Cycle 28

Genre: 2D Space Shooter / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Cycle 28 is a game that takes the old-fashioned 2D space shooter gameplay of Asteroids and marries it to Roguelike game design, with players unlocking new ship upgrades when they beat their old scores.

The presentation here is simple but effective. Flat-colored 2D shapes on a simple black background speckled with stars, with a few nice details like smoke to show battle damage. The game has a very old-school retro feel to it, which I’m sure is the point, given the gameplay.

When it comes to the gameplay, this game takes the physics of ship movement from Asteroids and has you engaging in space combat. In other words, you don’t move places so much as push yourself in a direction, with your momentum continuing until you push in the other direction. To make things more interesting, in this game your ship’s firing has a slight affect on this in addition to your propulsion.

When you die (and you will die a lot – this is a Roguelike, after all), you’ll be unlocking ship upgrades if you managed to beat your old score, a system that comes with a few problems. Firstly, it punishes you for playing better, as that means that the next unlock will be even more difficult to get to. And secondly, it encourages you to flee from battles each time you get damaged and wait for the ship to automatically repair itself. So the most effective way to play this game is also the least fun way to play it.

Beyond that, the game is unfortunately too simple and repetitive. The upgrades are limited and you can only equip a few at a time, and while there are some unique systems like your ship’s ability to create tiny drones, the game doesn’t really build on these systems.

Oh, and I guess I should also mention the game’s story, involving a Groundhog Day-style plot to compliment the Roguelike game structure… eh, it’s fine, but didn’t really compel me to keep going to see more.

In the end, Cycle 28 plays with some unique ideas, and layers them on top of some classic old-school gameplay, but it doesn’t do enough to build on those ideas, and some of the mechanics of this game are counter-productive to the game actually being fun. This is still a decent space shooter, but it feels like there should have been more work done to work on the good ideas present here in order to make it a truly great one.

tl;dr – Cycle 28 is a 2D Space Shooter that controls like Asteroids, but with a Roguelike game structure. There are some good ideas here and some classic arcade-style gameplay, but those good ideas aren’t well-utilized, and overall the game is too repetitive.

Grade: C

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