Vanquish

excellent
key review info
  • Game: Vanquish
  • Platform: Playstation 3
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: N/a
  • Reviewed on:
Vanquish review

Vanquish is a third person shooter, developed by Platinum Games, under the leadership of Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Amidst the wide array of futurist, cover-based third person shooters, Vanquish stands apart with the promise of high paced action thanks to a special suit, called Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) worn by main protagonist Sam Gideon, that practically outfits him with jet boosters, as well as the ability to slow down time and execute serious melee attacks.

But is that, and the promise of Mikami at the helm, enough to make Vanquish stand out this holiday season or does it just get lost in the sea of big holiday releases? Let's find out.

Story

The story of Vanquish is a pretty straightforward, as in the near future the USA launches a special space station designed to use the energy of the sun in order to transfer energy back to Earth and alleviate the power crisis on the planet.

That station is overrun with Russian forces, as the government is overthrown by ultra-nationalists that want to restore the country to its former glory. In order to do so, they use the space station as an orbital weapon, and destroy the city of San Francisco.

In order to stop any other cities from being destroyed, the US president sends an elite team of soldiers, led by rough veteran, and Gideon, who is taking the ARS in battle for the first time.

The forces will be met with heavy resistance by Russian robots, not to mention their own special mechanical beasts and their versions of Sam's suit.

The story may be filled with clichés, but it gets the job done, although there are a huge amount of cut scenes, as par for the course in any Japanese title. While that may not sound that bad, it tends to get on your nerves, especially as some might have been easier relayed to the players in the form of radios or anything like that.

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Know when to attack ...
... and when to retreat

Gameplay

The gameplay in Vanquish can easily be resumed in a few words: third person, cover-based shooter. Basically, if you've played titles like Gears of War, you'll know how Vanquish feels.

You'll find a myriad of chest-high walls basically everywhere in the game world, and you can navigate them while sniping off enemies in a distance. The shooting mechanics are quite tight, and will offer a challenge, depending on the difficulty levels.

You have the special BLADE system at your disposal, basically meaning that your weapon can turn in anything you want, from an assault rifle, to a shotgun, laser or rocket launcher. You're not a human Swiss army knife though, as you can have three weapons equipped at one time and two types of grenades, but you can upgrade them by collecting other weapons of the same kind or special upgrade cubes.

The standout feature of Vanquish is the Augmented Reality Suit (ARS), which allows Sam to glide on any surface with his jet boosters, execute damaging melee attacks and go into a sort of bullet time. The latter can be used when executing attacks on multiple enemies out in the open, but is also triggered when Sam's health goes way down.

The gliding mechanic is really interesting, as if you find yourself getting surrounded by enemies, you can just zip to another part of the level, stop behind some cover and go wild on the enemies that are slowly making their way towards you.

The bullet time and melee attacks are also pretty useful, especially when dealing with enemies that have a longer health bar.

You won't go through the game spamming these powers though, as the ARS has a limited power supply, and if you use it all up, it overheats, meaning you're left vulnerable. If you use it sparingly, and now when to stop with the gliding or slow motion, you'll have no problem.

Besides the ARS though, you'll find quite a lot of traditional shooter tropes in Vanquish, from escort missions, to vehicle sections or multi-tier boss fights. The characters are also respecting stereotypes, from the rough army colonel, to the ever-so-helpful intelligence officer that guides your though the game and, of course, the cocky main hero, in the form of Sam Gideon, who, if he's not killing hundreds or thousands of Russian robots, enjoys so many cigarettes that it seems cancer isn't a problem in his time.

Japanese tropes are also respected, as besides the multitude of impressive cut scenes mentioned in the Story part of the review, Vanquish also has score screens at the end of each fight, probably to increase the replay value, and smaller scenes to outline your next objective.

Speaking of replay value though, Vanquish doesn't exactly have a lot of it, as the battles, while impressive during the first playthrough, seem a bit boring, even if you increase the difficulty or try different types of weapons. There's a Tactical Challenge mode, which sees Sam fight against unending hordes of Russian robots, but that's just a simple distraction, especially as you don't have any co-op mode.

Quick Time Events are also present, but their relatively few and far in-between. Sadly, most of the awesome maneuvers Sam executes in the game are just featured in cut scenes, so you won't exactly feel like you're helping the hero defeat his enemies.

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Stay in cover ...
... and then strike fast

Graphics and Audio

The graphics of Vanquish are top notch, even if you'll be speeding through levels and environments most of the times. While it is a futuristic shooter, set on a space station, the environments are huge, and filled with intense colors, not just different shades of browns or grays.

The character design is well done, and whether we're talking about real life humans, robots or things in between, like Sam, everything feels impressive, but not overly complicated or cluttered.

Best of all, the game doesn't have any slowdowns, and playing Vanquish feels like an intense yet beautiful experience.

In terms of sound, the game shines once more, thanks to the high paced orchestral score and the distinct sounds, coming from either robots, weapons or soldiers.

The voice acting is pretty well done, with Sam sounding decently rough and capable of delivering smart one-liners in between shooting down Russian robots and smoking yet another cigarette. The game may get on your nerves as there are only a limited number of responses for the actions he does in the game (like picking up weapons or upgrades), but it's still a pretty great title.

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Go up against small enemies ...
... and big ones

Conclusion

In the end, Vanquish is a pretty good Japanese take on Western third-person, cover-based shooters, with an intense gameplay, high-paced battles and pretty interesting characters.

If you're looking for something a bit more fresh this holiday season, and don't mind some clichés, then Vanquish is right up your jet-boosted alley.

story 7
gameplay 9
concept 9
graphics 9
audio 9
multiplayer 0
final rating 9
Editor's review
excellent
 
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