Vigor

Reviewed on Xbox

By:
John

Time to dive into the world of Vigor Where you will “attempt” to get into Some fights and see which of the combatants will rise victorious by skill or just dumb buggy luck.

My initial play through of Vigor was very confusing, vague and frustrating. Vigor was riddled with bugs that ranged from small to game breaking.

The game Vigor starts in a post nuclear world, your character is lying in a pile of rubble in a collapsed tunnel, waking up to discover Norway is the last bastion for humanity.

My experience with Vigor’s multiplayer was very mixed for the most part, what made Vigor some what exciting was the loot & shoot game play with a high stakes twist. When dropped into the map you find yourself thrown into a random area, with either the weapons you brought with you from your safe-house, killing your enemies, or looting nearby buildings. What separates Vigor from the other free to play games is say for example you join a match, once you die you lose all your weapons, ammo, healing items etc. from your inventory. The game has a high focus on risk vs reward in doing so. Other than the very few pros of the game the cons out weigh the pros significantly. Let’s start with the loading time, this is one of the few games on Xbox One that has horrendously long load times. At one point I timed a three-minute loading screen just to get back to my safehouse. My biggest problem with the game was the shooting mechanics however. A game that relies solely on gun play, when aiming you must press your thumb stick to ADS (Aim down sights) and when aiming it’s still awkward to shoot. Also, there is a bad frame rate drop when firing larger weapons (shotguns, SMGS, rifles) especially when in a fire fight with another player. I have had instance where even with a freshly loaded mag and aiming perfectly dead center on my opponent, I still managed to hit nothing but air.

          I played the game for about six hours and there really is no story other than being in a post-apocalyptic Norway. You must loot to survive and upgrade your safe-house, that’s about it. There really is no end goal of the game other than just survive. After a few hours of looting there really isn’t much to do.

In all honesty the game functions like a pre-alfa build, the frame rate dropping when firing larger weapons, skipping ahead a few frames when running. Basically, your typical annoying lag. The H.U.D. blinking on and off the screen as well as guns firing but not hitting anything, and texture loading.

For the most part the game has nice visuals, beautiful water effects, however the areas are riddled with invisible walls, I would have like to see more detail. Audio sounds great, a few lags here and there when running or shooting, but other than that the game’s audio and visuals were decent.

In conclusion, Vigor, despite its short comings it is a decent game with great visuals and high-stake battles that give you greater rewards. With a few more updates and hopefully customization options in the future (fingers crossed) I’m sure Vigor will be able to stand on its own and firmly hold its place among it’s free to play rivals.

Verdict: 4/10