''Vigor'' is a free-to-play online survival

shooter game Shooter video games or shooters are a subgenre of action video games where the focus is almost entirely on the defeat of the character's enemies using the weapons given to the player. Usually these weapons are firearms or some other long-range ...

originally developed for the

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

by the Czech studio

Bohemia Interactive Bohemia Interactive a.s. is a Czech video game developer and publisher based in Prague. The company focuses on creating military simulation games such as '' Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis'' and the '' ARMA'' series. It is also known for ...

. As of July 2020, it is also available on the Nintendo Switch. Initially released as an

early access Early access, also known as alpha access, alpha founding, paid alpha, or game preview, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alph ...

title in August 2018, the game was fully released on August 19, 2019. A PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 port was released on December 9, 2020.

Gameplay

''Vigor'' is an online free-to-play survival shooter game set in

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

. The goal is to stay alive and upgrade an abandoned shelter that will protect the player against the harsh environment. Players called Outlanders must seek resources and better equipment during Encounters with other players, although fighting them is not required. Only care packages or self defense enforce the use of violence. Every Encounter has a map that shows all exit points to players, as well as Points of Interest (POIs), such as hideouts, outposts, houses, a radio tower, and a transformer station. The POIs can offer valuable resources to help players upgrade their Shelter and reach its maximum level. Doing so will generate more materials and food to use, as well as reduce the crafting time for weapons and consumables. An important aspect of an Encounter is the airdrop. These are crates containing valuable loot such as weapons, blueprints, resources, weapon skins, and Crowns (in-game currency). These are dropped by a

C-130 The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft designed and built by Lockheed Corporation, Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin). Capable of using unprepared runways for takeoffs and landings, the C-130 ...

AC-130 The Lockheed AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed, long-endurance, ground-attack variant of the C-130 Hercules transport, fixed-wing aircraft. It carries a wide array of ground-attack weapons that are integrated with sophisticated sensors, naviga ...

, and signal that radiation will start appearing soon. The rarity of the airdrop can be upgraded in the game preparation phase using Crowns. The map shows the general location where the airdrop will happen, but there are options to change the location by using the Comm Station. Airdrops are not triggered by players and instead occur at a predetermined time. When a player picks up an airdrop, their location is immediately revealed on the map to enemy Outlanders. The Comm Station can also be used to buff or debuff the airdrop. For example, it can be buffed by adding extra loot and resources or debuffed by making it radioactive. A radioactive airdrop poisons the player that touches it with radiation, giving them little time to make it out alive. In every Encounter, a radiation cloud sweeps the area after a certain amount of time. When this occurs, players have to be quick and evacuate before they die from radiation. If the player has the special consumable iodine, they can stay longer because of its protection. If players survive the Encounter, anything they've looted will be added to their inventory. However, if they die, all of their loot will be lost, as well as any weapons or ammo brought with them.

Home base

The player can do various things at their home base, such as: * Target shooting and timed shooting * Collecting resources from different stations, such as rat traps and boxes of herbs * Crafting weapons, ammo, and consumables to add to their load-outs or stockpile * Choosing cosmetics like emotes or clothing As the base is upgraded, its interior and exterior visually change. Every level requires a certain amount of upgrades. Most weapons have a selective fire feature, even if their real life counterpart doesn't feature it, like the

M3 submachine gun The M3 is an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted by the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3.Iannamico, Frank, ''The U.S. M3-3A1 Submachine Gun'', Moose Lake Publishing, , (1999), pp. 14, 22� ...

. Weapons that don't have the feature usually are

bolt action Bolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by ''directly'' manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the weapon (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-actio ...

and semi-automatic only weapons, such as the Mosin Nagant or M21 rifle. The player can edit their load-out with weapons crafted using parts found in loot if the player has the weapon plan or they can use one found in an encounter. There are four spaces for weapons, two primary weapons and two secondary. It is often recommended to bring only one weapon due to the fact that bringing multiple weapons and dying can prove expensive for the player in most cases, especially if good weapons are brought in to the Encounter. Several of the weapons (such as the

Makarov PM The Makarov pistol or PM ( rus, Пистоле́т Мака́рова, r=Pistolét Makárova, p=pʲɪstɐˈlʲet mɐˈkarəvə, t=Makarov's Pistol) is a Soviet semi-automatic pistol. Under the project leadership of Nikolay Fyodorovich Makarov, it ...

or the

) are very cheap to craft, making them good for quick, low risk loot runs.

Other modes

From Season 4, Outlanders can enjoy multiple different game modes, such as Shootout or Elimination.

Shootout Mode

A fast-paced solo combat where players spawn with randomized weapons, but can scour the map to find better weapons and take down other Outlanders. If players die, they will be respawned with a new weapon and ammo. Matches last 10 minutes and use a scoring system. The more Outlanders the players eliminate, the higher the score they get, with higher scoring players receiving better rewards.

Elimination Mode

A 5v5 tactical, round-based team fight, where players work together to eliminate the opposing team or to capture the opposing team's flag. Similar to Shootout, there are 5 choosable loadouts, only available to one player of team at the start of each round. Players are not respawned upon dying and they will have to wait until the end of the round to do so. The first team to reach the score limit wins the match.

Seasons

Each new season is intended to bring with it new weapons, consumables, and purchasable cosmetic items. Associated with seasons are time-limited

battle pass In the video game industry, a battle pass is a type of monetization approach that provides additional content for a game usually through a tiered system, rewarding the player with in-game items for playing the game and completing specific chal ...

es that reward players with new cosmetic items, weapons, and consumable blueprints should they reach certain levels in the battle pass. Alongside new cosmetic items, seasons can also bring additional gameplay elements.

Development

announced ''Vigor'' on 11 June 2018 during E3. The game launched in Xbox Preview on July 31, 2018. ''Vigor'' was in the Xbox Preview until August 19, 2019, when it was released as a free-to-play title on

Gamescom Gamescom (stylized as gamescom) is a trade fair for video games held annually at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Since 2018, it has been organised by ''game – Verband der deutschen Games-Branche'' (English: Associ ...

. It was also featured in the Inside Xbox Show. The Nintendo Switch version was announced in a Nintendo Direct on March 26, 2020. The closed beta ran from April 9 to 16 and the game was fully released on July 8, 2020. The game was released on December 9, 2020, on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. After a week, it was reported that over 1 million players had joined the game.

Reception

The game was played by more than 700,000 players during early access. After the game was released, it became one of top 20 most played

titles as it was played by over 1,200,000 players. The game was nominated for 3 Czech Game of the Year Awards including categories Main Award, Best Technological Solution, and Free-to-play. In 2019, the game was nominated for an award in the Technology category in the Central & Eastern European Game Awards (CEEGA).

References

External links

* {{Bohemia Interactive 2019 video games Alternate history video games Bohemia Interactive games Early access video games First-person shooter multiplayer online games Free-to-play video games Loot shooters Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 4 games PlayStation 5 games Survival video games Tactical shooter video games Third-person shooters Video games developed in the Czech Republic Xbox One games Video games set in Norway Nintendo Switch games Unreal Engine games