EscapeVektor

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

.

Review:

EscapeVektor, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2012 and ported to PlayStation Vita in 2013, is an Arcade-style game in the vein of classics like Pac-Man where players are trying to traverse a series of corridors to change their color, while avoiding enemies.

This is presented to players in a minimalist form of lines and geometric shapes on a grid, representing a world inside a computer. While it’s not ugly, it is extremely simple, and not in any way impressive. This is backed by a chill synthesized soundtrack that isn’t intrusive, but does little to make the game more exciting.

As for the gameplay itself, EscapeVektor expands on Pac-Man by giving players a growing arsenal of abilities they can use as they progress through the game, such as bombs to temporarily subdue enemies and boosts to try to outpace them. This definitely helps to set this game apart somewhat.

Unfortunately, there are a few problems that crop up here too. Firstly, the mazes in this game are extremely simple, often only providing players with only a few ways to get to their destination. Perhaps because of this, enemies here are also simple, with many having predictable movement patterns. And seemingly as a way to add difficulty, players’ movement controls are sluggish, and the game’s camera is terrible, zooming too close to the action and making it easy to get jumped by an enemy just coming in from offscreen.

Because of this chain of issues, EscapeVektor goes from being an interesting Pac-Man clone with potential to be something different… to a sub-par Pac-Man clone whose problems outweigh its unique features. And while it’s still enjoyable in a limited way, it’s not a game I’d likely recommend.

tl;dr – EscapeVektor is an Arcade-style game in the same vein as Pac-Man, but with a high-tech abstract geometric shape computer world theme. While this game does a few interesting things to set it apart from Pac-Man, those interesting things are outweighed by the simplicity of its levels and the multiple frustrations the gameplay adds to try to give players a challenge. The result is a game that still has its moments, but there are far better games in the genre.

Grade: C

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Talissa, Eli Goodman, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Ilya Zverev, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}