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VEKTOR WARS (WIIU)
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Publisher: Super Icon.
Developer: Super Icon. Released: September 2016 (Europe). Genre: FPS. Other versions: SWI; PS4; PC. Posted 6th August 2024. By Shane Battams © 2024 |
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Vektor Wars proved a decent proposition on the Wii U: a retro-style first-person shooter on a console that needed more of them. Challenging shooting meshes well with a vector-graphics style modernised to fit with eighth-gen hardware, and for a while, you can definitely find some tough fun here. Unfortunately, poor optimisation hurts this one, with some noticeable technical issues that can hamper gameplay. A real shame, as smoother performance and some multiplayer modes could have made it a gem. Instead, this game is harder to recommend to less forgiving genre aficionados.
Vektor Wars puts you in the boots of space ranger Commander James Moses, sent on a mission to defeat an army of death robots. Each mission sees you fighting waves of these robots, with collectables in the form of power cubes and robodudes. Collecting these not only rewards special messages for each mission but also contribute towards a good ending, whereas missing them results in the bad finale. It isn’t really about story however, as text crawls are short and to the point and you’ll find no semblance of personality from the commander. He never speaks, and we never see his face.
Vector-based visuals lend the game a pleasant, distinctive retro style
Instead, Super Icon put all of their focus into the action, as you battle waves of robots ranging from tanks to flying ships. Like any good arcade title, a scoring system is in place with something of a twist. While points are awarded for killing foes, they also drop multiplier crystals that increase your combo. These disappear fast, meaning you must make haste, but a cool curveball adds an element of risk. Robots explode upon death and depending on their size, they can deal serious damage to your health. This means you have to balance keeping distance with speed to pick up these, but the higher multipliers result in insane score counts. It helps that there are 15 weapons to pick up across each stage, ranging from miniguns to hellfire missiles, and they all feel impactful and fun to use. There’s a raw satisfaction to chewing through hundreds of robots, and these cool quirks add even more fun.
Story Mode proves a great place to start, with each level unlocking with the completion of the prior stage and a more forgiving respawn system that returns you to the highest wave you’ve reached. Challenging mode variants seem typical on the surface, but offer a neat spin on the shooting. Arcade Mode starts you with three lives, but earning points rewards extra lives and proves a great use of the scoring system. Deadline tasks you with scoring as much as you can within a five-minute timeframe. Sequence sees the player jumping between five zones and tasked with surviving two minutes in each, while Survival involves attempting to survive on a single life for as long as possible – and also, a timer resets if you fail to kill a robot within 30 seconds. These challenging variants add some decent lifespan to the game, though the lack of any kind of multiplayer mode, be it online or split-screen, is a crying shame, though leaderboards do at least inspire some competitive spirit.
Story Mode proves a great place to start, with each level unlocking with the completion of the prior stage and a more forgiving respawn system that returns you to the highest wave you’ve reached. Challenging mode variants seem typical on the surface, but offer a neat spin on the shooting. Arcade Mode starts you with three lives, but earning points rewards extra lives and proves a great use of the scoring system. Deadline tasks you with scoring as much as you can within a five-minute timeframe. Sequence sees the player jumping between five zones and tasked with surviving two minutes in each, while Survival involves attempting to survive on a single life for as long as possible – and also, a timer resets if you fail to kill a robot within 30 seconds. These challenging variants add some decent lifespan to the game, though the lack of any kind of multiplayer mode, be it online or split-screen, is a crying shame, though leaderboards do at least inspire some competitive spirit.
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Vektor Wars catches the eye with its vector-based graphics, mixing wire-framed stylings with bright colours reminiscent of a neon sign. It’s a pleasing look, with the nine stages offering some large and varied environments to battle in and plenty of geometry such as buildings and turrets. The sound perfectly complements this, with a synthwave soundtrack recalling the classics that inspired the game, while also offering some enjoyable music to jam to. Guns and robots all sound potent too, proving pleasing on the senses. Unfortunately, this one suffers from some serious issues with stuttering and slowdown. The game has a nasty habit of pausing for a few seconds and intense action sees the frame rate dip low, affecting input. It proves very distracting, and when this starts to affect gameplay, it can put a dampner on the fun.
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Vektor Wars had all the makings of a decent first-person shooter. It’s certainly not a deep game, but it taps into that primal instinct to blast stuff and does it with a distinctive style. Those looking to recapture the arcade days of gaming, including the challenge associated with it, might still find plenty to like here. It’s just a shame that noticeable issues with performance hurt the action, and its incredibly frustrating to have a tough game made more difficult due to factors outside of the player’s control. Ultimately, this makes it harder to recommend.
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VERDICT
"Vektor Wars taps into that primal instinct to shoot stuff, and does it with a distinctive style. However, noticeable technical hitches hurt the action" OVERALL: 5/10 |
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Panzer Dragoon Orta (2003, Xbox)
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