With the Epic Store’s influence rising, numerous games such as Hades or the PC versions of The Division 2 and Metro Exodus are being released as exclusives on this new virtual marketplace. Now, the Epic Store exclusive library is getting another addition: The Cycle, an upcoming action game from Yager Entertainment. Prior to this release, this studio has had a few other titles to its name, such as the multiplayer combat-sim Dreadnought or Spec Ops: The Line. The Cycle is expected to fully launch within this year, and it will be the first game that Yager publishes by itself.
The developers say they think the game is going to be a great fit for the Epic Store, given how successful Fortnite was (and still is) and how flexible the Unreal Engine is for online games. Yager also has plans to support The Cycle in the long run, with more features and content promised in the future.
"We wanted to have a different type of relationship with the community than what we'd had before on Dreadnought," said Yager’s Executive Producer Jonathan Lindsay. "There's been a lot of lessons learned from that, on a technical level, and also, we've gotten a lot of benefit out of the lessons we've learned from Epic on Fortnite, since they've worked on the Unreal Engine. The engine itself is really great for a live game and it supports that format really well."
The Cycle could be described as a player versus player versus environment (PvPvE) game. If you really want to categorize it into one specific genre, then it mostly an online shooter – a rather unorthodox one, though, considering that there are many elements from different genres thrown into the mix. At the beginning, your character is thrown into Fortuna III, an unwelcoming alien world, and will have to scour around for resources to make new gear in order to survive. Besides fending off the native wildlife, you'll pick a faction to join and complete contracts to earn credits, which will unlock better gear. However, other players will be doing the same, so you'll have to cross paths with them at some point.
The idea does sound somewhat similar to a battle royale, but The Cycle is definitely not one of those. In addition to surviving against deadly alien creatures and completing missions received during a match, you must actively try to gather materials to deliver to the extraction point. Of course, nothing prevents you from shooting other players as soon as you see them to rob their resources, but sometimes the better approach would be to team up with them to combat common threats.
The ultimate goal of each match is to reach the extraction point with enough resources before the match ends. Unlike a battle royale, however, there can multiple winners at the same time. Resources you have on your person during extraction can then be used to upgrade your gear. These upgrades stay around, giving you the ability to improve your character's loadouts. This means you can start the next match with a more prepared character. However, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to get all of those upgraded stuff immediately. Instead, you'll still be back to square one at the beginning and have to obtain credits as normal before you can call in the powerful gear you’ve unlocked.
Yager says that The Cycle is going to be a community-driven game, meaning it’ll be updated according to feedback from players. An alpha test for the game is expected to open later this month between the 28th and the 30th. Players who are interested can sign up for this alpha on The Cycle’s official website in order to have a chance to experience what this upcoming title has in store.
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