ReviewEdit

Well HERE’S a game that makes no sense whatsoever! You steer around some kind of ship, flying around in the same manner as in Mine Storm, Solar Quest, etc. (i. e. turning left and right and thrusting) until you reach a screen that has an enemy (known as a sectoid) in it, which, for some odd reason, no matter where you enter these areas, a sectoid will instantly attach itself to your ship. Shooting the s. o. b.s takes up the majority of this game (two out of its three levels), which at the end of those levels you then – guess what? – have to dispose of a boss in the same manner, except they take five hits to be destroyed! (Then level 2 requires the player to figure out their way through a maze, solve a puzzle and take care of a different kind of boss.)

Although some of the graphics are pretty bare (just lines for borders), the bright sectoids are pretty cool, and the sounds aren’t bad, although I didn’t really like the sound of the player’s ship thrusting, as it sounds like a mosquito.

So, you know how most of the game is in a nutshell there. However, for those who haven’t played it, you might not know it’s DAMN HARD. The sectoids move at the same speed that you turn and it can be pretty difficult to try to shoot them when that happens, having to match up their angle and trajectory and all. It’s like programmer George Pelonis looked at the two main characters tethered together in the Sega 32X game of Knuckles Chaotix and said “what can I do that’s somewhat similar, yet make it about five times worse?” I mean, I’ve currently played a little over 50 Vectrex games as I’m writing this, and out of those 50+ games, it’s either THE hardest, or the second hardest game I’ve ever played out of the bunch. And this is coming from someone who can get to over level 30 on Mine Storm and once beat a multiple world record holder/video game champion in an online gaming contest (no, I’m not saying who, so don’t ask). So for me to say it’s hard, yes, it very much is indeed!

I also know that Pelonis said at the time of release it was his biggest game to date (since all levels span several screens, especially the final one, which runs several screens across and down), yet the game’s still short, as you can beat the whole thing if you do everything correctly (which is unlikely!) in less than 15 minutes.

However, Sectis still has a bit of an addicting quality to it, somehow, for some reason. I’ve been playing it on and off for months; why I don’t know exactly.

Sector-X has been an interesting series thus far, with Continuum (the game after this one) being mostly in the puzzle genre, and it’ll be interesting to see what parts four and five of the series will have in store for us.

But until then, you’ve been warned! 6.5/10

(review by Darrylb500) 