G.G Series VERTEX Review - Screenshot 1 of 2

The next game in the G.G series is here, and this one is yet another unique take on the puzzler genre. While G.G Series VERTEX starts out strong with an interesting shooter-puzzler hybrid, it quickly peters out when this concept fails to develop into anything further. Pair this with lacklustre visual and sound design, and you've got a game that turns out to be pretty average.

The premise sees the player take control of a small green orb that can move freely about the X-axis, and you must shoot falling polygons before they reach the line on the bottom of the screen. Visually speaking, there's not a whole lot going on here. The glowing green lines that compose the various polygons you shoot down are nice to look at, but there's not much more to see. The sound design is pretty much the same story; it gets the job done, but it's extremely limited in what it adds to the overall experience.

Gameplay can be described as a puzzler with shooter elements. Each falling polygon has a number and the player can fire single shots that have values of one, two, or three. For example, if a "3" polygon shaped like a square is falling, the player needs to blast it with a "1" shot in order to complete it. Especially in later stages, some quick, basic arithmatic skills are needed in order to most efficiently dispatch the large masses of polygons that are falling from the top; this makes for fast-paced battles that can be just as taxing on the mind as they are on the reflexes as you scramble to solve half a dozen basic math problems at once.

G.G Series VERTEX Review - Screenshot 2 of 2

To add to the difficulty, players are given a limited number of shots per stage - making it all the more important that calculations are made accurately. Levels come in sets of three, with a somewhat more difficult "boss" stage to round off each one. While gameplay is snappy, rewarding and interesting at first, it quickly becomes repetitive when the game fails to produce anything new to build upon it. The only notable thing to differentiate later stages from earlier ones is the speed and size of polygons, and while this does make for a decently paced difficulty curve, it doesn't shake up gameplay much.

Conclusion

G.G Series VERTEX is a game that's just a bit too simple for its own good. While the gameplay is engaging and fun at first, its failure to expand in any meaningful way later on in the game makes this a one trick pony. The simple visuals and sound add little more to the experience; this all makes G.G Series VERTEX something that had great potential, but ultimately turned out to be pretty mediocre. We'd still give this one a suggestion, but don't expect to be playing this one as long as other games in this long-running series.