The Vindicators

The Vindicators is inspired to an old 60's tv show named Avengers... no, not the one with Thor and Iron Man, it was a spy serie that was also remade as a movie in 1998 starring Uma Thurman, Ralph Fiennes and Sean Connery.
It's about the adventures of two spies, Emma Peel and John Steed. And this game is heavily influenced by this.

THE GOOD
The setting obviously isn't your typical fantasy town, so I approve the choice to make an adventure that looks more close to Austin Powers than Final Fantasy! The choice of chipsets, charsets, sprites and monster is appropriated and I liked the style, Emma and J... well I mean Angela and Jack are two quirky characters that have a lot of funny exchanges and the dialogues are well worth the time spent. Ok it's cheesy like in the old action movies, but that's something that many people (like me) love!
I also liked the fact that there are not experience points and levels, instead you get better using some items you earn at some points to improve the characters' abilities and learn new skills. That's a good thing since I hate grinding and I was able to avoid a couple of fights without losing anything (there is already enough combat for my taste), besides this you can also choose how to spend these items, but it's not really important since this game is quite easy.



THE BAD
Maps are ok but I noticed that the final parts are less polished than the first 2/3 of the game and seem rushed. For example I could pass through some objects where others, that were identical, didn't let me do the same thing. I had also some problem with the puzzles, but that's me (I hope!), also super-easy combat! Just spam Angela's multiattack and alternate between Jack's powers and his strong base attack, and you're done!
Another problem is that there are lots of combats but really few enemy types (and one of the protagonists even says that!).



THE UGLY
Too short, but that's ok as there's no map to explore or optional parts and dungeons, it's a short funny game but there is not much to do and in the end I was rushing to see what was going to happen during the finale. It's also a pity that the snowy outdoors are used just for a short cutscene: I wished there was MORE, more exploration, events, monsters and story because I liked what I saw but in the end I felt that this game started from an original idea and could have been a better longer game with some more content.

So what? The Vindicators is not perfect but it's not bad either and being easy and short it can be played also by newcomers. Oh and the strong part are surely the dialogues and the humor, these are the best parts and well worth the time spent! I think that it can show the versatility