Line #4 VideoGame/BurnCycle


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0867.JPG]]
2	->''"It ain’t easy bein’ a two-bit thug in an eight-bit town."''
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4	A 1994 first-person {{Cyberpunk}} AdventureGame which incorporates puzzles and [[Main/LiveActionCutscene full motion video]], similar to that of ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. Regarded by retro gamers as a CultClassic and one of the [[DamnedByFaintPraise best games]] on the Platform/PhilipsCDi.
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6	You play [[LukeNounverber Sol Cutter]], a small-time thief who ferries stolen data [[NeuralImplanting inside of his brain]] (à la ''Film/JohnnyMnemonic''). While he's robbing Softech Industries, a deadly ComputerVirus known as [[TitleDrop Burn:Cycle]] is downloaded into Sol's mind. It's dormant now, but if Sol doesn't get that virus out of his head within [[TimeBomb two hours]], his brain is yogurt. This countdown occurs in real time, essentially boiling down the game to one big TimedMission, but there are enough [[SavePoint save]] opportunities to see gamers through.
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8	Despite having decent graphics for the time and comparably-good acting, ''Burn:Cycle'' is infamous for both its kitschy aesthetic and nutty (yet oddly straight-faced) storyline. Sol's [[PrivateEyeMonologue hard-boiled narration]] riffs on ''Film/BladeRunner'', and the colorful characters he meets along the way are arguably the game's biggest strength.
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10	!!Burn:Cycle contains examples of:
11	%% Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples are not allowed on the wiki. Please expand them with context before uncommenting %%them.
12	* AmbiguousRobots: ASCII is either a hive-mind collective of data miners, an AI, or something in between, and nobody knows which.
13	%%* AntiVillain: Vielli.
14	%%* ArtificialIntelligence
15	* BackAlleyDoctor: Doc. [[spoiler: He's also an ex-employee of [=SofTech=], having developed the brain-uploading tech Vielli used in the first place.]]
16	%%* BadassLongcoat: Gala.
17	* BadassNative: Gala belongs to an ''[[GangOfHats entire gang]]'' of these. Take Sol's word for it; Native Americans don't fuck around in the future.
18	* BatmanGambit: Everything Sol does in the game is according to Vielli's design -- even his failures!
19	* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: The RailShooter segment versus Sol's Rage.
20	* BondVillainStupidity: Dealey [[InTheBack turning his back]] on Sol. This mere moments after gloating over how he killed Sol's partner. True, Dealey's men were just about to burst in, but Sol had literally nothing to lose in shooting him.
21	* BrainUploading: Halfway through the game, Sol's friend Doc uploads his mind into the Televerse as a virtual construct.
22	%%* CallReceptionArea
23	* CameraAbuse: Dealey shoots out the camera after delivering his final ultimatum to Sol.
24	* CasualKink: When Gala and Sol arrive at his old hotel room, she peeks into the minibar to look for drinks. Instead, she finds a chainmail harness. Sol's nonchalant response is priceless.
25	-->"Don't touch those! I get charged for what I use."
26	%%* CityOfAdventure
27	* CoincidentalBroadcast: The announcement of NAMO's hacker attack.
28	%%* ComputerVoice
29	* CoolestClubEver: Sum Zero.
30	* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Dealey.
31	* TheCracker: Sol himself.
32	* CreditChip: Sol's credit card, which can be loaded with credits from the First Karmic Bank of Consciousness Credit. The card even has a fingerprint scanner that lets you view its balance at will.
33	* CyberpunkIsTechno: All throughout the game, from frantic dance tracks in the Sum Zero bar, to new-age electronic themes in the Televerse.
34	* {{Cyberspace}}: Referred to as the "Televerse".
35	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Sol Cutter.
36	* DiegeticInterface: Most of Cutter's HUD comes from a set of camera goggles he uses. Averted with the inventory and save screen, though.
37	* [[GenreMotif/EasyListening Easy Listening]]: The obnoxious hotel theme.
38	* EnemyWithout: While exploring the depths of his mind, Sol is confronted by a personification of his own rage.
39	* EvilLaugh: Dealey's distinctive snicker. "Eheh heh heh heh!" [[spoiler:This forms part of a puzzle later on]]
40	* FakingTheDead: Vielli is believed to be dead in the live world. Actually, he uploaded his consciousness into the Televerse.
41	* FantasticDrug: Zip loves to trip out on electronic "rushes" - basically, using the cybernetics in his brain to pump out pleasure and excitement endorphins, akin to the rush one might get from extreme sports. It's gotten so bad that even if you're right next to him in the physical world, you have to talk to him in the Televerse to get his attention.
42	* FirstLawOfGenderBending: Sol Cutter's original body is pretty much unusable now, so he's [[CursedWithAwesome stuck with the good-looking, athletic body]]. Cutter's initial objections to the body aren't that it's female, but that it's one Vielli admits is built for "speed and pleasure."
43	** Cutter's nemesis mentions he [[AttractiveBentGender looks better now]].
44	* TheFuture: Circa 2043.
45	* FlyingCar: How you get to various locations in the game.
46	* FreudianTrio: The three pieces of Sol's personality code.
47	** Id: His Rage
48	** Ego: Virtual Kris
49	** Superego: The gold buddha
50	* GenderBender: Under duress, Sol agrees to be downloaded into one of Vielli's spare bodies: a "pleasure model". [[{{Squick}} Ick]].
51	* GenericEthnicCrimeGang: Puerto-Rican pharmaceutical smugglers.
52	* GunpointBanter: "When God was crapping stupidity, he dropped a ''shitload'' on you!"
53	* HellbentForLeather: After Sol's brain gets transferred into a woman, he wakes up in a spandex outfit with a navel-baring window.
54	* HistoryRepeats: Sol and Dealey find themselves in a pistol standoff twice during the game -- once in a flashback, and again at the end of the game.
55	%%* {{Hologram}}
56	* ImmortalityImmorality: Vielli's aim is to preserve the minds of Earth's greatest thinkers by uploading their brains into the televerse, whereupon they can BodySurf between artificial bodies in perpetuity. Softech seeks to sell his technology to the highest bidder.
57	* InGameTV: Sum Zero has these, which also double as a public Televerse interface.
58	%%* InsideAComputerSystem
59	* ItsQuietTooQuiet: Sol remarks on this after gaining entry to his hotel room.
60	* ItWasWithYouAllAlong: See "Master of Disguise".
61	* JokeItem: A porno mag. (''[[Music/BonJovi Wet When Slippery]]'')
62	* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: One location in the Televerse, labeled "Nirvana", contains a surreal mock-up of Sol's own memories, showing people from his past, including some that never appear in the game proper.
63	* KavorkaMan: Sol is an average-looking bloke with a thinning hairline. Judging by the contents of his hotel room, though, he's been busy. Gala also comments on his "cute ass".
64	* KnowledgeBroker: An AI (probably) called ASCII buys and sells information. Cutter asks for an "open line of credit" early on but since he hasn't gotten to the bottom of the mystery yet, halfway through ASCII cuts him off and withdraws support.
65	* KissOfDeath: Gala plants one on Sol before holding him at gunpoint.
66	* LargeHamAnnouncer: The Psychic Roulette announcer is this.
67	* LogicBomb: The "Burn:Cycle" virus acts as one of these to a ''human brain''.
68	* LosingYourHead: Sol's last task is to smuggle away Vielli's severed head, which contains the information Softech is seeking. [[spoiler:He fails. [[BatmanGambit But that was Vielli's plan all along]]]]
69	* MagicPlasticSurgery: Sol makes an off-hand comment about having "a different face" when he crossed paths with Gala previously.
70	* ManIFeelLikeAWoman: Sol adjusts to his new body briskly; he's already [[SkewedPriorities thinking along those lines]] in the epilogue.
71	* MasterOfDisguise: [[spoiler:As a Televerse construct, Vielli can morph into any form he wishes, including Virtual Kris. He does so at one point to make a rhetorical point to Cutter]].
72	%%* MegaCorp: Softech and Cortex.
73	* MexicanStandoff: Sol and Dealey.
74	* MutilationInterrogation: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] with Dealey, who threatens to keep chopping away at Sol's (unconscious) body until Sol returns to his body with what Dealey wants. Sol gets around this impediment by switching bodies altogether.
75	* NeckLift: "Sol's Rage" throttles Sol while rattling off his past failures.
76	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in a bit of Sol's commentary about NAMO and Gala: Whenever an undercover agent is found within NAMO, they give him a pistol and [[MercyLead an hour's lead]] to run away. Once it's elapsed, a cadre of ladies with short-bladed knives are sent out after him. According to Sol, not ''one'' of those agents lasted longer than a few hours afterwards.
77	* NightVisionGoggles: The hotel level.
78	%%* NothingPersonal
79	* NoNewFashionsInTheFuture: Epitomized by the characters' clothes and hair styles, which more resemble late-[[TheEighties 80s]] punk fashions.
80	* NowWhereWasIGoingAgain: Sol will describe his next objective when the player accesses the menu.
81	* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with the New Age Movement.
82	* PlayfulHacker: Zip, who also deals in contraband to help you.
83	* RasterVision: People shown on monitors or as holograms appear heavily interlaced.
84	* ReplayMode: The "Recap" button in the main menu shows the most recent cutscene.
85	* RoboSpeak: ASCII talk this way. Possibly because it's AI. Maybe. Nobody's sure.
86	* SafeCracking: Comes into play with Sol's hidden stash in his hotel room. And it's timed.
87	* ShowSomeLeg: Sol arranges for Gala to use this trick on a guard patrolling outside his hotel.
88	* SlowDoors: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the prologue; Sol doesn't make it, and Kris is shot dead on the helipad.
89	* SophisticatedAsHell: The gold Buddha abruptly mutters "It's a bitch." if you pick the wrong leaf and die.
90	* SplitPersonalityMerge: Sol's construct form has holes in his body upon arriving, which Doc explains are bits of Sol's personality scattered around the Televerse. He then has to hunt down these fragments and retrieve them to patch these holes.
91	* TapOnTheHead: One karate chop from Gala is enough to lay a mook flat.
92	* ThereAreTwoKindsOfPeopleInTheWorld: "Those who rush, and those who don't."
93	* ThresholdGuardians: The gold Buddha.
94	* TimeBomb: The Burn:Cycle virus that Sol's cybernetics are infected with has essentially turned his brain into one, unless he can find a way to neutralize the virus.
95	** You begin the game carrying a small Russian bomb with an adjustable timer. You have to use it to blast open a gate to escape the starting area.
96	* TraumaInducedAmnesia: The scattered flashbacks to Sol's days as a corporate "[[ProfessionalKiller adjuster]]".
97	%%* TwoDecadesBehind
98	* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Nobody inside the nightclub seems to bat an eyelash when a gunfight erupts.
99	* WeHardlyKnewYe: Kris in the intro. [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig zagged]] when Sol rediscovers her in the Televerse -- [[spoiler:only for Kris to morph into her true form, Vielli]].
100	%%* WeWillSpendCreditsInTheFuture
101	* WelcomeToMyWorld: Vielli in the Televerse.
102	%%* WhiteCollarCrime
103	* WouldYouLikeToHearHowTheyDied: Dealey's mocking reference to Kris' death, revealing it was he who shot her.
104	* YearInsideHourOutside: With Sol uploaded into the Televerse, Doc explains that an hour in there is a second in the real world.
105	%%* YetAnotherStupidDeath

Context VideoGame / BurnCycle