The shmup genre is a pillar of arcade gaming. No matter the form, be it bullet-hell, side-scrolling, or top-down shooter, these games demand the utmost skill and patience to beat. Cygni: All Guns Blazing ($29.99) carries the spirit of the arcade shmup with some unconventional twists to freshen the experience for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S gamers. There are a few nagging issues, like the dizzying amount of particle effects on the screen or abnormally fast acceleration and movement. Nonetheless, Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a pleasantly polished game overall, with plenty of unique elements to keep you engaged and entertained.
(Credit: KeelWorks, Konami)
Ground and Air AssaultCygni is hard. Not only are the relentless waves of enemies unforgivingly aggressive, but Cygni also demands much more from you than simply pointing and shooting. After getting thrashed by the mini-boss in the first stage, I suspected something was amiss and returned to the main menu to learn the controls. Thankfully, Cygni offers a tutorial that covers basic actions, which you most assuredly should play through
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The game is a vertical shooter at its core but uses twin stick controls for movement and shooting, though you can only angle shots by about 30 degrees. Cygni’s graphical prowess allows it to play with depth, which it uses liberally throughout the campaign. Enemies on the ground aren’t just eye candy but are active participants in the battle that shoot you down just as easily as any aerial foe. You have two modes of fire to handle this assault: aerial gunfire and ground bombardment. You will alternate between both targets frequently, giving each stage a lot of variety. It also makes combat extremely dynamic, with you constantly swapping between shots to eliminate threats and rack up points.
(Credit: KeelWorks, Konami)
Ingenious Shielding MechanicThe Orca can be destroyed in a single hit, be that by collision or bullet. To circumvent this weakness, the ship has shielding, allowing it to soak up five hits before it is vulnerable. Enemies randomly drop energy points, which replenish a point of shielding when collected. Cygni spices this system up by also tying the weapons system to energy points. Like shields, your primary weapons are enhanced when five pips of the weapon gauge are filled. You can also spend a point of weapon energy to launch a missile volley, which deals high damage to enemies on screen but reduces your strength slightly. When all weapon energy is depleted, your shots are at their weakest, and you can no longer fire missiles. You can divert energy from shields to weapons and vice versa at any given time, a la Star Trek. If you blow through all five missile volleys, for example, you can hold the right bumper to swap your shield energy into your weapons, giving you five more volleys while compromising your defense. Likewise, if your shields are down but you have weapon energy to spare, you can divert that into your shields to give yourself much-needed durability. It is an incredibly engaging system that demands split-second decision-making and is by far Cygni’s most distinguishing feature. It has a very passing resemblance to Ikaruga’s polarity shifting, but the effects of Cygni’s energy management are more involved.
(Credit: KeelWorks, Konami)
This action is not without a few issues, however. By far the most frustrating element in Cygni is the Orca’s absurdly fast movement. Your ship moves lightning-quick, but there is also some degree of momentum to the start of your movement that makes minute adjustments ever-so-slightly imprecise. Many top-down shooters have very tight stop-and-go commands that let you make pixel-sized adjustments with the tap of the button: this is much harder to do in Cygni because your movement carries you farther than you anticipate. You can adjust to this speed as you play, but there were instances where I felt that I got hit when I shouldn’t have, simply because the Orca moved a hair farther than I expected it to. Another issue with the action is that Cygni feels like you were meant to tank hits. Naturally, you aren’t intended to face-tank everything, but the game throws a lot at you at any given time. Not only are you contending with what feels like an angry hornet’s nest of assailing ships firing all at once, but you also have patterned bombardments, laser traps, and tiny bullets all flying at you, too, made worse by the lingering explosions and dust clouds that obscure your vision for a bit too long. Some sections of the game are minutes-long gauntlets of the same type of enemy dumping shots at you while also dropping energy points when defeated. This means the best course of action is to simply fly into optimal spots, bullets be damned, and deal as much damage as possible while collecting energy to restore your shields. It feels inelegant in these instances.
(Credit: KeelWorks, Konami)
Level Up Between MissionsCygni breaks the mold by making power-ups unlockable rather than something you collect via random pickup during a stage. The energy points you accrue during a stage also double as currency, which you can spend on permanent power-ups in between stages. These include drones for supplemental gunfire, additional formations like wide-shot or side-fire, homing functionality, increased missile volley size, and more. This system gives Cygni a lot of replay value, since it is extremely unlikely to earn enough currency to purchase all enhancements in a single playthrough. Unfortunately, the ability screen is difficult to parse at first glance. It’s unclear how abilities work beyond the basic descriptions given. Some are easy enough, like increased missile volley, but others, like assigning gun and drone angle presets, are not nearly as obvious. A demo of these abilities would have been ideal. The upgrade system is novel but also limits gameplay variety somewhat until you have most systems unlocked. Your first few missions have you limited to guns and homing missiles, as the more advanced functions, like side drones, are expensive and can’t be unlocked until much later in the game. It would have been nice to see some of these upgrades made available during each stage as temporary pickups, or perhaps mini-boss drops, to give you a taste of what you can unlock later, while also spicing up the shooting mechanics during the campaign.
Why You Should Game on a PC
Can Your PC Run Cygni?Cygni: All Guns Blazing is graphically dense, with dozens of foreground elements, background elements, and particle effects packed onto the screen at any given time. It’s fairly demanding for a shmup. On our test PC outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, and 16GB of RAM, Cygni performed decently at 1440p with high settings. I generally got 60fps in most stages, but there were momentary stutters and dips to the 30s when a lot of action was on screen.Cygni is not Steam Deck verified, but it is playable. There is even a handy official guide on Steam to help set it up. Unfortunately, the text does not scale well, which is the only caveat when playing on the Deck. Verdict: Cygni Is a Unique Shmup Worth Trying There is a lot to enjoy in Cygni: All Guns Blazing once you come to grips with its many mechanics. Despite being touted as a shmup for a new generation, its brutal difficulty and complex upgrade system may deter newcomers. Stick with it, however, and you have a shmup with lots of systems to master, and plenty of replay value as well. It serves as a fine gateway game into the genre, with enough uniqueness to stand apart from its contemporaries. For in-depth video game talk, visit PCMag’s Pop-Off YouTube channel.
Cons
Effects and particles obscure your view
Slightly imprecise movement
Somewhat cryptic upgrade system
The Bottom Line
Though it takes time and skill to master, Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a satisfying arcade-style shoot ’em up that only gets better with replays.
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About Gabriel Zamora
My career has taken me through an eclectic assortment of fields, and connected me with people from all walks of life. This experience includes construction, professional cooking, podcasting, and, of course, writing. I’ve been typing up geeky takes since 2009, ultimately landing a freelancing position at PCMag. This blossomed into a full-time tech analyst position in 2021, where I lend my personal insight on the matters of web hosting, streaming music, mobile apps, and video games.
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