The world never looks particularly inviting in the future does it? The stability of buildings reaches an all-time low, there seems to have been an increase in sand, and any human beings spend a good deal of time being bothered by some form of irradiated wildlife. It’s bleak, and New Cycle, the latest post-apocalyptic city builder from Core Engage, captures that bleakness with a surety and poise that you may actually wonder how on Earth you’re having any fun. And yet, you are.
Now, as city/settlement builders go, we’ve recently been blessed by the thoroughly more colourful Pioneers of Pagonia, and while they couldn’t be further removed graphically, narratively, or in terms of attitude, they share that same city-building core that remains as compelling as it has ever been. Pop down a shelter or two, start chopping down trees, and you’re halfway there already.
Yes, that’s reductive, but the brain-massaging pleasure of constructing your own little hamlet and having it grow and expand, steadily improving in technology and complexity, remains one of gaming’s most sublime pastimes. However, much like its spiritual sibling Frostpunk, there’s a darkness that lurks within New Cycle.
It brings an uneasiness to everything you do, not least because your township is constantly on the brink of failure, under siege by nature itself as well as the needs of its citizens. New Cycle is all the more compelling because of it, and while you might be chopping down trees, there’s a necessity to get them chopped down just that little bit sooner.
New Cycle’s bleak outlook begins with the narrative and setting. This is an Earth that’s been ravaged by solar flares. It’s best not to think too hard about the fact that this is all entirely scientifically possible and plausible, and accept the fact that the world burned, and with it, much of humanity. As one of the ‘lucky’ survivors, your place in it needs carving out, and you take the lead in bringing a ragtag group together, starting the foundations of what will hopefully grow into a thriving city.
Sharing its visual cues with third-person shooters of the Xbox 360 era, New Cycle is unashamedly brown. After all, this is a dying world, and what better way to show that than with a healthy dose of earthen-coloured buildings, brows and buckwheat? Building types are still readily identifiable, though at times they do nestle into the landscape with a touch too much ease.
You begin with your central hub, working from shacks and a hastily-rigged windmill to a rebuilt industrial complex, relearning or creating technologies to aid your survival along the way. New Cycle focuses heavily on resources and manufacturing, diving into the material and economic truths of rebuilding a civilisation, and it’s done in such a way that it remained interesting throughout our time with the early access launch.
You can design your settlement with either grid-based or free-form design, meaning you can opt for the hard 90-degree angles of modern New York (or its slightly-less glamorous cousin Milton Keynes), or the flowing smooth curves of a post-apocalyptic Illinois. Fundamentally, it’s up to you, but you need to consider how you’re going to fit all the necessary buildings into your grand design.
As you place your buildings you can move through the different layers of firmament, making sure that you’re tapping into the best water course, or resource-rich areas, in order to ensure your survival. Your settlement has to work, and it has to work on time, with the human beings within your settlement the most important resource you have, both in body and in mind.
Food supply and wellbeing are paramount, and it’s easy to find yourself in trouble when winter sets in and suddenly there’s no mushrooms to harvest and gather. You have to plan, and you have to prepare. If you don’t you can put your residents on shorter rations of both food and water, though this in turn can lead to disease, malnutrition, and ultimate death. New Cycle captures that urgency well, and you’ll feel much more on edge building this city than you might do elsewhere.
That feeling of control is emphasised by narrative decisions that shape the future of your settlement. You’re presented with choices that can alter the wellbeing or morale of your populace, and you have to decide whether to work them to the bone, allow refugees to settle with you, or to crush insurgencies before things spiral beyond your control. There’s a backdrop of natural disasters and accidents to deal with as well, and it feels like you’re building up a city while facing the same kind of tensions that we’ve seen in TV shows like Silo and games like The Last of Us.
New Cycle handily captures the bleak reality of rebuilding humanity in a post-apocalyptic setting, placing you at the head of this burgeoning society. It’s mechanically involving, but it’s the inter-woven narrative that lifts it above its peers. It’s going to be interesting to follow its progress through Early Access, and if you’re a fan of city-builders, especially Frostpunk, it’s definitely worth checking out.
