RPGWatch Feature - Vigilantes Review

Here is Forgottenlor's take on Vigilantes, which he found to be competent, but limited in scope.

The new X-COM (2012) showed that there was a market for turn based tactical games, and since then a number of indie developers either inspired by the remake of such classics as the original X-COM and Jagged Alliance have tried their hand at tactical games with varying degrees of success. Vigilantes is one of the latest of those attempts. To its credit Vigilantes tries something a little different, as its cast of protagonists aren't soldiers, but a small group of private citizens who have declared war on the gangs which have control of their city. Vigilantes avoids the apocalyptic mood that runs through a lot of tactics game, preferring a pulp fiction approach with a set cast of characters. Vigilantes was made by a small dedicated indie team, who managed to put out an extremely competent game, but one limited in scope.

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Thanks for the detailed review.

If it matters, I'm one of it's KS backers.
The game is a very interesting setup but IMO it went complicating things too much. Care for MC, care for recruits, care for base, care for ammo, care for everything as if it was a roguelike survival game - on a positive side there is no food micromanagement.
The "map of the city" practically killed the game for me, escaping linearity is always a good choice but in here wasn't executed well. What, where and why should I go next? Especially why. Never got an answer I'll be satisfied with.

Not saying the game is not fun. It's just trying to do too many things at the same time and a player can easily get overwhelmed then put it on hold just to clear thoughts with stupefying products like Candy Crush Saga. Sometimes less is more, here's hope a potential sequel will address it.

Originally Posted by joxer
The game is a very interesting setup but IMO it went complicating things too much. Care for MC, care for recruits, care for base, care for ammo, care for everything as if it was a roguelike survival game

Yeah, the horror!
An X-Com like tactical game where you have to take care of buying weapons, ammo and level up your 8 (Or was it 9?) characters. And in the most simple way possible (everything upgrades linearly and there are no choices besides setting which character goes for what weapon type).
It's just too much to handle. They should have reduced the number of characters to one, and no leveling up or weapons to handle. Maybe also remove health. And enemies. That would have gotten rid of all the nuisances.

Seriously, though, if at all, the game would have needed more depth, not less. Everything you mention is WAY less deep than it is in comparable games like X-Com or Xenonauts. To the point where it comes off as a "child's first management" game.
If that is overwhelming to anyone, then they should indeed stick to Candy Crush…

It really speaks for the developer that despite the simplicity of all systems, the game does manage to be a challenge on the higher difficulties. You can't waste any time and really have to try and get hit as little as possible (in other games, that doesn't matter at all as long as the characters survive).

Besides the lack of depth and scope, I agree that the map is one of its biggest flaws, it just isn't all too motivating to just pick a (more or less) random block and "improve" it. A more mission-driven approach would have been better.

But from what I read the dev say himself, he's aware of all these issues. It was simply a budget restraint in the end. It was basically like this, or not at all.

I'm also a sponsor of this game, and I've been waiting for the updates to cease before actually playing it. If it is one hundred percent finished as of now, it might be the next game I delve into. Thanks for the review, it looks pretty much what I thought it would be, although the length of the game is somewhat disappointing to read about.

Thanks for this review. I agree pretty much 100% with your analysis. This is a flawed gem but definitely worth playing. The dev really accomplished an amazing amount with few resources.

I had zero problem with the management aspects of the game. IMO, Vigilantes would have seriously suffered if that aspect was any less complicated.

I also KSed it. I am also one of those that have not played it. Since I got other games to play I might as well wait until devs patch it to version they are satisfied with.

thank you for this review Forgottenlor !
it will be on my to play list from now on.

To all those waiting: The game functions very smoothly and I didn't run into any bugs or performance issues during my playthrough. So unless the developer is planning to add/test new features, I don't see any purpose of waiting beyond having a long list of games in your backlog that you'd rather finish first.

If you follow his updates (or maybe it was on his Steam forum?), he has said he intends to make a few more combat improvements. I personally had a problem with enemies being really spaced out on the map, like an almost even distribution of units all 30 feet apart. Meaning I was usually able to pick them off one or two at a time, severely reducing the challenge. That's one thing I think he was planning to address.

Originally Posted by screeg
If you follow his updates (or maybe it was on his Steam forum?), he has said he intends to make a few more combat improvements. I personally had a problem with enemies being really spaced out on the map, like an almost even distribution of units all 30 feet apart. Meaning I was usually able to pick them off one or two at a time, severely reducing the challenge. That's one thing I think he was planning to address.

That makes sense. In the non-set encounters it felt like the enemies were randomly seeded.

Good interview @forgottenlor.

Seems I'm a day late as usual though had a busy day/family emergency yesterday. I played the game last year so it would be a few patches back, but found it enjoyable.

Sounds like I'll be waiting a bit longer to try this one out, good thing I found something else to amuse me for now.

Thanks for the review @forgottenlor!

As to updates, it's likely there will be a few more. They won't hugely change the game and will emphasize new content like perks, items, and more newspaper articles/diary entries.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
Good interview @forgottenlor.

Seems I'm a day late as usual though had a busy day/family emergency yesterday. I played the game last year so it would be a few patches back, but found it enjoyable.

I hope your emergency turned out okay.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
I hope your emergency turned out okay.

Turned out fine but had a nine hour hospital stay. Thanks for asking.

Hi all - an update has just been release for Vigilantes, which adds 4 new perks, 5 new utility items, 2 new weapons and more. Full release notes can be found here.

It's also 20% off on Steam at the minute!

Nice review @forgottenlor. This was on my radar and now I've decided to pass on it due to several factors. Thanks for helping me make that decision bro!