I remember seeing this game from Warehouse Clearence Shops when I was about 13 for around £2.99. It was a toss up between a game called H.E.D.Z. Extreme Destruction Zone and this and I bought this. From the outset the game seemed simple, drive around In vehicles fitted guns trying to shoot other vehicles. However the game designers had other Ideas.
I remember reading the booklet over and over and still not grasping what the point of the game was, it has to be one of the weirdest freakin' games I've played in terms of storyline and strange language. I really liked the graphics everything bar the vehicles looks like its made out of that Magic Sand stuff that stays dry under water and seems to shimmer and flush luminous colours. There are always things crawling over and under the surface like the ladscape is some giant, lumpy moth-eaten rug and you meet these creatures on a seperate screen who you interact with and buy stuff from who just make no sense at all and seem to live inside an advent calendar for no reason. And then you die. Over the years My copy fell victim to numerous scratches and became unplayable, when I saw that this game was on steam I thought I had to play it again. I think I have to agree with the description that mos of the pleasure that is to be had in this game is trying to work out what exactly whats going on and what you are supposed to do. You are kind of learning a foreign language with this game, but I think that's what gives the game it's appeal for me. It is a genuine oddity, a one off freak that you may never fully understand. And that is what has brought me here. Maybe I seek some sort of closure on what has been puzzling me for some time: Vangers, what was that all about?

1998 was the year of Grand Theft Auto (the original one with the top-down view), Planet of death(pod) and Vangers. Vangers didn't catch on much back then, because there wasn't any genre it fit. Even if it does some things similarly to GTA (open world top-down driving game with missions and unstructured gameplay), its premise and game world are much more confusing, and most reviewers and players couldn't warm up to it, though some did. (Actually, that probably hasn't changed.)

What sets Vangers apart?

Voxels: Vangers has been implemented with a voxel-like world (that was before the prevalence of polygon-crunching graphics cards), which means that the terrain doesn't have a surface made of textured polygons, but is sculpted out of tiny cubes (like square pixels make up a digital photograph, but in 3D). (Think minecraft with finer grains.) This means that you can deform the terrain: vehicles leave tracks, weapons make craters, you can move under water, through tunnels (sometimes hard to spot in the top-down view) and, with the right equipment, even burrow along like a mole. Unfortunately, this is also the reason why Vangers still runs at 800x600: if you upped the resolutions, either everything would be very small, or the Voxels would appear larger, and everything would still be blocky.

SciFi: Vangers is set in a confusing world, or rather a "Chain" of worlds (do read the "preface" eventually), with seasons that affect gameplay, weird installations, the purpose of which is initially unknown, and strange creatures that talk in riddles. You need to discover much of the gameplay as you go along.

So how do you get a feel for the game? Review the controls in the options - you will need to move, turn your vehicle over and use the KiD a lot. Set the game to fullscreen. Then click yourself (somewhat to the right) through the prologue into the buying screen, pick up a shipment of Nymbos, exit the burrow, click on the lower right panel to set your compass for Incubator, and take off. (I set my camera to zoom and tilt, but not to rotate, because it is very easy to get disoriented.) You'll find that with your small, lightweight car, terrain matters a lot. There are roads, some obvious, some not so much, and unfortunately, you need to stay out of the way of stronger Vangers for the time being. Reach Incubator, sell the Nymbos, get some Phlegma, trade it back to Podish, buy better cars and equipment, ask the councellors about the things you saw, figure out how they work and how to reach other worlds in the chain, take part in races, take down other Vangers and loot them, become a motorized Scifi mercenary.

If you like off-road driving and can keep going in the face of confusion (and if you don't mind a time machine trip back to when screens had 15", 640x480 was a good game resolution, and 800x600 looked definitely wonderful - and games had to ask before saving 64MB of persistent world), Vangers will reward you with huge and deep world full of surprises -- and driving.

I can safely say that there hasn't been any game like Vangers since 1998, because if there had been, I would have played it. (Hard Truck Apocalypse, also published by Buka, comes close, but it doesn't have voxel terrain and isn't nearly as strange as Vangers.) I'm very happy that it has been overhauled to run on modern systems.

P.S.: I just found my old Vangers mousepad with the yellow and blue liquid and the floating mechos!

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I just wrote the following in a forum post, it may help inform your buying decision.

So some people may be thinking, "that's an interesting game, but chances are high I won't like it much" and then conclude that they'll buy it if it ever goes below 4$ or whatever. Those of us who know and love Vangers know the game is worth more to us, but I can understand that people who are curious are reluctant to buy.

In that regard, if you like top-down off-road racing, with small vulnerable vehicles that can roll over and right themselves and do both small and really long jumps with a built-in spring device that charges up, you probably won't regret buying this for the full price, because if you get frustrated with the alien SciFi, you'll be able to just go and tool around the area some more in your mecho and have fun.

Hello and welcome to the world of Univang! It's not a very friendly place, nor is it safe for an unwary traveler, but those who embrace the spirit of exporation will always find what they need. You assume the role of a Vanger - one of many inhabitants of the Chain, having nothing and no one to rely on except for your armoured mechos and the skills to drive it. Soon, you're being thrown out of the safety of Escave and face the Road that welcomes the new arrival...

Perhaps the best way to describe Vangers experience is "a newborn baby exploring the world for the first time." In the terms of your knowledge about the surroundings, or your relative power to other beings living here, you pretty much equal nothing. There's no one to give you comprehensive information, no one to explain all the laws and principles governing the Chain of Worlds. You can ask, and you will receive some answers, but don't expect them to be clear and on-point - most of the advisors you'll meet talk in riddles. You don't have any goals, other than the little tasks that Escave rulers give you from time to time, so you'll probably feel helplessness in your first hours of playing Vangers. And that's exactly what the game is so good at - the world around you is very complex, very vibrant with life and full of secrets. But you have to work hard in order to comprehend it, making exploration the most important part of the game.

Traveling the roads of Fostral, you'll stumble upon many objects and devices of unknown purposes. Some of them might affect you in different ways, some of them might open up to give you their contents. Cycles change around you, busy vangers on coloured mechoses drive by, following their own goals, and it's up to you to earn enough reputation in the eyes of advisors to get access to more secret knowledge.

That being said, don't be discouraged by the apparent lack of understanding at the start. The game still has a lot of features and options to help you. Gather some oddities around Escaves, sell them in the shops and receive money to buy upgrades for your mechos. Earn enough, and maybe you'll be able to even buy a new vehicle, faster and better armoured than your basic model. Participate in local races to please the advisors and earn their trust, and surely they won't forget your brave efforts. Most importantly, get to know the Road - it's there that most of your battles will occur.

Soon enough, you'll find yourself travelling across more and more worlds, some large, some tiny, but each with its own riddle to solve. The deeper you pierce the Chain of Worlds, the more options will be available to you, until the moment you'll finally get a glimpse of the true rulers of Univang... But that's still far away, and until then you'd better get used to hauling cargo and doing some passenger runs.

Remember this: no matter how pointless and futile your actions might seem at first, no deed will be left unnoticed, and sometimes you have to keep trying over and over to earn your first results.

Is it worth it? As a person who beat the game thrice already, I say definitely yes. The more you learn, the more interesting it becomes, and those first hours of confusion when you are just starting will be something you'll remember with nostalgy by the time you'll be ready to leave Univang as a mature and experienced King of the Road. Good luck, fellow Vanger! Say hi to Parafin from me.

An obscure classic from my childhood, Vangers is just as bizarre as I ever remembered.
You are a newly born Vanger, birthed by the Eleepods... you don't even know what a Vanger is, and no one will tell you... and as far as you know, an Eleepod is a caterpillar with strange soft hands, they are one of the 3 bioses that inhabit the worlds of 'The Chain'. The only thing you know about Vangers is that they are a kind of warrior created by something called "the infinite mind" in a world that just makes no sense... or does it... You'll be taking nymbos to Feenger at Incubator and taking part in the holy race, the "Eleection" where you must ride to Podish in your Mechos while carrying your own Eleepod, exploring the worlds of the chain, collecting plenty of beebs, assisting the Eleepods, or beeboorats, or the zeexen to fulfill their dark, existential quest to collect the larvae from which they are mutated...
Gameplay-wise, this is an RPG/Racing/Open-World/Sandbox game the likes of which have not been replicated since this games conception in 1998.
I saw other reviewers say this game is like learning a language... and it definitely is.
It's a strange and esoteric experience. One that so many should definitely experience.

I'd been trying to get this game to work again for years, only to recently discover a steam version was released this year. And for only $6, you cannot go wrong.
I would pay $20 for this game...

TL;DR please buy this game and discuss it with me because I've never had anybody to discuss this game and it's messed up story with before and I need that so badly you have no idea

Enthralling world, twisted and bright characters, tons of amusing dialogue, mind-blowing story and action gameplay interweave to create a true work of art.

Прошел в детстве. Теперь я живу в Амстердаме, ем грибы и смеюсь.
Но иногда мне снится кошмар, как я выбираюсь из статуи Маленького Цыка, оказываюсь в Лампасах, и понимаю, что надвигается Ядерная Война, а я забыл свой раббокс в другом мехосе...

Absolutely recommended IF you're ready to learn.
As a warning to any new players, you're going to be confused and have no idea whats happening. just a tip? follow a guide for the first parts of the game, remap your buttons IIMMEEDIATELYYY and get ready to not understand what anyone is saying.

This game is mystical and spellbinding in a way I cant exactly put into words. Its odd, annoying, hard to control but inevitably learnable and familiar. The designs for the characters are charming and memorable, the gameplay definitely isnt too dull when you're stuck underwater in a heavy mechos and five people are shooting at you, and I always appreciate the love I can see was poured into it's creation. Look at the files! there are dedicated file viewers for this game online, and its a treat to see everything underneath the carapace.

WARNING this game will make you gay and transgender. its true... it happened to me

Old game, yet unique and fascinating. It was the first RPG-like game I have ever played and also my first 3D-like game as well. Differently from the modern games you have around here, you make a mistake, you die. Even when you get familiar with mechanics, maps and gameplay in general, you will constantly be ground to death by some mechanical flies, drowned in a pool of mud, shark-like creatures that tear armor apart and so on. You cannot be an ordinary player. You must be the chosen one. You must be a real Vanger, the one for the road.

Pros:
- Rich game setting with it's own vocabulary
- Lots of different items, some of which you have no idea what they do
- Lots of different mechos, from fast fragile ones to slow heavy-armored ones
- A game that sometimes requires you to flee and hide instead of blasting your way through
- Different endings, one of which makes you feel very lonely
- Kusowocks

Cons:
- Difficult game, requires a lot of patience (which to me is a good thing)
- You die a lot and sometimes forget to save...
- Removing old Boorawchick from his Escave doesn't let you enter the Escave with the creepy doll of doom
- Difficult vocabulary for starters
- Geer'AH

I love you cryptic unplayable piece of ♥♥♥♥

Game may be unfriendly to new players, but this is what makes it so rewarding, when you finally manage to figure out - how the game world works and to understand shards of storyline, given to you by npc's. There are always different ways to complete goals. If you want money - you can complete quests, trade, or rob secret stashes. If you want to go to the next world - you can complete a difficult race, or prove you are worthy by some other way.
Graphics look awesome, despite the game's old age, thanks to voxel engine which makes everything look even more alien.
On the downside - ingame quests are very difficult. Sometimes you will even get tasks, which are impossiple to complete on the current stage of storyline. Offroad driving is nearly impossible, your car will not just go slower or stop - it will spin uncontrollably whith the slightest press of a button.