REVIEW: Vanquish

I always appreciate a time where I can just kick back, relax, and kick some ass. 

When I first saw Vanquish back in May of this year, my first thought was "Gears of War" meets "Robocop" meets cocaine. Seeing a futuristic over-the-shoulder shooter may have looked like visual porn, but I wasn't quite sold on how it would play, what the story behind it was, and how it would play with friends. When the playable demo came out last month, it was the same thing I had already seen, but getting hands on was a different story. This was going to be some fast paced, intense action that I hadn't seen in a while. Not only was the demo level engaging with crisp controls, but there was a lot going on screen which showed me the game had potential.

For the most part, the retail version did not disappoint. 

This is the second game to come from Sega's Platinum Games developer with the critically acclaimed Bayonetta dropping 10 months ago. You will notice a somewhat similar feeling with Bayo with the Arcade-type presentation (I say 'Arcade' because you are "scored" at the end of each mission); there are a lot of visual stimuli going all over the screen, and the difficulty curve goes from shallow to controller-shaped-dents-in-wall difficult. Vanquish is, however, refreshingly more "western" in its execution ditching the really cheesy cut-scenes to slightly less cheesy cut-scenes (and the annoying as hell faux-Joe Pesci character).

Cuidado; Piso Mojado.

In talking about the game there are two things I need to say up front: Yes, there is no multiplayer. I'll address that in a moment. Also, I really have no idea what the hell the story is about. You play as Solid Snake Alex Murphy Sam Gideon, a dude with a bad ass mechanical super suit who is about to wreck shop on some bad guys. I mean, is there really much else you need to know story wise? Not really. Anyway, you are the tip of the spear of a rag-tag group of soldiers looking to fight a combination of robots and mechs. Sam's suit is capable of switching modes of weapons nearly instantaneously, he can power slide across the floor using rockets, he can do some bullet time slow-mo action when his suit depleted of energy either by damage or activation by the player. There are a good variety of weapons as you progress through the game, and each one serves a useful purpose from a plain old assault rifle, to heavy machine gun, to lazer cannon, to sniper rifle. Everything works well in combat. There is a pretty good cover system, but what is a little unique is that some cover can be destroyed, so you have to move around, strategize, flank, and overcome. This especially holds true in some boss battles, which not only come at end of levels, but some pop up mid-level, too. 

Visually, if you already don't have ADD, Vanquish will take care of that for you. With a smooth framerate, there is a lot that goes on screen, and it all looks really pretty good. There are points in the game where there are seemingly endless amount of baddies, and you can take them out with a weapon that locks four missiles on various targets, as a Thunderdome-reject style tank is barreling down on you. I can't remember having any camera issues or control issues; Vanquish does a good job in keeping the game enjoyable. There is also a good variety in level design. The differing environment kept the combat from getting repetitive, as I never felt bored or bogged down- everything moves fast. The game comes up short on playtime, but honestly, my suggestion is to play on harder difficulty- that way you are well challenged, and you get upwards of 8
hours of gameplay in. 

Pew! Pew! Pew!

So yeah, there is no multiplayer. Honestly, that doesn't bother me. I think multiplayer would have felt tacked on, and after Bioshock 2, I'm good with a stand alone strong Single Player game. I mean this is a game that was really easy and fun to play, I didn't even care about all the plot components. There is even a point in the game where you are crawling in the belly of a mech-stratofighter and you happen along a small room with a robot disguised as a boombox and a few band guys just dancing. Hilarious, and just a reminder to not take things seriously, just kick back and enjoy the ride.

Again, one dude that did NOT enjoy the ride was the review over at Destructoid. I hate to pick on them, because I do enjoy their website, but when a game is hitting an 83 on the Metacritic, and you drop a 5/10 on it, then you pretty much come off as a troll. I'm not saying you have to be in lock-step with everyone else on the internet, but at least you need a little bit of perspective. Again, in reviewing a game, or anything, you need to present what the game is about, what you think the developers are trying to present, and what works. Whether or not you like a game will affect how you review it, but there needs to be enough objectivity that it shouldn't sway it into a category of "Mediocre". There are plenty of games that I weren't keen on but I'm not going to say they straight up suck if there are things about it that are technically sound, and enjoyable.

What makes things worse is when there is no consistency throughout reviews. For example: Buggy, Glitchy, Obsidian developed Fallout New Vegas is worthy of a 9/10 rating from their site, but Buggy, Glitchy, Obsidian developed Alpha Protocol nets a 2/10. Now, I will concede that Fallout New Vegas (TL;DR review pending) is better than Alpha Protocol but the difference isn't 9 and 2; that is ridiculous. Vanquish deserves better as well.

TL;DR - For Sega fanboys, Vanquish is Space Harrier meets Zillion meets a lot of fun.