Being an avid fan of the work @pusen does, I follow his new Youtube channel and as such, found myself watching his video about The Cycle: Frontier. I made it about half-way through his review before I started downloading it, and I finally got a bit of time to play it over the weekend.
So, I thought I'd make a really quick video showing a single run down to Fortuna III for some goodies. I'm super low level, and still getting a feel for the game... but so far it's a TON of fun!
It also looks stunning! The level design is fantastic, and though it only has two levels... I haven't even come close to seeing the entirety of the first map yet.
The drops I've had so far have been in pretty safe zones on the first map - I've seen other players two times, at a distance, and had zero interactions with them... either because they didn't notice me and I got lucky, or because they weren't interested in PVP. Either way, I'm happy for my luck so far. I'm sure as I explore further south and west on the first map, I'll probably run into more folks and we'll see what PVP is like in this game.
Gameplay-wise, it's got all the typical elements you'd expect of an FPS game, and this integrates really well with the game's crafting mechanics. Mobs commonly drop items that the Factions and the crafting bench can use, and there are all kinds of goodies just scattered about in the abandoned prefab buildings on Fortuna III. There's also a mining mechanic to get some ores, which I've found to be pretty cool so far.
Basic game cycle is to start in the Hub, gear up for a run, and then pop down to the planet for some looting. Sometimes factions give hunting quests, sometimes fetch quests, but either way you're going to be doing a bit of both while you're down there before calling for evac and high-tailing it back to the hub with anything you managed to loot from the surface.
Back in the hub there's basically the three Factions to interact with, your player's quarters, a crafting area, and a few shops for items and cosmetics. I've not explored much of the hub so far, so I could be missing some stuff, but it's pretty much geared purely around easily getting and turning in quests and crafting/buying new gear.
Which, is something I should mention - gear, if you should die, is left behind on the planet for other scavengers to snag. You can insure it, and that will help reimburse your costs, so at low levels with basic stock guns... it's not a big loss, but I imagine at higher levels with more customized weapons and better weapons, it probably stings a bit to lose them.
There's a lot of fun little details in the level design, and I'm having an absolute blast so far getting to know the game and the levels. I'm definitely going to be playing more of this!
Though, I hope I can gear up a bit before I meet whatever the hell this big fucker is. It looks intimidating and I'm squishy.
Until next time friends, Happy Gaming!
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