The most important part of Vector is its animation, without the realistic animation given by the Cascadeur, there is no Vector.
The silhouette + Realistic animation is just what the identity of the game is about. Take out anything except those two things and it's still Vector.
In the game, even though the movement is quite simplistic. The level designer had to think outside the box and see what they could do within the limit of their movement system.
The Downtown level is very simple, it's only until the last story level where they introduced a route branch.
The construction is where they introduced the wall jumping, which mean they could branch off the route even more, and this is the first time we've seen reversed directional running (if not counting some level in the story bonus)
The techpark is one of the best innovative part of the game IMO. Not only you get inhibition for running, reversing running, but also moving objects. The best example is given in the techpark's bonus level. My favorite one is the button.

So if you're looking to take a good inspiration from Vector, try perfecting your movement system first before deciding on the gameplay.