Vigil: Blood Bitterness
- June 29, 2007
- Meridian4
Get on Steam"Vigil: Blood Bitterness" is a gothic horror adventure game with point-and-click playability and a dark, disturbing story. As the character Dehon, you must reveal the secrets of your past, exact revenge, and ultimately seek freedom in an ancient civilization filled with ritualistic killings and blood lust. The game features 3D graphics with a unique black and white art style, dynamic camera, and puzzle-solving.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The visual design is unique and stylish, creating a captivating atmosphere.
- The lore and music contribute to a haunting and immersive experience.
- The game has an interesting premise and attempts to explore complex themes.
- The game is plagued by technical issues, including broken cutscenes and poor controls.
- Gameplay is frustrating and unintuitive, often requiring random clicking to progress.
- It requires a demo of another game to even launch, making it feel like a scam.
- graphics28 mentions
- 29 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed reviews, with some praising the unique and captivating art style that evokes a haunting atmosphere, while others criticize the poor technical execution, including low resolution, frequent crashes, and confusing visuals. Many players found the minimalist design appealing but noted that it often resulted in a lack of clarity and usability, making the gameplay experience frustrating. Overall, while the artistic direction has its merits, the technical shortcomings significantly detract from the overall visual experience.
“The atmosphere built by the lore, music, and visuals is pretty damn nice.”
“The minimalistic style of the 3D visuals is tonally spot-on, and character/environment designs are solid.”
“The only good thing so far are the graphics/art style.”
“The resolution is bad, the graphics are bad, and it seems it's meant for a computer made in the prehistoric era.”
“The graphics are horrible and I don't like the style of the game.”
“As other reviewers have noted, frequent crashes, awful and jagged graphics, iffy controls, and a multitude of other problems plague this game.”
- gameplay9 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 44 % neutral mentions
- 44 % negative mentions
The gameplay has been widely criticized for its lack of progression and coherence, with players finding the mechanics frustrating and poorly designed. Many reviewers noted that the game relies on arbitrary and cryptic clues, leading to frequent random deaths and a sense of confusion rather than enjoyment. Overall, the gameplay experience is described as slow, boring, and lacking polish, detracting significantly from the otherwise appealing atmosphere.
“There's no sense of progression or accumulation of skills/knowledge; the only generally-consistent mechanic is doors, everything else is some weird one-off mechanic that you struggle to figure out and that never comes up again.”
“Gameplay is nothing more than an exercise in frustration, as clues are cryptic without being logical, solutions are arbitrary and often linked to timers tuned so short that anything less than following the developer's intended path and timing, without an angstrom's width of deviation, will result in certain death and banishment back to the last checkpoint.”
“Even the gameplay itself is badly polished with little explanation as to what to do and how to play the game!”
- story8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The story in "Vigil: Blood Bitterness" is criticized for being underdeveloped and difficult to engage with, relying heavily on lore and text dumps rather than environmental storytelling. While some players appreciate its unique art style and atmosphere, many find the narrative confusing and unrelatable, leading to frustration and a preference for watching the story online rather than experiencing it in-game. Overall, the minimalist approach to storytelling leaves much to be desired.
“Vigil: Blood Bitterness combines a unique art style for gaming with some interesting sounds and wraps it around a bizarre story.”
“A damn shame because it has such a promising storyline with a thick and unsettling atmosphere.”
“The story itself is not really amazing; the focus is mostly on lore and worldbuilding. The whole thing lasts like half an hour, if it's not breaking for you, of course.”
“Environmental storytelling is completely eschewed in favor of tedious text dumps.”
“Finally, the story is ridiculous, less than one-dimensional, and completely unrelatable in any way.”
- music6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The music in the game effectively creates an ominous atmosphere that complements the setting, but the limited number of tracks leads to repetition and annoyance. Additionally, technical issues such as audible popping during transitions detract from the overall experience. While the minimalistic approach to music aligns with the game's lore, it ultimately falls short due to these drawbacks.
“The atmosphere built by the lore, music, and visuals is pretty damn nice.”
“Music is minimal and ominous, fits the setting.”
“Nothing worked and I just kept dying out of nowhere while this spooky volume-increasing music played in the background.”
“The small number of music tracks and audio cues quickly become repetitive and annoying.”
“There's audible popping when music and sound effects are abruptly stopped or switched.”
“I kept dying out of nowhere while this spooky, volume-increasing music played in the background.”
- atmosphere4 mentions
- 75 % positive mentions
- -25 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is praised for its haunting quality, gorgeous visuals, and engaging lore, creating a thick and unsettling environment. However, this strong atmospheric foundation is undermined by poor gameplay and technical issues, detracting from the overall experience. Despite its promising storyline, the lack of playability is a significant drawback.
“The atmosphere built by the lore, music, and visuals is pretty damn nice.”
“A damn shame because it has such a promising storyline with a thick and unsettling atmosphere.”
“Haunting atmosphere, gorgeous visuals and backgrounds, interesting and avoids clichés.”
“The atmosphere built by the lore, music, and visuals is pretty nice; however, the gameplay and technical aspects are quite poor.”
“It's a damn shame because it has such a promising storyline with a thick and unsettling atmosphere.”
- grinding1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players criticize the grinding aspect of the game for prioritizing tedious text dumps over engaging environmental storytelling, leading to a monotonous experience.
“Environmental storytelling is completely eschewed in favor of tedious text dumps.”
“The grinding feels endless and repetitive, making the game more of a chore than an enjoyable experience.”
“I found myself spending hours on mindless tasks that offered little reward or progression.”
- character development1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Character development is largely criticized for being minimal, lacking depth and coherence, which results in an absence of a clear theme or message throughout the narrative.
“Minimal plot and character development, lacking a coherent theme or message.”
“The characters feel one-dimensional and fail to evolve throughout the game.”
“There is a significant lack of depth in character arcs, making it hard to connect with them.”
- stability1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- -200 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
The game is plagued by numerous bugs and stability issues, leading users to strongly advise against playing it, even if offered for free.
“Don't touch this broken, buggy game even if you get it for free.”
“The game crashes constantly, making it nearly unplayable.”
“I experienced frequent freezes and glitches that ruined my experience.”
