The Cycle: Frontier
Release Date Developer Publisher 8 Jun 2022 Yager Development Yager Development
In The Cycle, you play as a prospector of the future, looking for resources atop a now-uninhabitable planet before you can be extracted back to the main satellite base. With both player-vs-player and player-vs-environment combat, you’ll need to be prepared to encounter the inhabitants of Fortuna III as well as other prospectors that might steal your loot. The result is a high-tension, push-your-luck game where you’re balancing grabbing everything you want and making it out with what you have. I’ve heard it compared to Escape from Tarkov, though I’ve never played it.
The game has a lot of depth to it, so as I’ve only just recently gotten into it, it’s hard to speak to the deeper mechanics of crafting, progression, and whether the game stales out. There have also been complaints about cheaters, though I’ve yet to run into any in my missions. As a new player, I haven’t felt particularly outgunned by any other prospectors I’ve run into, though I definitely die a lot.
My biggest complaint, though, is the lack of colorblind support. Almost everything in the game is color-based, whether it’s which minerals you need to harvest or the rarity of gear. I don’t mind adapting if the game provides another dimension of distinction for items, like how gear is named “Common”, “Uncommon”, “Rare”, etc. But in some cases, I literally cannot tell the difference between valuable minerals I need to harvest and plain rocks, which is a huge drawback. Even with the “supposed” colorblind settings cranked to the max, things look no different. So for now, I’ll only be playing in squads with someone who can be my eyes.