Trace Vector is described as a high speed action arcade game with puzzle elements. It also has vector style graphics, and is very easy to learn but difficult to master. The music has been described as electronica and certainly adds to the 80โs arcade feel of the game overall.
The object of the game is to race your ship through each geometric level grabbing all the fuel cells you can and dodging dead ends along the way. The controls feature just two buttons to determine the path your ship will follow, and one button to slow down time at the expense of fuel.
There is an adventure mode that takes you through the story with various stages containing six levels each. At the end of each stage the story is progressed through dialog between the pilot and shipโs computer. Crashing takes away a chunk of fuel and restarts you at the beginning of the level. When you run out of fuel the game is over and you have to start the stage over.
For those that rather just play to see how far they can get, there is an endless mode for just that purpose. In this mode things start off slow, but eventually the game will increase the speed drastically at points. In this mode the game is over when you crash or run out of fuel.
While playing this game, I found the music to be great without distracting from navigating. I did find Trace Vector to be very reminiscent of 80โs arcade games, which for me is good. The way the graphics and levels are, it becomes hard for me to play for more than an hour, despite that I keep going back to the game to try and collect all the fuel from each level.
As for the endless mode, I havenโt played more than a handful of times because of how difficult it is for me right now. The first time I played, I was promptly sped into a dead-end from not knowing that the game was going to increase speed when it did.
The game is quite fun and sometimes I just sit and listen to the music. I look forward to seeing what other games are released from Vexel Games.
