Review -Velocity 2X

Review by Jon Evans 
Formats reviewed: PS4, PS Vita.
Developers; Futurlab
Publisher; Futurlab
Formats;  PS4, PS Vita 
US Release date; 2nd September, EU Release Date; 3rd September
Velocity 2X is the much anticipated follow up to Futurlab’s Velocity and later Velocity Ultra, the HD remake. A cross-buy game on the PS4 and Vita, it is ostensibly a retro-styled arcade shmup with puzzle elements and a story behind it. To describe it thus is doing the game a disservice. Futurlab have set the benchmark very high in terms of polish and perfection.
We follow test pilot Lt Kai Tana in her Quarp Jet, once again, on a mission of survival and shooting lots of things. This time she is on the other side of the black hole she fell into at the end of her rescue mission in Velocity Ultra. She has been brought back to consciousness by a slave of the Vokh, the current Alien species that have Kai as their prisoner. The slave scientist, Ralan, a member of the Jintinda who reanimated Kai, has also helped her to escape, but has been discovered in the process and escapes with Kai in her Quarp Jet. The story continues, with Kai needing to collect Rekenium crystals to improve her ship and weapon upgrades, but also to collect the prisoner pods (containing Jintinda Slaves) to bolster the research team back at HQ. Ultimately she wants to get back home to Earth. 
The story is told, as before, in gloriously designed and coloured comic strip panels before each level, which serve to explore the story, but also act as a summary of the objectives required for each mission. These comic panels also set the tone for the unique, rainbow coloured levels and the game is truly wondrous to behold, visually. Early levels let you get to grip with your jet as you fly in classic top down, vertical scrolling, shmup view. Lighting effects are stunning and take advantage of the next-gen grunt to produce pin sharp dazzle and shine. The level design is well balanced to allow complete beginners to familiarise themselves with the controls, but also serve as a reminder for Velocity Veterans to get their muscle memory back from the previous games. And muscle memory is very important. By far the hardest thing to initially control is the teleport feature.
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Teleporting is essential. Velocity 2X levels are not continuous, but have barriers and walls in place through which you must teleport your ship to reach completion. This mechanic adds an extra level of challenge, but also fun, to gameplay and has become one of the most identifiable features of the game. Holding down the square button and pushing a reticule with the left-hand stick to the desired teleport position lets your ship disappear and re-appear over a limited distance, even at high speeds. Later on in the game, you also get to use ‘telepods’ which allow you to mark a position in the levels back to where you can jump. This, again, is essential in the more convoluted levels as you will need to jump back to branching areas and backtrack to puzzles. This teleporting control soon becomes second nature and after many hours of play you forget you are even using it. Fine control of this feature becomes very important towards the end of the game.
Futurlab have added even more depth in terms of level design with the running levels. Now Kai can dock her ship, jump out and dash at high speed, using her cybernetic upgrades through the corridors of the various worlds she visits. Armed with hand cannon (literally, her hand), rifle and ‘teledash', Futurlab have transferred the control scheme perfectly over to Kai as she moves around the corridors. There is no mental adjustment of how she moves and teleports, and so the muscle memory is unaffected. There are a few distinct differences into how you achieve your objectives, just to insure the interest is maintained, and it makes for an exciting and refreshing change to the Quarp jet gameplay. 
Play through the later levels of the game, and it becomes clear this isn’t just a twitchy race to the end (although it is too! More on that later). There are some levels where you have to beat a timer and so speed is essential, but you also have a few head-scratching puzzles to solve. Your ship has to shoot switches to open up areas protected by damaging force fields and you also have to shoot them in precise numbered order. Holding down the R1 button boosts your ship’s speed and allows you to improve your completion time, but it also means you pass the switches at a higher speed too, making shooting them more challenging. Sometimes these switches will not appear in vertical order, so you have to use your telepods to jump back down the screen to find subsequent objectives. There are some quite brilliant levels which are a maze of buttons. Just finding where you go next needs elaborate planning. 
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Sounds complicated? It is, but is is absolutely welcome. The brilliance of Velocity 2X is the multilayered gameplay, challenge, fun and humour. Kai is pretty sarcastic to her captors, and it is great to see a strong female protagonist kicking alien butt but also coming out with quips of which Ripley would be proud. Not bad for a girl from Lydd. And speaking of that multilayered gameplay, Futurlab have piled on the extra features too. Each level has criteria to meet to gain XP. XP then unlocks further levels. You are awarded XP based on the time you take to complete, how many survivors and Rekenium you collect and your total overall points. This is then the basis for the online leaderboards and notifications you receive from friends. There is an emblem system, much like a coat of arms, that shows you how well you have done, with bronze, silver and gold designs, star ratings and pink frills too. once you complete the story, the challenge then is to go back and complete each level perfectly, to gain that ever elusive platinum trophy. My mind boggles when I contemplate perfecting the later, higher levels. You will be playing this game for a long time. 
In addition to the replayability of the game, the ‘Flight computer’ section lets you view all your unlocked scenes, and access an encyclopaedic amount of information about the planets, races, and aliens in the game. Kai also keeps a journal of her adventures and it all combines to paint a deep and meanginful world. Hidden around the levels are also bonus crystals which unlock bonus levels for you to play. These comprise of a mini-game to play, with their own time-limits to beat. There’s even a fully functioning calculator, although it isn't clear what it is for. The soundtrack is a gorgeous modern retelling of Arcade speed-synth and techno. The fast pace helps to maintain a tense atmosphere of urgency, and rush and compliments the game perfectly. There is such dedication and polish to Velocity 2X; the genuine love for the finished product shines out. 
I have played the game on both the PS4 and the Vita, and the controls match perfectly. You might want to decide which platform will be your main mode of playing the game, as I favoured the PS4 and it meant my speed runs were marginally better on that, but this will probably depend on which you use the most. Cross-save is the easiest I've ever seen on any game. As soon as you load up, the game recognises where you saved last (which you still have to do manually) and auto loads straight away. The Vita version does not suffer in any way, visually, and is a dream to play. You will not feel shortchanged at all playing on it, even if it is the only way you can play. 
Velocity 2X is the definitive Puzzle-Shmup for the Sony consoles. It is the pinnacle of visual and gameplay design, bursting full of humour, generous content and hours of varied, interesting and challenging gameplay. If you own a PS4 or Vita, this is an essential buy.

Wrap up

 Good - Stunning visuals, quick and responsive gameplay, minimal load times on subsequent tries, excellent controls and spades of fun, humour, depth and replayability.
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Bad - 

5/5
Game provided by Futurlab
Images courtesy of Futurlab
Gameplay captured on reviewer's PS4
Knackered DS4 Controller - reviewer's own.