author: Mathias Zulpo
Spec Ops: The Line dev's new game is getting a playable version soon
While Spec Ops: The Line was definitely their opus magnum, German indie developer Yager hasn't said the last word yet. Yager's new project is a sci-fi FPS called The Cycle – and everybody will soon be able to play it.
The depiction of war in videogames changed with Spec Ops: The Line. Everybody knows it, and yet not many people seem to remember that the game was created by an indie German studio called Yager Development. And there is a good reason for that – Spec Ops: The Line was undoubtedly Yager’s opus magnum. 6 years from its release, the developers were still struggling to deliver something that could stand up to their crowning achievement. And thus we got The Cycle – a game you probably weren’t expecting.
The Cycle is a sci-fi FPS relying strongly on a dynamic social component. Players can form temporary alliances with each other instead of just… well, shooting each other. And with the premise so chaotic, it quickly becomes clear that…
"…anything can happen"
"There is a mission to be accomplished on a dangerous planet far away from the center of the galaxy," Yager's Timo Ullmann explains. "It’s easier to carry out if you team up. Anyone can attack anyone, but anyone can also form an alliance with anyone. So when you meet other players, anything can happen."
In The Cycle, powerful factions hire brave mercenaries so that they can collect natural resources or go hunting on many different planets. The player is one of those “freelance space fighters” and can join any match by landing on a planet’s surface in a capsule. The fighters then have to engage in various quests which usually end in a “run-for-your-life” sequence, where all the mercenaries must try and survive to make it into the evacuation ship. All of this sounds pretty vague yet intriguing, so maybe you should simply…
…sign up for the Alpha
The creators emphasize that The Cycle should be further developed together with the community. "The feedback is of utmost importance for us. That's why we want The Cycle to land in players’ hands as soon as possible," Ullmann says.
And so the first closed Alpha starts at the beginning of August. If you want to test the sci-fi shooter, contribute to its development, and see what Spec Ops: The Line’s developers have been up to, sign up now on the game’s official website. Hope the experience won’t change you in a harmful way.
