CYGNI: All Guns Blazing Reviews
Cygni All Guns Blazing is really an excellent game. It's definitely the best-looking shoot 'em up I've ever played, surpassing even "Sky Force" in terms of visuals. The game does suffer from a few issues, but these are not things that couldn't be fixed with appropriate updates. Playing it was fun, and I hope the developers will decide to add more content to the game, as there's a lot of potential in it.
Review in Polish | Read full review
CYGNI may not be the new "benchmark in shoot 'em ups", but it's still a fun game with a great passion for a genre that has almost become a niche one.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is an old-school shmup in modern clothing, offering the same sort of immediate arcade fun as its genre stablemates, but with a cinematic (albeit slightly perfunctory) story and some neat high-res graphics.
Visually stunning and with its own personality, Cygni: All Guns Blazing represents an interesting approach to the shoot 'em up genre. While the narrative efforts are not very convincing, the gameplay and presentation shine. With unique mechanics and a tactical touch, the visual presentation brings spectacular firefights to life. The overall longevity is not stellar (a common genre flaw), and the ability to shoot at the ground is marginal, but the Scottish team's debut is highly convincing.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Mechanically-engaging and technically impressive when it wants to be, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing goes all in on spectacle with mixed results. Where its core energy-management system is an anxious-but-delightful thing to manage, it's most of what surrounds the gameplay that KeelWorks sadly don't fair as well on. Putting its immediate and dense introduction to one side, its lack of a stand-out musical or artistic identity, while not the end of the world, does mitigate a hefty chunk of how much enjoyment one can find. Particularly in such a visually-busy take on shmups as CYGNI is. Even so, a sufficient level of joy remains via those classically shmup-like moments of holding on to take down a boss or battling through an endless wave of hostiles and still coming out the other side unscathed. Its supposed unique standing doesn't always feel adequate, but CYGNI: All Guns Blazing still presides over an interesting-enough, modern-day take on the genre.
If you’ve been looking for a more modern take on Touhou, Radiant Silvergun, or any of the many other bullet hell shooters on the market, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing ticks the box. It’s fast, it’s frantic, and it looks frankly unbelievable at times. And considering it’s being flogged at half the price of most other modern PS5 titles, it represents relatively reasonable value for money, too.
CYGNI All Guns Blazing is not the classic "shmup" but, net of a convincing visual system and some successful gameplay ideas, it is a product that is unlikely to become the new reference point for purists of the genre and will struggle just as much to involve that slice of the public not used to vertical scrolling shooters, due to intricate menus and a poorly calibrated and not very customizable difficulty level.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cygni: All Guns Blazing, developed by KeelWorks and released by Konami, is a visually stunning vertical shmup with twin-stick shooter mechanics. While it offers full freedom of movement and innovative power management between shields and missiles, it has a few drawbacks such as lengthy stages and inconsistent difficulty spikes. Despite some frustrating elements, its cinematic presentation and engaging gameplay mechanics make it a noteworthy addition to Konami’s Shmup catalog. If you’re a fan of shmups looking for something fresh, Cygni: All Guns Blazing is worth checking out.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is a heart-stopping, adrenaline-fueled shoot-em-up. Its steep learning curve may initially deter gamers, but mastering its intricacies leads to an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience. The sheer intensity of the action is almost overwhelming, pushing the limits of human perception, yet it’s undeniably impressive in its fearless approach.
Unfortunately, "Cygni" didn't really convince us. Yes, the game looks incredibly good and conjures up a real fireworks display on the screen. And yes, the snappy bullet hell battles are fun. Nevertheless, we felt that the spark of genius that is necessary for a game of this genre was missing. The balance between the difficulty levels isn't really right. The pacing within the missions isn't right for our taste either: "Cygni" keeps us stuck at certain points too often, and far too often these snapshots drag on too much. Then the action game is almost boring despite all its qualities. And the upgrade system and its options could also be more intuitive. All in all, "Cygni: All Guns Blazing" turns out to be a solid action game with some clever approaches and a first-class presentation. However, it is nowhere near as good as classics like "Gradius" and the like.
Review in German | Read full review
Cygni: All Guns Blazing provides an exhilarating and action-packed shmup experience for hardcore players. The customizable ship options are impressive, the energy allocation mechanic is unique, the visual and sounds are immersive, and the game is sure to keep players on the edge of their seats, bringing its full bullet hell twin stick shooter glory to modern audiences.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing started out with a glorious purpose: to renew and modernize the bullet hell genre. It was an ambitious goal that aimed to bring enough novelty to the contemporary landscape to be able to make a ludic typology born to satisfy the masochistic desire of a few more attractive to the general public. Unfortunately, not everything went right: while the graphical and musical aspects are fully promoted, the gameplay adopts some ideas that make it not only punishing but also far too confusing. The result is a title that, instead of opening up to the general public, ends up speaking to an even smaller, Mesozoic circle of fans.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is a "jack of all trades" type of shooter. It isn't afraid to use as many different gameplay mechanics as possible, and it isn't fearful of creating chaotic situations almost all of the time. You'll wish that more time had been spent refining these elements or adding some quality-of-life elements and tweaks to make the mix stand out more positively. What's available is good enough that hardcore shooting fans will enjoy it, and the hope is that improvements are made to tighten up the experience either through various patches or a potential sequel.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is an ambitious title that combines exceptional visuals with some innovative gameplay mechanics. However, behind the breathtaking aesthetics, the game suffers from core gameplay issues that can occasionally make the experience frustrating and less engaging than expected.
Review in Italian | Read full review
There are a number of elements present in Cygni: All Guns Blazing that underwhelm. From its unremarkable enemy designs to its banal story, it simply doesn’t feel like it has a strong identity. However, for all its shortcomings, it does deliver seven action-packed stages of controller-gripping, shmup goodness. The ship customization stuff is neat, the energy allocation mechanic is novel, and it features some highly enjoyable boss battles. When all is said and done, I doubt Cygni will make much of an impact with the general gaming populace, but I suspect that bullet hell fans will find something to love here.
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is the best-looking shoot 'em up out there, and along with its epic soundtrack, it's a treat for the eyes and ears. But a number of issues, such as its stages being too long and the screen often being simply too busy, mean that it doesn't fulfil its potential.
What CYGNI: All Guns Blazing lacks in tightened combat it makes up for in visuals, though sadly that might not be enough to win over die hard shoot ‘em ups fans.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is an uneven experience that features great shoot-em-up elements wrapped in a bizarre cinematic focus that only seems to take away more than it gives. Particle effects can be disorienting and the story feels only partially realised. In the pursuit of cinematic excitement, it feels like the base experience has been compromised and damaged with a lack of focus across the board. If this was just a top-down shoot-em-up, I'd be far more positive here. If you can stick with it, you might find an enjoyable arcade-adjacent experience with cutting-edge presentation. Otherwise, maybe not.
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing may bring new players to the genre due to its appealing presentation but it's underwhelming in design for the experienced fans of shoot'em ups. The idea of risk and reward from converting shields to missiles is interesting but it quickly becomes repetitive due to the lack of variation in the shots, making it only a way to deal with tough bullet patterns.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
CYGNI: All Guns Blazing attempts to modernize shoot 'em up games with modern visuals, but the overall formula is basic, turning an initially exciting journey into something generic – but still welcome.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review