Disclosure: This game was provided to us with the Armory Pack for free by Bohemia Interactive for the purpose of review.

In a time where post-apocalyptic games feel a little more realistic than usual, Vigor is here! Taking place in post-war Norway, Vigor has it’s players fight or work together as they try to loot in dangerous, hostile yet somehow beautiful environments in order to improve the player’s in-game shelter.

The game starts (just like any other) by giving you a choice on if you want to do a tutorial once you have chosen which character you would like. It opens up with a cinematic of your character stunned while next to their burning surroundings, immersing you in the world of Vigor. The tutorial does a good job of telling you everything you need to know about playing the game especially about how to play one of Vigors major game-modes, know as Encounter mode.

After completing the tutorial you will be shown your run down, abandoned-looking shelter. Here you are able to do things like creating load-outs for your Encounter mode missions. This allows you to add weapons, ammo and health consumables to your loadout that you have made at the shelter using the resources you can find in the mode. You can also deconstruct weapons here if you are in need of a certain resource, which is great if you have a weapon you don’t want to use anymore.

In your shelter, you can also access the games store where you can spend your in-game currency ‘crowns’ to buy new cosmetic items and crates for your character. You can earn these crowns by playing the game or by buying them using your own money. There is also a battle pass system in Vigor where you can earn other great items for yourself.

As well as this, with any supply drop that you acquire in the game, you are able to open all of them here. These supply drops can have any resource in them like ammo or parts you will need to craft items with. You can also customise your characters clothes with the loot you bring back as well as your shelter with more options on how to upgrade the shelter supposedly coming to the game.

You can practice your aim in the shooting gallery with fun and equally infuriating challenge modes, check the leaderboard to see how you compare to your friends and a Rubix cube just in case you get bored looting. If you are feeling charitable, there is also a charity box in your shelter which you can put your own items in to give to the unfortunate souls who haven’t been so successful.

You can also use your base of operations to choose what game-mode you want to play. A map is on the wall which you can interact with telling the game-modes and the map they’re being played on. There are only a few maps to choose from which is a shame but with the smaller maps, they’re treated in as much detail as the larger maps that are used for in Encounter mode. I hope more maps are added in the future as it can get boring playing the same maps over and over again.

The Encounter mode is the best way in the game to earn great loot for you to use on your shelter, making weapons and a ton of other stuff. In Encounter mode players can loot houses, cars and a supply drop that drops near the end of the looting time that you’re given.

You can either work together to hunt for loot or you can kill each other and steal the loot others have gained. There are some ways of finding other ‘Outlanders’ in the game. One way being if you find and interact with a phone then a player’s location will appear on the map. What you do with that information will be up to you. If you die in Encounter mode you go back to your shelter with nothing.

I think this is such a great idea. You can either choose to settle with the loot you have already obtained in the game or gamble to get the mega loot found in the popular supply drop with other hostiles going for it. You have to be quick to escape in Encounter mode though, as a radioactive wave will quickly envelop the map at the end of the game. This happens soon after the supply-drop arrives and is used as a way to force players to leave the game, forcing you to make a decision as quick as you can on whether or not to go for the supply drop or not.

Other than just Encounter, there are also two other game-modes for players to choose from. These are Shootout and Elimination. In these two game-modes if you die you won’t lose any loot. You also won’t lose any ammo as you start with random load-outs in each game. This is a nice change of pace for players who are bored with looting and just fancy shooting everything for a change.

The Elimination game-mode has two teams which fight it out in rounds. The first team to win five rounds wins the game. There are no respawns so if you die you will have to wait for the round to be over. Each new round gives you a new load out of guns to try. There are a few problems I had with this game-mode though as team kill is active which can be really annoying for players who are just trying to play the game normally.

The other problems I had with Elimination was with the map variety. It seems like Vigor has more map choice for its Encounter mode than Elimination which only really has one map to play on. There are no spawn flips either meaning players don’t get a chance to experience what it is like on the other side of the map which ultimately makes the game-mode even more boring.

In Shootout it is everyone for themselves as you and everyone in a free for all, earning points the more kills you obtain. Unlike Elimination, you have unlimited respawns, until the final minute when the last person standing mechanic kicks in. It’s a great idea as it gives losing players a chance to catch up to the leader if the leader dies. But just like the Elimination mode Shootout has very little map choice.

I know this mode/game is fairly new so hope that more maps and possibly game-modes will be added at a later date. Just like the Encounter mode, there is no health regeneration in these two game-modes, so keep an eye out for dead players crates as they have ammo and health in them.

There was only one other problem I had when playing the game, that was with the shooting. I thought that the aiming was a bit too sensitive so trying to hit someone in the third person was a bit challenging especially at a distance with some of the guns kicking more than others. This did get easier once I learnt about the first-person view when aiming down the sights but when doing this with rifles you can weirdly see a part of your shoulder which covers up most of the screen.

There are a lot of positives with the weapons in this game though. There is a great variety of weapon options for you to choose from. Also when aiming down sights in first-person it switches stances for you automatically to help you take cover. There is no automatic reload though so keep that in mind when playing.

Vigor does a fantastic job of putting a different perspective on the looter-shooter genre. With its clever and unique looting system and tall the things, you can do in the shelter. The issues with the game are mostly because of how new it is, once Vigor gets a few new maps, game-modes and adds some of the features that have been rumoured to be added in future I’m sure these problems will be sorted

Vigor plays a lot like Pub G mixed with Day Z, so if you’re a fan of any of these games and fancy trying out a new game then why not give this game a go. Vigor is available now on Xbox One and Nintendo switch for free! With the Playstation 4 version set to be coming on November 25th!