Environmental and ecological disasters are a part of Earth’s history that has reset the creatures that roam the planet multiple times. While humans haven’t had to endure this type of reset, it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that one day, we will. New Cycle is a strategy survival city-building game developed by Core Engage and published by Daedalic Entertainment that tackles this premise.
New Cycle challenges players to rebuild a society 40 years after a series of solar flares decimated the world’s institutions and destroyed all technological advancements. Players take the role of Chief in a group of people that have been living the nomad lifestyle. The people have decided they are tired of moving from place to place and struggling to survive. Instead, they wish for you to lead them into the future by setting up a new colony.
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City building already comes with its own set of challenges, from layout to supply chains. New Cycle adds more complexity to these core mechanics with its survival aspects. Players will be responsible for keeping their population alive by providing various supplies along with making crucial decisions on how their colony will be run. It is a post-apocalyptic world, and that setting will be felt. Players will deal with limited resources, environmental disasters, and just that general rugged feel of trying to survive.
New Cycle runs off a seasonal calendar year, so players must deal with changing weather. This means players are preparing for winter every year. Outside of general seasonal prep of the cold winters or possible harsh dry summers, the use of annual rainfall is another element players have to be aware of, as rainfall determines the replenishment of valuable resources each year.
Since New Cycle takes place in the future, this allows for quite a bit of creativity when it comes to building your colony. The people already know what electricity, metal, fossil fuels, and such are. They have just lost some of the knowledge over time to produce and utilize such things. This means the developers can implement New Age technologies that wouldn’t normally be used for a game set in the past.
Players aren’t starting with just a thatch house and learning how to make wood, no they are in a house that has a combination of scrap metals, woods, and brick. It really sells the vibe that you are not trying to build a society but are trying to rebuild one. Rebuilding a society involves more than just gathering and managing resources for construction. There are plenty of decisions and social rules that need to be set.
As Chief of the colony, players will make various decisions over the course of time, ranging from something as simple as “Can we own pets again?” to deciding food rations for your people. Players are tasked with managing rations and supplies given to their people, whether it’s basic food or tools. This management affects not only the morale of the people but also their work efficiency.
One of the small tidbits about decision-making in New Cycle that I really enjoyed was that, for the most part, there wasn’t really a clear “Right or Wrong” answer. The choices had not only just a general set of “Pros”, but also their set of “Cons” that came with it. A prime example of this was the people asking if they were allowed to Barter again. The “Pros” were people were given some freedom and morale improved; however, it came with the “Con” of a slight workforce decrease as some people would barter their way out of working.
New Cycle also features a campaign with a story for players to progress in their colony. This decision-making continues throughout the game as players meet and are forced to interact with various groups of people. Between the microcolony decisions and larger narrative decisions, players are really able to set the ideology of their colony. Both in terms of how your colony is run and how outsiders view you.
New Cycle is a very ambitious game for Core Engage, especially as this is set to be their first project. The game is quite large and complex. From playing the preview, the development tree is extensive and will really allow players tons of creative freedom when it comes to building and laying out their city. As much as this is a city builder, the micro-managing of resources and people gives players additional strategy and survival challenges.
New Cycle is set to offer plenty of content and challenges to players as the game begins its cycle into Early Access on January 18th, 2024. Being an Early Access release, there will be some ups and downs, including plenty more to come to the game; however, from what is seen right now, New Cycle is in a good position for a promising start with the potential to become a really solid addition to the genre.
New Cycle releases into Early Access January 18, 2024 on PC.
