Vesta – Review

Vesta is a puzzle game where you play as a six-year-old girl and her robot who are uncovering the mystery of the ruins of a great mechanical underground city. Developed and published by FinalBoss Games, Vesta released on 19th January 2018.

Vesta is a young six-year-old girl who lives an underground city that is desolate, with her only companion being BOT. BOT gives Vesta some tasks which would’ve been impossible for a human but is possible for her to do as BOT gives her a helper, a robot by the name of DROID. BOT encourages her to complete this tasks with the help of DROID, since the combination of the two can easily overcome the difficulties of the hostile yet passive environment and solve the puzzles.

The game features alternating controls between the two protagonists with Vesta being the one who can open doors and activate platforms by absorbing energy from pillars and/ or fallen enemies while DROID is the humongous robot who defends them against the hostile robots and can move heavy objects. The gameplay is quite simple with the challenge being the numerous puzzles present in the game. Puzzles are plentiful and so are levels, the game has over 36 levels that makes you use your brain power. It is evident though that the game has taken a lot of inspiration from the Zelda-like puzzles and dungeons.

However, the puzzles do get repetitive and can even lead to frustration as there is a lot of trial and error. Without the proper information upfront, it can be very difficult to solve a puzzle which leads to a lot of guessing. Another frustrating aspect is when you reach the end of a level only to find out that you don’t have the required energy to carry on which leads you to backtrack and go all the way back to harvest an energy cube. Also, the cycle of dying because of failing a puzzle can be very frustrating because of the checkpoint system that is poorly implemented with the placement being quite bad.

Graphically the game has a very cartoony art style which goes well with the light nature of the game. It’s easy going, simple and doesn’t force a dark or gritty story onto you just for the sake of it. The usage of colours is done well to differentiate between elements that are just part of the environment and objects that are actually part of the gameplay. The audio and music is nothing fantastic and is decent enough to keep you engrossed in the game.

While Vesta has an intriguing story to hook you initially and puzzles that are interesting enough to keep you going but ultimately it can lead to repetitiveness and lot of frustration due to the poor checkpoint system, lack of variety in puzzles and also the frustrating lack of information at times times. Vesta turns out to be an ok game that offers decent fun but you can’t expect too much out of it.

Vesta is out now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.