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Vanquish is the first game Shinji Mikami has made for Platinum games. A third person shooter that focuses on speed and quick thinking instead of taking cover next to chest high walls, or just shooting while standing. Does it have everything to be a good game?
Story:
You play as the game's protagonist named Sam. A football playing scientist in a suit as a space marine in space. He's part of DARPA, that makes the latest weapons and create new technologies. Humanity has passed the population of 10 billion and the Americans have started using the solar energy as their main energy source. However, there is a coup de tat in Russia and the same extremists take over this American Satellite and uses it to destroy San Francisco. These Russians contact the American president and tells them that New York will be destroyed in exactly 10 hours, unless they get an unconditional surrender from them. Americans wage war, and you're sent into, “The Bravo company” and destroy some Russians (Not really. You're fighting various Russian robots). While Sam is trying to prevent New York from being destroyed, he actually has other orders, to save his professor.
It's a parody of a lot of FPS. Everyone has a rough manly voice. You're in space fighting Russians. Almost all the lines they say are hilarious. Don't take this seriously though. While it may look like it's trying too hard to look serious, it doesn't want you to take it as something serious.
Gameplay:
This is the best of it all.
Unlike other games in it's genre, it brings something new into the genre. You get all your standard guns, different cool weapons, and two type of grenades. Some weapons are cool. There's the Assult Rifle, lock-on Laser, Disc Launcher, and there's also melee attacks, which change with whichever gun you hold. You can only hold 3 weapons at all times, along with the two types of grenades. There's also a fast upgrade system that lets you improve the weapon on the battlefield. It's just dropped from enemies randomly, however. Still, you can get extra ammo, extra firepower, increased accuracy, and a whole lot of other things. One big drawback is that if you play on a harder difficulty like me, you will die quite often. What the game does is that if you die, the weapon upgrades will be reset, making you do it all over again.
Two types of grenades. The first is the standard grenade, but one cool thing about the game is that you can shoot at the grenade, causing it to create a bigger explosion. The second grenade is the EMP grenade, which disables the enemy robots for a short period of time.
Your suit has a gauge which will be depleted whenever a melee attack is used, use the boosting too long or used the AR mode for too long.
Melee attacks can range from a flurry of punches, flipkick, using the disc launcer to cut off some parts of the enemy, and a few more.
Boosting lets you pretty much fly through the area. You got rockets on parts of your suit and your on the other side of the screen in just a few seconds. Like I said, it uses up the suit's gauge, but it's absolutely vital to your survival.
AR Mode slows down time so that you can shoot enemies, get away as fast as you can, etc. With so many enemies on screen shooting at you, a lot of people (including me) will abuse it as much as possible.
There's also quite a few quick time events during bosses, but it's done in a fantastic way.
Music:
Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to hear any of it as the explosions, sound effects and all replace it.
Other things to mention:
The game isn't 4 hours long. I guarentee that whoever says that is either playing on Casual or plays like a god. I've spent 7 hours so far, and I'm on the final Act. There is a timer that adds up the time you spent into playing it. What people don't realize is that this isn't accurate. I believe it doesn't record the time you spent from cutscenes, as well as some other things. Undeniably, the game is short. Not as short as people make of it. It's still longer than Zone of Enders.
Before anyone asks, the game does not have a multi-player.
Story: Parody. It fits the game well. Has quite a few cutscenes. Not much to say besides how fun the dialogue is. 7/10
Gameplay: Delicious gameplay. Fantastic, frantic, and fun. 10/10
Additional content: Tactical missions and a total of 5 difficulties. There's also 6 languages to choose from as the character voices, as well as the subtitles. 8/10
Length: First playthrough should last anywhere between 5-15 hours. Could be longer, but still great. 8/10
The game is a masterpiece for short fun. Try it out. Pirate it, rent it, borrow it, I don't care. Just make sure to buy it brand new.
