Cycle 28 Reviews

I may have only played it briefly, but the sound affects were good enough to annoy my wife, so it must be doing something right!! Controls feel ok using a wired 360 controller for Windows. I will definitely be playing some more of this, just unlocked my first couple of upgrades!!

Currently on sale for 77p, seems to run flawlessly on steamdeck and has the perfect quick couple of runs gameplay for it. Only just scratching the surface of the story's mysteries. Asteroids in a timeloop, rogueish.

Cycle 28 is a rather mediocre ripoff of the 1962 digital video game (arguably the first game ever made), SpaceWar! by Steve Russell. Very little enhancement has been made... fly a 2D spaceship and shoot enemies. The goal is to get the highest score possible within an arbitrary timeframe defined by the game. There's some upgrades which enhance your ability to score with each consecutive run, but with such a poor presentation visually there was no serious interest in pursuing it. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. While there are options to change the resolution for the game, all this does is scale up the simplistic low quality vector art assets used to make the game, which makes little or no difference to the graphics quality. Without any other substantial graphics tweaks, it's not possible for gamers to improve the mediocre 2D visuals. The game features somewhat lazy, simplistic "retro" looking 2D graphics, of the type you normally expect to see in low effort Flash/browser games and mobile apps. Considering this is being evaluated as a PC game, having the graphics phoned in like this isn't going to result in a high quality, visually impressive game that PC gamers are used to seeing. The very poor quality of this game puts it squarely on-par with ancient 1990's Flash/Java games, and given it's 2024 (and this was released not so far back in 2018), gamers and the industry expect and deserve better than this kind of low effort shovelware. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 7 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 100,000 games for gamers to choose from, the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. So, should you buy this game? Is this one of the best of the 100,000+ games on Steam? Cycle 28 is relatively cheap at $4 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. This is also competing with over 14,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product.

It's awesome, so simple but so fun. The game play is fast and addictive. Its satisfying to play and it leaves me wanting to play more. Brilliant soundtrack too! You'll be saying "Just one more round" so many times! I love this game, and the developers!

The controls are frustrating, your ship flys too close to the edge of the screen to avoid damage, the graphics are disappointing even for an indy project. Add some more color beyond cammo green and industrial sky blue. Little details are just missing that suggest this isn't even a project of love. Why don't the multiplier notifications come in different font, color, size, or some other indicator to differentiate it from the glut of unsatisfying point UI.

After playing through this some more, I have found there's much more to Cycle 28 than blowing things up. There's a mystery to be solved that slowly unfolds through the Cycles, and (as of 1 June) still has not been cracked. OLD: It's a well-playable homage to Luftrausers, with a much more fair hand dealt to the player -- most of the time. This likely will be immense fun for anyone who enjoys Luftrausers or Furious Angels. I love Jordan Rees's orchestral score, which grows ever more grand during the progression of each particular run, and perfectly sets the mood for the action.

I don't hate the game, I hate that I did not understand it. I assumed something like a better asteroids, it is not that. Which is my fault entirely, they still put the effort and time required to create a near seamless game, free or bugs, and errors to the extent that the game is complete, and thorough. It's just my attitude wasn't. It is a challenging and considered game, well conceptualized and executed. It has the hallmarks of a job well done, and I should acknowledge that first and foremost. I would say give it a try, just pay attention to why and what the game is actually about, more so than I did. And while I don't 'like' it or think it's 'good', I very well could be wrong in terms of what others may want. It is however is GOOD product overall. The music is wonderful, as well. [i]no. Few games in my life ever make me despise them, I almost feel inclined the same towards the music. It is a rare thing for me to harbor misgivings about music. If I paid more than 50c or a dollar, I will regret it. If you venture forward then just know the remainder of the game is veiled by vague clues, and the community who holds the answers will only reveal things on discord. And I played (Atari)ET the one they buried in a landfill after collecting as many copies as possible to do so. Or if you enjoy eating rage, feel free. This is it for you.[/i]

I liked Luftrausers, so I was curious to try this one due to the similar style. I like the idea of the story unfolding across successive runs, and I'm really curious to know how it develops. However, at the same time, I find the gameplay leans towards frustrating and repetitive. Unlocked abilities don't change the ship performance and abilities in very significant ways (aside from multishot), and most of the game difficulty is from the fact that you're flying blind into danger most of the time because the view is zoomed in so far. This problem is compounded by ships that are just a wide, fast-moving laser, and blindsides you from offscreen most of the time.

A good attempt at a score attack game, and there is a lot of potential and fun to be had. Unfortunately, there's a small amount of very questionable design choices that greatly ruin the potential flow and fun that this game could provide. Firstly: the score multiplier is reset on any hit. I know where they're coming from; many traditional SCHMUPS have that feature to incentivize perfect runs. This game is much similar to Asteroids or Luftrausers than Touhou or Ikaruga, however, and the dynamic state that enemies attack in can and very often lead to situations where a drone comes out of nowhere, almost invisible against the background, and homes in to hit you with just enough damage to ruin your score. Second: this leads on the first point and is how much the game relies on score for progression. As far as I've seen so far, progression is determined by beating previous scores. This isn't too bad, but can be a pain once you start besting yourself through easier methods. Once that happens you can't just ignore score and play for fun; you have to play for score and that means some rather unfortunate and boring playstyles. Hit and run tactics, picking off stragglers, waiting for the somewhat lengthy heal process, etc. Wanton destruction is heavily discouraged, as that will lead to you getting hit a couple times and losing your score. Third: collision damage. Colliding with enemies could be a neat addition, but with the state it's in all it does is reset your score on a graze, deals large damage to you while barely hurting your enemy. Building off that, we have the collision-type enemies. This ruins runs, and most of the time that it does it's unexpected and unavoidable. The barrier enemies are just all around a bad idea, at least with their penchant for charging and delivering instakills if you're hurting (full-health with the "spear" types, since you can collide with multiple boxes if the enemy has the angle right). Using the white bars on things like the train convoy are fine, but the guys who charge at you head on from off screen, leaving you with 0 chance to turn or dodge are cheap, and not fun in the slightest. Lastly: lack of focus. This is mostly a culmination of the previous points, but the game itself just lack focus and direction. There's a lot of promise with this game (hence the large review), but these three points have largely sealed it off to a very niche audience. There is an ARG involved and I hear it's pretty good, so I'd recommend checking it out if that's what you like. But if you're here for a fast-paced score-attack, I'd look elsewhere.

Cycle 28 on the surface is a $5 shooter, but it hides one of t he most engaging and complex stories I've encountered. Cycle 28 is easy to learn, difficult to master. The combat is easy to get into, engaging, and has a surprising amount of depth and strategy elements for how simple the combat is. Some mechanics take a little while to notice: like not healing when you shoot, but those are fairly easy to learn. Where the game hits its stride is the story. The game drip feeds you this ever more complex story, compounded by the strange world and menu screen antics. As you explore, you unlock more of the story. Once you start investigating the world around you, you only ask more questions.