Short, but stylish, tense and one hell of a awesom experience.
Story
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The game takes place in the future, and Russians has hijacked a American space colony, and despite Russia & America being cooperating officially, the Russians use the colony's ultra strong laser weapon to destroy San Francisco... what a friendship eh? What's their next target, Queen Elizabeth? China? Iran? (Yea I know we're in the future, but political jokes ftw!).
Of course, America gets pissed off and sends hundreds of thousands of troops to battle the evel Russian, and thus the Cold War is pretty much alive.
The story is pretty much like one of those action movies from the 80's. It's not the main focus and it's bound to have a few plot holes here and there, but what its worth, it's actually pretty entertaining. The characters are also quite likeable, but that's more or less only because of how badass they are. But as much as the story isn't the focus, it does have a few surprising twists near the end.
Just sit back, switch off your brain, and enjoy the show.
7.5
Gameplay
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Calling the game Gears of War on crack isn't an understatement. The gameplay is like Gears of War sure, but the pace is much, much faster. There are tons of enemies around, usually mixed with some robots. It literally feels like you're in a battlefield, albeit with a huge advantage.
As Sam, member of DARPA, your equipped with a new form of suit, that is equipped with thrusters. Meaning? You can do a fast power slide across the battlefield and still shoot enemies whose foolish enough to be around you. Of course, this also means there's slow motion in the game, but only when you slide, or try to aim while vaulting over cover, or aiming after rolling. The power slide is original and it makes the game just that more awesome.
The power sliding and slow motion excuses the often huge amount of enemies on screen, and just facing the robots can be difficult. Another thing that makes the game tense, is one hit kills. The bigger robots (and even regular enemies) have an attack that can kill you in one single hit. It's annoying as hell at times, but it helps making the game even more intense.
Some of you might be thinking, that the game is either too easy because of power sliding, or too hard with the one hit kills, but it's all balanced perfectly. The game puts up quite a challenge, and you will die, but not because it's too difficult, but because you're not focusing. The game demands that you focus on the battle, because of how fast paced it is. Lose attention, and you will die. The weapons upgrade system makes dying something you don't want to happen either. Weapons can get upgraded as usual (either by collecting upgrade markers, or by collection the same weapon, when your ammo for it, is full), but if you die, you will lose that upgrade, which makes it even more tense.
Sadly, there are things the campaign could have done a little better. There are quick-time events for the cut-scenes (which are quite entertaining), but some of them should have had quick time events, which is a little odd. There are also a few sections (the bridge collapsing in 3-3 and transport train in 2-2), which should have been longer, because they were pretty awesome. The game is sadly, also short. My first play through took me 5 hours, and it can easily be finished under that time. When completed, there are challenges to complete, but otherwise, there isn't a lot to do in the campaign, unless you want trophies.
But beyond that though, the campaign is actually pretty awesome, and will have a few memorable moments. It's well paced, and pretty tense and the controls works pretty well. It feels like Gears of Wars yea, but when your sliding around, aiming at people in slow-motion, and with robots that, at any moment, could kill you just like that, it's not only tense, but really stylish.
9.5
Graphics
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The graphics are generally good. The characters animation could use a little bit of work, but they look good. The robots can be freakin' huge too, which is impressive, and the game's frame very rarely take hits. If only the environments didn't look as bland, and the slow motion could have looked even more stylish, if you ask me.
A disappointing thing is, that the cut-scenes appeared to have been pre-recorded and compressed, which can be easily seen, and is quite disappointing.
8.5
Sound
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The audio is a bit weird. The music's almost turned down so low, that you can't hear it, especially in the cut-scenes. The dialogue is a bit cheesy, but it's filled with awesome one liners, that'll have you reminding of the good ol' days of Arnold & Sylvester. The voice acting is cheesy, but its part of the whole "action" thing, the game has going. Though if you don't like it; you can always switch to the Japanese.... or Spanish voices.
8.5
Overall
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Vanquish is short, and it's a big shame, because it's going to hold off a lot of people from buying it. It's a real shame, because the game is really good. It's like Gears of Wars yea, but it's stylish, tense and really stylish. Wait until the game has dropped in price (which it already should) and buy the game, and you won't regret it.