PEGBRJE: Code 7 and VEKTOR 2089
Very different takes on the ‘super cool future’ setting, I’d say.
Code 7 is a mystery/horror episodic text-based game made by Goodwolf Studio, a trio of indie devs working out of Germany. Players initially follow the events as Alex, sent with partner Sam to investigate and recon a space station that has been somewhat unresponsive and to possibly fix their satellites. Both have no idea how they ended up in their respective rooms, and as the resident hacker Alex must communicate to Sam via text to move her through the silent space station in the hopes of locating where ever Alex might be. Searching computers and hacking servers will reveal pieces of the events that had occurred, and decision will be recorded for future use. After all, this summary only covers Chapter 0, and I’m not spoiling it.
Code 7 advertises its plot hooks quite obviously: people lost in a dark space station with nobody seemingly alive, power and access being denied everywhere, and scraps of notes writing about the A.I being developed. This premise isn’t new, with 2001: A Space Odyssey being the forerunner in novels and movies alongside the title System Shock. We’ve even seen this premise earlier in the bundle with the Fall of Lazarus, albeit with some differences. Where Code 7 thrives in bringing new tension to this setting is in the initial dual-person setup: as Alex, players can only type through a communicator to Sam to instruct her where to go. They have seemingly no worries about themselves, and must instead help Sam find where ever Alex has been stuck so they can both head back to Earth. It’s this reliance on another that invests players into the story, this idea that they are unable to do anything but tell another what to do and where to go. Without Sam, Alex is lost; but without Alex, Sam is too.
To this end, the interactivity between the two is done via hacking; specifically, inputting command and attempting to unlock doors, access passwords, and find general information to assist in navigation. Sam is also open for commentary, and can be directed to different rooms at Alex’s request to investigate certain objects, locks, and the like. This is crucial for not only finding out passwords or computer names, but also for world building and humanizing the two. Players learn about Sam and Alex’s professional relationship, what’s going on around her as Sam explores and how she reacts to them. Sam reacts as would expect from a confused, lost, mildly nervous space pilot, and Alex doesn’t get to react much besides what the players get to say. Except in certain circumstances, where some phrases may just.. vanish into thin air as if not allowed through the computer. As if censored by someone else.
To escalate things further, many hacking events feel as if you may not complete them in time, from leaving a ‘man in the middle’ hack on a server node to discovering an override before something occurs. There’s constant tension throughout with Sam either reminding or pleading with Alex that time is precious, even if players won’t be informed if time matters until after the chapter ends. It’s this uncertainty that can cause players to panic, which is exactly what Code 7 wants. It wants you to feel nervous, panicked or unsure of an action because uncertainty leads to mistakes, and mistakes usually lead to death. Thankfully there are a few moments in which failing a procedure doesn’t appear to automatically fail the player, usually in tutorial modes or hacks that a lot of trial and error that cannot be mitigated.
Code 7 takes a tried method and expands on its interactivity with hacking and character interactions. In it’s current episodic format, Goodwolf is open to telling a story that can appear linear while still having deviations thanks to player choices and actions. Where it will go, I cannot tell — spoilers. While the hacking may not have the ‘depth’ that some players are looking for in terms of puzzle quality, it provides an added layer of tracking that the player must do, from moving entities around to opening doors to keep the flow of motion. It’s an episodic game first and foremost, and uses its hacking to tell a story, not the other way ‘round. If you are interested in System Shock-styled story telling in games with hacking puzzles and organization, give Code 7 a try. It’s 4th chapter isn’t out as of writing this, but I can safely say that I cannot wait.
Oh and it’s almost fully voice acted. What more can one ask for.
VEKTOR 2089 is a colourful cyberpunk fueled racing game by Impbox Games, an indie dev out of Australia and featuring the work of Dubmood. In this glitchfest racer, players choose between a handful of modes, colours, racing pods and tracks and see who can drift the best. There are time trials, championship modes, a hotseat mode and editors everywhere. If players can, upon this game launching players can have custom ships on their custom made tracks and then create a gif of their excitement and export it.
The name of the game in VEKTOR 2089’s case is the sheer amount of customization and features packed into such a lightweight game. With the number of game modes and local multiplayer for your friends to also drive into you constantly, it has a lot of added gameplay features included in such a small package. While the editors themselves are not finalized yet, the groundwork seems to be there for future implementation as ships and tracks look to be designed and developed cleanly and simply. Time Trial mode is probably my favourite, as it allows players to alter the speed in which the trial is displayed from speeding it up, rewinding and slow motion if needing to critique a certain drift timing. This also includes the speed graphed over time to give a better overview of the race.
How it plays and handles took a little getting used to at first, but VKETOR 2089 capitalizes on its camera angle quite efficiently. Rather than having players hold a button for acceleration, the ship moves at a constant rate that can be increased by boosts/boosters or decreased by crashes. Players only need to direct where they wish the ship to go, and it is off to the races; which allows for the other hand to work on the mentioned ‘boost’ or drifting, staples to any arcade like racing game. Instead of the entire race track map outlined in the top corner, there is instead a ‘turn tracker’ as I fondly called it — it appears at the end of the gif above. This maximizes the space given, and shows players when they need to take drastic turns. Since they are on a top down view, general curves and straight areas are much easier to understand and react to unlike the typical third-person camera.
Finally as an added bonus, VEKTOR 2089 includes the ability to press a simple button, and record the current game into a gif to show friends and love ones those sick drifts. It did cause my game to hang for a second, which was mildly concerning, but eventually it picked off exactly where it left off. Players can change the quality of the gif in the option menu, which also includes the ability to remove some of the ‘extra’ features such as glitchiness and shaking of the screen during some moments. I personally was having difficulty seeing at some points due to crashing into walls so constantly, so it was nice to have the option to tone it down. This accessibility, along with its growing customization and simple-yet-fun format allows for VEKTOR 2089 to be a fun game to play with friends, or race against yourself. If you’re looking for a future neon racer with a lack of appreciation for gravity, you’ll want to follow the development of VEKTOR to see how the ship/map editors turn out.
