Vigilante 8
Release Date - June 1, 1998 (NA)
Developer - Luxoflux
Publisher - Activision
Platform - PlayStation
It’s a combination that shouldn’t work, but it does. Take a driving game, add a bunch of guns and death-match shooter mechanics, and then cover it all in a heavy coating of 1970s aesthetics. That’s Vigilante 8.
Vigilante 8 is something of a spin-off from the notably similar PC game Interstate ‘76, also published by Activision in 1997, but the similarities are mostly surface level and each game stands on its own merits. The retro look is one of the similarities, and Vigilante 8 makes full use of the glorious 1970s setting by allowing you to drive around typically American locations in period-accurate vehicles (albeit ones that are carrying more weapons than an average military tank).
Driving around Vegas in a 70s muscle car with a machine gun strapped to the hood, this is a video gamer’s video game.
Australian terrorist Sid Burn is leading a group known as the Coyotes in a devilish plot to cripple American oil supplies. Funded by a group known as ‘OMAR’, they are destroying the American oil infrastructure and reserves so that OMAR will have a monopoly over the precious resource. In an effort to prevent this grim future, Convoy, a trucker in an 18-wheeler and ten gallon cowboy hat has formed a band of vigilantes to dole out some good old fashioned justice.
Some nice CG cut-scenes set the stage and cap off each character’s story.
The Vigilantes and the Coyotes are each made up of several members, each with their own unique ride and personality. Apart from Convoy and Sid there’s the Shaft-style bounty hunter in an American muscle car, the sexy FBI agent seemingly straight out of a James Bond film, and even an oddball hippy in an RV who’s searching for proof of alien life. Each character (or their vehicle if we’re being specific) has unique handling, speed and armour and can make for very different experiences when playing. Do you want the heavy but slow school bus that can ram your opponents into the stone age? Or do you want a nimble European sports car that can tear up the asphalt but doesn’t play nicely off road?
Every vehicle feels different to play with. The Strider handles really nice, but don’t expect to last long in a firefight with it.
Players can tackle the main mission mode from either side of this conflict, and in fact you can choose any one of the Vigilantes or Coyotes to play through the story mode, getting different cut-scenes and endings each time.
The main meat of Vigilante 8’s single player is the Quest Mode, and it’s definitely a hefty amount of game here. You can play initially through a set of missions as any one of eight characters from either the Vigilantes or Coyotes. Each character has their own story to complete, with missions usually revolving around protecting an important asset if you’re a Vigilante, or destroying it if you’re a Coyote! Each character’s campaign is admittedly short with four missions a piece, but when you consider you’ll be unlocking even more characters with their own campaigns after completing the initial available eight, there’s a lot to see and do here.
Destroy those buildings! The explosions and destruction is a delight in Vigilante 8.
The missions take place across different areas of the USA, and they’ve all got fun set-pieces, hidden areas or just plain fun settings for a vehicle shoot-out. You can launch aircraft in Area 51, or shoot passing freight trains to collect their cargo of weaponry as some examples of the interactions in the varied stages.
Speaking of weaponry, all the vehicles begin with a standard machine gun mounted to the front that has unlimited ammo. This weapon does measly damage, but is a useful fall-back. You can pick up additional, far more powerful weapons through each level along with repair kits and shields to help you endure the non-stop action. These additional weapons even have ‘special moves’ that can turn the tide of battle dramatically, using ‘fighting game’ styled inputs to pull off. These can be hard to do, and will use up a lot of ammo, but are essential to learn to master the game.
Every location is filled with little easter eggs and cool visuals. From snowy tundra to the desert, you’ll see (and destroy) them all.
Perhaps most interestingly, each character has a unique weapon that only they can equip; this is usually something that does massive amounts of damage, or has particularly useful utilities. Laser cannons, surface to surface missiles and even swarms of killer bees will give you some idea of the weird and wonderful signature weapons available.
As you might expect, the game is full of funky 70s and disco tunes, complete with the cliche’d ‘woop woop!’ voice samples. The voice acting is fun with limited speech, but memorable characters being rounded out by some quips and one-liners. Of note is the sound-effects that are functional but well implemented. It’s very easy to immediately make the distinction between different weapons being fired, what power-ups have been picked up and more so you know exactly what’s going on around you at all times.
Yep, you can get abducted by aliens in this game.
When you’re finally done with the extensive single-player mode there is some first-person shooter styled multiplayer to try out too. Two players can either compete in a death-match, or work together to survive waves of enemies.
While Vigilante 8 seems like a simple (even daft) game on the surface, the fun levels, weapon combinations and techniques and cool 70s aesthetic makes it more than the sum of its parts. The game was popular enough on release to warrant a Nintendo 64 port and Game Boy Colour spin off in 1999, as well as a full sequel, Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense (1999) on PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast. The games have since become cult-classics with a remake of sorts even releasing in 2008 for Xbox Live Arcade on Xbox 360 titled Vigilante 8 Arcade.
Vigilante 8 is the kind of game you can bang around in for ten minutes, or lose track of time for hours unlocking characters and completing quests. Guns and cars, who would have thought?