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 Realism Is Forgotten But The Fun Is Embraced
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Experts and critics alike have all said that sequels are usually worse than the original in most cases, unless of course you are talking about Scream 2, Terminator 2, Aliens, or Toy Story 2. The same thing is said about video-games. I for one can agree that many video-game sequels are just plain dwarfed in size by their pre-release counterpart. Very few times has a video-game surpass the original in both the gameplay and graphics departments. Some recent ones that have outdone their previous showing have been Mario 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Tekken 3 (not automotive games). What is apparent in all these games (and movies) is the fact that the creators have one-uped themselves when they attempt to create a sequel. They try to give the people something they have never seen before and try to surprise them with more guts, guns, and fun. If they do not accomplish this then the audience can definitely tell and it sends chills down every other director or creator's spine by telling them, "This is what happened and if you do not do a better job then expect the same thing". One thing that has luckily helped most game sequels is that they are arriving on the Dreamcast rather than their first attempts on the Playstation or Nintendo 64. Being upgraded and put onto the Dreamcast alone will give much better visuals and frame-rates but does that mean it will be better? Maybe or maybe not.
Vigilante 8 first arrived on the scene way back in 1998 for the Playstation game console and everyone proclaimed it as "The New King of Auto Combat" or "Twisted Metal (first car-combat game)-More Over". It offered better graphics, slick weapons, and marvelous gameplay. Almost as soon as Vigilante 8's success began to finally come to them it was apparent that a sequel was obvious. After a little over a year Activision and Luxoflux (the original developers) have collaborated to bring a sequel that was made to show up the original and they definitely have created a great looking game with some great graphics, more options, and an increased fun factor but Vigilante 8: Second Offense may leave some people feeling as though it is just a minor upgrade.
As with the first one the setting takes place during the '70s, a time full of disco-dancing, nature loving fools ready to go bare-knuckle at one another just looking for fights. Only thing is is that there is no fist-fighting. The only fighting here is vehicular. The story behind Vigilante 8: Second Offense is that Slick Clyde, leader of the Coyotes, has created a time machine and is able to go back in time to put America out of business in the oil department. In order to do this Slick has joined up with a few other power-hungry felons and, in the year 2017, have upgraded their cars substantially in order to completely obliterate their targets easily. In their way are two teams, the Drifters and the Vigilantes. The Drifters, composed of both futuristic and modern day '70s cars, seem to have gotten themselves stuck in the mess by choice. Finally the Vigilante are full of '70s cars and are the Coyotes worst enemy. They will do just about anything to get rid of Slick. That is the main story behind V8: Second Offense but each character has his or her own story to tell and their own ending.
If you can't already tell, V8: Second Offense is the complete opposite of any racing game you have ever played. In racing games you are not out to kill your opponents, rescue useful plans or bombs, or save the world from the most deranged of master-minds. There is no oval tracks, qualifying times, or friendly tapping. Oh no, not here. Basically the Vigilante 8 series is made up of an all-out destruction attitude and literally everything in each environment is fully destructible. By collecting power-ups, weapons, or upgrades you are better able to handle your enemies on any particular environment.
As in the previous game, all the modes are still the same. One-Player gaming consists of a Quest Mode, Arcade Mode, and Survival Mode. Like the name suggests, Quest Mode is an adventure all over the United States at different locals consisting of its own set of villains and objectives. As you progress through Quest Mode more enemies and harder objectives come your way but do not fret, it does not get THAT difficult. Even on the difficulty HARD and the damage meter set to HIGH DAMAGE the game is still quite simple. Also the objectives are kind of monotonous. For example, with the Vigilantes, Drifters, and Coyotes you have to collect briefcases, bombs, or tool boxes on each level. What I ran into was that I could sometimes not find these objects and resorted to throwing the controller in disgust because I knew if I did not finish off the enemies I could not finish the level. The second objective is team-oriented. The Vigilantes have to protect certain buildings, Coyotes have to destroy specific buildings, and the Drifters have many unique objectives. Secondly in one-player gaming there is the ability for Arcade or Survival gaming. Arcade Mode is just like a skirmish. Choose the car, the level, the number of enemies and fight; there are no objectives to meet. Finally in Survival Mode you are attacked by an unlimited number of enemies just to see how long you can last against them.
What is a car racing game without a Multiplayer option? Nothing. Luckily V8: Second Offense comes packed to the brim with plenty of friend-frying fun. Basically two-player mode is a mirror image of any one-player mode. There is a Versus Mode where you challenge your friend, a Cooperative Mode where it is you and your friend against a selected number of opponents, and finally you are able to play the Quest Mode with a buddy and double team the enemies.
Question: What happens when I am with two or three other friends and some of them just sit and watch while me and another other guy plays V8: Second Offense? Most of the time I would say your friends will fall asleep but I have another option. Invite them into the frantic fun! Yeah that's right, V8: Second Offense offers up the ability for four people to play each other in three great modes. Brawl Mode in every man for themselves, Team is two-vs-two, and Smear is one-vs-three. Of course you can expect slight slowdown and slightly altered graphics.
Enough with the modes already, it is time for the meat of V8: Second Offense. In all there are 18 playable characters and cars. Each driver has his/her/its own special weapon that usually deals quite a bit more damage than the usual weapons. The basic weapons are homing missiles, mortars, mines, rockets, flame-throwers, and cannons, and machine guns. Each basic weapon has three combo moves. By simple button motions one is able to perform harder-hitting attacks. For example, if your car is equipped with the sky-hammer mortar, if you press Down, Down, Up, Fire Machine Gun then you will fire a bigger, and more powerful mortar. Also scattered throughout each level there are power-ups that help your car for an extended period of time. These are the exact same as the power-ups in Vigilante 8. A shield, radar jammer, weapon upgrade, and repair wrench can all be collected in order to help keep you alive as long as possible.
You are probably asking yourself, "Is there any difference in Vigilante 8 and Vigilante 8: Second Offense?". Of course there is. First of all there are three new propulsion systems for the cars depending on what type of environment you are fighting on. These systems are Hoverpods, Hydrofloaters, and Skis N' Treads. They are all the same for each car and help by providing better traction on certain surfaces. On the Alaskan Oil Field level, by acquiring Skis N' Treads your tires morph into larger tires that have upgraded traction. It is almost impossible to drive on certain surfaces without these upgrades. Finally, and probably the most unique addition to V8: Second Offense, is the new Upgrade System where by earning enough "Salvage Points" you can receive a completely different chassis for your car. During a fight, when you defeat each enemy a salvage point will be shot from it. By just running into it you will pick it up. After picking up 50 points of either Acceleration, Speed, Target Avoidance, or Armor points a new piece of equipment is added. When you pick up 100 points of each salvage type you get a brand new car! The new car now has better attributes and an advantage over all contenders.
Of course Luxoflux and Activision decided to create all new levels for the mayhem to happen on and some of them are extremely well designed but some are plain boring. Levels like Colorado, Florida, and California all are incredibly fun to fight on because of the many branching parts and hiding spaces. But on the other hand some of the others are incredibly boring and leave you hoping that is will soon be behind you. Either there is not much going on or the textures look really bad, that is why some of them are so bad. Luckily Luxoflux decided to place a code in the game that allows you to access all the old levels from the original Vigilante 8! By going to game status, holding L and R and pressing A twice, then entering the code "OLD LEVELS" you can access them too. A very good idea because the new arenas get really tiresome after a while. With that code the number of zones increases to well over twenty.
V8: Second Offense offers some new weapons, levels, and cars but it lacks so much that it seems that it was rushed to the public. Many factors suggest this especially in the graphics. Textures usually look pretty good, and the cars all look very detailed but there is a lot of draw in in the distance and there is a lot of slowdown during big rocket fire. Also, and probably the most annoying glitch in the game, is the fact that you can get stuck in buildings. While riding up the roof of a building I all of a sudden fell into the center of it and could not get out. Another time I was on the end of a cliff and fell into the side of it and could see half my car but I could not get loose. Those are just some of the incredibly annoying occurrences. Also I found that my car can magically go straight threw some of my opponents for no apparent reason. Is there a new ghost power-up Luxoflux? I did not see one in the manual.
The physics system is something to throw up at. Do not expect Gran Turismo physics because the steering in this game is more like dancing. It is so loose that the slightest touch sends your car careening in that direction. This makes it really hard to aim your rockets or other weapons that do not have heat-seeking abilities. After mastering the control, though, it becomes second nature. Of course in order to master these controls it takes about two years, seven months, and four days.
One slightly redeeming feature is the sound that V8: Second Offense pumps out. Sweet 70's tunes echo through your ears and the motor's hum is so sweet. After a while that background music gets a little old but at least it sounds CD-quality. What is neat is that you can hear each bump and crash. The motor hums loudly as you sail over a cliff then get harder as you land, sweet!
Vigilante 8: Second Offense is definitely an upgrade over the original and great for gamers new to the car-combar genre. But owners of the original may be a little depressed and left craving a little more. If the Dreamcast is your first game machine and you want a car combat game then of course pick this up because it offers some cool features. Good gamers should stay away because this game is incredibly easy. After getting past the learning process the game becomes extremely fun but for some it might not be THAT much fun. I would definitely rent this one just to check it out first before any possible thought about shelling out $50 for it. -Nick Steinhauer
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