Energy Cycle Edge Review

Energy Cycle Edge
Developer: Sometimes You
Publisher: Sometimes You
Reviewed On: PlayStation 4
Available On: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita

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After finishing a session playing Energy Cycle Edge, I had this burning desire to try and master a Rubik’s Cube. After all, the two share plenty of similarities in their design and intentions and in some ways Energy Cycle Edge felt like training for its real-world, boxy inspiration. Unfortunately, just like a Rubik’s Cube, Energy Cycle Edge is often too clever for its own good, despite delivering an intriguing and digestible concept.

Sometimes You’s sequel to Energy Cycle begins by offering you no explanation of what you are meant to be doing. It throws you no safety lines to guide you towards understanding its main ideas and lacks any tutorials or hints system. All that is presented to you in the first level is a screen filled with multi-colored cells and a cursor that can interact with them. That’s it. Therefore, the first puzzle of the game is figuring out how to even play it.

Thankfully, I quickly realized that the main mechanic of Energy Cycle Edge is hardly obtuse. Selecting one of those cells will cycle it between three different colors. Doing so will also change the color of any cells that are part of the adjacent row or column to the one you are clicking on. The aim for each of the game’s 44 puzzles is to have every cell be the same color – I usually tried to make them all crystal blue, just because I found it to be the most aesthetically pleasing.

Energy Cycle Edge excels in using this rather simple concept to create some very entertaining puzzles. After just a few clicks I would often have around 90% of the puzzle under the one color. However, squeezing out those last few contrasting cells demanded a touch more brain power. It required careful planning, calculated foresight, and a big old dose of patience. And because of the interconnected nature of the cells, fixing one problem would often create two more. Randomly mashing cells would also just cause a bigger mess, but victory was never unattainable as long as I found the right sequence. And like any good puzzle game, getting into the zone and suddenly discovering the solution to an elusive puzzle would feel incredibly satisfying.

As difficult as it could be to juggle Energy Cycle Edge’s initial 2D puzzles, things became insane once I attempted its 3D offerings. Rotating the level to reveal the second slab of cells meant that I now had double the workload to complete. On top of that, certain cells are connected to both sides of the puzzle which gave even more weight to every decision I made. Amazingly, these two-sided puzzles are only the tip of the iceberg as the game’s level design crescendos with four-sided, cube-like behemoths. The final levels are basically digital Rubik’s Cubes on steroids.

This is where Energy Cycle Edge goes a bit over the top. The difficulty curve for these puzzles is hardly accommodating and even the earlier levels throw you straight into the deep end. I never felt like the game was easing me into its more advanced concepts and would get stressed out as a result. Thankfully, you can select any puzzle you want from the start of the game which eliminates the risk of being stuck on a particularly prickly one. And while 44 puzzles may not sound like too many, the grind to get through the later ones certainly justifies it.

I was disappointed that Energy Cycle Edge was so barren in offering other features or modes. There is no time attack mode, however, you can view your times for each completed puzzle. Likewise, there are no leaderboards which for a puzzle game in 2018 feels near unforgivable. For such a challenging game it would have been really neat to compare my times and scores to those who have truly mastered it. The absence of a leaderboard feels like a missed opportunity and would have given me incentive to repeat completed puzzles.

Fortunately, what is there is presented in a clean, tight package. The cells look sharp and bring a crispness to the overall look of the game. Meanwhile, the ambient soundtrack contributes to the appropriately relaxing vibe of the game – when you are not stressing out over that one cell you cannot get to cooperate, that is. It’s not an entirely polished product. Why can I only use left or right to scroll through each of the puzzles instead of making use of the full D-pad?

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Final Thoughts:

Overall, Energy Cycle Edge is addicting, simplistic and incredibly frustrating, just like a Rubik’s Cube. I adored how it showed confidence in its own mechanics and ideas, I just wished that it didn’t show quite as much faith in the player. It has an unwelcoming difficulty curve that will no doubt turn away those who aren’t willing to show it some patience. For those who do stick around, they will find a clever puzzle game that is light on features but heavy on rewards. When it beat me, Energy Cycle Edge made me feel like a 5-year-old failing at Tetris over and over again. But when I conquered it, well, maybe I can finally complete a Rubik’sCube now.

*review code provided by publisher*