Contact Vector – First Look
By Nathaniel Liles
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I recently posted an announcement for a game called Contact Vector that hopes to bridge the gap between turn-based and RTS games with a bigger focus on strategy than resource management. It’s a neat idea, and if you want to see the proof on concept, there’s a demo available through Contact Vector’s Kickstarter page. However, there’s something you should know about the demo that wasn’t made entirely clear to me before I started playing; this isn’t exactly a gameplay demo. There are buttons you press, and you can view ships in a 3D environment, but the gameplay demonstrated in the demo is not representative of the gameplay experience that you’ll have when playing the full version. The demo is a simple tech demo meant to show off the graphical aspect of the game while giving you some control over viewpoints and events. With all that said, I still think the demo is worth reviewing if we take it as is.
First of all, the demo is gorgeous. I’ve never seen 3D models rendered this well in a browser before, and if it’s any indication of what they can do outside of a browser, we’re in for a visual treat. Maybe I just like lens flare, but I had to just take a moment to appreciate the universe for a second once I booted the demo. You can even use your scroll wheel to get a closer look at the ships, and even zoomed all the way in, I was a bit impressed. After that, things boil down to this: there are six ships out there, three on each side on an asteroid field, and you get seven buttons to mess around with. One lets you cycle between the six ships, two control your cannon’s doors (one for open, one for close). You can also choose to fire at either enemy ships, asteroids, or both, and the final button allows you to lock your camera onto a missile for some excellent cinematic shots. You don’t get a feel for the gameplay or strategy from this demo, but I highly encourage anyone with even a passing interest in this game to go give it a try and just fire as many missiles as you can as fast as you can and watch the excellent carnage unfold. Seriously, it’s like a goliath beetle fighting hundreds of laser-infused ants.
Contact Vector is currently in need of £120,000 in funding, and if you have any interest in strategy gaming or sci-fi, go check out the Kickstarter and see if any of those reward tiers tickle your fancy. For those of you who just want to experience the demo, you can click right here to go straight to it.
[facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/nathaniel.jpg” ] Nathaniel Liles is a freelance writer, writing major, and indie musician based in Southern Indiana. While procrastinating or avoiding real-world responsibility, Nathaniel enjoys playing rhythm games, action RPGs, and very colorful games with many bright, flashing lights. You can listen to Nathaniel sing songs or download his music for free at http://nathanielliles.bandcamp.com/. [/author]
[…] already talked about Contact Vector here on Cliqist, both in an overview and a review of the proof-of-concept, but it seems goals were not met during the last campaign. Developer Stephen Moorhouse hasn’t […]