Released on Xbox in beta in 2018, and fully in 2019. Vigor has been on the scene for a while. Although I’ll admit it isn’t something I’d come across. A free-to-play third-person survival game, made by the developers of Arma and DayZ. With some serious PUBG vibes in terms of it’s aesthetic.
Xbox release aside, Vigor is now slated to be released on the Nintendo Switch, and I had the fortune of getting in on the closed beta.
I’ll write a little about the game, although it’s been covered extensively online since 2018. But more importantly, we’ll go through how well it works on the Nintendo Switch. You could say, I’ll be quite “Vigorous” in my assessment…..sorry…
What’s Vigor?
Good question!
My best description of Vigor is a survivalist take on the battle royale genre. Not ever looking for a win with kills, no. You’re not here to take home a “chicken dinner” or “victory royale”. You’re here to scavenge as much as you can, and then get the hell out of the match.
Sure, there are other players, and yeah, you end up in gunfights. But I’d argue that the bulk of the game is best spent avoiding them. Don’t get me wrong, there are benefits to killing people, but if you’ve managed to scavenge across the whole map, you need to take that stuff home, so you have to escape.
That’s the thing. You’re looting and collecting stuff for a purpose. You have a homestead that starts out as a pretty ropey house, and you work on it to improve it. Give yourself better workbenches to build better weapons, and survival kit.
Whatever you choose to take with you into a match, is there for the taking. Do you arm yourself to the teeth? Or do you go in light, hoping nobody sees you?
Vigor is kind of brutal here because if you die, anything you took in with you and anything you collected is left with your dead body for your assailant to collect and keep. I kinda love it.
So far, so good
I had no idea what to expect with Vigor, but what I got was a decent-looking, realistic third-person shooter.
Considering that this was in Beta and on the Switch, there’s a lot to take in here. It’s practically having a game like PUBG on Nintendo’s wonder machine that I love so much. Everything ran pretty smoothly, even on wireless and in portable mode. Shooting felt good, and there was a reasonable amount of weapon variety.
Vigor’s core element of having a homestead to customise and to see physical changes at, as you progress and play. Is a really nice way to show some progress. Something to take pride in, and something to provide a touch of purpose. This isn’t just about looting and surviving. It’s about creating yourself a better home.
I’m not sure of any lore surrounding Vigor, and I had very little time in-game, so I don’t know why things are like they are. But I’m really genuinely excited to get stuck in when there’s a proper release.
This piece was written by Ben from NinjaRefinery, click HERE to check out his site and more of his content. You can also check out more of our reviews and previews by clicking HERE.