Developed by FinalBoss Games Published by FinalBoss Games Reviewed on XBox One (also available on PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC)
Vesta is a top down exploration puzzle solving game. Your goal is to navigate through stages with your robotic companion and avoid enemy robots as you make your way to the door to the next level. As you continue to play, you collect power packs that act as batteries to power up various object that allow you to move on.
The titular character, Vesta, has no combat ability, so you need to avoid enemies at all costs. If you have to take down an enemy robot, you need to use your own robot companion, Droid, to incapacitate it for a short time. Only after you do that can Vesta go up to the stunned robot and remove its power pack to completely render it harmless. Droid not only can disable enemy robots with its blaster, but can also use it to clear debris obstructing the path and also can carry Vesta around. Not only does this allow you to move both characters at once, but Droid also can throw Vesta across a certain distance to get to otherwise unreachable places.
As you go through the game, you collect several tidbits that include parts of the story and learn more about the ship that you’re exploring. The puzzles are pretty creative and as you get to the later levels, you’ll find that many, if not every puzzle you come across has exactly one specific sequence you need to follow to progress to the next level. You’ll find yourself restarting individual levels over and over again if you get stuck or grab the wrong power core at the wrong time. At the end of each chapter you have a boss battle where Vesta must avoid getting hit completely while actively switching to Droid to stun the bosses long enough to grab their power cores. So while it does get tedious in one or two aspects, the game does offer a challenging and unique experience.
In the end, Vesta was a pretty fun experience for what its worth. If puzzles are your thing, then you’ll find yourself finishing the game in just a few hours. You’ll likely be go back to each stage and attempt to collect every single secret object. Vesta is a nice, quick puzzle game that despite its single solution puzzles, is still creative and interesting enough to play through while learning more about its interesting story.