Vanguard Knights

not bad for a 5$ game camera is a little buggy and all over the place

At the time of this review, I have only gotten 3 missions completed, but I plan to update it as I progress ATTENTION DEVELOPER: There seems to be an issue where if I play a free mission, it deletes all of my completed missions and sets my new starting point to where the free mission was. To clarify, I had 3 completed missions, but wanted to replay the first mission. After replaying and finishing the first mission, all my other missions were deleted and now I have to replay missions two and three. The mechanics of this game can be quite a bit to take in at first, but it's very rewarding once you get used to it. Weaving around and shooting enemies is my favorite thing to do, and considering how that's the entire point of the game, it must be doing something right. However, it's much more enjoyable in the missions following the first. The game kind of just throws you into a hectic mess of a first mission. I also don't particularly enjoy the fact that sometimes crosshairs can lock on to enemies through walls. I understand that it helps locate the general area of enemies within a compartment, but maybe there is a better way of doing that? Partly my fault for being dumb, but I've sat around spamming a wall with ally npcs for quite a while before realizing that the enemies were actually inside. Graphically, the game is quite superb. I enjoy the sci-fi models and cleanness of it all. My exposure to the story element of the game has been limited considering how far I am in the game, but you can tell that the developer put a lot of effort into it. Overall, I think that the game is very well made and really shows the commitment that the developer has to it. I hope this game racks up a larger following because it truly deserves it.

Initially bought this game only to support the creator, because he made cool Blender tutorials on Youtube. I didn't go in expecting a good game, rather, I wanted some "motivation" to some day try gamedev myself. This game did provide that, but it was also a fun game. Well, at first I thought it was awful, while playing with a controller as I assumed would be the best experience. Tried mouse and keyboard, and suddenly it became genuinely fun to the point I finished the game in one sitting. Even got S rank on some levels! The game was not too hard, but that's good because I wouldn't want to grind a game like this. It's smooth sailing and that's a good thing here. You feel like you're really good at it. If I was to give the dev suggestions, I'd say just do the same thing but with more polish and it'll be great. Flesh out the story (I saw some hints of intrigue that could have been further developed), have better graphics and voice acting / sound work. Just polish, because the bones are all on the right places, it just needs more meat. Definitely recommend this and reminded me of old PS1 games I loved like Einhänder and Omega Boost.

Vanguard Knights is a strange entry in the back shelves of the colossal Steam catalogue. This is a hybrid of an arcade rail shooter and a bullet hell/shmup game where you control a spaceship in third person perspective as it moves constantly forwards. You can move up, left, down or right as the waves of enemies and asteroids come at you. You also need to try move and hit various "flags" as you slalom forwards endlessly. I think this game would be a pretty big hit in 1987. It's not 1987. One important note is that even though this is an amateur project, it does seem to be sincerely and genuinely made. I couldn't find any flipped assets, plagiarism or any other kind of insincere actions from the developer, but unfortunately genuine intentions alone are not enough to produce a brilliant PC gaming experience. This strikes me as a case of a developer who knows enough to get hired as a professional in the industry, but instead decided to go it alone, which almost always ends in disaster. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. You can change the controls and the game resolution, but the interface is shabby, and it seems the developer couldn't work out how to present game resolutions properly... I'm not making this up, the resolution choices are from "1" to "9". I'll have resolution #7 please! WTF does that even mean? That's a fail. The game features low-polygon, barely textured "retro"/"minimalist" assets, making this look like a barely functional 3D game from the mid 2000s. It's unclear why the developers weren't able to arrange high quality, high polygon count contemporary assets for the game, and also irrelevant... what matters is that this looks bad as a result of their decisions, a compromise PC gamers shouldn't have to put up with. The controls and game handling are notably very clunky and unsmooth here. It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed. Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing. They dropped the ball on this one. While this is on PC, it has all the hallmarks and deficiencies of a console game, from the clunkier than needed control scheme to the less than cutting edge graphics. There's 10's of thousands of PC games on Steam, and PC gamers deserve only the best. This might not appeal to many gamers due to the lack of PC-centric design. It's unclear why this game was never accepted on the video game console appliances it seems to have been designed for. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. The poor quality of this game is reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 3 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected. Vanguard Knights has the cash grab price of around $5 USD, it's not worth it given the defects and shortcomings with the product, especially considering the sheer number of completely free, much higher quality games on Steam. You can pick up older X series space sims for less than this, and they're a billion times deeper, richer and have better graphics. [b][quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile]Profile Features Limited![/url][/quote][/b]Valve have marked this game as "Profile Features Limited" at the time of this review. This is usually caused by poor sales figures and low community acceptance for the game (to date). Until this status changes, this game will not give you +1 to your Game Collector badge count, appear in profile achievements or any other Steam meta-accomplishments, nor can it be displayed in some profile showcases. If these factors are important to you, it may be worth holding off before buying this game.

yep, greats feelings ! simple and fast as hell, it keep your hands full and your mind running. the dialogues have a welcome touch of humor. it's short but really worth the price. I can confidently say that this game deserve more love. I'll keep following your (incredible :D) Blender Tutorials on YouTube with great interests. Take this blue thumb great man !

short sweet and over 9000 lasers tip look up controls

So you liked Star Fox 64 as a kid? So you flirted with Ikaruga? So you want a game that marries the best gameplay ideas of both while maintaining its own unique identity? Not a problem! Vanguard Knights is a short game, maybe 2 and a half, 3 hours, but in those 3 hours are a ton of really great gameplay ideas. The writing could have been stronger, but it largely serves its purpose as a vehicle to bridge the gaps between levels- all of which are outstanding (save for the deeply frustrating difficulty spike of the final boss). Vanguard Knights is a super independent space fighter SHMUP a la Star Fox that includes similar color swapping mechanics to Ikaruga- attacks of the same color as your ship won't hurt you, but you deal twice as much damage to ships that aren't of your own color. I played the whole game with a controller and it felt largely great the whole time- my only complaints would be that the third person perspective makes targets a little difficult to track in the levels that aren't on rails. There is a target indicator, one that conveniently specifies the color of the enemies each arrow points to, but it often isn't enough just due to the nature of it being a 3d tracker. It's not enough to really hamper the experience, but it was a slight hiccup each time I came from one of the flawless on-rails sections or one of the boss fights that doesn't take place in a free arena. I also consistently found myself wishing there were just a little more feedback when you were firing your weapons. No muzzle flashes, you just kind of have to trust that you're actually firing when you hold down the button (and you can't fire missiles or charge a bomb while firing, which more feedback would have helped with understanding). Make no mistake though, this game is worth the $5 full price, and it's an absolute steal for the typical on-sale price of $2.50. Even if the Knights themselves are a little morally grey (I'm still not entirely certain that we're the good guys...), the gameplay exceeds expectations and manages, for the most part, to be tough without becoming unfair. It's a one-man project, so toss the dude a fiver and have some old-school fun.

Not Star Fox. But what does that matter? This game stands on it's own, as its own game. It provides some level of challenge, right from the start to any Star Fox game fan who maybe looking for a higher difficulty in something similar. Sadly for me, the controls where not easy to get use to. it sure don't play like Star Fox. But is close, though much harder to play than Star Fox, in my opinion. I managed to rig the game so I can move with a game pad using a thumb stick, and target with the mouse. Yes, that can be done, and is great that it can. I am so glad that when a controller is used, it doesn't cut out the keyboard and mouse, during game play as some games do. It is so nice being able to use a thumb stick with the mouse. ^.^ Some parts of the game I wish was made more obvious or clear right from the start. Mostly to do with the controls itself. After getting through the first part, and starting the second part, I found myself not moving. I didn't know I had to use a thruster to get moving. I actually managed to finish the second level, fight off and win against that boss of sorts without doing any flying around. I finish it wile staying in my start location. The third area made me see I had to do some flying around, and figure out how to. I also didn't know what the DEFAULT was for in the controller setting. I later found out and had it set to GO. Made playing so much better. Also after playing the game for a wile, I still have no idea what the FOCUS FIRE or SET TARGET does. I figured the naming would self enplane them, but when I use those buttons in the game, they don't seem to do anything, not from what I can tell. O.o There is also an odd sound during the PAUSE screen in game. I was not sure if it was the game making that noise, or my PC. I found it is the game. The naming for the TURN set are not named right. Made it hard to set them at first. The STRAFE set naming are correct though. The STRAFE set are in this order- UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT. But the TURN set is in this order- LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN. They should, by name, match the same naming order for the STRAFE set, for the controller binding for the TURN set is the same as the STRAFE set controller binding order. Not in the order the TURN set naming is in. I feel that should be fixed. My personal verdict: It was not easy for me to just pick up and play. Though part of that is in setting the controls to a way that is comfortable (love that can be done, for not all games let you), and getting use to how the game plays. Going from playing Star Fox to this, has been a bit disorienting. O.o The color shifting to match the color of things in the game, to me, adds a lot of extra difficulty. With that added, to me is like going form F-Zero, a game I love, to playing FAST RMX, a version of the same game, with an added twist. One I felt was a bit twisted. O.o But didn't detract from the fun of playing it. ^.^ It was just something extra to get use to is all. Not unlike with this game here. This game has visuals up the ass. It may not have over the top graphics as some AAA games do, but what this game has is more than enough to enjoy it. I have seen some games add far less than this, visually. Yeah, some work and thought was put into this one. Story, is a little hard to follow at first. I didn't know those i was playing as is not from the earth alliance, but instead those from the Union that broke off from earth to follow the AI Exa. It took me a wile to figure that out. Wish that was made a bit more clear, right from the start. O.o Also the start text ran a little bit too fast for me. I would like to have been able to hit the Spacebar or any key to advance to the next set of text, to give me time to read it. If a game has a story, I wish to be able to see it. The Game is funny. I very much like that about this game. The humor in it, is just right for me. ^.^ It also makes me want to press on to see more of it. Now if only I can gain better control over this game, I should be able to get through it. It's far from the near cake walk that Star Fox 64 is to me. Star Fox Zero, is another matter. But still way fun to play. And this will be also, once I get better adjusted to it, as I did with Star Fox Zero. Not many seemed to enjoy that game for how the controls in it are, but I did. So, do I recommend this game? O.o Yes. ^.^

First review is going to be a bit touchy and will change as I complete the game. I played for about 16 minutes and was able to complete mission 1. and the boss fight was interesting but mission 2 was aggrevating and I could not continue playing Pro's -This is an action packed space adventure -The combat is dynamic -Music Selection is right on pace with the gameplay -Graphic design is simple but clean Con's -There was no guidance just BAM in the hotseat -The options selection is extremely limited, I cannot remain in game in Fullscreen mode with a multimonitor set up without selecting out of the game. it is really aggrevating in mission 2. -Volume control needs adjusting themusic and SFX outplay your voice actors. -and lastly the enemies are hard to diffrentiate from allies. other than that i don't have much to add at this point. and will continue to add information as i keep playing. Overall i beleive this game can improve. and i have hopes for it. so i will give it an upvote unless no changes are made. my vote comes from developer dedication.

Literally one of the best 1-man projects I've ever seen! The graphics, gameplay, and story is the shining part about the game. Voice acting here is a little wonky but at times the dialouge sounded funny! Looking forward to the future projects that come!