Vector Lab Nekki Games Genres: Games Arcade Role-Playing Entertainment Free Supported Devices: iPhone4 iPad2Wifi iPad23G iPhone4S iPadThirdGen iPadThirdGen4G iPhone5 iPodTouchFifthGen iPadFourthGen iPadFourthGen4G iPadMini iPadMini4G iPhone5c iPhone5s iPhone6 iPhone6Plus iPodTouchSixthGen Minimum iOS Version: iOS 7.0 Download Size: 168.9MB App info is currently processing and/or the app is not yet fully available for sale on the US App Store.
Traceurs, take note. This is a decent leap, tuck and roll towards the side scrolling freerunner we've been waiting for. Lab differentiates itself from the original Vector by actually being a futuristic parkour roguelike, with a mix of permadeath and persistent progression elements. You start every new run after death with a new test subject in the titular lab. The subject progresses through levels, and when she perishes, you start from level 1. The rather chilling plot of Lab is to die untold times until you've guided a subject to freedom (and then presumably launch another one and die over and over again). As you try and fail and fall to pieces and atoms, you unlock acrobatic moves and blueprints for equipment that are available for the current and all future subjects. However, the actual equipment has to be bought anew for each new subject/run. Equipment helps protect against damage from lasers, floor mines and all the other dangers you'd expect to find in a cyberpunk parkour lab. They also seem to help unlock doors to alternate routes in levels, and possibly other advanced mechanisms further into the game. Moves function like in the original Vector, and offer different methods of bypassing obstacles, maintaining flow and scoring style bonuses. The game uses a peculiar f2p timer system where you always have access to Protocoll Zero, testing subjects that start with no gear. You fulfill quests during runs, and these unlock more advanced testing but timer-limited protocols, which means that your little freerunner starts with more pre-equipped gear, and possibly more or less run attempts before the freemium timer sets in. Levels seem to be at least partially randomized. As a result of this and Lab's roguelike nature, there is less focus on replaying levels to memorize routes and upcoming obstacles (something that always bothered me in the original Vector, and went against the freeform nature of parkour and free running). In their place there is a greater emphasis on reflexes, split-second decisions, maintaining flow and reacting to whatever the game throws at you as you run. This alone elevates Lab far above its very nice predecessor, and creates the only actual freerunning-like experience I've had on iOS (with the possible exception of some moments in Mirror's Edge). As well as a quite entertaining runner, my obvious bias and predisposition towards parkour-based games notwithstanding The game is still quite anemic in terms of content. But there is flow, momentum, near-endless ways to run and die, and worlds enough and time to do so...
