Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty feels more like a top-to-bottom overhaul of the original game than a standard expansion. Of course, it will feature a new story with new characters and a new area to explore, but what left me most excited is how this expansion could potentially shake up the original experience and address many issues players had at launch.

Before our hands-on demo, quest director Paweł Sasko and quest designer Despoina Anetaky told us that nearly every system had been changed, tweaked, or redone entirely. Unlockable abilities in the skill tree feel more like perks rather than passive stat bonuses; the cybernetics are a lot more robust, offering more gameplay options; and the infamous police response system has been rebuilt from the ground up. This isn't the first time developer CD Projekt Red has done something like this--The Witcher 3's final expansion brought with it a number of changes to the UI and combat--but Phantom Liberty is attempting to comprehensively rewrite Cyberpunk's DNA.

Phantom Liberty isn't just a glorified update, though. It brings with it a story that leans heavily into the spy thriller genre and new characters including the gruff sleeper cell agent Solomon Reed (portrayed by the illustrious Idris Elba) and a new lawless district of Night City called Dogtown. The setup seems fairly simple: A mysterious character who goes by Songbird promises V that she can remove the deadly biochip from their head, if she can save and protect the president of the New United States after her aircraft crashes in Dogtown.