Vicious Circle Review
"Cluck-Fest"
Multiplayer
This is a frantic 4v1 multiplayer title where regular players select a class and aim to get loot. The odd person out is a giant monster and chases them around the map. There are a number of classes with minor abilities tweaks between them and this will help as you accumulate loot.
This loot comes in the form of special crystal type nugget objects and once you reach a certain threshold you’re able to head towards an escape point. Along the way this massive monster will attempt to eat you up, or mostly just destroy you. If you are caught you’ll become a mini mind sucker thing and will also try to go after the survivors in order to steal their body.
This keeps everyone engaged in the action which I suppose is a good idea. That being said, I find the whole body snatching system rather boring. It has a sort of silly, zany style to it but I wasn’t into the afterlife aspect much. Moving past that, the matches are setup with rounds and everyone gets a monstrous time to shine.
Gameplay
The game certainly carries a unique visual style to it, it’s fun looking and stylish. There’s a layering of something grotesque here as well. The classes are somewhat different, there aren’t many of them to choose from. That sort of minimal content is carried through in the rest of the experience. The monster selection is ultra limited with a single one, as is the map selection which carries four options. The maps that are present are well done with a few distinct environmental themes.
At the same time, they aren’t many of them. The entire game in general can be fun for a short while, but the burnout is extremely quick as this feels rather repetitive. I liked this for a short bit of time after being initially tired of it and then that fatigue set in once again and I don’t really have a desire to play it further. Best to enjoy this in short bursts if you’re jumping in. I felt the balancing could have also been better, it can be ridiculous sometimes. It’s also really focused on repetitive situations. You always need to head to certain events that are the exact same to collect the same loot in order to have a chance to escape.
So you basically continue doing the same thing over and over. With limited maps and the same objective, you can see how fatigue settles in quickly. There’s also a battle pass in this which feels weird, it’s how you unlock cosmetics. Since this is a premium multiplayer title that felt unnecessary, and in general this sort of screams free to play. There’s even a sort of store tab that’s coming soon, I imagine that’s for additional microtransaction options. Now, there can be premium title like this sort of game. The setup with the unlock system just feels too aimed towards free to play, and I anticipate it possibly heading in that direction later on.
The Conclusion
Vicious Circle can be fun, but in short bursts as the gameplay is repetitive and the content is extremely minimal. There really isn’t much to this, and it feels like the basis of what could have been a really interesting experience. They could have taken things further as while the maps are well designed, there aren’t many of them and the events are the same across them.
This feeds into a system of repetitive play that quickly gets boring and makes me desire to play anything else. It feels somewhat like a free to play title. I’m fine with there being premium multiplayer titles like this, but there needs to be a fair amount of content to them. It’s like a games as services title, but without a whole lot promised in the future. It comes across as minimal overall.
A few character classes, a small handful of maps and just a monster. There are glimpses of enjoyment to be had, but it’ll be over quick and this is a title that I’ll likely forget existed. That aside, maybe someday it’ll have a better wealth of content. For now, very empty feeling and it didn’t leave a lasting impression. That is, aside from the grotesque monster creature.
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Vicious Circle Review on PC
Review Code Provided by Sandbox Strat
Rating Overall: 4.5
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