalog, so why bother? You’ll be swimming in cash by that point anyway.
Dozens of new weapons, clothing, quickhacks and accessories, both normal and Iconic.
Entirely new entries in the already-enormous arsenal are a welcome sight. Mostly, you’ll find Barghest-issue, military-grade weapons and a roster of Militech war-grade supplies, both coming from Dogtown of course, but also some more niche ones exist. The new Iconic weapons are overall pretty good, with the highlight being the most devastating Tech Shotgun i’ve ever seen, or a fixed railgun sniper V somehow managed to make work in a portable version. Customization fans will rejoice at an expanded catalog of wearables, thanks to Dogtown’s new sellers. Some high-end cyberware is also present, at a specific seller dishing out Iconic-tier chips like they’re candy… but for a very high price; I thought I was loaded with 600K eddies, until I saw the prices of this guy.
High-stakes fights and bosses like never before.
Let’s be honest: even on Very Hard, the main story and content of 2077 can feel quite easy once you deck out your build, reach level cap or near it (by the way, the new level cap is 60 with this DLC), and become an unstoppable killing machine worthy of Morgan Blackhand’s golden days. Well, that’s gonna change in Dogtown: Barghest and its war veterans will only be the appetizer, in fact far more lethal encounters with foreign mercenaries and elite government operative teams will be the main thing here. All the bosses of this DLC are noteworthy and feel like actual challenges (on Very Hard of course, I’ll assume you’re not playing anything less), as they should be given their status in the world’s lore. Prepare to actually study your build carefully, use consumables for buffs, and bring the best gear for the biz at hand. You’ll need it.

Is it Worth Buying?

Yes, but not for full price. This DLC adds about 20-40 hours of content depending on completion rate, difficulty, approach and your personal playstyle. Overall, the content is plentiful and good in quality, however there isn’t as much brand-new, meaning unique never-seen-before, stuff as one would expect for a DLC priced at half the cost of the base game. The main story, which should be the prime reason for buying Phantom Liberty, is good, but nothing more than that. Waiting for at least a -30% sale is what I recommend doing, unless you’re starving for new 2077 content, in that case go ahead, I suppose.