Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty seriously impressed me with the responsiveness of the RPG that CD Projekt Red has written to predict and explain player behavior. The goofy Rocket Man Easter egg was certainly amusing, but I'm thinking of the Lifepass-only dialogue and main game events in Phantom Liberty.

But this goes both ways: if you play the extended version first, you will get special dialogue in the 2077 main quest, and in at least two of those scenes, the setting's mysterious blackwall (between the normal Internet and the advanced AI that has graduated to programming and barrier between it and cyberspace, where it dominates), which provides insight into the Spoilers for "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Phantom Liberty" ahead.

The first example of unique dialogue I noticed was when talking to Arasaka turner Anders Hermann after finishing the Critical Path portion of Panem's quest line; V talks to the designer of the Relic that holds Arasaka's Johnny Silver Hand, the anti opportunity to talk about his encounter with the AI Blackwall. A new version of this scene can be seen in The Dissassociative [sic] Den's YouTube video.

The next scene, demonstrated by Alasadi on YouTube, builds a connection to Blackwall that has interesting implications for cyberpunk lore and perhaps for CD Prjoekt's cyberpunk follow-up game, Project Orion. Toward the end of Cyberpunk, hacker-turned-non-robber AI Alto Cunningham mentions the AI technology V found in "Phantom Liberty" prior to the attack on the shrine: "You've encountered beings on the other side, haven't you?"

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Alto further states an insight about those entities: their infinite adaptability in collision with your reality will give them the concrete form they desire"

. [Fortunately, the technology of your reality is too rudimentary to open its gates. We are trying to keep them out by restricting you guys. But this will not last. You will hasten this change. A deadly weapon for you. A back door to the future for them."

I love this scene, and it strongly taps into the sense of uncontrolled cyberspace becoming some sort of Lovecraftian alternate dimension. This is not the first time cyberpunk 2077 has foretold the inevitable Blackwall catastrophe.

Any of the Blackwall-themed weapons that Alt references, available in The Relic, Johnny, and Phantom Liberty, come immediately to mind; one of the best quest lines of 2077, giving AI "concrete form" It is worth noting that it has already appeared: epistrophe. Its mission involves running a cab company and resolving a crisis with Delamain, an AI that is implied to have escaped from behind a black wall.

The final scene I know of is also presented here by the Dissociative Den, but much less severe. Pop star Lizzie Weezy, the cyberpunk alter ego with the snarl-inducing name of Grimes, comments on the in-game concert from Phantom Liberty if you wait until after the expansion for her original "Violence" quest.

In my haste to finish Violence before Phantom Liberty, I was even more foolish to suffer the same progress bug as PC Gamer online editor Fraser Brown. I knew she would be in the expansion, and I knew I should have sorted out her relationship with Lizzie first, but in Phantom Liberty she has no dialogue, only acting."