Galactic Vault Review – Unpredictability On A Ship

Galactic Vault is a first-person shooter roguelike developed and published by MeepMeep Games. You crash into a spaceship and attempt to fight your way through several rooms before you defeat a boss. Arm yourself with one of several weapons, upgrading its capabilities as you progress. After every run, you can apply permanent upgrades to your weapons to ensure future runs are more successful.

You crash into a giant spaceship and begin shooting your way through rooms. The ship’s crew (mostly robots) doesn’t take your presence well and wants to eliminate you. Reach the end and defeat the boss or fail during your latest attempt. No matter what happens, you reappear on your ship to prepare for the next run. There’s no big story, and Galactic Vault doesn’t need one. It’s a pure roguelike experience where you challenge yourself while upgrading your weapons.

Galactic Vault lets you choose from four difficulties of vaults. The difficulty controls the number of rooms you fight, enemy competence, and the rewards you obtain. As you clear each room in a vault, you choose from rooms that upgrade certain parts of your gun. At the end of every run, you can apply permanent upgrades to each weapon that help you fight more effectively. Performing certain actions with these weapons gets you more experience to upgrade said weapons quickly.

Selecting your preferred difficulty helps you prepare and try new strategies. Maybe you’ve found an approach that works for you, or you want to experiment with certain upgrades. When you feel confident about challenging the higher difficulties, the option is there. This makes the game more accessible since you don’t need to be great at first-person shooters at the start. You can practice as much as you like before starting more challenging runs.

Each weapon also has its time to shine, allowing you to try each one before settling on a favorite. For example, handguns are the typical all-rounder while shotguns suit slow-yet-powerful playstyles. The submachine gun is effective in bursts and fits players who like rapid-fire strategies. As you get better, you can also utilize the assault rifle or sniper rifle to your advantage. No weapon stands out too much, making it easier to pick any weapon without feeling like you made the wrong choice.

However, the game doesn’t inform you of several techniques that are useful during your runs. Sliding and melee attacks are some of the biggest offenders, especially because some upgrades boost them. But the tutorial never covers them, and you must learn about them through key bindings. Shackling newer players doesn’t make much sense, especially when you need every advantage in a fast-paced game.

Combat is fast-paced with enemies coming in from all sides. You have objectives to complete, from eliminating enemies and holding capture points to surviving waves or defeating certain targets. After every wave, you can often choose from two to three upgrade rooms depending on your luck. With several upgrades to use, you can spend hours experimenting with different builds and runs.

Enemy spawns do occasionally have glitches where they can get stuck, or you have enemies you can’t reach. It’s not uncommon to have an enemy stuck in a ceiling or hidden in a place that is inaccessible. You might be able to force an enemy to spawn, but this isn’t always successful. It’s frustrating to end your runs because of technical problems rather than being overwhelmed by enemies.

Every weapon is useful and fits your preferences, allowing each weapon a chance to shine. Testing new builds and challenging yourself with harder rooms keeps the game from becoming too easy. Some bugs and glitches may force you to end runs early. Other concepts could also be highlighted during gameplay. For quick fun and a roguelike that keeps you on your toes, Galactic Vault delivers a solid experience.

Victor reviewed Galactic Vault on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.