Velocity 2x is a side scrolling, top down shooting shoot’em up game developed by Future Lab, developers of Surge Deluxe and published by Sony computer entertainment. Originally for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation vita it has now been released for the Xbox one and Microsoft windows.
The story starts with you, a cyborg woman named Kai Tana who has recently lost her crew to some accident and is now escaping from an alien ship. While you escape you are helped by a mysteries stranger who later turns out to be a Jintinda which are a pacifistic race of aliens that have been enslaved by the Vokh . Hjun Ralan III (your friendly jintinda) reveals that he has a plan to stop the evil Vokh and that it will require you to save a bunch of his friends. How the cut scenes are used and the art style used in them lends itself to the game and sets the missions up beautifully, also it is nice to see objects that you collect to make sense for the story such as the crystals to power up your weapons and the alien pods you rescue to help you complete your goal. However, the main character can feel a little bit irritating at times as her persona can be surmised as “that cocky bastard” and your alien friend does not really grow past the pacifistic nature already imbued upon him. But, then again, if you came to this game in search of a truly deep story and truly developed characters I would probably slap you and ask at what point you expected that.
The gameplay is interesting as it is split into two different parts. The run and gun side scroller where you have to collect crystals and avoid falling into what look like heat grates that massive fast food restaurants use to cook a whole cow and destroying any security bots in your way. The other mode you are a space ship and it turns into a top down shooter where you have to fly through rescuing alien pods, and ensuring you do not get stuck on the bottom of the screen and turned into a trash compacted metal meaty pie. Although these are fairly different they do share commonalities such as a teleporty power that lets you jump through walls for both you and the space ship. Oh, occasionally you get to fight a nerfed bullet hell styled boss which would have been even cooler and more fun if for whatever reason the special weapon you get did not decide to suddenly stop working. Also throughout the levels you have to disarm switches by jumping from spaceship mode to running around as a person mode. This works well as it breaks up the gameplay a little bit. However, there are a lot of features that felt non-ancillary. By this I mean there is a point that you unlock an ability to use a big rifle –which sounds cool. However using your standard gun is just an effective if not better due to the fact that it is easily controlled with the right analogue stick and not having to waste time hitting the B button. The gameplay changes a little again later in the game which breaks the gameplay up again breaking the monotonous switch created by the usual swapping of the two parts however it is a lot better if it is left as a surprise. The levels are interestingly unlock via “levelling up” rather than in succession so if you do well you can unlock the mission ten levels after your current mission. An interesting thing to do but I have no idea why. I guess it is to try and make you feel competent however I was pretty sure that is how a scoring system works.
Visually the game feels like a modern Arcady game with the simple yet pretty graphics with really quite breath taking scenery for an arcade styled game. So, mostly nothing to unusual and as I mentioned the art used in the cut scenes lends itself to the whole experience. As for the sound it changes just as the thought crosses your mind “well I hope I don’t have to listen to this for the next fifty levels I might just have to great my ears with a cheese grater”. I am not saying that the music is terrible, just samey and is not really anything inspiring, different or amazing.
Overall I got the same feeling playing velocity2x as I did deadlight. Sure the story was pretty interesting however the game itself just felt like just going through the motions – oh I have to blow up some space invader like A.I bots. Oh, now I have to do that swapping between walking around and shooting things and flying around shooting things to disarm the barrier after the last fifteen I have just done. So if you’re the kind of gamer who loves Arcady speedy run type games then this is for you. If not, probably not an experience you will cherish forever.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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