Vultures – Scavengers of Death
Developer: Team Vultures
Publishers: Firesquid, Gamersky Games
Platform: PC (Reviewed)
Release Date: Available Now
Price: $17.99 USD – Available Here
Overview
Every few months it seems like a new indie developer has managed to come up with an interesting idea that blends together two game genres that end up working surprisingly well. By experimenting in ways that larger companies cannot, these indie devs take massive risks and while it may not always pay off, sometimes it does. Especially when it comes to taking plenty of influence from some of the greatest games of their respective genre. Such is the case with Vultures – Scavengers of Death, an indie game from a two person dev team that blends survival horror and turn-based combat into something that few could have seen coming, let alone the fact that it works shockingly well. So now that it has arrived and has been patched up along the way, is this unique blend worth checking out?
Story
An unknown catastrophic bio-chemical incident has happened in Salento Valley and has killed nearly everyone within the city and those that didn’t die, might wish they had as the dead now walk the streets as zombies and other horrific creatures lie in wait for their own chance to strike. Players take on the role of VULTURE, a team of special forces specialized in extraction who have been assigned perhaps their most important task ever. To infiltrate the city and try and uncover whatever they can about the origins of this virus outbreak and how it is tied back to the villainous Eugenesys corporation.
The team consists primarily of the two playable characters Leopoldo and Amber as well as their communications and intelligence manager Satsuki who stays at “The Nest,” their homebase. Alongside these two are the occasional extra character such as a reporter that players will rescue that can provide extra intel depending on what missions are completed in certain order and of course, some chiming in from the man that hired them to take on this mission in the first place, the mysterious Alexei. Nearly all of the story is told through short bursts of cutscenes between missions and occasionally through a little snippet of dialogue while exploring the levels themselves.
Vultures – Scavengers of Death doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to telling its biohazard storyline and it does wear its influences on its sleeves quite clearly, including more than a few references to some of the most iconic survival horror games of all time. That being said, it doesn’t need to either because it thankfully manages to tell a fairly cohesive and believable enough storyline of twisted corruption and a company so bent on seeking immortality that it was willing to sacrifice the world to find their true goal. As mentioned, players will find countless notes throughout the game’s levels that help explain further details about the story that aren’t spelled out and while some of these notes simply provide a bit of extra context about the current level, others are quite informative about the overarching storyline and the twisted experiments that took place underneath everyone in Salento Valley’s noses.
One thing that is unfortunately lacking in the game however is much in the way of personality. While Satsuki serves as the more humorous and intelligent member of the team that interacts with both Leopoldo and Amber while they are on their missions, neither of the other two, nor Satsuki really, are given anything in the way of actual development and barely anything noteworthy about their backgrounds. Instead players can only infer through their dialogue and interchangeable missions about the two playable characters personalities, with Leopoldo being gruff and no-nonsense but ready to risk everything if it means saving someone while Amber is more calculating and blunt, though just as deadly when it comes to focusing on her mission. It is a shame that none of the characters see any form of development throughout the story.
Gameplay
Vultures – Scavengers of Death follows a particular set of rules right from the getgo as players will find that they will be playing a mission as either Leopoldo or Amber with no choice to swap between them except for the final level of the game. Part of this is due to the unique abilities that each character has and, thankfully, they have an equal number of missions between the two. Leopoldo is stronger and can mantle over low obstacles, push enemies and objects, and even reposition objects in the field to help set-up traps. Amber on the other hand can still push foes but also has access to a grappling hook that can be fired to zip across long distances, often to locations only she can reach, and during fights to either escape an enemy or even grapple right onto one and pull it into a trap or kick it into one.
Regardless of what character the player is playing, they both share the same inventory and “storage box” to store extra weaponry, healing items, explosives, and ammo. Before every mission players can select their loadout of what they want to bring with them and leave behind, though every mission has at least one location that players can access their “storage” which is usually in a save room. This is good since players are limited in how much they can carry so depositing excess items to make room for new discoveries is essential to both surviving and stockpiling in case of emergencies. It is worth noting that every mission also has a set number of collectable “valuables” that players can find scattered throughout the level and generally are just things like records, vhs tapes, and similar items that each add $100 to their upgrade pool. This can then allow players to upgrade any obtained weapon to not only only increase the damage done but sometimes unlock additional inventory space, special weapon abilities, and even costumes if players have some extra cash to burn.
Once inside of a mission players will find themselves face to face with the game’s gritty and mostly unforgiving design that meshes grid-based movement and survival horror limitations into one. Outside of combat players can freely interact with whatever they wish that is actually interactable, run around, walk around, or of course sneak, using 6 MP (Movement Points) at a time. This all changes though when they happen to catch the eye of an enemy, either by running straight through a door and finding enemies on the other side or sneaking along and entering the sightline of a zombie or other creature. This will then begin the game’s turn-based combat and heavy reliance on risk and reward choices.
Once combat begins players will immediately be thrown into a turn-based fighting system where they will still move on a grid but find that their movement points have been cut in half, allocating the other three points to Action Points (AP). Every action in combat takes AP in some way, with healing costing 2 AP, reloading a gun taking 1 AP, and of course shooting a gun or swinging a knife costing AP as well. Though this latter also varies heavily depending on what players are utilizing as a knife swing will always take only one AP while a pistol shot will vary depending on where the player is aiming. Aiming for the head deals way more damage but costs 2 AP and has a lower percentage of hitting, while targeting the legs or torso costs only 1 AP. In fact, targeting the legs of most enemies can often immobilize the enemy for a turn as well, leaving the player free of being advanced on by at least one foe.
Similarly, using a character’s specific abilities like shoving or using the grappling gun costs an AP but shoving a foe into a wall can stun them entirely, the same way shoving them into a fire, electrified floor, or even into a bottomless pit can deal massive damage. This encourages players to utilize the environment whenever possible. In fact, one of the first times players encounter an armored zombie it can be dealt with by simply ziplining to an electric switch, activating it to electrify the water it is standing in, and then shooting it in the legs, trapping it in the water to take damage over time.
Other methods of taking advantage of the game’s mechanics involve using the knife which will be the player’s best friend if used properly. Stabbing an enemy can trigger bleeding and shoving it away will not only give the player space to maneuver, but also freely escape without giving the enemy an attack of opportunity. This allows players to then use their 3 MP to gain distance and end their turn forcing the enemy to walk, taking bleeding damage every step to either slay them outright or drain their health drastically. While some of these elements may seem a bit exploitive, players will want to use whatever advantage they can in combat, especially when they’ve upgraded the knife and can instantly kill any enemy with a sneak attack, allowing players to sweep out entire rooms of zombies if they are careful.
Playing carefully is vital in Vultures – Scavengers of Death as the game features quite the difficulty curve if players aren’t making the best use of the systems on offer or finding valuables to upgrade their weapons to deal additional damage. The inventory is quite small to start with and while there are healing points scattered throughout most maps, they are limited and run out after a few uses and enemies hit like a truck and remain engaged even if players manage to break away from them and run out of the door. This means that fleeing an encounter and entering back through the same door will lead to eating plenty of attacks as a result. Both characters have fairly small health pools compared to what enemies can dish out, some of which can strike from a distance, hit more than once a turn, or even dig underground for surprise attacks, and players will need to utilize what they’ve learned to maintain spacing and keep things in their favor.
Thankfully one thing that was added into the game prior to release was a proper tutorial that goes over most of the game’s elements and it does explain most of what players will encounter, but a few extra guidelines would have been nice. While players can hover over an enemy to see the types of attacks they can use and their health, they cannot see how far the enemy can move to properly gauge distance. Similarly, while there are plenty of puzzles throughout the game, far too many are too simplistic in nature as they either involve simply getting a key, hitting an object, or combining an item and the one set of puzzles that actually is a challenge is poorly explained, relying on outside knowledge to properly complete without brute forcing it.
Among other issues it is worth noting that the game does not currently support any way to play the game using a controller and is strictly mouse and keyboard. There are also some occasional interaction issues that can make vaulting over obstacles an issue while targeting specific body parts of some more, unique, foes can be a bit more challenging as well unless players zoom in.
Audio & Visuals
One of the key elements that the development team was aiming for with Vultures – Scavengers of Death was capturing that PlayStation 1 level of polygonal design and they have done so masterfully here. All of the character models fit that design naturally and look like they have been pulled right out of the ‘90s and it is quite impressive as a result. Enemy variety isn’t too extensive but there is a wide-range of enemy skins depending on the location that players are exploring, though it must be said that the locations themselves are a bit on the generic side and it would have been nice to see more of the city itself suffering from the outbreak and less of the structured buildings, even if many contain secrets hidden within them.
As for the sound effects and voice work, the sound effects are handled decently enough but it is worth noting that there is no voice work of any kind outside of a few grunts and vocal chirps whenever a character’s dialogue box appears in the game. As for the soundtrack the game features a collection of fitting background music from the era including a signature sounding track for safe rooms.
Overall
Vultures – Scavengers of Death is a surprisingly adept blending of survival horror and turn-based combat that ensures that players not only have to fear running low on resources, but also getting cornered by the undead due to poor movement or planning. Featuring a gorgeous reproduction of PS1 era atmosphere, the title’s greatest strengths lie in its combat and exploration while its storyline is a bit wanting, painting an impressive picture but one that could have easily been better developed with some extra character build-up.
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