Vigor Review

"Scenic Looting"

Multiplayer

December 15, 2019 at 11:34am
By Jason Stettner

This is a free to play looter shooter where you’re essentially trying to repair your broken shelter. The home aspect of play is time based, and just something to work towards while playing regular matches. I’ll dive into that further later on. This is set in post-war Norway in a time where the nuclear war has ended and Europe has been left devastated. It’s a sort of scenic journey as you aim to enter distinct locations in order to collect resources that have been left behind.

It features a permadeath system, so whatever loot you’ve gathered over the course of a match could be lost if you perish. There are insurance options that can be purchased, this is a free to play after all. That aside, you’ll face off alone or in duos as you battle others for loot and glory. The maps are fairly large in scale, and offer a variety of environments. You’ll be exploring various map landmarks to collect resources.

Other hot spots include safes for the best goodies and an eventual airdrop that really delivers. The airdrop is the hardest of things to collect in this as any hardcore survivor that’s left will be battling to try and claim the rewards. When you’re done, you can just leave the map. You can do this at any point in special escape areas, with a minor countdown until you’re clear. It’s not just about gathering that loot, it’s about making it out alive while holding onto it.

Gameplay

This definitely does feel similar to DayZ if you’re familiar to that title, just a bit more streamlined and faster paced. You’re able to traverse the world with speed, or do so slowly as you crouch or lay prone for a tactical edge. It’s quick to loot, but perhaps time consuming as many areas of houses can be searched.

There are a number of weapons to acquire and a crafting system to back it. I found the weapons to generally be alright, but I did notice some little hiccups here or there with how they handled. That’s the case for the most of the experience, it’s mostly smooth with some minor hitches here or there as you play. The housing aspect is technically what you’re working towards. This is a small little base that you have, where you’re able to fix it up over time. You need supplies to do so and you’ll have to wait a fair bit of real world time for it to happen.

You do get benefits aside from a sense of proud ownership. You will be able to collect some resources, craft better tools and also contribute to certain elements better such as food donations to the community. It’s a neat extra, but one that can take ages after you work through it a bit, I’m talking days of time for something to be completed. That being said, it’s a fine extra element that doesn’t really alter your experience too much.

The Conclusion

Vigor is a solid shooter looter that has a clear focus, a variety of distinct maps to play on and a background goal to work towards. It doesn’t necessarily have a lot of depth, but it offers a different sort of free to play experience. I would have liked more mode options, but it focuses in on what it aims to provide content wise.

It’s neat to battle it out in up to twelve player matches as it can feel lonesome, and at other times rather insane if everyone goes after the airdrop. It’s also such a strange sort of setup which I found interesting. You can literally leave at any point, making it such a gamble to collect end game resources as you’re never exactly sure how many players are still roaming around the maps.

There’s a decent amount of content to this, battles can feel epic and death is swift. I liked the sense of progression with the housing and I thought this was generally visually impressive. The backdrop of Norway is lovely, with some colorful pillaged houses littering the scene. It might have some things that need a bit more polish, but for the most part it’s fine.

Read our DayZ Xbox One Review
View our DayZ Hub

Vigor Review on Xbox One X
Review Code Provided by Bohemia Interactive

Rating Overall: 7.0