|
Have you played this game?You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in. |
Playlists and Wishlists |
RSS Feeds![]() ![]() ![]() |
Game Details
Language: English (en)
Current Version: 3 License: Freeware Development System: Inform 6 Baf's Guide ID: 1664
|
Awards
Nominee, Best Story; Nominee, Best Puzzles; Nominee, Best Individual Puzzle - 2001 XYZZY Awards
6th Place overall; 3rd Place, Miss Congeniality Awards - 7th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition (2001)
Editorial Reviews
>VERBOSE -- Paul O'Brian's Interactive Fiction Page
I sincerely hope the author puts out a post-competition version of the game, with the final polish complete; when and if that happens, Vicious Cycles will be a sparkling IF experience, at least for an audience not overly sensitized to the terrors of terrorism.
See the full review
Tags
Member Reviews
| Average Rating: ![]() Number of Reviews: 3 Write a review |

The game has a few early surprise which I won't mention here, but I can say that the atmosphere is a sort of dogged determination to overcome despite discouraging odds. The gritty feel reminded me of Cape by Bruno Dias, although the stories themselves are very different.
Overall, I highly recommend this game. It is fairly short, about 100-400 moves for a typical playthrough, although a perfect playthrough is probably 50 or less.

Anyway, the groundhog day loop game mechanic is done really effectively. To try and explain as much as possible while dropping as few spoilers as I can, the game centers around a catastrophic event in one person's life, repeating the same hour or so before it took place over and over and "crashing" and restarting the cycle each time it occurs. The loops are occasionally broken up with flashbacks to other short events, vignettes which give clues as to characterization, backstory, how the main character got into this situation, and what exactly is going on.
The groundhog day loop as a mechanic works because, due to the time limit, it's impossible to solve all of the puzzles in one go if you don't know exactly what to do first; therefore each loop becomes a chance for discovery, for learning more, for testing and trial-and-error-- so that eventually, one time, one loop, you'll know exactly what to do and you'll do it in time to save everyone. There is such a feeling of triumph each time you realize, "Oh! That's what I'm supposed to! Now I know for next time!"
In terms of storyline... ups and downs! Extremely effective for a game made for a competition. This isn't to say it was bad, because it wasn't, it worked. The characters are certainly sympathetic enough to make you want to help them, and they aren't wooden or anything. Some of the themes which the game's storyline uses are very dark and complex and may not be treated with the intricacy that would be necessary to do a thorough exploration, and for that reason I remember reacting with mild skepticism at some points-- but at other parts the storyline is so powerful I almost cried. The writing in terms of pure language is lovely as well.
Things I liked:
* Gameplay
* Setting
* Little characterization quirks
Things I didn't like as much:
* Some of the solutions to the puzzles didn't seem quite logical to me ((Spoiler - click to show)I didn't think the connection between the respirator and the smell of alcohol was very obvious, and I hit UNDO so MANY times because I thought I was supposed to take the key out of the pocket before I left the station, and was just typing the wrong verb...)
Overall I 100% recommend this game if you're into time travel mechanics and cool sci-fi settings.

It's short and the puzzles are doable, while still drawing you into the story and giving you a glimpse of a much larger world.
If you enjoyed Vicious Cycles...
Related Games
People who like Vicious Cycles also gave high ratings to these games:Crème de la Crème, by Hannah Powell-Smith Average member rating: ![]() Climb to the very top of the class at your exclusive private school for socialites! Will you study hard, find a perfect match, or embrace scandal? "Crème de la Crème" is a 440,000-word interactive novel by Hannah Powell-Smith, where your... |
Narcolepsy, by Adam Cadre Average member rating: ![]() |
Advent Door, by Andrew Plotkin Average member rating: ![]() Where’s that door? This game was written for a collaborative 2019 Advent Calendar project. The theme was "The City of Doors" from the Planescape roleplaying setting. That project was never completed, so I released this game by itself. |
Recommended Lists
Vicious Cycles appears in the following Recommended Lists:Time travel games by MathBrush
These are games where the main puzzles are centered on time travel. I'm splitting this off from my science fiction list. Many games include one or two time travel puzzles, such as Spellbreaker or Curses!. But this list is for games whose...
Polls
The following polls include votes for Vicious Cycles:No map necessary by Divide
Pieces which can be fully enjoyed without drawing map, ideally without taking any notes whatsoever. Ones which you could play on a bus, on a break, laying on bed, etc. with nothing but a portable player. Games for which you don't need...
Best sci-fi games by Ant-Fan
I'm looking for games from the sci-fi genre. I would prefer classic-style games, even if they're not classics (such as 'Across The Stars') because one of my all-time favorites is Planetfall, but really, anything goes.
Games centered around a "groundhog day" loop by Merk
Two that come to mind, which I haven't played in years and may be remembering wrong, are Moebius and All Things Devours. Games with fail states, by their nature, fit the bill from a mechanical level, but I'm curious about games where...
This is version 4 of this page, edited by salty-horse on 13 July 2016 at 6:39am. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item