Vostok Inc. (PlayStation 4) Review

Vostok Inc. sends you out into the depths of space to mine asteroids and planets. Through traditional twin stick combat, you have to collect gold, and then build facilities on the planets in the solar system. These facilities mine gold, adding it into the player's funds, and can be used to upgrade facilities and the ship, as well as purchase new facilities on other planets.

There are also objectives that need to be completed to unlock additional types of facilities. The clicking portion is arguably the most involved part, though it's still just a matter of getting the facilities onto the planets and upgrading them. This lends itself to the obnoxious grind that comes in the twin shooter portion of Vostok Inc..

While exploring space (if it can be called exploring), it's important to destroy not only asteroids to pilfer their gold, but enemy ships to collect their gold as well. There are also boss ships to destroy, and occasionally, drones show up. If they aren't destroyed quickly enough, they spawn a tournament style battle where several rounds of enemies must be survived in a row without the ability to escape. Win, and receive tons of gold. Lose, and respawn at your base of operations. This basic setup works regardless of where doom is met, but these are the easiest places to fall victim to the grim reaper's scythe.

This is all well and good, but making any real progress requires an absurd amount of grinding, which inevitably makes it feel like any other clicking title about becoming a successful tycoon. The shooting section feels pretty typical of a shooter, and honestly is a bit too traditional to be exciting. From an audio perspective, you will be joined by an assistant who, while handling the tutorial, sticks around to yammer even more after that portion is complete.

The game utilises the often ignored language of squeaks, and it plays through both the television speakers and the controller speaker. It's really distracting and irritating. The humour does manage to hit the mark more often than not, though, and Vostok Inc. manages to still feel charming. At the end of the day, then, this is a traditional clicker with traditional shooter elements, with a frustrating set of audio files and a charming sense of humour.