New shooter The Cycle now focuses more on PvE and loot – now available on Steam

The Cycle: Frontier is a shooter from the Berlin studio YAGER and was released in Early Access in the Epic Games Store a year ago. The developers have now significantly revamped the shooter and the Closed Beta has now also been released on Steam. MeinMMO shows you what has changed.

What exactly is The Cycle? It is a free-to-play shooter from the German developer YAGER. Originally, the focus was on battle royale gameplay with some PvE elements.

Since the shooter entered Early Access last year, the game has changed significantly. The developers have gradually transformed the game from a battle royale into a survival shooter.

• The game offers coop, PvE, and PvP
• The focus is now on survival and collecting loot
• This includes equipment, but also resources like ores
• You spawn at the beginning of a so-called “drop” on an expansive map
• Similar to games like Hunt: Showdown, you can lose equipment if you die
• You keep loot and equipment only if you successfully reach the rescue ship after your loot search
• There is also a social hub with factions from which you receive missions
• Through these factions, you can unlock tools, upgrades, and weapons
• You can either hunt for loot alone or with up to two friends
• You can essentially roam around a map for as long as you want. Loot even respawns if you are far enough away.
• The servers are, however, restarted every 6 hours.

A short insight into the innovations can be found in the announcement trailer:

The Cycle now focuses on survival instead of battle royale

What are the differences to before? In the original vision of The Cycle, the battle royale aspect was much more prominent. Instead of fighting for resources and loot to then extract, it was about combat over crystals in lobbies with up to 20 players.

Back then, there was a storm that kept spreading. While the storm was not a deadly gas like in Warzone that made the playing field smaller, it made the PvE creatures significantly more dangerous and also inflicted damage.

Is the storm still there? These storms exist in the new version of The Cycle as well, but you do not die immediately. If a storm breaks out, you should seek shelter, but during the storm phase, there is also special loot.

This is how a round played out back then:

The flow of a round generally follows a roughly similar structure:

• You should complete quests to earn points
• Kill NPC enemies or open chests to get cash
• Buy new weapons that can be obtained from a shop at any time
• Kill enemies if they are in your way
• At the end of the match, reach the rescue ship and escape with it

This concept has not completely disappeared, but the survival aspect now weighs significantly heavier and it is no longer about crystals (points), but about loot and equipment.

We took a closer look at The Cycle last year and MeinMMO author Benedict Grothaus was already very impressed by the gameplay back then. How it looks now after the overhaul remains to be seen.

The Cycle starts Closed Beta on Steam and in the Epic Store

When does the Closed Beta start? It has been running since September 30, 2021.

This is how you participate: You can apply for access through Steam (via store.steampowered.com) and Epic (via thecycle.com). If there are still spots available, you will receive access via email.

What’s in the Closed Beta? The maps “Bright Sands” and “Crescent Falls” are available in the beta. They have been completely overhauled to meet the new direction of the game.

There will also be a new type of enemy that is apparently supposed to make it considerably harder for players to search for loot. There should also be significantly more of them than before.

The Closed Beta is subject to an NDA and players are not allowed to stream gameplay or send recordings.

When is the full release? A release is currently planned for 2022.

Will The Cycle also be released on other platforms? This is still unclear. The developers want to focus on the PC version for now.