The late 2020 launch ofCyberpunk 2077was mired in controversies, though CD Projekt Red managed to steady the ship over the following few years. But now, as the anticipation surrounding theCyberpunk 2077: Phantom LibertyDLCkeeps building, one question that naturally arises is whether the expansion’s antagonist has any hope of living up to the recently revitalized legacy of Adam Smasher.
Despite the lore painting him as one of thestrongest people inCyberpunk 2077’s Night City, fighting Smasher in the game was a pretty anticlimactic experience for many players. Anything from electric damage-dealing weapons and quickhacks to over-leveling did the trick against this Arasaka monstrosity even on the highest difficulty level. Making matters even worse, most character builds could straight up outshoot Smasher on easier settings. Since the game spent dozens of hours building him up as this ultimate big bad, the unchallenging nature of his fight left much to be desired.
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Cyberpunk Edgerunners Redeemed Adam Smasher as the Ultimate Villain
This all changed with the September 2022 debut ofCyberpunk Edgerunners, which did wonders to enrich the world of CDPR’s open-world RPG. Apart from introducing a cast of compelling new characters, the Netflix-exclusive series also added to the backstories of somefamiliar faces fromCyberpunk 2077, including Rogue and Wakako. But none of them benefited from this anime revisit as much as Adam Smasher did.
While the fandom initially labeledCyberpunk 2077’s Adam Smasher as a disappointing villainthat fell short of the TTRPG lore,Cyberpunk Edgerunnersmanaged to repair that reputation. The Studio Trigger anime reestablished him as what he was always supposed to be - a diabolical villain that oozes uneasiness wherever he appears and poses a grave threat to whomever he encounters. Not just a giant robot that’s mean to people, but the ultimate warning against cyberware and everything such technology represents in this deeply broken world.
Granted, the power difference betweenCyberpunk 2077’s Adam Smasherand the one seen inEdgerunnerscould be explained by simple narrator bias. After all, it’s pretty well-established that V is a much more capable mercenary than David, so Smasher might have simply looked more imposing through theEdgerunnersprotagonist’s eyes. Not least because he appears amid David’s cyber-psychosis episode in the anime, whereas the symptoms of that reality-wrecking illness never manifested in V. Regardless, the fact remains that the anime did a much better job at portraying Smasher as the ultimate antagonist that he was always meant to be.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s Antagonist Has a Lot To Live Up To
And while there’s no doubt thatAdam Smasher is the big winner ofCyberpunk 2077’s resurgence, his redeemed villainous image is going to be a tough act to follow for thePhantom Liberty’santagonist. CDPR did say that the expansion will be looking to deliver a “spy thriller” experience of sorts, suggesting the DLC might resort to using the hidden villain trope. Should that come to pass, it kind of seems unavoidable that the antagonist ofPhantom Libertywill be less immediately menacing than Smasher, even if they prove to be deadlier than the final boss ofCyberpunk 2077.
One way in which the expansion’s antagonist could surpass Smasher is by posing a bigger threat to the game’s world instead of just the player. After all, the political drama with espionage undertones teased by CDPR indicates thatCyberpunk 2077:Phantom Libertyis setting the stage for a larger conflictthan the one from the game’s main campaign.
While that obviously doesn’t mean there’s no room for a big bad like Smasher in the upcomingCyberpunk 2077expansion, there’s no denying thatPhantom Liberty’santagonist is going to have a lot to live up to. Unless, of course, CDPR goes for a cop-out and just pits the players against Smasher again, which the DLC’s timeline will probably allow but hopefully won’t happen.
Cyberpunk 2077is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, while thePhantom LibertyDLC is planned to launch exclusively on current-gen consoles and PC sometime in 2023.
