Vector Thrust: An Opponaut's Short Review

"Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura" (sundowne36) 10/03/2014 at 16:14 • Filed to: Vector Thrust, Ace Combat, Planelopnik

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Are you the sort of person who enjoys playing a game that puts you right in the seat of an F-14 Tomcat and promptly shooting down every single MiG insurgents? Do you love Ace Combat? Well, good news! /jamesmay

( Full Disclosure : TimeSymmetry wanted me to test their new CFS game so badly they took $15 of my hard-earned money. Also, the reason I labeled this as a short review is the fact that the game is still in its Alpha stage, so quite a lot of content MAY be coming. Also, TheBaron's comment below summarizes most, if not all of my complaints about the game thus far.)

I recently got a hold of a copy from Steam as my friend (who was a bit disillusioned with Ace Combat Infinity right now) wanted to play something different. A few seconds and a hit to my wallet later, I found myself immersed in the cel-shaded CFS game for the first time.

I'm keeping this review short and in parts as I did say it's still not the final product that TS has offered, but it's still a full game, albeit filled with interesting bugs and slightly decent graphics performance (Note: This was played on my Y50 fitted with an i7 CPU chip, 16GB RAM (Corsair Vengeance) and a Maxwell GeForce 860M 2GB GPU.)

First impressions? It feels like a cheaply made Ace Combat game.

It still feels like a normal CFS game, though I wish the physics could be a bit better. The dialogue is a bit cheap, keyboard controls aren't ergonomic and you're bound to find yourself out of AIM-9 missiles trying to take down a lesser-categorized multi-role.

But then we get to the good bits: It's an Ace Combat game that you can practically mod.

Because it's an indie game in the same way that Minecraft is a blockbuster PC game, the number of mods is actually quite astounding. From new aircraft models to revisioned skins, from visual HUD upgrades to different soundbytes, you actually want to sit back and ask namco as to why they never made a game like this (answer: mostly because Ace Combat is a niche CFS game that's special in its own right.)

( Pictured: Not exactly a superweapon akin to the ones you see in Ace Combat. )

The number of planes established in Vector Thrust is an acceptable number, but they may include patches that actually have more fighters/bombers/attackers in the coming months. Right now, I want my T-50 PAK-FA, thanks.

As it stands, I would like to see an improvement in a few areas I've addressed (including the music), but knowing VT's modding community, I'd say this game is on its way to being one of the best CFS games you could buy right about now.

TheBaron2112 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 10/03/2014 at 16:27

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Oh god, it's made it to the public.

So full disclosure, I had a lot of involvement in the development of this game. I consulted with the creator, did a few voice acting lines, and even tested a copy of the Alpha. But my main role was the development of an aircraft tree and a list of roughly 40 missions that could be incorporated, external to the story. I also was a reviewer on the story, the script, and the plot.

All of which were ignored. The 40 missions I proposed didn't make it because of "creative differences" and the plane list I offered was ignored.

The missions, the creator didn't want to do because he "already had the story lined out."

The planes he didn't want to do because it was easier to make 50 variants of the F-104 than it was to make 3 F-104s, 3 F-14s, and 2 F-8s and 5 MiG-21s, etc. So your complaint about the number of planes (rather, the variety) is understandable.

Just know that I said that same thing two years ago, and it was ignored.

Oh, and the story that I consulted on was completely scrapped. It featured elements such as a region called the "Mushroom Kingdom" named for the large amounts of nuclear explosives used in a previous war, and not at all because of Mario. English was not the creator's first language, and it showed. It also featured an enemy ace squadron called "The Dreamers."

Yeah.

The dialogue is awful because the guy can't write and didn't accept my rewrites.

As it stands, it's a Beta. That's all it is. But your complaints are completely valid, and have been voiced before.

I actually have a free key to download and try the Beta since I was in at the Alpha stage, but I honestly never have used it yet just for fear of it feeling like a waste of time.

And yeah, it's a cheap Ace Combat knockoff. It's what I knew going in. It's what we all thought we were getting. But the creator wanted it to be more—which is fine—but he also didn't want to be seen in the same light as Ace Combat. Which is why he put so many more elements in like countermeasures, stupid, awful, way-too-difficult AI, and eleven billion concepts of planes that never made it off the drawing table.

Like most other indie games, the downfall isn't the execution, but the minds behind it insulating themselves from meaningful criticism.

user314 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 10/03/2014 at 16:27

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It's somewhat simplistic, but I love Strike Fighter for Android. The PAK-FA is a purchasable plane, BTW.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > TheBaron2112 10/03/2014 at 16:29

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Never knew that one of our own is involved in the development...

TheBaron2112 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 10/03/2014 at 16:34

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Yeah, I wasn't going to take credit for any of it because none of my shit made it in and I'm embarrassed to associate myself to what it is now.

It had potential, but dude running the show didn't listen to anything me and a whole host of others said.

I'm in a gaming group that sort of helped out in a few aspects. But in talks with the creator, every time we tried to communicate where he could improve the game, and what he shouldn't do, we were brushed off.

Which I'm not sore about. I didn't do it for money. I just wanted a good Ace Combat clone.

And this isn't that.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > user314 10/03/2014 at 17:32

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I might look at it when I can get a new Samsung.

HatAss > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 10/20/2014 at 11:11

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Yeah, unfortunately TheBaron is correct. TimeSymmetry had all sorts of feedback and suggestions from a particular gaming group that he pretty much flat out ignored. And in addition to that, the desired tone that was to be taken with a lot of the (rather lackluster) voice acting was completely miscommunicated and resulted in half of our VA's sounding like they were either high, or reading off a teleprompter.