The Saitek Cyborg Command Unit is a very good gaming controller that puts a good control for all the important keys of gaming at your fingertips.
Ease of Use, Performance: 20/25, Look & Feel: 20/25,
Features 21/25, How much I enjoy 20/25
Total: 81/100
We all want better gaming and having a controller that does what we want is that dream of anyone who has picked up a controller or mouse to defeat the evil warlord or other general bad guy. That goal of being able to intuitively touch a key or push a button and not have to think about it yet do so many different tasks on our computer is not that far off in the distance as companies try their best to merge the gamers action and needs to the computer screen.
The Saitek Cyborg Command Unit is another step in the right direction for gaming and puts the controls of first person shooter and other game genres right in front of you in a nice neat little package. The Cyborg Command Unit is a small keyboard with an analog joystick that you can program easily for a simple and small control keypad.
The keys are marked with numbers as well as the four W,A,S,D keys for the common direction movement keys as well as the four function keys commonly used in games. The analog stick is set on a moveable thumb pad that can adjust for different sized hands with another key on the base. The whole unit can be set for three different modes that can be set independently for three totally different key assignment schemes. There is 21 keys on the pad in each mode and there are three modes using the mode switch but there are also three additional modes using the shift and the Cyborg unit.
The Saitek Cyborg Command Unit has three modes with the first set with all the keys assigned to the numbers they correspond to, the second as an FPS game type and the third a real time simulation game type. The easiest way to see what most of the keys are assigned to is by opening a word processor and hitting keys, in the first mode or the green back lighted the keys don’t do anything while the other two modes will have some of the keys being letters or other functions.
When you connect the unit to your computer it will detect and install the command unit as a gaming controller. You can use the Cyborg Command Unit right off the bat without installing drivers and use the three modes but the first green mode is kind of useless for any games. The other two modes work well and can be easily programmed if there are any keys you want to change by installing the Command Unit drivers. This will install a program that allows you to change any of the keys or the analog stick individually for all three modes as well as another three modes available using the shift key and hitting keys on the unit.
You have two in play key commands in each mode for the unit by just holding the shift down for an added keyset. This would be useful for games where you have command of units like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter and have a few seconds to hold the shift while giving orders. Other times this would be useful is working with command in an RTS game for building defenses or working at building or ordering units.
The Cyborg Command Unit is easy to change key assignments in the Saitek Smart Technology or SST program that opens up with three columns of key assignments and the set of analog assignments. Each column represents the mode or back lighted color of the unit and the three modes while holding the shift key. To change a key you simply click on the key you want to change and then press the key from the regular keyboard you want to assign to that button of the Command Unit.
The analog stick is also easily changed but I have not found much use for it in my FPS or RTS gaming but it does work well for Microsoft Flight Simulator and using it for your joystick. You can program the analog stick as either directional axis or as mouse X and Y so you have an additional joystick type device as well as the other keys.
At default the joystick worked exactly like a regular joystick using the green mode and I simply programmed the other keys for things like throttle and gear for a nice simple flight simulator controller. Of course the smaller joystick would not be great for fighting simulators but for a leisurely flight it works very well. Having the programmed keys for all the things you need in your flight sim was great and this is the kind of quick and easy programming that makes the Cyborg Command Unit great for just about any gaming.
The Cyborg Command Unit worked especially well as a second controller with a joystick that is a lot less constricted than your keyboard. Setting up keys is very easy and having the additional keys and assignments without using a whole keyboard makes for a more enriching flight simulation. The Cyborg Command Unit makes a great additional controller for flight sim games with its very simple programming.
The Cyborg Command Unit makes for a fun gaming experience and you can get quite used to it quickly for an added controller in gaming. I highly recommend the Saitek Cyborg Command Unit for a nice simple and easily programmed small gaming controller.
