Vesta

Review

Some people find themselves in a pickle every now and then. This one is rather large with plenty of challenges ahead, especially if the person is 6 years old. This is Vesta’s predicament; she was woken up by a BOT on the 152nd floor of a deserted underground city, on another planet far from earth with the exciting news that the energy resources are running extremely low. With the help of a BOT and a DROID, she must make her way to the surface, fight various robots and discover what really happened on this planet.

Vesta is a puzzle / adventure game where you control a 6 year-old girl and a DROID. Your goal is to reach the surface of planet OPS by completing 36 levels in 4 chapters.



After a very nice cartoon-style introduction, the first few levels are basically a nicely laid-out tutorial. After learning how to transfer the energy from the multifunctional Energy Transnobbler to the device she has on her back and vice versa, Vesta will be ready to make her way to the upper levels. At the start of the game Vesta will only have the capacity to store one bar of energy in her device. Rest assured she will earn another two storage bars fairly quickly within chapter one.  As for the Transnobblers, they have a base with a green tank on top. Pipes connect the Transnobbler to other structures, such as doors, platforms and travelators. To activate these structures, Vesta has to fill in the empty tanks with the green energy.

The Droid (named Seven) will help her to remove obstacles and other dangerous robots. Seven is armed with some sort of missile which can momentarily freeze enemies and destroy wooden boxes. It can sometimes be a bit tricky to eliminate robots in some levels due to the fact that you must use the droid and Vesta to complete the kill. First use the droid and shoot at the target; as soon as the missile hits the enemy, a clock appears above it and a countdown will start. From here, switch to Vesta, move towards the robot, drain its energy and the kill will be complete. Mind you, there are a few types of robot and some of them have a very fast countdown compared to others, therefore Vesta must be close by to successfully eliminate them. What else can these robots do to make Vesta’s life difficult? The spider robots shoot laser beams in different directions, Bots will fly around trying to catch both Vesta and Seven, others will drop mines and even smash the floors. As Vesta is a child, it will only take her one hit to die while Seven can take three. If one of them dies, you’ll restart the level, or if you manage to reach a round symbol (located on the floor), you’ll restart from there. As Seven is a robot, he is capable of throwing Vesta a short distance, which is extremely useful if there is acid on the floor and your character can’t reach a transnobbler.

They are a couple of other things to do in this game. First, there are secrets to discover; the number of secrets varies depending on each level. The second is about the story which you can read by activating consoles within the stages. I really enjoy the cartoon type of cut-scenes, they are well done and fun to watch. Puzzles-wise, they are pretty easy to complete, as are the bosses’ fights at the end of each chapter.

Graphically, the game looks great and the levels are well-designed. The soundtrack is very nice and the controls work very well. I would recommend using a gamepad rather than the mouse and keyboard. I did experience a few freezes during the loading sequence, which is a bit annoying.


Positives

+ Nice, colourful graphics
+ 36 Levels to complete
+ Great cut-scenes
+ Achievements

Negatives

- A bit repetitive
- No trading cards as yet

Review Summary

Vesta is a fun puzzle / adventure game for all ages!

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Zeepond Rating: 7/10

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