Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's Brutal Final Choice Was Built Backwards

CDPR's Pawel Sasko reveals how Phantom Liberty fixed Cyberpunk 2077's launch mistakes by rethinking development and crafting its toughest choice from the ending.

Ever wonder how Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty managed to stick the landing when the base game stumbled so hard at launch? You're not alone. Three years after the expansion's release, CD Projekt Red's Pawel Sasko—associate game director on Cyberpunk 2 and lead quest designer on Phantom Liberty—shared some behind-the-scenes details that explain exactly how they pulled it off.

The big change? CDPR had to completely rethink how they made games. During Cyberpunk 2077's development, they used a waterfall-style structure where work shuffled between departments and decisions piled up around leads and directors. For Phantom Liberty, they switched to multidisciplinary "pods"—small teams of designers, writers, cinematics artists, audio folks, QA, and more, all working on the same content together. Sasko admits it took a long time to learn, but once it clicked, he could feel the difference.

Inspiration also came from spy fiction. Sasko says they looked at everything from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to James Bond, The Bourne Identity, Bridge of Spies, and Ocean's Eleven. That genre influence is all over Phantom Liberty—just look at the Black Sapphire party sequence or that stylish musical opening. It became a practical tool for shaping the Idris Elba-fronted story of V infiltrating Dogtown.

Now, spoiler warning if you haven't played Phantom Liberty yet. Sasko also opened up about that brutal final decision: choosing between saving Songbird or helping Reed. It was one of the most important things during development, and CDPR actually worked backwards from it, rewriting scenes many times. Both characters had to feel equally likeable and untrustworthy—sometimes at the same time. They needed contradictions, weaknesses, secrets, and reasons you could understand.

Sasko says he learned from Cyberpunk 2077's base game, where choices and consequences were sometimes so subtle players didn't even realize they'd made a decision. In Phantom Liberty, the team pushed for more branches and clearer consequences while keeping them grounded in the world. Messages, photographs, returning characters, and different quest paths could remind you that something happened because of a choice you made. But they never wanted to tell you what the correct decision was. They wanted you to live with your own interpretation.

Despite glowing reviews and over 15 million copies sold, Sasko doesn't believe Phantom Liberty erases the launch of Cyberpunk 2077. Still, he's grateful for what it taught him about directing games. And that's a good thing, because he's leading the next mainline Cyberpunk RPG. "I hope that, in your eyes, Cyberpunk 2077 has earned its place," he said.

What do you think—did Phantom Liberty make up for the rocky launch? Will you be picking up the next Cyberpunk game? Let us know in the comments!