Review of The Cycle Frontier. Angry Hamster Simulator

Review of The Cycle Frontier. Angry Hamster Simulator

Feel like an angry hamster. Go to the planet Fortune 3 and stuff your pockets to the eyeballs. And it’s better to do it quickly! The planet is full of other players who landed there for the same purpose. And they don’t care where they get the trash, from buildings or from your corpse.

Free battle royale

The Cycle was originally released in 2019 exclusively on the Epic Games Store. It was another attempt to rethink the concept of the royal battle. The players completed tasks on a hostile planet and shot each other. But interest quickly faded and people returned to their favorite PUBG, Fortnite, and Apex Legends.

Developers from Yager Development did not back down. Prior to that, they created Spec Ops: The Line and Dreadnought. Interesting but financially failed games. They urgently needed a hit to save the studio. Therefore, they agreed to a takeover by the Chinese giant Tencent and completely changed the concept of the project. The Cycle evolved into The Cycle: Frontier and was released directly to Steam and the Epic Games Store in June 2022.

The Cycle: Frontier takes place on the resource-rich planet Fortuna 3. Once upon a time, people colonized it, but then natural disasters began. I had to drop everything and quickly evacuate. A base was built in orbit, from where special people, seekers, make sorties to the surface of the planet. They extract resources and fight monsters and each other for the collected swag.

You play as one of these daredevils, pleasing the representatives of three factions. Equipment is required to complete tasks. On the planet, you can not do without armor and weapons (pistols, shotguns, machine guns) to fight monsters and competitors. You will need a backpack to put the loot and ammunition there. Consumables will not interfere either: first-aid kits, grenades, and noise generators. A scanner will help in the search for minerals.

When collecting, you need to consider what you will be doing on the planet. It is better to select equipment specifically for collecting resources and killing monsters or players. After all, your equipment is valuable and takes up space. And you can lose it at any time.

On a hostile planet

There are currently two maps available: Bright Sands and Crescent Falls. The maps are filled with abandoned buildings, laboratories, factories, and aggressive fauna. What to do there, prompt tasks from fractions. They can be standard: give-bring-kill. There are also more interesting ones. Like finding a distress signal. Or searching for a cache to place items there.

The player needs to drag everything that is not nailed to the floor. Or collect herbs in hard-to-reach areas. Sometimes you have to work with a pickaxe, mining ore. Moreover, this is done conveniently: the vein disappears when everything is taken from it. But the killing of monsters can be a problem.

Monsters in The Cycle: Frontier is not original. There are fast and biting, armored shooters and exploding kamikazes. There are also bosses: big blue lizards. They hit hard and take a ton of damage. But they are easy to deal with if you shoot into the opened mouth.

Events, such as meteor showers, bring variety to the game. And you will be very lucky if such a “rain” passes near you because meteorites contain rare metals necessary for pumping your lair.

The most unpleasant event is a storm. If you do not get to the evacuation zone in time, then you will be stuck on the planet. We’ll have to wait out the storm and pray that the lightning doesn’t hit my head.

But it’s worth it! By completing tasks, you increase your reputation with factions. The higher the reputation, the better equipment you can buy. Receipts are also issued for missions, allowing you to improve the generators.

Generators create resources and premium currency. You can also improve the size of the stash in secret pockets: they store the selected swag. The collected resources go to these improvements.

There is also a 3D printer in the game. You load resources into it and get good items in return. True, this takes time.

Man-to-man rat

Most of all, other players spoil the mood. Mining ore? A psycho with a shotgun will come running to the sound and shoot you. Walking with pockets full to the extraction point? A rat is probably waiting nearby, drooling over your prey. Are you just going about your business? A bullet in the back of the head awaits you. You can try to negotiate by shouting “don’t shoot” into the microphone! But in most cases, they will shoot. Even if you show nobility.

And after death, you lose everything: weapons, armor, and resources obtained by blood and sweat. It remains only what they managed to hide in secret pockets.

And then you become a psycho with a shotgun. You go to the planet with one goal: to kill the bastards who ruined your good run.

The Cycle also constantly complains about cheaters. And, we must pay tribute, to the developers who react to complaints, ban cheaters and improve protection. I have never encountered cheaters during my time in the game. At least with the explicit ones.

Free Cheese

The game, being shareware, uses standard tricks to get players hooked and forced to use the in-game store.

Cool items are awarded for entering the game. Among them, there are powerful guns, armor, and a backpack. Bonuses are also given for leveling up the Battle Pass. For this, you will receive fortune tickets, graffiti, currency, skins, and new seekers. Those who do not want to wait can level up for money to get everything at once.

Money also buys a premium currency. But you can buy only cosmetic improvements that do not affect the gameplay. Or speed up the upgrade of generators. After all, the higher their level, the longer the process takes. And there is a lot to improve!

Thus, the monetization system is relatively fair. For the money, you do not get a clear game advantage, but only cosmetic items. If not for the starter kits, there would be nothing to complain about. But expensive starter kits contain both weapons and armor, and a good backpack and resources for generator upgrades.

Why would the average person buy this set? Everything is very simple! The game resets every three months. In the process, all of your progress, inventory, and hideout will return to their original state. Everything is lost except the premium currency and purchased cosmetics! If you want to get an advantage over beginners, then buy starter kits. For real money.

True, these purchases will not greatly affect the gameplay. Your success will still depend on the straightness of your hands. Lose in a shootout, and the purchased weapons and armor will be removed from your body.

Diagnosis

Like the game The Cycle: Frontier does not have enough stars from the sky. The protagonist moves clumsily, the animations lack smoothness, and due to the high recoil, it is difficult to kill not only other players but also monsters. And her visual style leaves much to be desired. In Evolve, which was released in 2015, the planet looks much more beautiful and detailed.

But the game is good at keeping the players on their toes. Suddenly you will not have time to evacuate and you will lose all your things. And how nice it is to recoup on someone who is not to blame for your troubles! Only Escape from Tarkov, Hunt Showdown and Vigor can give such experience in multiplayer games. If you get hooked, keep these projects in mind.

True, the pleasure of The Cycle undermines the fact that the game resets progress every three months. Players massively criticize this decision and threaten to abandon the game after the first reset. It is hoped that the new seasons will offer new content that is interesting to master so that veterans will be interested in starting everything from the very beginning.

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