The Cycle: Frontier Review – Boring & Buggy Looter-Shooter

The Cycle: Frontier finally arrived on Steam on 8th June, four years after it was revealed at Gamescom 2018. The new “PvEvP” looter-shooter comes from Spec Ops: The Line developers Yager Development. And while that game was something of an underrated gem – The Cycle: Frontier certainly is not. It’s a free-to-play online multiplayer game with a heavy emphasis on gathering loot, killing other players, and purchasing new and upgraded gear. Alongside that is a PvE element that pits players against the hostile environment of Fortuna III. Unfortunately, unless you’re a hardcore looter-shooter fan looking for something free, this sci-fi take on Escape from Tarkov simply doesn’t cut the mustard. Bountiful glitches, a tedious gameplay loop, and an uninspiring and empty world make The Cycle: Frontier a truly mediocre experience.

The Cycle: Frontier Review – Gameplay

At its core, The Cycle: Frontier is a first-person shooter that tasks players – dubbed “prospectors” – with venturing onto Fortuna III to recover valuable loot for three different factions. Those factions are the ICA, Osiris, and Korolev. A faction reputation system and unique rewards are the drivers behind working for each group. But essentially you’re there to do their dirty work. And it feels like it.

After kitting up, players deploy onto Fortuna III as solos, duos, trios or quads, and must fight enemy squads and the environment to acquire as much valuable gear as possible. Once you’ve gotten what you came for, you need to exfiltrate and return to the space station player-hub to collect your rewards. In summary, The Cycle: Frontier‘s gameplay loop is “get in, get stuff, get out”. And it becomes really boring, really fast.

Shooting and Looting

Thankfully, the gunplay is pretty good. Weapon models look great, there’s considerable variety, and shots sound punchy and satisfying. Using a controller is useless (more on that later), not least because of the horrendous ADS sensitivity. Even though I reduced it substantially in the menus, it was still impossible to aim with any precision. Still, it works well with a mouse and PvP encounters (when not one-sided) could be tense and fun. Conversely, Fortuna III’s monsters are mostly one-dimensional (at least the ones I encountered) and won’t win any awards for creativity. This deflates what could’ve been a fun PvE element. All things considered, I think the guns are the best part of The Cycle: Frontier.

Conversely, mining resources, collecting loot, and managing your inventory is just there. It isn’t particularly good or bad – it’s simply a chore. Maybe I’m not built for the looter-shooter genre – but the looting aspect of this game just isn’t fun. With that said, if you enjoyed that aspect of Escape from Tarkov, you’ll probably like it in The Cycle: Frontier. Still, performing endless fetch quests doesn’t make for a good time in my book. And that’s basically all you do here.

Frustrating Cycle

If you die on Fortuna III, you lose all your gear. Everything you brought with you and everything you found – gone. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, especially at first. And things only get worse when you finally start to make some progress only to lose valuable kit because you encountered someone with better gear. The tiered gear system makes encounters with better equipped players extremely difficult to win. Grey gun vs Green armour – forget it. You’re shooting peas.

Things are made impossible when you (playing as a solo) encounter a well-equipped duo. You don’t stand a chance. And before you know it, all your stuff is gone and you’re back at square one. It happens way more often than it should. I cannot understand why solo players are grouped in the same lobbies as teams. If you’re playing by yourself, you’re playing to lose.

The only way around losing your gear is through the insurance system which involves paying an upfront cost to recover the value of any lost items should you die. If this system simply issued you with an immediate like-for-like replacement, it’d be fine. Instead, a station in your quarters delivers payouts at timed intervals. And you then have to take your money and tediously navigate numerous vendors in an effort to buy back all your stuff. It is a chore that makes dying beyond frustrating.

Bugs & Glitches

Death and rebirth are utterly punishing in The Cycle: Frontier. And this is only exacerbated by the numerous bugs that seem to litter the game.

From what I’ve read of reviews on Steam, issues vary wildly and some players are reporting problems I didn’t encounter and vice versa. Regardless, there are definite problems here ranging from disappearing gear and rewards to awful controller input issues.

Regarding the latter, I attempted to play with an Xbox Series X controller at first. Oddly, the game’s UI showed a mixture of PlayStation and Xbox key prompts (R3 instead of RS, and R1 not RB). Not only that, but certain actions (like crouching) had no key bind when using a controller. Similarly, key binds and inputs seemed to change on a whim both on keyboard and controller. It renders the game all but broken at times.

There are visual problems, too. Items floating in midair and objects clipping through walls is pretty common. NPC enemies also seem to teleport behind you and drop their loot metres away from their corpse. It’s not a good look – but hopefully some of it will get patched in the near future. Per Steam reviews, many issues seem to have persisted since the Beta – so it isn’t looking too promising.

The Cycle: Frontier Review – Graphics

Playing with an i5-12600k and a GeForce RTX 3070, my system pushed The Cycle: Frontier out in 4K at a constant 60 frames-per-second.

For the most part, it looks good – the guns in particular. When you first leave your landing pod and are greeted by bright sunlight and lush plant life, The Cycle: Frontier‘s visuals really come into their own. Unfortunately, a grey and foggy atmosphere washes out the game’s colour pallet all too often and lets down what could’ve been a gorgeous alien world.

I didn’t counter any significant performance issues; however, reviewers on Steam say otherwise. Fingers crossed Yager undertake further optimisation work to ensure all players get a seamless experience, even on lower-end machines.

Sound Design

The sound design in The Cycle: Frontier is good. As mentioned, guns sound great. Enemy footsteps can be heard with near pinpoint precision. And spaceships and storms sound boomy and immersive. Hearing a shuttle land and tracking down its former occupant can make for a nail-baiting hunt.

The Cycle: Frontier Review – Verdict

The Cycle: Frontier is worth a try if you enjoy the looter-shooter genre. If you can get past the bugs (or are lucky enough to avoid them), you might have a decent overall experience. Disappointingly, glitches did get in the way of my time with the game. Some players have it even worse, too. They are reporting constant crashes and painfully slow matchmaking. It’s clear the game needs more work.

For me, The Cycle: Frontier‘s core gameplay loop is its biggest problem. With some changes and optimisation, it has real potential. But “Fetch Quest: The Game” just isn’t enjoyable. And the world of Fortuna III does nothing to enhance the experience or entice me back. It mostly feels empty, lifeless and unremarkable. Group that with a questionable tiered gear system, numerous premium and non-premium currencies, lacklustre PvE, and overly punishing PvP, and you’ve got a game that I don’t want to return to anytime soon.

Overall Rating: 5/10

Reviewed on: PC

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