DeVuego

I was gutted, yet so happy with my experience and so determined to play again that I did. This reminded me fondly of Resident Evil 3’s Mercenaries mode, the hard-core survival run where time is a factor and resources are limited. While I still think the lack of a save system or a map can make multiple runs a little tedious or a stressful situation unbearably infuriating. I immensely enjoyed the experience Vaccine offers and recommend this to horror fans and those like me who loved 90’s survival horror. It’s brutal, rewarding and brilliantly engaging that the problems I had with it, weren’t so bad overall. 

Una de las claves de este juego es la nostalgia que transmite el apartado gráfico, como es habitual en los juegos indies. Vaccine nos traslada a la época de lo survival horror de PSX, tiene clarísimos homenajes a Resident Evil y también su estilo recuerda, porque se parece, a Silent Hill. Sin embargo, por necesidades de la dirección (presupongo), el juego deriva a un tipo de juego arcade de 30 minutos, infinitamente rejugable, y no contiene un diseño de los escenarios a la altura de un Resident Evil. Aparte, los puzles son inexistentes.

Ratalaika Games ha hecho muy bien en acercar este Vaccine a los jugadores de Nintendo Switch y ofrecerles un survival horror de corte clásico que gustará a los amantes de los dos primeros Resident Evil. Las referencias son más que claras con la saga de Capcom y gracias a ellas tenemos un título interesante al que jugar que ofrece una banda sonora que cumple su cometido, una atmósfera que transmite ese terror a lo desconocido y sobre todo una jugabilidad muy nostálgica. Vaccine es un juego que, de gustarte los principios de género, es una de las opciones más seguras de compra para tu Nintendo Switch.

A pesar de que Vaccine intenta transmitir una falsa sensación de miedo, a día de hoy, se queda muy atrás de los estándares. Gráficamente hablando, es muy similar a los Resident Evil. Destacando negativamente la cámara fija con la que cuenta el juego. Se queda muy lejos de lo que se espera de un recurso para causar tensión y terror. Aunque es utilizada para mantenernos atentos a la espera de ver lo que hay a la vuelta de la esquina, su uso es más bien pobre y elimina cualquier posible percepción de pánico.

No evoluciona el género de ninguna manera, y a pesar de querer ser un guiño a los clásicos, tenemos la sensación de "ya hemos jugado a esto antes", algo que a muchos no os gustará y que otros necesitáis para tener algo clásico dentro de vuestra consola de nueva generación. Es por ello que Vaccine es buen título para quienes necesiten de esa dosis de nostalgia, pero prescindible para quienes no disfruten del género.

I have two distinct reactions to my time with Vaccine. The first is hatred of its terrible old control system, changing camera angles and the random generating house of horror. The second reaction though is of respect and enjoyment at the increasing tension of the challenge, while getting better at unlocking the secret of the Vaccine. This is a game that you need to fail at and spend some time with in order to get the best out of it. If you can get past the issues I had at the beginning then there is a good Survival horror game in here, with a neat concept, that will make some classic gamers very happy indeed.

Vaccine makes an admirable attempt to recapture the original survival horror style game, both looking and playing the part. Unfortunately, the advancements that developers have made in the past 20 years have made games like Vaccine obsolete. It isn’t scary and it’s likely to frustrate most of those who play it; younger gamers especially won’t have any emotional ties to similar classic games. I’m more intrigued by the challenge of “solving” the mystery, which I have not yet done, and seeing how many times I can return the vaccine without dying. Aside from that and the meta-challenge of achievements, I don’t see myself getting re-infected much more.

Vaccine has some great ideas, which are implemented quite well, but it's unfortunately plagued by various graphical issues and a off balance soundtrack

Obviously a significant problem from the start is improving the controls. The constantly-changing camera angle and sluggish movement would make it difficult for many gamers, regardless of disability. It’d be great to have more auditory cues in the soundtrack as well, to improve accessibility for gamers with vision loss. Although it might detract from the aim of creating a tense environment—which I’d argue isn’t present anyway—a map of the house that fills in as you explore would make the game instantly much more accessible.

Vaccine gives a good initial impression for fans of old school survival horror, but a bad first impression gameplay-wise. Stick with it enough to achieve a good run and you might just see the appeal, but it will depend entirely on luck rather than skill.

Minimal story, frustrating design, and a revival of all the bad things of which survival horror washed its hands years ago — these all crop up in Vaccine and combine to have the game miss its mark. Instead of a love letter to bygone scares, what we get is a tiresome endeavor for anyone but the most diehard fans for old school horror. What's worse, even such fans might be turned away by Vaccine's blatant ripping off of Capcom's renowned franchise.

Vaccine is proof that you’re not able to make a good game just by having a good idea, and that knowing how to execute said idea is as important, if not more important. It plays terribly, it’s a complete eyesore, and its randomly generated maps and item placements make it completely impossible for a player to beat a round by counting on his/her skill, making them entirely reliant on a generous allocation of items and enemies in order to proceed. You probably own more than just a Nintendo Switch, so buy the Resident Evil remake’s remaster on PSN/XBL/Steam instead, and relive the actual great memories of the genre.