***This game is shutting down on 9/27/23. RIP to a real one.***

I think The Cycle: Frontier has a very strong foundation and a lot of good things going for it.

+Graphics are good. This is one of very few games where I turn on DLSS. In a photorealistic game, the blur DLSS adds to the game is very noticeable but I think the cartoony artstyle in the Cycle helps the DLSS work. Or maybe every other DLSS-enabled game I've played is just bad at implementing it somehow? Don't know!
*Audio design is good. I especially like the sound of the meteor showers.
+There's no queue time! A "match" is six(?) hours long but people don't join at the start and stay for the whole six hours. You drop in and leave any time you want. This means you are loading into a raid as soon as everyone in your squad readies up. It's a novel design, but it also means you can never relax or assume no one is around.
+It's the only free-to-play extract shooter. If you have no idea what an "Extract Shooter" is, The Cycle is a good place to start. I would also say The Cycle is the most stable extract shooter. All of the others are pretty buggy or straight-up unfinished.
+They took Escape from Tarkov's Hideout idea and streamlined it to be much more compelling. It doesn't take long before your hideout is generating lots of free stuff, including premium currency. I find upgrading the hideout to be a bigger motivator than quests which might be more of a knock on the bland quests.
+They have a very innovative solution for hackers. If you are killed by someone who is later found guilty of hacking, you will receive all of your loot back that the hacker took from you. I can't imagine how many logs they must keep to achieve this. For the record, a lot of people complain about hacking in this game but I think the issue is overblown. I only had one suspicious death in season 1.


Edit 3/30/2023: This review used to be waaay longer. It had huge paragraphs of complaints but I deleted those. Season 3 launched yesterday and it made BIG changes to the game that touched on every problem I had with it. I don't know how these changes will pan out but I think Season 3 presents a great opportunity to get into The Cycle if you were interested.