Bohemia Interactive's Vigor features fun gameplay and an interesting premise but lacks staying power thanks to its lack of variety in game modes.
Bohemia Interactive's Vigor, a free-to-play loot and shooter, is almost a good game. The gameplay is solid, its mishmash of seemingly conflicting genres works in its favor, and there's a lot of tension to be found in the post-apocalyptic Norway setting. But a lack of variety in game modes mixed with a sense that the Shelter building system never quite feels interesting or vital add to its lack of staying power. As a whole, Vigor is fun, but in its current for, it won't hold the attention of most gamers for very long.
Vigor features third-person perspective combat and is set in an post-apocalyptic Norway after a devastating nuclear war has left the rest of Europe in a state of collapse. Players take on the role of an an unnamed survivor, simply referred to as Outlander by everyone else in the game. While this isn't the most original or groundbreaking narrative for a video game to cover, Vigor's use of Norway works to its favor. There's an ever-present feeling of doom and despair as players roam the various maps, looking for loot and fending off other players.
One of the most notable elements of Vigor are encounters with other players on several semi-open maps in the Norwegian landscape. These can be accessed after completing the game's opening tutorial section, which teaches players how to handle weaponry and movement while introducing them to the post-apocalyptic world. These encounters make for some of the most suspenseful moments in the game, simply because you'll never really know what kind of players you're being paired with. While open combat is certainly an option, the main point of these encounters is to gather various supplies and loot in order to upgrade the Shelter. The cautious and sneaky player can potentially get through an encounter without firing a single shot.
The map design in Vigor is also one of the title's biggest strengths. Each little mini section of Norway feels fundamentally different from each other and it stops a sense of repetitiveness from setting in (at least for the first dozen or so hours). Learning the ins and outs of these maps can be something of a tall task and newer players will probably struggle at first to understand the landscapes but luckily Vigor's map system is just intuitive enough with its icons to offer a reprieve. But even when the graphics kind of underwhelm (and they do quite often), the map design almost make it a non-issue.
Where Vigor really starts to fall apart is in longevity, as it simply doesn't have the content to support players for the long term. This doesn't really become apparent until a dozen or so hours into the game, when all the maps have been played a few times each and some upgrades on the Shelter have been set into motion. Vigor's lack of game modes outside of encounters is worrying, as there's nothing but multiple maps to break up monotony. One could argue that other game modes, like a death match, would defeat the inherent purpose of the game's loot and shoot skeleton. As it is, the solid gameplay and map design can only cover up for so long that Vigor is woefully bare bones.
Perhaps this wouldn't be such a bad thing if the Shelter wasn't such a disappointment overall. There are in-game benefits to upgrading it that will help players with crafting new guns, ammo and other items, but after a time, Vigor's use of a real time countdown before upgrades are finished becomes an aggravating hindrance. It can already be hard enough gathering resources in encounters that this extra layer is entirely unnecessary and annoying.
Vigor has many components of a good game, especially for a free-to-play title. Its combat is fun and mostly refined, its map design is incredibly detailed and thoughtful, and PvP encounters really make its loot and shoot nature that much more enjoyable. Even Vigor's microtransactions aren't all that invasive and are focused entirely on cosmetic items. But there just isn't enough content here to justify playing for very long, especially with such a frustrating Shelter system. Surely more content will come now that the game is in full release, but with a little more tweaking and game modes, Vigor really could have been the next big free-to-play title.
Vigor is out now on Xbox One as a free-to-play full release.