There’s a new The Cycle gameplay teaser that features lush forests and also a strange screaming lizard thing. The Cycle is a match-based FPS game by Yager Development where you complete quests, or ‘contracts,’ on an alien world in order to make your fortune. Right now, there isn’t an official release date, but it’s slated for later in the year and there’s going to be a closed alpha soon.
The premise for The Cycle bears some similarities to Borderlands. You’re a mercenary orbiting an alien world called Fortuna III, terraformed by aliens years ago and rich with exotic materials. The Federation tried colonizing the planet, but the surface is toxic and the titular Cycle makes it uninhabitable for more than 20 minutes at a time – this is where the concept of the mission-based gameplay comes in, something we’ve seen in the likes of Destiny 2 and The Division 2.
This recent gameplay teaser is captured “in the engine, showcasing one of the native creatures of Fortuna III in one of the lush forests that cover the surface,” according to developer Yager Development. There’s something quite painterly and minimalistic about the art style, but it still retains a lot of detail and the colour palette is bold and vibrant. Aesthetically it resembles the visuals of No Man’s Sky, but there’s more pop texture to the environments and creatures.
Perhaps the most interesting thing of note is the aforementioned ‘native creature’ of Fortuna III that we see in this The Cycle gameplay teaser. It’s a strange, lizard-y, dinosaur-type thing and it screams towards the sky in an oddly relatable way when the player character approaches it. As an internet veteran, it immediately comes off as something meme-worthy, and with the creature in the forefront without anything obscuring it, this would be relatively easy to do. I can already imagine it flying through space in time with Shooting Stars by Bag Raiders.
There’s no official date of release, but Yager Development is hoping to get the game out at the end of 2018, and a closed alpha is planned in the next few weeks. You can add The Cycle to your Steam wishlist now.
