YMMV / Vigilante 8: 2nd Offense

• Captain Obvious Reveal: The revelation that Bob O. is a monkey named Bobo is supposed to be a massive shock for the end of the character's quest, but even a child can figure out this twist very early on. The character in question was trained by NASA in experiments, his favorite food is bananas, and whenever he performs his special attack, he doesn't say anything. Instead, he shrieks like an actual monkey.
• Complete Monster: Lord Clyde is the new leader of the Coyotes and the CEO of the oil conglomerate known as OMAR. Formerly known as Vigilante Slick Clyde, Clyde defected from the Vigilantes and attempted to reunite the Coyotes after they disbanded. When this failed, he started working for OMAR, where he conducted dozens of illegal deals, bought up or destroyed rival oil companies, created cybernetic assassins from unwilling human test subjects, and even eliminated many of his competitors. Despite inevitably taking over most of the world and turning it into a polluted wasteland, Lord Clyde sought out to destroy America as well. Traveling back in time with his two loyal assistants, Lord Clyde killed Vigilante leader Convoy and hired multiple mercenaries to destroy various oil and nuclear installations across America.
• Contested Sequel: 2nd Offense improved on almost every feature, and added one of the first cases of RPG Elements on an obviously non-RPG game... but the Scrappy Mechanic noted below hit the game hard. Thankfully, a cheat to unlock everything is available and the game is still enjoyably fun.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The alien ant invasion in the Meteor Crater level is a mix of this and Narm Charm for its homage to '50s B-grade monster movies. That said, the giant ant in question will give you grief if you foolishly wander into the crater.
  • Padre's special weapon, opening a portal to Hell in order to come back out right beneath his foe. In a game rooted in a mix of '70s throwbacks and sci-fi, it is quite the departure.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The objectives from the first game are back, and somehow the sequel made them both better and worse. The Vigilantes once again have to protect certain installations, but the AI is nowhere near as broken as the original, so it's much easier to accomplish. Unfortunately, the Drifters' objectives are all not only nonsensical, but many of them are vague and tedious. Most notably are the objectives to create a roadblock for a truck (which is not explained how or why to do it) and trapping an alligator in a cage (which is infuriating due to the alligator's tendency to outright avoid said trap even when you bait it). It was so bad that most player simply used cheats to unlock everything.

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