Indie titles have been getting more and more successful in recent years, and one game that truly encompasses this movement is Velocity 2X. The fast paced gameplay puts players into two different scenarios, flying through the game in a ship and platforming around levels with the lead character. At the Eurogamer Expo 2013, I was able to get hands on with the game as well as talk to the developers. How does the game play out? Let us power our ships thrusters and find out.
Velocity instantly stands out with its amazing art style. The original game was a simple 2D title, whilst the sequel has decided to up the quality with 3D graphics. The interesting part of the art style, shared to me by Callum of the Future Labs team, is that the game utilises vector art in order to create those stunning visual effects. It makes the game look both retro and modern at the same time, an interesting and overall fantastic idea.
The game, as stated earlier, is split into two different sections. The first is an isometric style of space shooter, similar to the classic space shooter games from previous generations. This gameplay feels classic as you are able to direct your ship anywhere on the screen, increase or decrease speed at will, and shoot down obstacles and opponents with explosives. An added touch to this gameplay is a progressively creeping screen coming from behind you, forcing you to progress at a steady rate or else you fail. On the other side of the game you have the platformer gameplay featuring the games main protagonist, Kai. Kai looks similar to Samus Aran from the Metroid series and even plays similar to her in the game itself. It is funny as the developers shared that the designer for Kai had never played a Metroid game before, talk about coincidence. The platforming gameplay allows you to shoot down enemies, traverse the environments and activate switches that can help your ship continue forward.
The game now adds in a unique trait to the standard designs of a platformer and space shooter, teleportation. Whether you’re in your ship or battling bad guys on foot, you can use the teleportation mechanic to help get through tough terrain. This adds a challenging aspect to the title as you want to complete the game fast to capture a top score, but you want to take your time to make sure that you teleport correctly. This mechanic can also be useful when finding secrets scattered around the levels, also linking towards a great highscore.
Before playing the game, I had a great talk with one of the developers on the game. One of the artists, Callum, answered some questions that I had about the game. First off, I was interested in how the inspiration for the game came about. The artist explained that the ten man team were huge retro fans, even going back to the Amiga system. They are also big Sci-Fi fanatics, especially the 80’s style, so by combining the two they created and developed Velocity.
I then asked about the games improvements from the original and how they are planning on improving the game before its release. Callum replied stating that the games appearance at these exhibitions give them the chance to hear feedback from their target demographic. One thing they had discovered whilst being at Eurogamer was that they are considering removing ‘Lives’ from the game. This is because many players said that lives acting more like a restriction rather than a concern. By removing this, the game has been made to have increased flow that encourages the player to try and go as fast as possible through dangerous areas. But it also creates an extra challenge to the game as well, because one single death could be the difference between getting those sought after gold medals. Future Labs plan on showing the game at more exhibitions before the release in order to make sure that the game is as good as it can be.
The last question I had for Callum and the team was about Kai. What was the inspiration behind creating a lead female character in Velocity? The team were very passionate about their choice as they are fans of many badass women from previous games and movies. These include characters like Lara Croft from tomb Raider, Sarah Conner from Terminator and Ripley from Alien. They wanted to create a female character that was a badass and strong character that is not stereotypically sexualised with big assets. Instead, Kai is sexy in her own right dawning a Zero Suit style outfit like Samus Aran and kicking major butt with her technology. The team want players to get behind Kai not just for her looks but also what she is capable of pulling off.
Overall, Velocity 2X is an incredibly fun game that is definitely one to look out for. You can see the inspiration from retro titles and how that has been changed to create a very modern feel. The team are passionate about improving the title and take any and all feedback into consideration. It was a true pleasure to try out at the expo and talk to the team as I can now recommend everyone to try out this great indie game. Velocity 2X will be available on PSVita and PS4 in the early quarter of next year.
So what do you think of Velocity 2X? Do you think it revives a retro style of gameplay? Let us know what you think in the comments below.