Vexx
Score: 60% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Acclaim Studios Austin Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 Genre: Platformer
Graphics & Sound: Vexx scores points for originality in visual presentation but there isn't a lot of visual snap to make the original ideas terribly appealing. For some games, poorly executed planning contributes to bad ideas coupled with bad graphics, but Vexx appears to be more of a victim of poor timing than anything else. Entering the world of Vexx, I was struck by all the nice things thrown in as eye candy, even if they had a sloppy look compared to more crisp edges and rich textures we've seen in games like Jak and Daxter, Ratchet & Clank or Sly Cooper. Hereafter referred to as 'those other Platformers'. I'll admit my bias right up front, Vexx isn't holding his own in the contest against at least these three titles. For Xbox or Gamecube owners who still have something to prove, Vexx may feel like the high water mark for platforming, but PlayStation gamers have seen the Good, Bad and Ugly of 2D and 3D Platformers go by over the years. Vexx isn't exactly Ugly, but it ain't Good either. The graphics look dated, the type of thing we'd have been impressed with at this time last year or the year before, but that won't hold water now. Again, little features like the ability to change time in the game world from night to day indicate creativity in the design team and the ability to implement on the part of developers. What isn't clear is why something like this would take the place of playability. As is often the case, cut scenes are scene stealers and convey a drama I just didn't find present in the majority of the game once it reverted back to my control. In-game music and effects are solid and right on track with anything in the genre. The character and monster models leave a lot to be desired; when I find myself enjoying watching the boss character more than my hero, I know things are out of shape. Vexx did little or nothing for me as a character and the seriously likable quality of the characters in those other platform games never made it into this 'franchise.'
Gameplay: Calling Vexx a 'franchise' would assume some unique qualities that have potential to sustain another game or two or three. Besides a wealth of attack options, nothing comes out as the defining quality of Vexx, the thing that you would say to someone asking you to sum up the game in one word or short sentence. 'Dark Platformer' came out at E3 last year when I played this game and didn't find it awfully different than I find it now. Calling Vexx 'dark' tells you about as much about the game as calling a Crash game 'zany.' We need something more these days, whether it's weapons or a buddy system or vehicles or some other crazy thing. The pure Platformer may have seen the height of creativity, but just as the RPG seems to spawn innumerable variants and combinations, the new breed of Platformer seems able to take elements of the old and mix them in new ways. Vexx puts you in the talons of a pissed off kid who sees his world captured and enslaved and then watches his grandfather slain by Yabu, the evil force behind everything that has gone wrong in Vexx's life. Given a chance to avenge his grandfather, Vexx won't rest until Yabu is put down. Luckily, like so many of these pissed off heroes, Vexx finds a superweapon, a pair of gloves that can deal serious damage. Unlike the idea of the weapons making the game, Vexx uses his weapons to get around enemies and defeat bosses in his quest for Shadowraith Hearts. Collecting enough hearts opens up a new area for Vexx to explore and opening up enough doors may lead to the final battle with Yabu. If the story and success conditions sound familiar, wait until you get into the game. The biggest surprise is actually finding that combat plays a relatively minor role in the game. Success comes from solving puzzles and working through complicated platforming problems that test the reflexes, the camera and sometimes the entire game engine. Vexx is like a combination between Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider 2, with lots of frenzied action around puzzles that often results in cheap death. Okay, maybe TR3 is a better comparison on that account. If you took any of the recently popular Platformer titles and removed most of the story continuity and the fun, approachable challenges like smashing a certain number of things or shooting things or driving a vehicle, you'd end up with the really hard parts that sometimes made you feel like throwing your entire console in the garbage. This essence would be what the entire Vexx experience was for me.
Difficulty: Either the play testers for Vexx were superhuman or they were computers or they were relatives of the developers and were just afraid to say anything bad. Why in the name of all that jumps and butt-bounces do challenges have to be so hard? And why in the first 30 minutes of playing the game? At least let me get my brain around the controls before you throw me to the wolves!! And, as a small design hint, if you need to put big, bright arrows in the environment to lead a gamer to the next pick-up or boss, level design is probably an issue. Why didn't we need those big honking arrows in those other platform games? Probably because they were so much smaller, right? No! It had everything to do with designing the game for an optimum balance between challenge and accessibility and fun. Vexx leans so far toward the heavy challenge early on that novice Platformer fans will just fold and even folks like me who have beat their fair share of titles in their time will throw up their hands and go play something else.
Game Mechanics: And if you think you don't mind an honest challenge you can pit your skills against, young Jedi, let's talk about camera issues. Glitchola and then some. Traversing tiny crosswalks over bottomless pits with enemies attacking is already hard, but trying to turn the camera to make it possible for me to even see where I'm going while doing all that is impossible. The camera tries to be intelligent at times and pulls back or zooms in, but at least one of the pull-backs happened while I was trying to make my way through a tricky area and all of a sudden Vexx was the size of a postage stamp on the other side of a football field. Sheesh! And, in places where I was hugging a wall and trying to make a jump, the camera refused to get behind me so I just had to wing it and hope. Too many of the shots from afar make Vexx feel more like some kind of sprite-based action game with an overhead view than the cool 3D Platformer it wants to be. Edge detection suffered some mighty blows in the worst places. At one point, I was sure I was standing to one side of a falling block after making it up a difficult stretch of road, but watched the block come down and smash Vexx flat as a pancake. Really sad. Perception is reality and after playing many recent PS2 Platformer titles with nothing but adoration and joy I can honestly say that Vexx barely stacks up. The fighting controls are supposed to be the thing that makes this an exciting franchise, the 'revolutionary combo system [that] takes platform gaming to all new heights.' The combo I found most useful was the one where I pressed the same button again and again to knock enemies out or pressed the other button and jumped when enemies came at me from above. Exciting? No. Revolutionary? Hardly. I'll give Vexx points for the puzzles and the obvious work put into making every challenge in the game exciting. I think the fundamental issue I have with the game is that too much has been thrown in. Jumping, running or flying through rings is one thing, but Vexx would make you walk a tight-rope through rings while playing a rhythm game and shooting down scads of enemies and fighting a boss. Someone or many people decided they could have their cake and eat it too with this game and the result is a botched effort at a new take on the old formula. I won't even elaborate on the tried and true elements of hub-and-spoke platforming, item collection or boss battles present in Vexx. I understand that die-hard platforming fans might like to chew this gristle for a while because the demand for good platforming is insatiable. And this might be fine on newer consoles that haven't seen the volume of good games we've had for PlayStation. PS2 owners are morally obligated to go out and play at least the 3 games I mentioned at the top of the review before going near Vexx, and then only as a rental. It might be that you can see through the control issues and the camera and the graphics to find pleasure in the creatively designed puzzles at the heart of Vexx, but I've just got too many great games to play right now to accept a substandard experience like this.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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