Vigilante 8

"If you look up the word 'fun' in the dictionary, you'll find a picture of this game."

Vigilante 8 is a great car combat game for the Sony Playstation, which is about a psycho motor-gang who is trying to raid a military base, and they call themselves the Coyotes. Fortunately, the Vigilantes come and try to stop them in this incredible car combat game, while using a huge variety of weapons, including tracker missiles, land mines, machine guns, and even special weapons including lasers, tires, ect.

Graphics: 7/10

Well, they're not bad, but they're nothing to gawk at either. The cars and landscapes look good (for when this was made), and the weapons, when used look suburb. Even the most simple weapons, such as the machine guns look good. The levels are nicely detailed, and are nice and big.

Sound: 8.5/10

This is another point where the game shines. It's sound is great, from all of the explosions to the sound of your car hesitating to start. It all sounds real, but a tiny little bit muffled. The soundtrack is great too, it has a 70's disco soundtrack that goes great with the game! ''But Chris! I don't like disco! I can't stand it!'' Oh? Well, while playing you can pause the game, remove the disc, put in your favorite music CD and play the game with whatever music you want! I think that's an excellent feature, just in case you don't like the soundtrack (for some strange reason).

Gameplay:9/10

Fun. That's the key word here. This game is a pile of fun to play. What really shines is the variety of characters (and secret characters..!) that you can play as, each having their own persona, vehicle, and special weapon. The car selection is great, hence the fact that you can play as a school bus, a semi, a little buggy, and much much more. The levels are nice and big, and have special effects to them, but I won't spoil the in-level secrets. What else is there? There is a story mode, where you go through a fixed course of levels, accomplishing simple missions (protect this, destroy that) while trying to blow the crap out of your opponents. Not only that, but when you play story mode, you'll get to learn some background info on the characters, and get to unlock secret characters. You will have fun with this game.

Control: 6/10

The controls are pretty basic, X to accelerate, R2 to fire your machine gun, L2 to fire weapons, L1 and R1 to select weapons, and the like. My only complaint is that the steering is as tight as hell. But luckily, you'll get used to it.

Buy, Rent, or forget?

Hmm... Since this game is kind of old now, you might be able to find it for $10-$20 USA. I think you should buy it, and play it before you get Vigilante 8- 2nd Offence, just so you'll know a bit more about the characters. Thanks for reading!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 05/31/01, Updated 05/31/01