Vanquish review

Platinum Games were born from the ashes of Clover, a short lived yet very highly regarded development studio that was part of Capcom for a brief period of time.  They managed to release several games in the Viewtiful Joe series, the amazing Okami and God Hand before they were disbanded. Platinum have carried on Clovers reputation for highly polished and original action games, with their most famous title being Bayonetta.  Vanquish was released in 2010 to a generally positive reception from the media, yet it doesn't seem to have made a huge lasting impact in the minds of gamers. I have a few ideas why that may be so - let's take a look at the game and break things down shall we?

Graphics: 8 out of 10
Personally I think Vanquish looks pretty darn good for a 4 year old game.  The space colony that the game is set on is nice and detailed, there is very little slowdown during combat, and there are some great robot designs.  The huge bosses that you will encounter during the five acts of the game are a particular highlight, with some of them towering over the player.  Also of note is the main DARPA robot suit belonging to the player character Sam Gideon - it brings to mind the designs of Yoji Shinkawa (of Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders fame) as well as the suit from the Gamecube game P.N.O. 3.  My only minor gripe is that the design of the colony itself could have benefited from a bit more variety.  Apart from a brief section in a park, most of the action takes place in similar looking corridors.

Sound and Music: 7 out of 10
The music of Vanquish is perfectly decent and helps add to the excitement of battle, yet it is not particularly memorable outside of the theme that plays over the end credits.  This is partly because it can get drowned out a bit by the noise of battle, as bullets, rockets, and robot shrapnel flies all over the place.  The dialogue can be a little bit on the corny side, and also tends to bit a bit overacted, despite having a cast made up of experienced voice actors like Gideon Emery and Steve Blum.  As far as the sound design is concerned, there's not much here that stands out, apart from the noise when you switch weapons, and the way everything is slowed down when you go into bullet time.

I for one would like to see a Vanquish 2 one day - how about you?

Gameplay Mechanics: 8 out of 10
Yes, Vanquish is yet another title in a long line of games that have incorporated bullet time into the gameplay, but it really works well here and is a fundamental part of combat.  Though the levels do offer opportunities for cover, it can be destroyed fairly easily by the bigger enemies in the game, and the play is even penalised for the amount of time spent cowering behind crates and the like. You are actively encouraged to use your suits slide boost or a roll to navigate the battlefield and get yourself out of trouble, and while doing so you can hold down LT to enter bullet time and take down your enemies. This bullet time doesn't last forever though - there is a meter in the bottom right of the screen that depletes while time is slowed, and if it empties completely then your suit overheats.  While you're waiting for the suit to cool down again you are extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, so what I tend to do is drop out of bullet just before the meter runs out, so I'm not left without shields at a crucial moment.

You can equip up to three different weapons at a time as well as EMP and traditional grenades.  The weaponry varies from your standard assault rifles, sniper rifles and rocket launchers to some more interesting fare like disk launchers and lock on lasers.  My load out was usually a combo of the normal assault rifle because of its high ammo count, the heavy version of it for taking down the larger "RI" robots quickly, and then something a bit more interesting in the third slot depending on the situation.  There are quite a few times throughout the campaign that calls for a sniper rifle for example, yet I'm not that keen on them so I would swap this out for a rocket launcher of shotgun given the opportunity.  Sometimes downed enemies will drop upgrade cubes as well, and picking these up with a particular weapon selected will improve that weapon in some way - be it a higher ammo capacity or more damaging rounds.  Dying on the Normal difficulty or above will downgrade your weapons by one level though, so be careful!

Innovation & Cleverness: 5 out of 10
The main thing that Vanquish brings to the third person shooter genre is the slide boost mechanic, and it is a very fun thing indeed.  In all other aspects though, it's quite a clichéd game, from the setting, to the story and the weapons on offer.

Value & Replayability: 4 out of 10
Here we come to perhaps the biggest flaw of the game - its length.  My completion time of the entire campaign came in at under 5 hours, which is incredibly short for a full retail release.  Even now, when the game can be picked up for £10 less, that's still a little on the lean side, but I still think the overall quality of the game means that you should check it out.  Sometimes it can be good to play through a game in a single weekend, instead of it taking weeks or months.  If you have a friend who can lend you their copy though, I would still recommend that over buying it yourself - or maybe hold out for it to appear as part of Games with Gold or the PS Plus Instant Game Collection.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Throughout the majority of the first act I wasn't really feeling it, but after doing battle with the huge boss of that act I was along for the ride. Vanquish may be a little rough in certain aspects such as the story and the acting, and it's an all too brief experience, but at least that meant I was left wanting more. Sadly I don't think the sales were strong enough to make a sequel worthwhile - but then again I thought the same about Okami and we still got Okamiden quite a long time later!  If you know someone who can pass you their copy of Vanquish for a weekend, or you spot a copy cheap somewhere, then I recommend you give it a try.