Cyberpunk 2077 is an awesome game in 2023. And it got that much better with the release of the outstanding and lengthy Phantom Liberty expansion. Night City has never been such a fun place to explore, and it seems like CD Projekt Red has finally completed the vision it set out to create when the game was originally released. Once you get through it, though, it can be tough to find games that scratch a similar itch. But we have the fix for your ills. Here are the best games to play when you’re done with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.
Best Games to Play When You’re Done With Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Mass Effect Legendary Edition
It’s hard to put just one title from this fantastic franchise up here, but thanks to the 2021 release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, we don’t have to. This collection contains the entirety of Mass Effect 1, ME2, and ME3, as well as all of the additional DLC. The whole package presents one of the most fulfilling and content-stocked game collections of all time.
Commander Sheppard’s journey throughout the galaxy stands alone in the annals of gaming history and has no shortage of outstanding storytelling, compelling characters, and gorgeous vistas to explore. The worlds you visit here are sci-fi to the fullest. Several of them will bring about feelings of traveling through Night City, with Mass Effect 2‘s Omega City being a clear inspiration for the one CD Projekt Red would eventually create.
The combat is in third-person, mixing powers with gunplay. It will make Cyberpunk 2077 players feel right at home. The real fun is with your squad members as you command them in battle and set up powerful combos. While Cyberpunk 2077 has some great companions, they don’t quite measure up to Mass Effect‘s as they’re widely considered the greatest cast of characters gaming has to offer.
If you like Cyberpunk 2077‘s side quests, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has them by the boatload. What’s more, your decisions factor into how many of them play out. In total, you’ll get 160 hours of playtime at the least and be treated to one of gaming’s greatest achievements in the process.
The Ascent
The Ascent is definitely on a smaller scale than Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty, but it certainly is spawned from the same cloth. Here, you play as a mercenary working for various corporations in a dystopian city on the verge of collapse. Sound familiar?
The difference is The Ascent lets you play through the entire experience with up to three friends. The gameplay is violent and punchy, with you and your team gaining access to a host of powerful weaponry, from guns to melee abilities and some special powers to boot.
Although The Ascent is an indie game, the visuals are sharp, and the writing is fantastic. It lends its own slant to cyberpunk snark that’s abundant throughout Night City. The Ascent takes place from a top-down perspective, lending a different slant to the combat. While it may appear simplistic at the start, juggling your arsenal, kitting your armor up properly, and managing your cooldowns are all required to achieve success in this rather tough slice of cyberpunk hell.
Ghostrunner
Do you like your cyberpunk action, fast, fluid, and uncomplicated? Then Ghostrunner is the game for you. For those who went through Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty as a badass, futuristic ninja, you’ll be right at home with this twisted vision of the future.
The setting is the near future, where society is completely gone, and the only remnants of life are various mercenaries and people just fighting for their lives to survive. It’s all controlled by one evil big bad that smiles as the world bleeds.
If that description got your blood pumping, then the gameplay will send you into overdrive. The concept is simple: kill fast, die fast, rinse and repeat. While it may sound too easy, it’s anything but. Each combat scenario is a puzzle, where you must figure out the best angles to attack from and the quickest way to wipe out your competition without getting hit.
Ghostrunner tests your reflexes like few other games, and the gorgeous graphics throughout keep your eyes glued to the screen. A truly unique experience with a sequel coming shortly, Ghostrunner is perfect for those seeking more first-person, sword-swinging action like you get in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.
Starfield
If you managed to avoid Starfield while saving up for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, trust me — indulge. Go against the polarizing reviews and embrace one of the most incredible sci-fi experiences in existence.
Starfield shares a ton in common with Cyberpunk 2077, with certain areas like the city of Neon being a not-so-hidden nod to Night City. The best part of Starfield is it can be so many different games at once. Exploring and fighting through Neon will feel like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty without the Cyberware. Base building feels like Fallout, becoming a pirate and working undercover for the UC Vanguard feels like Grand Theft Auto, and we could go on and on.
If the content breadth of Cyberpunk 2077 thrilled you, well, buckle up. Starfield is one of the largest games of all time. Many players have already logged 200 hours without seeing everything it has to offer. The gunplay is solid, and many of the guns and abilities will feel very similar to the arsenal you’ve got in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. A surefire Game of The Year candidate, Starfield will keep you busy in the best way for a long time to come.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
It’s been eight years since a Deus Ex game was released, and that’s honestly a travesty. As far as cyberpunk games go, Deus Ex is the original. The series started in 2000, and the last one came out in 2015. However, each entry is worth a play. If you’re jumping into the series and want to play a more modern game, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is the perfect chaser to Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.
Instead of the tongue-in-cheek humor and dread present throughout Cyberpunk 2077, there’s something different here. In Deus Ex, the world is dark, serious, and very much at odds with the concept of human augmentation. Where it’s embraced in Night City, it’s shunned here. Augmented individuals are seen as monsters or sub-humans.
Holding this dark espionage-laden tale together is Adam Jensen, one of gaming’s best protagonists despite being the poster boy for the I didn’t ask for this meme. The gameplay is a unique mix of first- and third-person action that emphasizes sharp gunplay on top of devastating augmentation attacks.
Those Mantis Blades from Cyberpunk 2077 make a cameo here, and they’re somehow even more brutal. Side quests are abundant, and your decision-making is paramount. There are several different endings to discover, and your choices matter here more than they do in the majority of games. The only negative here is it all ends far too soon and leaves us on a cliffhanger that we may never see answered.
Honorable Mention: The Technomancer
It’s an obscure one, for sure, but The Technomancer is a game that deserves some love in the cyberpunk space. Taking place on a variety of planets steeped in a near-future aesthetic, The Technomancer is a fascinating take on the cyberpunk world.
You play as a Technomancer, a person who can manipulate electricity and essentially functions as this world’s mages. The tale surrounding it all is one of intrigue, betrayal, and, most importantly, choice. Feeling at times like a tribute to Mass Effect, The Technomancer has many choices for you to make, and each one can determine who lives or dies or what path the story takes.
The combat is somewhat similar to The Witcher 3 but with more variety. You have multiple weapon styles to try out and huge skill trees to fill with unique abilities available on each one. Combat is tough, and conserving healing items and using your companions to your advantage is vital to succeed.
There’s some odd charm that keeps me coming back to this one. The off-beat voice acting mixed with the truly bizarre version of space shown off here is enough to give this one a try. Well, once you stop staring at Idris Elba’s mind-boggling good in-game representation in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, that is.
Those are the best games to play after you’re done with Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. While it’s hard to live up to the fantastic package that CD Projekt Red delivers, this list will give you multiple experiences that hit the same highs that you find in Dogtown and Night City and may even surpass them in some ways. For more articles on Phantom Liberty, check out our guides section.
