Trace Vector

8,4 из 10

Different take on maze games. A little slow paced, but relaxing.

Pretty fun and simple game. I kinda like it. Plus the music's pretty groovy too. Best of all the ship reminds me so much of Ranger-2 from the old animated Galaxy Rangers series.

Trace vector is a retro minimalist/neon memory/action/puzzle game where you are shown a map, then must negotiate the map from memory (wrong turns get you killed) and hit the right turns at the right time (like a rhythm game). Lazy line art graphics and minimalist design are the key issues here, the game feels more like a flash game than a PC game. Gameplay is repetitive and lacks depth.

I was looking for a game that could somewhat remind me of the Vectrex. On thar front, Trace Vector does a good job. And the simple gameplay is fine, but there is an exceptional amount of downtime for the player what should be an arcade style game. The game play loop is simple enough. Guide your little cursor up and down along branching lines picking up fuel and avoiding hazards. That is the game. However, before each vector maze, the game absolutely has to show you the whole thing. Sure, fine, I guess it is good to know what is coming up. But the preamble and score tally between actually playing is just about half the time of playing the game. I don't know about others, but I play retro style videos to increase the amount of time I'm playing the game. Not play for 20-30 seconds and then wait 20-30 seconds to play again. This stop and go loop pulls me out of the 'one more try' every time I boot up the game. Not that there is a whole lot here in terms of game play. Maybe it takes a bit to find some fun in this game, but I don't feel like something going for a basic premise should take that effort to search for. I'll certainly pick and play it from time-to-time to try and find that. However, I certainly can't recommend it unless it is about 99 cents. Even then, I would suggest lowered expectations.

Trace Vector is a visual treat and rather unique. This is what kept me coming back. The game itself is fairly fun, although in later levels it could be frustratingly hard.

It's a game with a superficially simple mechanic and style taken to extreme levels of polish. It's also very difficult.