I remember playing the first Velocity for a couple hours, thinking it was really cool and never going back to finish it. What I thought at the time was, "Man, this game could really use a plot to motivate me." And here we are.
Velocity 2X stars Lieutenant Kai Tana, an augmented human soldier out in the far reaches of deep space coming across a race of slavers and a race of slaves. A can of worms is soon opened and Lt. Kai Tana decides to single-handedly save the universe. Now, this works purely because of the charming little graphic novel parts of the game where Lt. Tana frees the slaves, finds out they're really tech savvy and gets behind-the-lines assistance from them. The art in these cut-scenes is exquisite, marrying the larger-than-life Eastern style of cartoon art with the more grounded traditionally Western style making for a distinguishable sci-fi universe contained in a 10h indie shmup.
Although, I suppose it's unfair to call Velocity 2X a shmup because that's not really what the game is, it's more of a two-tier puzzle platformer made up of a side-scrolling and a top-down platforming element. Shooting is only a minor part of the experience and more often than not your weapons are used to open the way rather than fell opponents. The top-down element sees you flying an ever-improving spaceship and the side-scrolling element sees you docked and controlling Kai directly to penetrate stations on foot.
Both elements let you teleport but the side scrolling one lets you teleport mid-jump and mid-slide. If Velocity 2X was a side-scrolling platformer, I'd still buy it - you can chain jumps and teleports in interesting ways: you can throw a telepod, teleport to it mid-flight and then teleport through a wall. A lot of the levels are mazes that require backtracking, made miles (pun semi-intended) easier with the teleport mechanic. But the level design shone the brightest in the side-scrolling sections for me, where it was dynamic, requiring quick thinking and nimble fingers.
The game is incredibly good at guiding the player and presenting a challenge in a clear way. From quite early on you will find colourful force fields blocking your way and numbered switches with matching colours. The mini-map which you can bring up at any point during a level lists all these switches and their numbers and even shows you what switches are hiding inside side-scrolling sections which have their own mini-map which tells you what switches are found of that section and the thing even tells you which switches you've already done! All in all, the only time I got stuck was due to a lack of skill rather than a lack of information. 
There are two collectibles in the game, each corresponding to an element - escape pods (rescues) for the top-down and crystals for the side-scrolling. These aren't anything other than just Mario coins though, they're not even Sonic rings. I found it odd that no rescues could be made inside the enemy's facilities and crystals occurred out in space. I think it's a damn shame that the two weren't at least put to better use, maybe as resources helping you improve your ship. Rescues should have been used as research points for new gimmicks and crystals could have been the currency for them but instead you just collect them so you have enough 'exp' to play the next level.
The game gives out experience at three tiers for four different aspects of a level: time finished, rescues, crystals and the ever enigmatic 'points'. Late on in the game, the exp requirements for new levels spike a little and the levels are more difficult so you score less exp on your first go and you have to replay some levels and improve your exp score. Now, on two early levels I had beaten the fastest time, rescued everybody and collected all the crystals, only to be 5 points short of the top target and 10 exp short of 100%. Ultimately that's the reason why I won't be bothering with 100% completion for this one.
The story is well told, presented excellently and ends with a nice little cliff-hanger, presumably setting up the DLC I don't give an afternoon toss about. See, the story was cool and the game was awesome but with 50 levels, 4 tropes and 2 unmasterable levels, I've had my fill, thanks.
Velocity 2X is: running through the schoolyard in your new Air Max trainers/10
(Amazing at first but in less than a week the 'newness' wears off and they're just trainers
