"Every time you drop from warp they're there. Then you die."
Pill Bug Interactive's Cycle 28 is a space shooter with a narrative twist. It feels a lot like Asteroids and Luftrausers had a baby: zooming around space battlefields, carried by your momentum, you shoot down everything that moves.

Breaking your own high score nets you upgrades. It takes a while to get used to the game's fast-paced dogfights, but once you're comfortable with the controls, you'll see your score rising with each subsequent attempt.

This is not just an arcade game, mind - there is a mystery to it all. You're playing as a pilot who's been warped right into enemy territory for some reason and who's more than eager to return to the fleet. However, each failed attempt just resets your cycle, having you replay the same scenario all over again.
It's not a total reset, though, as the story goes on, presenting you with a new piece of the puzzle now and then. This is quite motivating and might bring you to stick with the game for much longer than you normally would. Also, slowly working your way up the leaderboards has been surprisingly satisfying for me, even though I am still nowhere near the top.

Cycle 28 might not reinvent the space shooter genre, but it's narrative trappings make it more than well worth a look.

You can purchase Cycle 28 from Steam for $4.99. For more information, visit the game's website or follow developer Pill Bug Interactive on Facebook or Twitter.

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