Strike Vector Ex...you can see sooo much potential.

[(PSN)FriendSharkey]

Strike Vector came out in 2014 as a hardcore PVP Quake Arena shooter....with you piloting Vectors,...basically JetMechs. Now I love Armored Core, so any fast paced mech game is welcomed. But it died on PC even though it received good reviews and was a solid game. It was just too Hardcore PVP, so it drove out any new players and had nothing for the PVE co-op crowd.

Now fast forward to 2016 and it's developer Rage Quit, a four man team out of France has re-released Strike Vector EX on consoles, a totally new rebuilt game from the ground up featuring an all over the place story mode and by the books skirmish mode featuring bots. I picked it up for under 10.00 thanks to the PSN promotional period. I don't play PVP anymore, but the Mecha Jets was just too much for me, so I had to try it out.

I figured the bots would suck, but I could have fun just flying around the maps and completing the bare bones Campaign tutorial, check out the UI, customizations, and peruse the weapons. I wasn't expecting anything great. How many games have we all played with garbage content and horrible voice acting, I did the same with Armored Core Verdict Day. So Strike Vector was going to be my "let's buy this and just see" game for 2016.

After about four days of playing it I can say its actually fun. It's not the voice acting, or willy nilly story of Marv the Pilot. That's just the fluff that goes in one ears and out the other. It's not the Quake Arena pick ups, or Texas like Firefly sci-fi western music and themes running through the plot.

No, it's how the Strike Vector feels. It feels FUN. The movement, the enviroments, how the Vector dodges and skirts in between all the floating wreckage that drowns out all the nonsense surrounding how you got there. It shares in that Warframe feel, when you run along wall and bullet jump into melee strike that chops a Grineer Bombard in half. Only it's the sudden burst into flight mode sliding through girders to down a pursuing cluster of missiles chasing after you, while narrowly avoiding a floating barge trying to dock with some hovering super structure. 

Then popping into a floating Mech hovering inches from a massive turbine fan rotating below you and one shotting a stray enemy chasing after a teammate using a carbine and your scope. 

There's sooo much potential, it's sickening. Such a PVE game this would make. Such a sequel to Descent, or Crimson Skies, or any futuristic flight game tossing around in your imagination could be applied to the base mechanics of these JetMechs called Vectors. Sadly none of that will happen, and God knows how I wish I could cram Strike Vector into Archwing, No Man's Sky, or War Thunder on a lark to Mecha them out a little. 

Anyways, long story short. It's fun. It's not Warframe fun, but Strike Vector's PVE modes are like somewhere between Rocket League and Geometry Wars, where you play it has a guilty pleasure meant for five minute blow out before work, which turns into a hour due to getting lost in the moment of blowing things up and living out some fantasies of blowing up the Death Star while gunning it through the rafters.  

 

 

Edited September 2, 2016 by (PS4)FriendSharkey

[SicSlaver]

I'm watching the quicklook by giantbomb and am really impressed. This is what Archwing could be like if DE knew how to program it.... Wish I had paid attention to it 2 years ago and got it on Steam. Also, if only they made campaign, bots or challenge maps for PVE to keep the game alive on PC.

One thing it has over Archwing that's really apparently noticeable is the nice open map. Also, better controls.

Edited September 11, 2016 by SicSlaver