Cyberpunk 2077 fans may be set to have a great time with Starfield’s ‘Cyberneticist’ class
Part-human, part-machine? Is that something that's in your dreams? Well, then, we're pleased to tell you about Starfield's cyborg aspirations.
When you first picked up Cyberpunk 2077, were you most interested in the meta-human advancement aspect of the fantasy? Were you dead keen on making yourself more machine than man? Did you want to biohack yourself to bits to become a cyborg creation of sci-fi legend? Then you're probably going to like the 'Cyberneticist' background in Starfield.
"Robots? Mere toys," reads the official description of the class – as spotted in the massive Starfield deep dive Bethesda rolled out for us all back in June. "Neuroamps? Good for parlor tricks. The Colony War may have made implants and upgrades available to veterans, but you once saw a greater future. Humans and machines, as one."
It's a nice sell – who doesn't want to mod yourself like an over-zealous biotic fom Mass Effect? – but how exactly will choosing to be this new kind of metal-man hybrid impact the gameplay? Will it let you play Starfield a bit more like it's Cyberpunk 2077? Well, maybe.
You (probably) won't get to use Mantis Blades or anything, but you will have some pretty neat upgrades from the off, if this is the character background you choose for your space-faring Bethesda adventurer.
The class will give you three starting skills:
- Medicine – Med Packs heal 10% more.
- Robotics – You deal 10% more damage to Robots and Turrets.
- Lasers – Laser weapons do 10% more damage.
In practice, these upgrades seem to be cut from the same cloth as Fallout's perks – just with a different, space-ier flavour. And the likelihood is, as you get further down your chosen background's skill tree, you'll get access to more exciting and weird stuff (retractible arm-blade, anyone?) But, as far as I'm concerned, I'd opt to play as a 'Cyberneticist' for more narrative reasons.
Depending on the background you pick, you can unlock unique dialogue options in missions, and you get the chance to take up paths that are locked off to other classes. It's my hope that the 'Cyberneticist' gets to engage in some human/machine mind-and-body-melding that'd be otherwise locked off to, say, a 'Chef'.
The wording of the class description also gives us some insight into how mods work in this universe; "Neuroamps? Good for parlor tricks," seems to suggest brain implants that give you minor "psychic" or "telekinetic" abilities (a la Mass Effect). The fact that only Veterans of the Colony War were given these implants, too, suggests the tech is new. Or, at least, still experimental.
Being at the forefront of this good – and, potentially, bad – tech? That's the kind of risk/reward I expect from my RPGs.
But, I still have a few questions about these mods: are they going to be visible on characters? Will they affect UI? Are they going to be simple 10% upgrade buffs the entire way through the skill tree, or are they going to get more... experimental?
We're going to have to wait until Starfield launches on September 1 for Xbox Series X/S and PC. You can read everything you need to know about Starfield here.
