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Will Vanquish Hold You Over Until Gears of War 3?

Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami and Platinum Games deliver a cool and stylish blend of Gears of War and God Hand.

October 20, 2010
You won't like this if...

you long for unlockables, you need more variety in your shooters, you want a mulitplayer game

Vanquish
Credit: Platinum Games

Sam Gideon is simply the coolest third-person shooter action hero on a modern HD console.


Sure, Nathan Drake clambers up ruins and trains with expert skill and quips at the ready, and Marcus Fenix brutes and shoots his way through the Locust hordes. But neither of those fine fellows will kill an enemy with a lethal pirouette. Or slide across the floor like Tom Cruise from Risky Business while looking like Casshern. Nathan or Marcus typically take cover from a handful of bad guys against a conveniently located and sizable chunk of wall -- Sam can use even a tiny girder lying on the floor as cover against a screenful of incoming missiles. And take the time to coolly smoke a cigarette while under such heavy fire (which, as a gameplay element, is actually used to distract the enemy). 

Sam is the cool cat that you control in Vanquish, the newest title from development studio Platinum Games (MadWorld, Bayonetta) and videogame director Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, God Hand). I mention all the titles in the previous sentence because they all feature something that Vanquish maintains: a distinct and effortless sense of style. Its plot, like a guilty pleasure action-movie from the '80s, is serviceable and amusing, while not being too intrusive or indulgent -- an improvement over Bayonetta's long-winded nonsense that served as cut-scenes.

In the future, a splinter group of Russians take over a space station, use it to destroy San Francisco, and demand unconditional surrender from the US under threat of taking out New York in the same manner. Sam and his experimental ARS (Augmented Reaction Suit) power armor accompany a detachment of Marines led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Burns on a mission to breach the space station and take it back from the Russians. The dialogue alternates between traditional plot delivery and amusing banter that seems to openly mock the gung-ho bro-tastic dialogue in similar games.

Gears of War -- a third-person cover-based shooter with much higher sense of speed and intensity. While Sam can do the expected actions like quickly duck behind cover with a button press, blindfire, and toss grenades, he can use the ARS in interesting ways. The most evident is by boosting, where he uses his arm and leg thrusters to quickly power-slide across the ground. Or activate AR Mode, a bullet time type of effect, in various ways: ranging from aiming-while-boosting, to switching it on during a Tactical Evade or when exiting from cover, to having it activate automatically when you've taken a significant amount of damage. He also has powerful melee attacks (with a distinct animation based on whatever weapon he's holding at the time) that can kill most foes in a single blow -- though such a killing blow also instantly overheats the ARS, and leaves him vulnerable while unable to boost or activate AR Mode.

Using all of these various abilities and mechanics becomes greatly rewarding, but can also take a bit of time. With the default control scheme of boosting on either Left bumper or L2 (depending on system) and aiming on Left trigger or L1, activating and maintaining AR Mode while boosting across the floor can lead to your hand transforming into a "game claw." It also takes time to shake the habit of treating melee as just another attack like in any other game, rather than the precise high risk/reward mechanic that it actually is. I was frustrated at first that I would boost and then melee a random grunt, only to die via his buddies seconds later -- but when I learned to boost-and-melee a very specific target, and then either shoot while fleeing or simply evade a lot afterwards, I didn't get quite as angry.

As much as Sam's movement is entertaining, his gunplay needs to complement the experience. For the most part, it does. Aiming feels tight and responsive, and there's decent feedback via the audio. Sam uses some technology that supposedly transforms his weapon into different firearms, but in practical terms, he can carry up to three guns. The arsenal itself is pretty standard, featuring an assault rifle, a heavy machine gun, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, and a rocket launcher.

On top of the standard arsenal are some exotic weapons, such as a lock-on laser that echoes Panzer Dragoon, a disc-launcher that doubles as a portable chainsaw (important note: the melee attack here does not overheat the ARS like other weapons), and an odd LFE (low-frequency energy) gun, which has extremely short range but can go through cover and has a concussive effect, knocking foes down.

Click the image above to check out all Vanquish screens.

The guns feel good while shooting, and have varied and obvious roles -- use the shotgun up close or use the rocket against armored or flying targets that you can get a target lock on. There's also an upgrade system, where by either picking up special power-ups (usually dropped by minibosses or after intense firefights) or excess ammunition when you're at max capacity, you improve your weapons. Though, these improvements tend to be simple "max ammunition capacity increase" or "damage increase" upgrades. I was only able to fully upgrade three guns during my playthrough, but there isn't anything truly exotic in either the upgrade system or the weapons themselves. There's nothing actually "wrong" with the weapons, but they feel a bit pedestrian compared to the fresh and distinct mechanics from Sam's armor.

As for the foes you use Sam's weapons and ARS abilities against, you learn that Russians prefer robots to people for their infantry in the future. While most of the enemies are just "robot with a rocket launcher" alongside "robot with an assault rifle," some of the minibosses feature standout and over-the-top designs. I'm thinking specifically of either the giant walking landmine resembling a mechanical jellyfish, or a bizarre gladiator robot wielding a flamethrower in one hand and a giant mace in the other. These wacky robots are bit few and far between, though, and for the most part you're shooting the same basic robot infantry over and over.

It helps a lot that ultimately, Sam Gideon is just so damn cool and stylish to play as. At its peak, Vanquish is a beautifully fast and intense fusion of East and West third-person gameplay -- it just isn't quite as good as the director or the studio's previous work.

 

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