High octane fun in this original 3rd person shooter from Platinum games
For me Vanquish has everything I want from a single player game. It’s original, bursting with high octane arcade action and you play as a main character that smokes like it’s still in fashion. Okay the storyline has a lot left to be desired but there’s plenty of other games on the market for that. The game takes place in the not too distant future where the human population have been reproducing like rabbits and the Earth’s resources have been stretched so thin that the various nations are fighting for the few resources left. The American’s have solved this by capturing solar energy from a space station on the moon, however an evil Russian group have captured the space station and turn it into a weapon capable of destroying cities in one blast. The Russian’s then hold America at ransom and America doesn’t stand for it and deploys a team of space marines to get control of the station back.
You play as Sam Gideon outfitted in a fantastic piece of kit called an augmented reaction suit. The suit has boosters on the legs and arms and can scan weapons and transform into perfect replicas of these weapons and is the reason why this game is incredible. You can boost around in a ridiculous fashion on your knees moving from cover to cover whilst time slows down around you making for some great moments as bullets zip past you and explosions are happening all around you and is central to the game.
The combat is fluid, works extremely well with the boosting mechanic and I can’t think of another game like it. It’s also hard even on normal difficulty with bosses having one hit kills, however this is balanced with various animations and sound to make it fair and as long as you stay on your toes or on your boosters as it were, take cover appropriately and use your head you shouldn’t get too frustrated with the one hit kills. The cover system works as well as any other i’ve used and works as it should 99% of the time.
There’s a decent amount of weapons to play around with from your standard machine guns and rocket launchers to the more interesting lock on laser and LFE gun which produces a huge ball of energy that can pass through objects and I found extremely useful in certain situations. All the weapons can be upgraded via upgrade chips found in dead enemies or crates or simply by picking up another weapon of the same kind provided you have full ammo for said weapon at the time.
Vanquish features a scoring system which fits in well with arcade style of gameplay and is always nice for those that like to chase leader-boards. The score is based on how fast you complete a level and keeping a chain going as best you can as well as amount of cover used I believe.
The downside is the story which i had little care for, however with gameplay this good I wasn’t bothered. Some people may find it too short at about 8 to 12 hrs long although the game has plenty of replay value with high score chasing as well as challenge rooms which are equally as fun if not better in some ways to the main game.
Closing comments
Anyone looking for a fast paced frantic shooter that isn’t just another sequel should try this fantastic yet under-rated game. It’s got big explosion’s, addictive gameplay and will take you by surprise. I loved every minute of it and can’t wait to play through it once more on the hardest setting.
