Trace Vector

An excellent throwback to '80's arcade machines, this game is fast, furious, and /incredibly/ challenging. Not for the faint of heart, even veteran gamers will stopped dead without focus, practice, and very quick reflexes. I highly recommend this intense audiovisual experience, but only if you think you're up for it. If you're not good at twitch reflex and aren't willing to spend a long time practicing, this game is not for you.

This game is great, the levels are super cool and challenging, the music brings you back to the 80's and it perfectly fits the game. Trace Vector is just fantastic.

I tried but had a hard time getting into it to be honest. I never really cared much for this style of gaming back in the arcade either. Some stages I would say the game is OK but over all just ehhh. I'll pass on this one.

[h1] [b]New contender for Tempest dimension[/b] Interesting game with Atari 2600 like visuals and a bit psychedelic presentation. Feels pretty much like Tempest however gameplay is a bit different... it's all about following the trace. Might appear simple but just wait for next levels. Music is decent and builds the ambience neat and nicely. Play with controller for maximum satisfactory input as music goes, so controller is starting to make the rhythm (shake shake shake). Cool game to check out especially in dark room in the middle of the night. [/h1]

Trace Vector begins with a soundtrack. Well, to be exact it begins with a line. Lines upon lines purposefully arranged into perfectly angular designs, burning neon star charts and spacecraft into an empty galaxy. It’s the soundtrack though which sets the tone, one which the game then eagerly joins in a chorus of 80’s sci-fi nostalgia. Thumping, reverberating drums and swelling synth mesh into retro adrenaline, drawing you into a minimalist time vortex while keeping its archaic roots at arm’s length. A lot of games draw from classic 80’s sci-fi movies and themes; Terminator, Aliens, Star Wars. But almost always they do so in ways which are more reminiscent of the decade than part of it, possibly as the most common films drawn from are franchises which have yet to disappear themselves and thus things inspired by them inherently feel less dated. It allows for recognizable settings and characters, but often misses the beauty of something clearly antique but loved for that very reason. Trace Vector feels like a game ripped from an outmoded computer and remastered with a modern sheen. Sparse geometrical collections of stars and the lines collecting them create a distance between you and the game in such a way as to give you room to fill in the missing details yourself. Every line and dot is precise and plain until your radiant ship draws a path through them, leaving a blaze of shifting color in its wake. Small embellishments create a sense of atmosphere and movement among the stars, and give the sense that Trace Vector is acutely conscious of its style. Its design is minimal because it wants and needs to be, not because it was all the artist could manage. Limiting you to selecting whether to travel up or down on a branching path gives Trace Vector an omnipresent sense of urgency. There’s little room for error or a capacity to slow down, requiring you think several steps ahead and careful observe the map less you send yourself down a dead end and waste what little fuel you have. The contrasting priorities between collecting fuel cells, often taking you into the most dangerous areas of levels, and getting through as quickly as possible provides a constantly evolving feeling of engagement. I was constantly having to weigh the odds between picking up extra fuel and playing it safe and having to decide in a split second or miss the opportunity. Trace Vector isn’t an easy game, but it’s not so hard as to become overly frustrating. The intensity with which you direct your ship has a habit of making the game feel more impossible than it actually is, heightening my senses to the point they began to overwhelm my ability to plan effectively. Trace Vector counters this with moments of calm, inserting levels where it’s impossible or extremely difficult to lose between those that require a higher level of reflex. Positioned in the midst of all this is the unassuming narrative developing between your ship’s pilot and the AI controlling it. In keeping with the game’s design, it’s minimal but focused, asking questions of the value of artificial life and its right to free will. In another context this could have unravelled into overly philosophical monologues far beyond the game’s scope, but Trace Vector never extends itself further than the task at hand. It’s story is entirely between two characters, but without excluding the audience drawing more from it. I didn’t expect much, maybe not anything from Trace Vector. It seemed rudimentary and unrefined, but within itself there’s a world of nuance that’s difficult to grasp from screen shots. The more I let it take control the more I grew to love its unified design and simplicity. It’s a really special game that is likely going to have trouble bringing in an audience, but once they’re here I can’t imagine them wanting to leave. [b]You can read more of my writing on [url=http://kritiqal.com/2015/03/26/trace-vector-review/]Kritiqal[/url].[/b]

Trace Vector is a unique and fast paced puzzle arcade game, It's unique because this is the first time I'm playing this kind of game, and I have never enjoyed any arcade based game this much. The music is very enjoyable and retro-like which goes with the game pretty well. This is the type of game that you'll replay and replay and makes you wanna flip the table but you still like it Pros: - Very challenging, in speed wise - Everything about this game is nice itself, I would say abve average for such simple yet enjoyable game Cons: - 'Just one more round, I promise' <- which is a lie I strongly recommend this game if you have a few bucks to spend for a new game.

HOLY CRAP THE MUSIC RULES Also: Vector graphics +++ Woot

Somewhat nice looking, but boring as boring can be. Rewind should just get you back in time a bit, not back at the beginning of the level... No saves between stages.

I almost hate to write this. I can see Trace Vector being appealing to certain people. I am not one of those people. Gameplay is a combination of memorization and reflex. As you are shown levels in advance, you can memorize the direction changes necessary during the preview. Or you can rely on reflex, picking your course as you play. You can also perform a combination of the two. For a game based around fast decision making, the game feels artificially slow. While the section previews allow you to plan your path in advance, they are unskippable and can become annoying. When you add in the other filler of a section title display and the line exploding into particles, it can feel like you are spending as much time not playing the game as playing it. Direction switching is not instantaneous. If you wait until right before a junction to switch direction, you won't switch direction in time. This can be annoying, particularly if you are relying on reflex. Levels consist of several sections played back to back. If you fail, or just get bored and quit, you have to start over from the first section no matter how easy it is. Again, this makes the game feel artificially slow. The game is seemingly forgiving in that running into a dead end isn't itself a failure; you simply restart the section with your current fuel. You can force a manual restart as well, again losing spent fuel. But running out of fuel is failure. The whole fuel mechanic feels like more artificial slowness, both in dragging out a run that has crossed into failure and in forcing the game to restart at the first section upon failure. The game simply feels like a game that wants to be fast, but has a design that repeatedly conflicts with that desire. As for the music, while other reviewers like it, it does absolutely nothing for me.

I have just started to play and i already love it. The graphics, the music, it's all made really nicely. Similar in idea to other game i love Super Hexagon, it goes beyond the static gameplay and make it moving. It could use some more hardcore settings (ie. difficulty levels, no preview mode, random mode etc). Overall it's a really fun game I recommend to my gamer friends.