Gameplay straight from 1984; graphics from 2005.
By: Casey Curran
escapeVektor was a game that started off with a terrible first impression, offering a seemingly endless wave of text in a futile attempt to give the game personality. This only got in the way of what should have been a simple but stylish game with some overly simple early levels. Over time this puzzler became much better, but I would not say it is enough to call it good.
CONTROLS (4.5/5)
escapeVektor has very simple controls. You move in four directions with the face buttons being used for your different powers. As the game goes on you get more powers, which all feel natural to use. The only issue I really had did not come with the gameplay itself, but from navigating menus as the game makes it unclear as to when pressing the X button would advance dialog or pick a level, which hurts as picking the wrong choice will make the game replay the level you just finished.
GRAPHICS/SOUND (3.25/5)
This game wants to be Geometry Wars so bad it’s not even funny. None of the shapes are filled in, everything has a neon look with a dark background, and the music has a techno theme to it. It is not a bad style at all, but ripping off Geometry Wars in 2013 it just feels tired. The game tries to inject more personality with a character that talks between levels.
These dialogue bits backfire as they feel unnecessary and boring. The character is not charming at all and talks way too much. To make matters worse, the game gets rid of the dialog box then brings it up again every time dialogue is advanced, which gets surprisingly annoying.
GAMEPLAY (2.5/5)
The gameplay is very simple. There is a grid with obstacles. You have to move along the lines of the grid to change their color. Completely changing the color of the outline of a square gives a large bonus to your points until you get enough to finish the level. If this sounds very basic, it’s because it is. As the game goes on you get a few powers and more obstacles on more complex grids, but there is no reason this game could not have worked on the Atari 2600. It tries to make up for it in the style, but as I said before, the style brings nothing new to the table.
It does not even nail the gameplay as the camera zooms in way too far. This led to many instances where an obstacle would be in my way and I died or wasted time just because I could not see it. In a game that is so dependent on getting a high score, this flaw was way too much for me to ignore. There is an option to zoom out, but it was still not enough and holding the R button to do this is far from an ideal situation.
OVERALL (2.75/5)
The first few levels aside, escapeVektor is not a bad game. It works well. Its gameplay is just too basic even when more obstacles get added in. It goes for a style over substance approach, and anyone that has played more than five minutes of Geometry Wars will find nothing impressive about its style.
RotoRob GAMING 