Cycle 28

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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!!

I'm a huge fan of Luftrauser, and I got what I was hoping for when I first noticed and followed this game in development months ago. An obviously Luftrauser inspired (but with its own twist), multiplier-based-high-scorer shmup, with more grandiose and arguably more stylish presentation. Definitely more solemn and melancholic, with an actual (and kinda gaudy) background story on why you're shooting these ships over and over again. With decent price as well! I bought it the instant it's out and it's not disappointing at all. Can't help comparing it with Luftrauser of course. Control and feels less sastisfying and less 'obvious' than Luftrauser for me. It feels much more satisfying (and easier?) maneuvering to dodge bullets in Luftrauser because there's gravity assisting you, and here in space there's nothing but you and your own momentum. Battle feedback also feel less satisfying, it took me a while to realize your ship automatically get repaired when you're not shooting, and to notice the multiplier working. I wish there's more obvious feedback on multiplier, and some sort of backward thrust/brake/acceleration to assist you in maneuvering since there's no gravity. I still play it non stop until my hand gets too sore to continue, though!

Fantastically addictive. Just one more cycle. A real feel of progression, improving, getting better. Agency; you know why you died. You learn. Next time will be different. Personal best surpassed, rewarded. New toys, new tools. Highly recommend.

Pretty good little shooter. Excellent music, especially the way it ramps up with the action. "Score attack" isn't my thing usually, but I got into this one. On the downside, I haven't figured out the end game mystery yet, and since I unlocked everything, I am not sure I'll have the motivation to stick around until I do.

This game definitely carries the smell of Luftrausers in it, but brings its own quirks to that type of gameplay. Solidly made and plays smoothly.

An excellent game! While fairly minimalist in design, this game is a lot of fun and has deep replayability. It really nails the feel of a slow build-up space dogfight, where skill wins out over an increasingly large number of enemy ships. As other reviews point out, the game is relatively short (if determined, you could get most of the achievements/"win" in a few hours), but there's always the lure of climbing higher on the leaderboards to draw you back. The game narrative is also rather good-with bits and pieces of the story passed on to the player, in often surprising ways. In total: Cycle 28 is really awesome and a steal at its current price. Highly recommend! (Also, the developers seem real cool and keep in touch with their fans. In addition to the usual discussion boards, this game has monthly top five leaderboard posts, which can be a fun extra challenge.)

boring, not enough mechanics, sub-par bullet hell action. there is lore and unlocks which I didn't have motivation to get to.

A fun take on asteroids. Better than asteroids. The music and sound are really cool and spacey .. I like this game.

One word...addictive One sentence to explain this game...How many foes can you drag down to hell with you within 25 minutes! (and if you die, you start all over). 100/100

This is game is and isn't what you expect. There's something compelling about the atmosphere and the mystery, as well as great enjoyment because of tight controls and gameplay mechanics. Love the game and definitely recommend it, but I'm also looking forward to the developer's future games.

A lot like Luftrausers at a basic mechanics level, but with some nice narrative thrown on top and a good soundtrack.

Well, it's 1am and I've now been playing this game for the last 3 hours. It is completely addictive. The desire to beat my previous score and get that next upgrade is huge. In comparison to some similar shooters I have played in the past I actually feel that what I do makes a difference and I'm not just randomly shooting. Excellent stuff. Highly reccommended.

It’s not a game for everybody, but if you’re a fan of shoot em ups or mysteries in general you will have a ton of fun playing this game.

What does this need to draw me in? A different control scheme. More specifically, one that is good. From what I've seen, there is two basic control types for games like this. Use buttons/stick to turn from side to side and press a button to move forward, OR press the arrow/stick in the direction that you want to go and you turn to face that direction automatically. The second option is by far superior. Unfortunately, the control method here is so poor and outdated that I honestly cannot play for more than half an hour before the painful gameplay pushes me to refund the game. Maybe there is a good story there, but I won't see it because of the nigh unplayable controls that suck all the fun out of the experience. No brake. Bad turning. Guns that screw with your momentum. Lack of mouse support. It feels like an unintentional rage game, and I feel that it loses out for it.

Just one more cycle! An intriguing little game that'll have your fingers twitching as you close in on your high score...

Cycle 28 is a combination of shooter + ARG. The shooter is fun and has an interesting story, but if like me you aren't interested in completing the ARG you can't see the conclusion of the story, which is frustrating. To really enjoy Cycle 28 you need to be a fan of both shooters and ARGs. However, the sale price of the game is so cheap that it's just about worth it for shooter fans to buy it, play the shooting part and ignore the ARG part.

Idk, I felt like the game didn't succeed on either front. As a score attack game, the scoring system is meh. It's heavily based on your multiplier, and your multiplier resets entirely if you get hit by anything (and there are plenty of stray bullets and enemies to hit you). As a story, it's basically your '''standard''' time loop. Usually an interesting premise, but here it never really goes anywhere. The backstory pages on the menu are excellent - easily the best part of the game - but I can't really recommend buying it just for that. The true ending is at least [i]something[/i], but it requires an ARG. Ew. A couple achievements are a bit opaque, and the final one requires the true ending ARG.

I haven't put a lot of playtime into it yet, but I've enjoyed figuring out how to improve my rating as I play. I hope to unlock more of the storyline as I keep playing.

Interesting casual game, will play this with Speed Hack next time

I'm completely addicted. This game is so simple and so fun.

Fun game to just switch off for a couple of minutes. Haven't made sense of the story yet.

Nice shooter and for the price just get it.

👍