Giveaway of the Day - Vega

Today’s game is from the same developer that gave us Silkwood earlier this year. One of the few games that I actually missed due to all my computers being offline at the time. Once installed the game takes up just under 15Mb, which is average for an arcade game. The following was copied from the games read me file:

Quote

Welcome to Vega – The Deep Space Rescue Station. We hope that this game will bring you hours and hours of fun as you battle the elements to save the stranded life pods and your base station from extinction. We also invite you to visit our forum at http://www.reflectivelayer.com/forum and connect with other commanders fighting to save their bases. If you’re having problems with the game, you can leave us a message there as well or send us a line at support_team@reflectivelayer.com.

P.S. You can switch between full screen and windowed by pressing the “f” key at anytime.

Reference: games read me file accessed 27th Dec 08

To gain access to the help menu you first have to click on start from the main menu. This takes you to the mission objectives which tells you what you have to do, for example you first mission involves guiding floating air tanks into the landing pad, which is accomplished by you manoeuvring your pod so as to hit the tanks in the appropriate direction. You must also stop them from falling into the station; (this is where all that physics you learned at school, such as Newton’s equal and opposite law becomes useful, lol) . You are also shown what objects you are interacting with and the hazards that you face. In the first mission this includes not flying into the ground or buildings, not letting your fuel and air run out before you’ve accomplished the mission, and landing your pod safely before your air and fuel run out.

The main goal in Vega is to use landing pods (that look like the moon lander from the Apollo space mission from the 60’s and 70’s) to collect resources and people that are required to keep your space station operational. At the beginning of each of the ten levels a set of requirements are given which have to be completed before you can progress onto the next level.

The following are the key binding that you’ll need to know to play the game:

Arrows – Controls the landing pod
Space – Switches between pods
F1 – Load/Save
M – Mission
P – Pause
S – Settings
H – Help
F – Full screen/Windowed toggle

Can you hit your mark in zero-g? Command multiple Rescue Lander to collect life saving packages from space to keep your station going. But here is the trick. Instead of just getting your Lander next to the package to collect to collect it, you’ll have to use the speed and momentum of the Lander to “hit” them into a landing zone on the ground for collection. TRUST US, it ain’t easy! You need to have a keen sense of space and time in this fast paced game. Waste to much time trying and your Lander will run out of air or fuel. The faster you can collect packages, the more point you’ll keep and supplies you’re base station will receive. If that’s enough to scare you, we’ll also throw in some meteorites, falling boulder and even blinding dust storms. The business of space rescue just got harder.

Features
• Physics based simulation
• Arcade style gameplay
• 10 challenging levels
• Use up to 4 pods simultaneously to collect resources faster.
• Massive Dust storms
• Meteor Showers
• Voice comments by AI
• Dynamic Space backdrop

Reference: http://www.reflectivelayer.com/vega/index.asp?section=home accessed 27th Dec 08

Useful Links

Image Slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/VEGA/?albumview=slideshow

Vega Forums (though there’s only one post so far asking how far has anyone got)

http://www.reflectivelayer.com/forum/

Conclusion

This is definitely something different from what we’ve been getting over the last few months. I liked the game, but felt it was limited in it’s game play. There were no interesting power ups and the game ‘appears’ rather short with only ten levels. However, that said, I spent ages trying to pass the first level. (several levels later and I’m still nowhere near finishing it, having succeeded in landing 0 air cylinders on the landing pad.

Once you’ve mastered the controls it becomes a little easier, but what the game excels in is time and resource management as well as manoeuvring of objects using a physics based system. Yes, it’s hard enough to be kept as far as I’m concerned. I think the physics emulations alone make this game worth having in my opinion. It took me back to my youth when I avidly watched all the Apollo Space Missions. It’s a keeper for me.

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Other games similar to this

I posted a game over the Christmas period in the forums called Retrofire that’s similar to this game in some ways, but in my opinion is actually better because there are lots more missions, two modes of play and a levels editor. However the graphics for today’s giveaway are crisper.

You can check the game out in the forums via the following link. I’ve posted several screenshots of the game because I was really impressed with it:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4517

and yet another puzzling game…..man, i think we got enough of those last year. Some might love them, ok. But I’m waiting for a shooter (classics like Space Invader-style) or sort of actiongame. Something to get right in it… a short-timer. Isnt there any developer out there that have a heart for guys like me??? I’m definitely not downloading this one.
Anyways….Props to the whole GGOATD-Team….keep the good work up