Vanquish Spotlight Review

Created by renowned action-adventure developer Platinum Games (formerly Clover Studios of Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and God Hand fame), Vanquish was part of Platinum's agreement with Sega to develop a set of four games under them, the other three being MadWorld for the Nintendo Wii, Infinite Space for the Nintendo DS, and Bayonetta for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Vanquish, for whatever reason, failed to achieve the same kind of success as Bayonetta, despite the universal praise for its unrelenting sense of speed and brilliant gunplay. Perhaps it was the game's short campaign, its steep learning curve, or even its reliance on speed that led to its minimal sales, but in the eyes of critics and fans alike who experienced it, it was labeled the new standard for third-person shooters.

The Short Version

Why You Should Play This Game: High-octane action; frenetic third-person shooting; rocket-powered knee sliding; shoot-em-up style bosses with projectiles galore

What You Can Play It On: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Published by: Sega
Developed by: Platinum Games
Released: October 9, 2010

The Long Version

The Russians are at it again. In the near future when Earth’s population has reached critical mass, humanity engages in a global scavenger hunt for any and all available resources. Unable to maintain the chaos for too long, the United States of America assembles and launches the O’Neill Cylinder space station, a habitable vessel harboring a solar generator to harness the energy from the sun and provide sustainable fuel. In a coup d'état by a Russian nationalist force known as the Order of the Russian Star, the former Soviet Union’s government is overthrown and its military realigned. The Order attacks and overwhelms the defenseless crew of the space station, and using their newly-acquired solar energy from the generator, they transfer it into a blast wave that strikes the heart of San Francisco. With New York as the next target, the Order’s leader, Victor Zaitsev, demands that the American government offer their immediate surrender.

Vanquish is a title not to be lauded for its complex characters, emotionally riveting tale, or philosophical themes simply because there are none. At its core, this is a shallow, rudimentary, and unsophisticated romp through an orbital space station that will sooner have you cursing at the heavens than pondering its existence. But it’s in the style and presentation that manages to make this such a remarkably entertaining adventure that’s quite aware how utterly outrageous its plot is and how absurdly stereotypical the lead characters are. Goofy dialogue that would otherwise sound like complete rubbish doesn’t rub off in such a grating way as it might in nearly any other game. The story is completely expendable, offering little in the way of provocative discussion, and the characters are flatter than Paper Mario, but the whole package is in excess of pure, raw, testosterone-injected manliness. And that’s fine by me.

On the surface, Vanquish appears unremarkable. A sci-fi third-person shooter about a Russian uprising starring Solid Snake in space. (Well, Solid Snake anywhere is in and of itself interesting enough). To be quite honest, without the few things that make Vanquish truly shine, this review might have headed in a completely different direction. But thankfully, the platinum-minds over at Platinum Games, and the master himself Shinji Mikami, know how to make a stale and over-saturated genre feel as fresh and new as a baby’s bottom in spring time. Vanquish’s concept can boil down to a single word: speed. Everything is about speed, either the increase of speed or the deceleration of it. Though the game features a cover system and regenerating health, these are not the saving graces you’ve come to expect from other games of this type. Most cover deteriorates under persistent fire, while other cover may actually be a robotic enemy in disguise. This, as well as refreshingly intelligent enemies that tend to flank and overwhelm you if you remain in a single location for too long, or otherwise throw grenades your way, add a great sense of urgency to an already frantic game.

The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Suit is, in essence, your primary weapon. As Sam Gideon, the title’s gruff and reckless protagonist who has a penchant for lighting up a cigarette in the midst of a heated battle, you will use the suit as both an evasive gadget and a defensive shield. Well-equipped with speed boosters, the suit can propel Sam at blinding speeds as he rockets by enemies on his knees to and fro. Similarly, the suit controls Sam’s other time-manipulation, allowing him to slow down the world around him to a near-stop. Both abilities drain the suit of its energy, which quickly regenerates when not in consumption. However, abuse either mechanic too much and the suit will overheat, preventing the use of each one for a short amount of time. This forces an interesting dynamic between taking cover or popping out and boosting around the environment. Don’t rely on either one entirely; instead, strike a balance and learn where certain cover walls are. That way you can speed boost between one and the next and never leave yourself out in the open for too long. The suit has a fail-safe mechanism of sorts. If you take enough damage in a short amount of time, it will automatically trigger a slow-down mode allowing you some time to react and get into hiding before you’re shot dead. This is a double-edged sword, however, because while it can save your life on many occasions, it will also overheat the suit, preventing you from using either of the abilities for a short amount of time. This makes an already hectic system even more dependent on caution and care.

Combat itself is just as frenetic. At any time you’ll have gunfire and missiles raining down on you from any given direction. Your own means of offense is itself just as unique as the DARPA suit. An experimental weapon, the BLADE system is a single unit that allows Sam to scan any type of weapon in the game and immediately materialize into it. Capable of holding up to three guns of any type, the player can choose from nearly a dozen different types of firearms with which to bring into combat against the Russian cybernetic army. In many cases, you’ll find yourself switching weapons in and out depending on the current situation; maybe you need a sniper rifle to pick off those pesky sharpshooters in the distance, or maybe you’ll want to pick up that rocket launcher and make short work of the much larger foes. The battlefield is usually plentifully littered with various guns to keep yourself ship-shape, but in the thick of combat, it’s not unlikely to find yourself running low on ammunition and with your suit overheated.

Weapons can be upgraded in either one of two ways. If one of your currently equipped weapons, say the Assault Rifle, is maxed out on ammo, and you go pick up an Assault Rifle that you find in a weapon chest or dropped by an enemy, rather than do nothing, this will add a single line to the weapon’s icon in the bottom-right of the screen. Do this three times and the weapon will be upgraded in rank, raising ammo capacity and either its damage potential, firing rate, reload speed, or what have you. If you happen to pick up a weapon which you already possess, but have expended some of its ammo, then it will simply refill the ammo. On the other hand, you can also find instant upgrade kits which will not only upgrade the weapon you currently have equipped a single rank, but it will also refill its ammo completely. As such, don’t expect to find too many of them throughout a single campaign. To add some consequence, if you play on any difficulty setting above the Casual modes, frequent deaths will start to diminish the quality of your upgraded weapons. This might create some interesting situations when deciding what guns to upgrade in fear of losing those upgrades minutes later.

But I’ve yet to talk about the best feature in the game: lighting up a cigarette in the middle of combat. More than just a superficial mechanic, this actually has a fairly tactical use. When behind cover, you can have Sam light up and take a quick hit before flicking the cigarette butt out into the open. Yes, this looks incredibly cool when there’s a hail of gunfire whizzing passed you in every direction. But more than that, the cigarette butt acts as a distraction for enemies. For that brief moment when it’s in the air, enemies will instinctively shoot at it, taking their attention away from where Sam was. This allows you a tiny but indispensable moment of time to pop out of cover, preferably with time slowed down, and pick off one or two of the enemies, or potentially more. The cigarettes are in short supply, but they are replenished on a regular basis. Like everything else in the game, though, don’t rely on them too much. Abuse it often and you may find yourself without their aid at a time when you desperately need it.

Vanquish looks stunning. Everything from the environments and level design, the appropriately exaggerated character models, and most impressively the DARPA suit itself. Sam’s suit was crafted with such immaculate attention to detail that every little bit of it looks jaw-dropping. All of the bells and whistles attached to it emphasize how much care was put into making the game look and feel unique despite its redundant and admittedly nonsensical plot. Dialogue is purposefully B-movie grade to compliment the hum-drum story, but every now and then Sam or his wing-man Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Burns will spit out a clever line. The voice acting is good enough, particularly on the part of Sam, voiced by Gideon Emery (notable for his roles as Balthier from Final Fantasy XII and the voice of John Connor from the Terminator Salvation video game). Don’t expect to recognize him immediately, because his gravely and grizzled voice is intentionally overly-macho to again reflect the hyperbole of these characters. If you want to really mess with your head, compare Sam’s voice to that of Balthier’s and see the difference for yourself.

Musically, the game seems to be hit or miss. For the most part you might not even notice that a track is playing, particularly in the heat of combat when the sounds of battle are drowning everything else out. This can be a good thing, however. Vanquish is a game that requires tremendous concentration and focus. Having music play over your utter demise can grow to become a frustrating and annoying experience in a game that thrives off of a player‘s tears. When you do notice the music, it works, and it’s a fitting ensemble of typical action flare.

Vanquish is not a hard game to recommend, but it is assuredly a hard game to play. If you’ve become accustomed to the standards of most modern shooters, particularly those that emulate the Gears of War formula, then Vanquish may prove itself a formidable foe. It is a beast unto itself, unlike anything else on the market. The campaign is short, clocking it at roughly five to ten hours, potentially less if you play on more modest difficulty settings. But it is a game that harkens back to the arcade era, where you’d play and then replay over and over and over again trying to get a higher score. And for that there is no shame in its shortened campaign, because anything longer would have felt extremely tacked on and may have only hindered the experience. This is a game that connects you directly to a source which injects pure, unfiltered adrenaline into your veins. If you’re looking for a game to shock your senses, Vanquish is the only answer.