Velocity
Developer: FuturLab
Publisher: FuturLab
Release date: 16/05/2012
Format: PS3/PSP/PSVITA
Set in the year 2212, your mission is to rescue survivors from space ships caught in the gravity well of a black hole. Only the Quarp Jet, capable of teleporting thou space can save the day. It’s a Simple 2D down looking shooter with a puzzle twist. It lends itself very well to the PS Vita with the changed name of Velocity Ultra. Essentially the same game, but with added controls mapped to the Vita to make good use of the touch screen.
The game starts very simple, navigate thou damaged space cruisers collecting escape pods along the way. The screen is constantly moving forward, so no dawdling is allowed. You have free rein over direction moving forward, back, left and right within the screen like with any other retro 2D shooter. You can boost which basically speeds up the screen scroll and seeing as your timed becomes a necessary evil on later missions. You also have unlimited weapons to tackle many alien ships and debris that get in the way. Most useful are the bombs, by using the Right analogue stick, these bombs can be flung in the direction required. Handy when objects to the side or behind need a good blowing up.
So far same as any other shooter, but this is where Velocity comes into its own. You are able to instantly teleport to another part of the screen by simple tapping the front screen. Handy when the road ahead is blocked by debris or parts of the cruiser you are rescuing survivors of, or just to simply avoid the incoming fire from the aliens that are after you. Once you have gotten the hand of this another teleportation aspect is added. Your ship has the ability to drop teleportation pods that allow you jump back to an earlier part of the map. And take the alternate route required to open that final section to escape.
Publisher: FuturLab
Release date: 16/05/2012
Format: PS3/PSP/PSVITA
Set in the year 2212, your mission is to rescue survivors from space ships caught in the gravity well of a black hole. Only the Quarp Jet, capable of teleporting thou space can save the day. It’s a Simple 2D down looking shooter with a puzzle twist. It lends itself very well to the PS Vita with the changed name of Velocity Ultra. Essentially the same game, but with added controls mapped to the Vita to make good use of the touch screen.
The game starts very simple, navigate thou damaged space cruisers collecting escape pods along the way. The screen is constantly moving forward, so no dawdling is allowed. You have free rein over direction moving forward, back, left and right within the screen like with any other retro 2D shooter. You can boost which basically speeds up the screen scroll and seeing as your timed becomes a necessary evil on later missions. You also have unlimited weapons to tackle many alien ships and debris that get in the way. Most useful are the bombs, by using the Right analogue stick, these bombs can be flung in the direction required. Handy when objects to the side or behind need a good blowing up.
So far same as any other shooter, but this is where Velocity comes into its own. You are able to instantly teleport to another part of the screen by simple tapping the front screen. Handy when the road ahead is blocked by debris or parts of the cruiser you are rescuing survivors of, or just to simply avoid the incoming fire from the aliens that are after you. Once you have gotten the hand of this another teleportation aspect is added. Your ship has the ability to drop teleportation pods that allow you jump back to an earlier part of the map. And take the alternate route required to open that final section to escape.
Main objective is rescuing as many survivors as possible.
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Defeat Aliens, Turrets and Circuit Beakers to get home.
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It all sounds complicated, but it’s gradually introduced thou the first 20 or so missions and with 50 to complete you’ll be a trained Quarp pilot by the end of it. With aliens, turrets and security fields to disable it all gets rather chaotic later on, having to redo almost entire levels to find and destroy the 9 numbered circuit breakers to open more sections of the map and find a route home. This is by no means a hard game, but it does require a bit of forward planning and care. Hitting the incorrect circuit breaker will reset the entire lot and require you to start again, but this is where the map and teleport pods come into play.
Biggest problem I had with this game was unlocking the next mission. Just completing one after the other is not enough, you need enough XP to unlock later missions. To get this you are graded on three criteria, time took to complete the mission, survivors rescued and score (blowing up aliens). Luckily you can speed thou one time then play again carefully picking up every escape pod and destroying every alien and turret to achieve maximum XP. But this will require lots of extra play throughs on the first 20/25 missions. It becomes a grind to unlock the final mission and once it’s unlocked its nothing special. Just another map, same as the rest. Occasionally you will be tasked with completing the mission within a short amount of time. Requiring you to boost most if all the way thou the level. This will take several attempts to learn the level enough to safely guide your ship thou and rescue enough survivors to complete the mission.
Velocity is a good simple pick up and play title, a modern take on a classic genre. Missions can be completed around the 5minute mark but it gets terrible addictive to gain that little extra XP to unlock and try the next chaotic mission. It’s a great little title.
Chris Sowry 7/10
Biggest problem I had with this game was unlocking the next mission. Just completing one after the other is not enough, you need enough XP to unlock later missions. To get this you are graded on three criteria, time took to complete the mission, survivors rescued and score (blowing up aliens). Luckily you can speed thou one time then play again carefully picking up every escape pod and destroying every alien and turret to achieve maximum XP. But this will require lots of extra play throughs on the first 20/25 missions. It becomes a grind to unlock the final mission and once it’s unlocked its nothing special. Just another map, same as the rest. Occasionally you will be tasked with completing the mission within a short amount of time. Requiring you to boost most if all the way thou the level. This will take several attempts to learn the level enough to safely guide your ship thou and rescue enough survivors to complete the mission.
Velocity is a good simple pick up and play title, a modern take on a classic genre. Missions can be completed around the 5minute mark but it gets terrible addictive to gain that little extra XP to unlock and try the next chaotic mission. It’s a great little title.
Chris Sowry 7/10
"Job well done, now where's my beer?"