Cygni All Guns Blazing Review (PS5) – Crash and Burn
While playing Cygni, what I was most reminded of was a village firework display. You know the ones where the organiser has been given an overly large firework budget for the size of field, and there’s been some attempt to time rockets to the blaring music medley. And then mid-way through, it all just collapses and fireworks are just going off everywhere, popping off with no pattern, colour scheme, or rhythm left. That bit, where it all just goes off, that’s Cygni.
It’s also a hell of a lot like the scene in The Matrix Revolutions when Zion is attacked by sentinels and the sheer relentless swirling unstoppable force of robotic death coming down had me just roaring defiance at the screen, feeling like my barrels were going to run dry any minute.
Cgyni is a pretty adrenaline-prodding shmup to prompt those kinds of comparisons. But it’s the game’s cinematic quality and atmosphere that really made me think that. It’s important we take a look under the hood into the mechanics of it – the hitboxes, difficulty, bullet hell side of things – if we really want to gauge if Cygni has got it where it counts.
I always like to start with the narrative, and while there is a story to all the carnage and I appreciate that it’s there, Cygni’s plot demands very little engagement. It’s a backdrop and bit of explanation as to the planet and these colossal robot monstrosities, but plot-wise it’s as thin as almost any other shmup. Cygni relies on the atmospheric visuals of these enemies far more than the plot cares about explaining much about them.
So in a nutshell – Alien robots have appeared on the planet Cygni and you play as a female pilot in a very cool Orca spacefighter, who seems to have to take them down single-handedly. She does have name, but it’s never used. There’s no dialogue beyond a bit of Galadriel-like voiceover and a president’s speech, certainly nothing that might be misconstrued as characterisation or a reason to fight. You’ve almost seen the entire plot if you’ve watched any trailers.
Looking at the jaw-dropping cinematic visuals before release I really hoped for a character to get behind, or even just for something that would give a personal reason to fight, like her family was killed in the first wave, for example. There’s nothing, she’s the blankest of blank slates. Fine, it’s a shmup, I really shouldn’t have expected more, and it isn’t the point or focus of the game. But there’s just some kind of expectation that comes with making your shmup visuals AAA that misleads me into thinking the story will deliver.
Cygni’s focus rests with its combat. In fact, it barely rests at all. It’s a scarily responsive, pyrotechnic firework extravaganza, and holy robotic aliens Batman is it hard to keep track of what’s happening. It really can feel pretty overwhelming and I swear I had afterimages floating in my vision for minutes at a time after each overly long level.
Cygni is a vertical shoot-em-up, with the screen scrolling slowly down, and you fly through two planes of battle – aerial and ground-based. You have a small angle of aim-ability with the right thumbstick, but not much beyond the 45 degrees in front of your ship, which faces forever upward. Add your little drones, some homing missiles, and a shield and you are most of the way there. Every shmup has a little quirk of its own (unless it’s really generic) and Cygni’s comes in the form of shunting power from weapons to shield and back again via the R1 and L1 buttons.
You’ve got to appreciate the attempt at something tactical here, swapping between shields and weapon power, because without it Cygni is pretty scant on interesting gameplay. I had fun on normal or hard just trying to shunt power into the guns so I could actually take down a bullet sponge boss, but then leaving myself shield-less on a game that’s just punishingly difficult. On easy mode, which I eventually had to resort to in order to progress, the strategy becomes more about hoovering up shield power-ups and being able to put yourself in harm’s way. Staring down that pulsing wave of robo-squidies and just pulling the trigger can feel pretty badass.
Cygni’s level design feels built for co-op. Levels are constructed around patterns of enemies flying down both sides of the screen, or infestations on both sides of a tunnel structure. Where in your average Cave shmup you might have cleared them all out and looked for clear trophies, here you’ve no chance of that. There are sections where a wall comes down dividing the screen in half, or most commonly where you can’t viably attack ground-based enemies at the same time as airborne enemies. The systems don’t fire at the same time, so the best thing would be to have your squadmate in there taking on one plane of the battle.0
However what I initially thought was online co-op (to the point of arranging a little co-op party) ended up actually just being couch co-op. If you want help with this tricky shooter, you might have to invite another human over to your actual house.
We should probably also address difficulty. Cygni is FromSoftware levels of difficult. Like I can’t do all the levels on normal level difficulty. And while thankfully it has an easy mode, that was the only one I could feasible complete. On a technical point, its bullets move fast so it’s less of a bullet hell where you can reliably move in between danger, and more about absorbing hits with the shield power mechanic. Its hitbox felt larger than you’d find on one of those types of shmups.
Of course, there is always the argument to ‘git gud’ and with time and practice plenty of players will be able to tackle the normal difficulty. However it demands too high a level of skill too early, and becomes frustrating more than fun when you can barely complete the first level. There isn’t a slow progression of difficulty, it’s just hard from the start.
I would suggest if you are a casual consumer of vertical shooters and this has piqued your interest because of the visuals then be warned. You may not be able to play far on normal, and then on Easy mode it’s a few hours of content before it’s all finished. Unless you are a shmup fan, or get really hooked, it’s not going to hold the kind of replayability that would justify a purchase.
Visually, Cygni is a stunning videogame. Enemy design is the jaw-dropping end of Cthulhu and Giger-type alien creatures, especially the bosses. Huge behemoths rise out of the sea, or emerge from the dark depths of space with tentacles and mouthparts and chitin everywhere. But even normal fodder is well done and full of different types that have different attack patterns and really beautiful designs. I would also note some very epic compositions in the soundtrack that feel like movie themes.
One last issue to really draw attention to. There’s not many of them but the few menus the game uses, like mission selects and upgrades etc, look like those flat-top Star Trek console screens from The Next Generation. It’s all ‘visual’ if that makes sense, relying heavily on their design to guide you to the purpose of buttons and toggles. However the UI is horrible on these menus, with nowhere near enough guidance or explanation to know what you’re really doing and hiding their purpose. When you just want to upgrade your ship and get back out there, it’s a hinderance that really stuck out. When I did work out what everything did, they often felt complicated for no real reason.
Cygni is a strange game to rate. On the one hand, it’s a gorgeous piece of software, full of atmosphere, great music, and responsive shooting fun. On the other it’s let down by high difficulty/low reward, horrible menu design and a real lack of personality. I want to say style over substance but the gameplay is good, if you are the target audience. If not, it feels like a very short-lived experience, and one that without much in the way of lore, plot or character, felt empty like the void of space. I am the target market, but the difficulty and lack of tangible identity left me cold. Like the cold of space.
A vertical sci-fi shoot-em-up with sublime atmospheric graphics and some incredible encounters, Cygni is ultimately let down by its lack of identity and a sharp difficulty spike straight from the launch pad. Shunting power between shields and weapons makes for a fun mechanic, but unless you’re a shmup aficionado, it’s a hard package to recommend.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is available August 6th 2024 on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.
Developer: KeelWorks
Publisher: Konami
Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.
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