Vivisector: Beast Within

The Good
Now there's a good concept going on behind Vivisector; A mad professor who turns animals into bio-tech killers, an equally mad general who's obsessed with the creation of a super soldier and a lion that talks in human language and carries a machine gun! And that lion looks a lot like Disney's Lion King! What more excuse would you need to grab your M-14 carbine, pack a few rounds and pay them a visit?

Graphically Vivi is rather good, but not superior. I liked more the complexity of the levels and the modeling of the buildings / enemies / vehicles etc, rather than the textures they had on them, which look kinda outdated. Still they are not too problematic and the good / smart modeling really saves up the day in some cases. The building based levels are fairly complex and never tire you with repetitiveness. At first the game looks like you're on a safari trip, only as the first few tigers spit flames on you it's time to realize that this ain't going to be an easy trip at all.

Another pro in Vivi's case is the weapons mechanics. First of all you don't need to reload your weapons, which proves to be a lot of fun in cases where you have 5-6 enemies running towards yourself; you can simply empty all the supply of ammo for the weapon in your hand with one long mouse click. Some will argue that this is highly unrealistic, but I did find it as an enjoying aspect in that game. Moreover, the pistol is efficient in any level of the game, which is rather nice when you run out of ammo on the big guns, you can still survive with a bit of tactic. Also there's a good selection of arsenal at your disposal which will keep you alive for long enough. Finally, the ammo you can carry is fairly limited, so you can't go trigger crazy. As in most shooters short bursts will do the job more efficiently. Still ammo can be found plenty on the easy level, but as you go harder the ammo gets scarce.

There is a scoring system in the game which is based on what you kill, how quickly you kill, how many you kill and how lethal your kill is. In simple terms, the more enemies you kill in the shortest time, the higher your score gets. You also get extra score points for exploring certain areas, or for finding secret areas on levels. Score points can be exchanged for developing certain skills such as: improved aiming, a higher health bar, to sustain more damage and faster movement.

In terms of sound, the game's sound effects are excellent, some environment sounds resemble other shooters and this happens more if you move around electronic equipment. The soundtrack, where present, is also good, especially on the fighting scenes. The game is 'dressed' with some cut scene movies that more or less they explain the story behind all this shooting and exploring menace. You can see every cut scene again at any time, once you've reached them.

Finally Vivi has some good and smart 'shooter type' puzzles that will have you thinking twice where to go when you're done with an area. The exit from some areas is not obvious and you'll have to explore quite a bit for paths and hidden exits, or ways to move to another area. The difficulty of these puzzles varies and generally there are no clues, so you can proceed on the next area in 5 minutes or fry your brain for quite some time before you leave the place.

The Bad
Vivisector will have you combat in two different kinds of scenery: Indoor and outdoor. The outdoor scenery is not the best I've seen and in many cases it looks outdated, but the raging combat will have you occupied enough not to notice the flaws too much.

The first levels of the game have you out in the nature, exploring wildlife scenery and fighting some constantly moving animals, the further you progress in the island's sectors the more easier the enemies become. By that I mean that in the beginning you are out in the open, not knowing where the enemy is going to come from, and when they attack they move all over the place, making it very difficult for you to take'em down. On later levels, the combat becomes more indoor and the enemies move less and become more predictable.

Also the enemy AI is a mixture of good and bad. The enemy moves constantly, especially on the first levels they move really fast too and they only come near you if they don't have a projectile weapon in their hands. On the other hand, in some rare cases they look like they fell sleep as they don't react even if you're near them.

The Bottom Line
Certainly Vivisector is not a shooter that will be remembered in the gaming history as a pioneering one, nor as a graphically jaw dropping game. But it can surely fill your weekend spare time very nicely, as it is very pleasant to play through and can keep your interest high till the end.

Vivi incorporates most elements that make up a good shooter, such as good background plot, sci-fi hi-tech gimmicks, good arsenal, nice gameplay with good physics and player movement with no problems, some puzzles which will make you think twice, fairly good enemy AI and nice graphics.

If you're a shooter fan, you will definitely want to have a look on this one, as it makes up for some good hours of fun.

Finally a word of caution, if you find furries cute, then don't play this game as most enemies, although being bio modified and some of their features have been exaggerated to look more evil, they still look like animals. You might find the game a bit disturbing on that respect.

Other than that, it's a brilliant shooter to have in your collection, with all the modern bells and whistles along with the major flaw most shooters have: after completion comes uninstallation.