Vigilante 8

"Vehicle Combat Fan Says: "Not Half Bad""

Ahh, car combat. The name just says it all. Car Combat. At least you know what you're getting. Well, I love car combat; my favorite being Twisted Metal Black, of course. However, sometime after TM2, Vigilante 8 drove in to challenge the competition. Instead of playing a complete rip-off, Vigilante 8 provided gamers with a whole new experience, and frankly, it was good...Now, I'm going to try and limit the comparisons to any other car combat games and review V8 as its own entity. Now, let's begin.

LOVE THE POSITIVES
+THE 70'S+
To add a degree of nostalgaic finesse, Activision stylized V8 with 70's flair. Right from the title screen, you can tell this much. You're treated to a half-machine Foxy Brown-esque afro-sporting chick bending down in front of a tire. All while a funky disco beat causes your head to involuntarily bob up and down. The options menu is one of the more impressive option screens I've ever seen. All the functions, from Memory Card to Screen Adjust have some kind of 70's... charm to them. Again, all while the disco plays. As you can imagine, all the characters in the game look like they're from the said era. You've got the disco dancer, Boogie, to the slick John Torque. All the levels are located in the Southwestern USA. You'll fight in the oil fields of New Mexico to the Hoover Dam to Casino City in Nevada. The story isn't much, but it consists of two gangs, the Vigilantes and the Coyotes, fighting in their cars for...something. Essentially, the Vigilantes are the good guys and the Coyotes are bad. Though really, they're all kinda crazy. There's also the theme of aliens, which isn't done too far, but definately present. The character Dave drives a van that calls upon little flying saucers to attack his foes. The ultimate unlockable character is a UFO, and one stage has you fighting in Area 51 itself.

One sometimes forgets the importance of having a theme to a game, and V8 delivers Theme full-on. I find this to be necessary to mention because honestly, without the 70's charm, this game might have sucked. It's that important. Though it's an era most gamers have not lived, it feels somewhat authentic and original. As if you were actually battling other drivers in your gang war in the 70's. The alien theme was also done well, without going too far with it. It's more of a side gag than a theme, really, but it only helps to enhance the charm of the game.

+THE BATTLEGROUNDS+
An extremely important aspect of, well, any game, are the places where the game occurs. V8 did very well in this regard. I enjoy just about all of the battlegrounds in this game. There's always something to do, you'll find, and little things that you can use to your advantage. In the Aircraft Graveyard, for example, you can cause a bomber to attack your foes, but if you trespass into certain territories, it'll attack you! In the Rockies stage, if you destroy about 5 trees, a deadly avalance will roll down the the arena. But best of all about the battlegrounds is that everything is destructible, and I do mean Everything. Shoot at any object long enough and it'll either explode or fall apart. Doing so may reveal hidden stashes of weapons or health or sometimes be used as a trap for unsuspecting foes. Even the hotels in the casino stage can be blown up with enough gunfire, which is awesome.

+AUDITORY BLISS+
As I've mentioned, the theme song is funky and full of head-bobbery. The rest of the tracks are catchy and well-done. Most of them are rock and roll, but there are a few pleasant surprises. And best of all, you can choose any track for any stage, simply by pressing start! So very few games have a track select option that I simply have to applaude Activision for this feature. Bravo!

The sound effects are good for their time, for sure. You may get tired of them after awhile, but you'll still have to admit that they were well done. I also like the voice acting. Though there's very little of it- usually just when you select the character, do a "whammy" with that character, win with that character, and die with that character will you hear their voice. Most of them are pretty comical, however unintelligible, but that just makes it even funnier. I think if they'd gone any further with it, it would have been annoying, but it's just right.

=THE GAMEPLAY..=
So, why have I not mentioned the actual gameplay yet? Well, because I can't really consider it a positive as it has its flaws. Not to say it's bad- it's just, well, let me explain. In Twisted Metal, you're given three lives on each level. Your health depletes depending on the ferocity of the attacks. This formula works well for the franchise. V8 went a different route and made all the cars extremely durable. Each vehicle has its own armor rating, but even the weakest can take quite a many hits before exploding. This is good in that you have time to explore the level, collect weapons, and enjoy shooting the crap out of everything, but it can also be tedious sometimes when you're only slowly scratching away at your opponents' armor. Ughh, c'mon, just die! However, Activision did add a nice feature to every weapon. By tapping a certain combination of three buttons, your weapon will do something special. You can make your rockets fire five in succession or get a speed boost from your missiles or fire an extra-powerful mortar that makes a crater in the ground. Memorizing these combos are necessary if you want to master this game. Lets talk about the difficulty...

IT'S NOT ALL SUNSHINE...
-IS IT EASY?-
There are two modes of play in single player: Quest and Arcade. Obviously, Arcade mode lets you pick the stage and the enemies in a one-round duel to the death. Quest mode has you go through four stages chosen in an order unique to each character. Choose a Vigilante, and you'll be asked to protect a certain destructible landmark in the level, whether it's the windmills or the teepee village or whatever else. This can be rather difficult as some things are located in a particularly central location in the battlefield and will undoubtedly be destroyed unless you arm yourself to the teeth and have yourself cornered far away from the landmark in question. Choose a Coyote, then your job is much easier: destroy the landmark chosen for you. Hard to fail at that since no one seems to mind that you're blowing it up. This whole protecting/destroying is optional, but necessary to unlock extra characters and stages, which you'll want to do since they rock. In stage 1 in quest mode, you'll face off against one enemy of the opposite gang. Stage 2 has 2, 3 has 3, and 4 has...3? Yes, on the 4th stage, you'll fight three enemies, then once they're dead, you'll have a showdown with a fully-loaded member of the opposing gang. I'll discuss the specials later, but this usually makes for a difficult, yet appropriate, challenge.

All-in-all, however, this game becomes too easy after awhile. I picked it up after years of it sitting on my shelf and I somehow remembered most of the weapon combinations from long ago. Knowing this, I was able to beat the game and unlock everything in just a few hours. A fun few hours, sure, but short nevertheless.

-INADEQUATE ARSENAL-
For a game about destroying cars with guns, you'd think there would be a lot of fun weapons to use. Well, some are, but many aren't. The missiles are a lame disappointment, which really sucks because they're missiles- a staple in vehicle combat. They disengage from your vehicle when you fire, which causes your car to jump a little, which is delightfully realistic, but annoying when you're driving and shooting, which is most of the time, since you'll be constantly swerving to make up for the missile jump. They home in on your target, but not very well. Sometimes they'll just wig out once they approach the enemy and smash into the ground. Plus, they take a really long time to shoot each..and every..one..at a time..slowly...and inaccurately...have mercy. The mines kinda blow too and you'll usually just place them all over to get rid of them. The mortars are pretty bad if you don't know the crater-maker combination.

I'm kind of split on the specials. Like many games, each car has its own unique attack. However, you have to collect them by either running over a brown or green box, so they're not readily available. When you do get them, however, you can dish out some serious damage. However, when the enemy uses them, they can be just as deadly. Some are next to impossible to avoid, following you around until they explode near you or buzz away. This can be very difficult to handle when you're fighting the 4th stage boss and they've got specials up the wazzoo. Though I must mention Molo's special. He drives the school bus and his special is some kind of smoke that farts out the back. Though naturally hard to use, if you get it just right, you'll experience the overwhelming satisfaction of watching your enemies' life plunge down to death in seconds. Honestly, I'll come back to play this game just for that alone.

LET'S WRAP IT UP
Overall, it's a very different experience from Twisted Metal and directed toward the more patient gamer. If you're one for fast-paced action and high framerate, look elsewhere; purchase Twisted Metal Black. It's a good one. But I enjoy Vigilante 8 on occasion and will return to it again in the not-too-distant future, perhaps when I'm feeling...funky.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/22/08

Game Release: Vigilante 8 (US, 05/31/98)