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After you’ve made a world, created bad guys, and equipped the player with weapons, there’s one herculean task left: balance everything. Get the balance wrong, and the game becomes unfair. Too much in one direction, and the player destroys everything instantly, degrading the feel of combat. Too much in the other direction, enemies become unkillable gods, making combat rage-inducing. Cyberpunk 2077 has always struggled with balance, and Sandevistans were one of the biggest reasons. This time-slowing cyberware made combat a breeze, and after CD Projekt Red made significant changes with the 2.0 update, it still does. Surprisingly, that might be a good thing for players.
OP Sandevistans and Cyberpunk’s Bullet Time Problem
Once you install a Sandevistan, you can slow down the world around you with the push of a button. That gives V ample time to get close with a sword or just line up a series of perfect headshots. Unsurprisingly, Sandevistans were one of the most broken parts of Cyberpunk in the past. As deadly as some enemies in Night City are, none of them stand a chance against a mercenary who’s armed to the teeth and doing their best Max Payne impression. The 2.0 update brought with it major balance changes, including a reworking of Sandevistans. With the right Sandevistan and the right build, you could extend the time-slowing effect forever. That made even the game’s most difficult challenges a joke.
The 2.0 update adjusted the cooldowns and durations of Sandevistans, forcing the player to at least occasionally return to normal speed. So is the game balanced now? No. The Axolotl instantly reduces cyberware cooldowns when you neutralize an enemy, and when you pair it with the Militech Apogee Sandevistan, you’re effectively the same time-slowing demon you were before the 2.0 rework. Some numbers got shifted, and it plays out a bit differently, but the end result is identical: speedy V murders slowpoke enemies without a sweat. In terms of balance, the 2.0 update was a lateral move.
2.0 Balance Updates and Power Fantasy
In a multiplayer game, nerfing overpowered items to maintain balance is essential. Fairness simply matters more when you’re playing against another person. Single-player games are a different story. The only opponents in Cyberpunk are NPCs, so V going on unstoppable rampages doesn’t hurt anyone as long as the player is having fun — an incredibly vital point. An item being overpowered is only bad if it harms the gameplay experience. Consider an example from another famous RPG. Morrowind lets you nuke towns with a single spell if you are strong enough. It’s completely unbalanced, but it’s also extremely fun.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a power fantasy, amongst other things. At the beginning of the game, V is a more-or-less normal Nomad, Corpo, or Streetkid. If you get in a shootout with too many gang members, you might die. By the mid-game, that’s all changed. With more Perks, better weapons, and one of the best Sandevistans in Cyberpunk, V tears through packs of enemies like they were nothing. It’s not balanced, but it’s a superb power fantasy. The player feels incredible, living out their mercenary dreams and seeing their hours of hard work pay off. Robots? Cops? Cyberpsychos? Absolutely nothing can stop you, and you feel like a superhero as a result.
Cyberpunk Values Fun Over Balance
Sandevistans are some of the best examples of prioritizing fun over balance in Cyberpunk, but they’re far from the only ones. Quickhack builds, grenade spam builds, and a variety of others are OP, even on the game’s most difficult settings. Is that because CD Projekt Red doesn’t understand balance? No. It’s because CDPR understands that having fun and telling a good story is more important. If you want the game to be harder, use lower-tier weapons and cyberware, or don’t spend your Perk points. There are plenty of opportunities for self-imposed challenges in Night City. Nerfing Sandevistans would be a mistake because it would essentially just be nerfing fun. Instead, slow time down by 85% and squeeze the moment for all it’s worth.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is available for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
