Platinum Games: Oh yeah, almost forgot, we totally need to tack on a story to all this awesome action we got going on
As a hardcore shooting fan, I really enjoyed the gameplay for the most part. It plays like most 3rd person shooters with the exception of ARS system. Think "Witch Time" in Bayonetta: You attack as many enemies as you can in slow motion within a limited time window (Sega/Platinum must have be in love with slow motion). The main difference here is that it is initiated by either manually triggering it when sliding around the screen or my absolute "favorite", when in critical health (note the sarcasim). The latter effect annoyed me to no end despite you're health regenerating periodically, here's why: Ok, so the ARS system duration is totally dependant on the energy level of the boosters that are on the back of the suit...not a problem...yet. If you're in ARS too long, they'll overheat and you'll have to wait a couple of seconds for them to cool down...fine. So, what happens if let's say, you slide with only a little bit of booster energy left and get critically damaged? I'll tell you, the automatic ARS kicks in and wastes the very little booster energy you had left and now you have to somehow try to get away from an enemy or a bunch of enemies who may be in close proximity. Most times, when you're critically injured, the character need about 3 seconds to become mobile again. Many times, this will lead to your death...by either getting killed when recovering or not getting away from close enemies fast enough. Running away is the equivilant to walking away in this game! To effectively avoiding enemies, sliding away is necessary. In addition to this, your malee attacks (when they connect) completely drain your booster energy. I just feel that a lot of unnecessary things were too dependant on those boosters! It just should have been limited to sliding imo. Besides my beef with a few things with ARS system, the gameplay was solid and entertaining.
They story...hmmm? Well there is one, its not much, but there is one. You basically play as a DARPA agent named Sam who is sent on a mission which on the surface is to merely assist the US Military in their attack against Russia (who has inevitably attacked and declared war on the US). Really, Sam is being sent to rescue an engineer who has been kidnapped by the Russians to help complete there secret weapon, a giant satalite laser that can wipe cities off the planet. The story gets a tad bit more complicated than that but I'm keeping this review spoiler free. The most interesting thing that I found is that in the future, the US fights wars buy equipping their soldiers with cool techno suits and the Russian fight by using robots (oh boy, there's so much I can say about this but I don't want to start WWIII on here :) ).
My Breakdown:
What's Good:
- Great visuals
- Greet sound
- Plenty of action to keep players from being bored
- ARS system can be fun to use when sliding and shooting
- Good weapon varitey and upgrade system
What's Not-So-Good:
- Never mixes anything up with the gameplay
- No multiplayer at all. It would have been an excellent online co-op.
What's Bad:
- The ARS auto-triggering when in critical health!
- Weak story and lack of character development
In all, Vanquish was a solid 3rd person shooter but I can't say that it was exceptional. It's good for a first outing and definately lays the foundation for stronger entries in a series (hint hint Platinum Games).