The Cycle Early Access starts now, no key needed for this PvEvP shooter

Yager has announced that The Cycle Early Access starts today. The PvEvP shooter from the makers of Spec Ops: The Line and Dreadnought is now live for everyone without the need for a key. You can play The Cycle by downloading the game from the Epic Games Store and setting out to the planet Fortuna III.

The Cycle Early Access comes with a few new and neat features . The Bounty Hunter system, which we discussed here, is one of the cool ideas. This marks one over-performing player as the target for everyone else, adding to the challenge.

New Archetypes were introduced as well. The Gambler and the Exobiologist are their names, with the former boasting her “sassy skillfulness”, while the latter seems to know a lot about the native species from Fortuna III. How they perform in battle is another matter entirely. A new enemy type was also introduced, the Droids.

If you've played The Cycle before, you will get the promised Alpha Reward Skin. Vehicles have been revamped, featuring collision damage, new effects and sounds, as well as jumping ability and speed boosts for that moment when the timer is running out.

And now for the bad news. The move from alpha to Early Access means that your progress has to go. This player progress wipe is expected to be the last one, so hopefully starting today you can begin working on leveling up your Prospector.

Yager always promised to “keep pay-to-win elements out of our game,” resulting in the removal of some customization options that were available for testing purposes. With the support from Epic Games and a balanced and fair in-game store, The Cycle will hopefully provide a leveled experience to all players.

The Cycle Early Access is a great way for you to try the original core mechanics from this shooter. The only game that is somewhat like it is Crytek's Hunt: Showdown, where teams of players fight among themselves and against AI-enemies for several objectives.