Vectron Assault

Vectron Assault is apparently a callback to the good old days of arcade FPS games with vector graphics, which apparently means they just didn't bother to color stuff in.  Whether or not such a golden age actually existed, I'm too young to know, but if Vectron Assault is an accurate representation of that time, I'm glad I missed it.

seeing a game described as a callback to a time I've never experienced pets me in an awkward situation.  All of the problems that I had with the game might have been deliberately put there to reinforce the old timey aesthetic.  But you know what? That didn't make it any less infuriating, so I'm going to talk about them anyway.

Far and away the most annoying thing about this game is the level design.  The walls all have this weird effect that makes it seem like there's an opening around the corner, but such a thing never exists.  This is especially infuriating when you can see the enemies with less than accelerated AI trying to shoot you through the translucent walls.  almost half of my playtime was spent circling around the same 5 square feet trying to find a piece of wall i could go through until I realized that the opening I looked for was on the exact opposite side of the level.  Try to visualize that: the game lead me to one side of the level and then told me to backtrack through the area I had already cleared in order to progress.  That's like, the first thing they tell you not to do in game design 101, isn't it?

Other than that, the only thing worth noting is the control, which makes the came feel like a weird hybrid of Battletanx and Forsaken 64.  The position of the mouse in relation to the center of the screen acts sort of like a joystick, if that makes sense.  The farther your cursor is to one side, the faster you will turn to that side.  This kind of control could work in a fullscreen game, so I guess I have nothing to complain about, but I usually play these games in windows if I have the opportunity, so my cursor was flying off the edge, leaving me motionless, way more often than I would have liked.

Well that's all I got for today.  Final Verdict: nice try, but I'll stick with The Shaman Engines.  Until next time, stay retro

Links
Graphics of Magnitude and Direction: https://www.digipen.edu/?id=1170&proj=1420