One of the major aspects of Cyberpunk 2077 is the ability to customize the player character V in dozens of different ways, from the clothes and hairstyles to facial features and cybernetic mods. However, players don't get many moments to appreciate their unique designs with the game locked into a first person view for a majority of the runtime, but a new Cyberpunk 2077 mod has made customization more noticeable.
Created by modder Cineagle, the new mod allows players to change the camera to a third person perspective, pulling the player away from the standard shooter view and closer to something familiar to Witcher 3 players. While the characters from Cyberpunk 2077 might look nice enough on their own in this mode, there are still some kinks and defects to work out before it's fully playable in game.
The current build of the mod does show the full character model, but since Cyberpunk 2077's world was created with a first person camera in mind, it doesn't quite animate properly. Most notable about the walking and running animations is that the center of the body doesn't really move, since from the original perspective, the player would only really see the legs and arms move when running. However, Cineagle does offer a few solutions for how to fix the animations, such as pulling some from other NPCs and applying them to V, or by whipping up a new set of animations manually.
Unfortunately for anyone looking to get their hands on the mod right now, this is currently a work in progress and the video shared by Cineagle is only a simple showcase of what they have so far. The mod is currently being built in a Dirt 5 tool and isn't actually playable in Cyberpunk 2077 at the time of this writing, but does still act as a proof of concept for removing the camera from the player character. So, while it does look fine at the moment, there are still some kinks to work out before the mod is fully released to run alongside the game it is being built for.
Giving the player a third person option for any game that was originally in first person is often much more complicated than simply shifting the camera, since there are often shortcuts just out of frame that players can't see taking place. This is often something that requires a complex system to manage character animations and aiming mechanics, which can sometimes enhance a game. In other cases, these clashing systems can also cause issues in titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or even Fallout, where much of the combat is based on those first person shortcuts.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One, with PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions in development.