BOOST VECTOR EX – Technical Racer For a Particular Audience

Haste left me with an appetite for games built around running at ridiculous speeds, but BOOST VECTOR EX takes that appeal in a direction I found harder to connect with. Where Landfall’s roguelite emphasizes clean landings through procedurally generated environments, Blockage’s racer puts you on handcrafted circuits against opponents, with a story unfolding between events. 

Its movement rewards practice and careful decisions, and I enjoyed discovering how differently its characters handle a race. That enjoyment never quite extended to the whole experience, though the busy presentation and unremarkable storytelling made me less eager to spend time outside the competition.

Considering how much one developer has assembled here, there is plenty to admire. The Vector Masters have distinct playstyles, the courses offer different routes to learn, and progression opens cosmetics, activities, and further ways to play. My reservations are less about a lack of things to do than how those things fit around the racing, which consistently gave me the strongest reason to continue.

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Finding a rhythm on the track

The racing becomes interesting once you stop treating boost as something to spend immediately. Energy pickups replenish your meter as you move through a course, but having enough to accelerate now does not necessarily mean this is the best moment to use it. 

In one race, holding some energy back for the final stretch let me push ahead and take first place. That felt satisfying because the AI had made me work for the opportunity; these opponents are capable of challenging you rather than simply filling the track.

Keeping pace with them means learning where your energy comes from as well as where the course goes. Tracks usually offer multiple routes, and pickups already collected along one path are no longer there to sustain another pass during that race. Taking a different direction can therefore help maintain your supply, adding another consideration to corners and shortcuts. I had to think about how to stay fast across the whole event instead of chasing the quickest possible opening.

White, red, and orange pickups feed into the points and combo systems, with stronger combos helping your boost last longer. Those rewards sit alongside sliding, jumping, dashing, wall-riding, and combinations of airborne moves, giving you plenty of ways to navigate a section. Changing characters gives you more to learn because the Masters build and release speed differently.

Some movement styles emphasize acceleration and jumping, while others bring different turning or airborne options, and unlockable gear introduces further configurations. With a great selection of courses and single-player difficulty options, there is easily room for ten hours or more, especially if improving your lines appeals to you.

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Getting to know the Masters

That growing familiarity gave me more affection for the cast than the story itself managed. Between races, dialogue chapters introduce personalities and expand the World of Walls, with new faces and information keeping the setting from standing still. I liked the wider worldbuilding, but its delivery rarely made me invested in what would happen next. More often, I was ready to finish the conversation and see the next course.

Thankfully, these scenes do not bury you in enormous amounts of text. There is little conventional voice acting beyond character sounds, so much of their appeal depends on the writing and presentation. Although their personalities come across, the dialogue choices generally felt lightweight, offering responses and touches such as naming your squad without giving me a strong sense of influence.

The game suggests that some racing performances carry more significance, displaying notices that results can affect the story. Yet when I compared finishing first with finishing second, I could not identify a difference in what followed. There may be consequences I did not recognize, but their connection to my results was unclear enough that the notices became difficult to interpret.

Because story progression also unlocks cosmetics, bonuses, lounge minigames, and other extras, those conversations remain part of accessing the wider game. The lounge activities make enjoyable little breaks once available, and collecting more things provides another reason to keep progressing. Still, I would have preferred a story that drew me forward as effectively as its unlocks did, rather than feeling that I needed to follow it to reach activities I wanted.

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A lot happening on screen

The presentation creates a similar mixture of attraction and fatigue. Strong colors, constant animation, and a crowded interface give the game a recognizable personality, but they can also make it tiring to look at. The menus never became impossible to navigate; I simply spent more effort than I wanted separating useful information from everything moving around it.

Once a race starts, however, much of that excess makes more sense. The flashes and animation suit the speed, and the visual energy often supports the action even when I find the same approach exhausting elsewhere. I would welcome clearer menus and a less restless interface without wanting the races stripped of their character.

That character comes through particularly well in the racers themselves. Their designs appealed to me, and the short camera introductions before each event give them a moment of attention before the running begins. I enjoyed the exaggerated jiggle physics as part of that playful presentation too. The soundtrack completes the atmosphere with drum and bass and house tracks that fit the pace, giving repeated attempts music I was happy to keep hearing.

Repeated attempts can also extend into online lobbies, while mod tools let creators build individual circuits or full series. Custom maps support multiplayer and leaderboards when everyone has the required mod installed, providing more possibilities beyond the official courses. Those features will matter most to people who want to keep practicing and competing after the story, whereas my main interest remained in working through the single-player content. The developer has discussed further story and maps, but the existing racing is already the clearest reason to play.

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THE VERDICT

Who is this for?

BOOST VECTOR EX is a game I can recommend to its audience without pretending it became one of my favorites. Around €20 makes sense if you want to master the characters, learn alternate routes, unlock the extras, and spend time competing online; the story alone offers a weaker reason to commit. I do not regret buying it, even though clearing the single-player courses and campaign feels like my natural stopping point. Its movement gave me enough enjoyable racing to appreciate the purchase, while leaving me comfortable moving on afterward.