Gadgetory

hey everybody this is Steve from gamers Nexus net and today we're going to do another heat signature this is a belated heat signature as I announced on our Facebook page I had to push it back for some really awesome updates that are coming but that said we just got back from pax east last weekend and I just really awesome videos up from the concert so check that out if you are interested in that sort of thing today we're going to talk about vertex though which is a true indie game it has been promoted on take source on the independent gaming discussion forums and it is as I said a true independent game meaning that it's not really right now there is a pretty complete demo out it is not commercial right now I don't know if he has plans to make it commercial but it is a free demo with plenty of maybe two or three hours of gameplay the game takes inspiration from Super Metroid spelunky and Cave Story as the developer has said as well as plenty of other game from the credits many of them from the NES and SNES era is a pretty challenging a platformer I guess you could say it is an RPG platform of it very much like the old NES games with that said it does take in a couple of new elements from other games that have been out recently so let's go and talk about those it is based in AI there's a somewhat of a backstory it's based around at the vertex which is a large sort of futuristic structure that has been overtaken by bad guys and we are part of the faction that controls the vertex but unfortunately we lost it to the the enemies that invaded so now it is our objective to eventually I would suppose gain the vertex back although that much of the game hasn't necessarily been revealed yet so that's all just back story though the real point of the game is to kill institue explore and generally adventure this is an action adventure platformer style game you have your basic inventory with different items you can equip you have multiple characters that you switch between at any point in the game it's not it is a is not a turn-based combat so you play as one character you hop around and if you want to you can hit C to switch to a more advantageous character for the position you're in for example in the demo I have so far I mark the main character of course you start with and his advantage as he can go stealth in the shadows if you stay still for a few seconds which is very good for getting the drop on those more powerful enemies now of course all of these enemies just patrol like in the original platformers it's not like they're going hunting for you but still very useful the first unlockable character is a ranger type with a double jump so you'll find yourself switching to her pretty frequently when you are trying to get from place to place or just trying to access new areas and that is one of the things that vertex does extremely well and even though it is just a demo like I said so all of this is subject to change but it does restrict access to different areas by requiring that you have certain characters or items so it's not just like a sign that says you can't go here or an invisible wall you physically cannot access it and you know immediately it's not like there's any question at all you know immediately okay I must need something to get here and then you go out and search for it's very compelling gameplay and it's very fluid so it's not like there's ever a moment of doubt or question we were trying to think did I miss something because you you most certainly know that you've missed something if you did not come out of that previous area with some with some kind of significant advantage or ability to access newer areas and all of the areas are staged off of one central point of gathering so far and those are all seen right away so you know okay I need an access card to get to this tower I need some kind of higher jumping ability to get to this area over on the right and for the warp gate on the left i know i can access that immediately so obviously i'll go through there and then explore that level until i find something to either an access card or a higher jump and that's pretty much the flow of the game play in terms of your thought process it is as I said based off of Super Metroid and some other games of that era so in terms of elements we see from that it is a fast-paced platformer there is some pretty decent combat even though it's you know it's a platform it's pretty simple there's just a shoot and then a jump and running and all that but the boss battles I found extremely challenging I did figure out after a little while what the trick is as with all of these games there's a somewhat of a trick to defeat the bosses which basically in the long run a cup is just running backwards or jumping over bullets or stuff like that the boss did the one that I thought initially did have a couple of different attacks which meant I had to learn a couple of different ways to evade those attacks and stay alive checkpoints are very well placed so if you die which you definitely will you don't have to redo a whole bunch of the level but they're not placed so commonly that it's like newer games where it's holding your hand you actually do have a little bit of a punishment in terms of time loss when you die so for other features there is a central town where you can go there is a shop so you can buy different items like healing kids or your stuff of that sort of different increased accuracy increases attack power all of those kinds of basic items and you just buy them there one time uses for the most part and can buy them what the coins that you get from killing things or you can buy them with orbs that you find hidden through different areas and with that said that it's hidden areas in this game are very well scattered it's pretty easy to find them so it's not like be you're not going to spend hours of your time trying to find every single niche in the game which is actually extremely aggravating to me because I always feel like I have to complete a game a hundred percent but this game marks them with a couple of well-placed flowers or crystals or other stuff of that variety so that you know where it is but you still have to look around in that general area it's not like it shows you exactly where so that is pretty much all of the key points for this demo is the final version of the public demo so I expect the full game will come pretty soon it's made by I moose on the tig forums or tick source forums and the game does currently have five major areas to quote his list a couple of minor areas and secret areas numerous boss battles original sound music and graphics which are all really good by the way they definitely have the great older 8-bit aesthetic to them and they flow very well the music is great as well so hopefully you will hear all that and if you download the demo it's only forty megabytes it has two to three hours of gameplay and a working inventory in shop where you can equip different items to your characters to make them more powerful the Creator also has a great sense of humor so there's some pretty funny things scattered throughout their definitely go download it and enjoy that it is a free demo forty megabytes I will have a couple more videos up this week hopefully one will talk about legend of grimrock if my schedule works out and I also plan to do a video on how to replace the the 4-pin molex connectors on a power supply so that is definitely not game related but it is harbour related so for our readers out there that like hardware you will have that to look forward to i will talk to you guys next time peace