Cyberpunk 2077 mod means you never have to choose between bullet time and hacking again
A tempting mod that skirts around Cyberpunk's biggest cyberware limitations.
Early on in my Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 playthrough, I had to make a huge decision: should I install the brain implant that lets me trigger bullet time whenever I want if it means my hacking days are over?
It's the give-and-take of Cyberpunk's revamped cyberware system. While your arms, spine, and legs can hold multiple mods at once, you can only have one operating system, and by default, that OS is a cyberdeck that enables quickhacking on enemies and the environment. There are two similarly powerful alternatives to the cyberdeck that give you a huge edge in combat at the cost of hacking: the Sandevistan, which slows down time only for you, and Berserks, implants that makes you temporarily unkillable but limit you to melee weapons.
The problem is that they all rule.
I eventually settled on a Sandevistan and don't regret it, but I do feel left out when I see microwaves I can't explode and cars I can't send careening into a group of baddies. It would be nice to have a bit of both, which is why I'm glad the Cyberware-Ex mod exists. Created by Nexus Mods user psiberx, Cyberware-Ex creates a new operating system slot (or several, if you prefer) so you can finally be a gladiator-ninja-hacker all rolled into one.
The mod has a few other cool options too. If you install the "Extended Mode" version of the mod, you'll get "10 new slots in different categories." The "Override Mode" offers a much larger change to how cyberware progression works: instead of unlocking additional cyberware slots through the Tech Ability skill tree, slots can be purchased from ripperdocs for 10,000 eurodollars each (a hefty chunk of change if you're still early on in the story). If you're not interested in earning your way to chrome, psiberx lists console commands to give yourself cyberware slots for free.
The only catch, as psiberx warns, is that there's currently no way to remap the ability key that both the Sandevistan and Berserk mods use, so you might be stuck using both abilities at the same time (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).
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Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.