Clearly inspired by the classic shooter, Battlezone, the original Spectre game was released in the very early nineties. It was both developed and published by Velocity Incorporated. It was a reasonably popular vehicular shooter, very similar to Battlezone, and two years later Velocity released this improved version of the hit, Spectre VR. It also plays entirely from the first person point of view and features the same dark, cyberpunk themes and backgrounds as its predecessor. As a whole, however, Spectre VR is a much improved and much more exciting play.
Spectre VR is played one level at a time, and the game play is much like a game of “capture the flag” inside of geometrically shaped vehicles. Each level is set up like an arena, and the gamer will have to find and take a set of flags before he will be allowed to move on to ensuing levels. There will be tons of enemy vehicles patrolling the arenas, of course, and the user is best off killing each one he sees to give him the best chance of surviving until he reaches the flags.
The most fun portion of Spectre VR is choosing and customizing the tanks that he will drive in each level. The tanks are admittedly
clunky looking, but the ability to tweak them out and emphasize certain traits to make them the type of vehicle the user is seeking is very fun. The player can create tanks that are strong in several areas, including: speed, strength and ammunitions. This is one of the best upgrades between this and the original Spectre game. The other most noticeable upgrade comes in the form of better graphics, although the display is still limited.
The main goal of Spectre VR is to score points and accumulate the highest score possible. The player can earn points in a variety of ways, but most involves some clever and reflexive game play. He earns points by shooting down enemy vehicles, but he can also gain points by avoiding the shots fired at him by incoming enemy tanks and vehicles. He also earns points for completing missions in the allotted amount of time, which gets to be a tight accomplishment in later levels. To make later scoring even more difficult, enemies become harder and stronger, and more flags become available that need to be captured.
Overall, this is an archaic, but a good quality shooter. Being based on one of the greatest tank shooters ever, it already has some merit in good taste. It is definitely worth a try.
