OSCAR COOPER
Gears of War, good old Clifford Blezinksi, god bless Cliffy B, he knows what he wants and he gets it. I can't slate the guy, he's done a lot for us gamers over the past decade, but sometimes an underdog deserves to win and this is one of those occasions. Back in 2010 the gaming landscape was bubbling with third person shooters, big budget titles were straddling the playing field with huge market dominance. Platinum Games however was still making a name for itself and if you aren't aware this company houses some of the best Japanese creative talent in the industry, the East verses West battle of the third person shooter seemed to swing firmly in one direction. But then we saw Vanquish on the horizon, it looked too big for its boots, an ambitious futuristic environment, a new IP, masses of competition to contend with, it didn't seem likely this game would make an impact. Writing this article a few years later its apparent that it didn't really make a huge dent but the people who played it know that it was a David among Goliaths.
"The East verses West battle of the third person shooter seemed to swing firmly in one direction. But then we saw Vanquish on the horizon."
First off, it bares a lot of similarities to its sister title Bayonetta, its third person, it has a slow down mechanic and the playing field is one hectic place to be. That is what I want to touch on in this article, how unbelievably cool this game makes you feel while playing. When the demo dropped in I must have gone through it 10-15 times, the colours, the robot enemies and weapons all felt so new. It borrows a lot from modern manga films, with the hero capable of outlandish feats of athleticism which you never tire of executing, the guns are solid and range from the traditional to the dam right strange and thats not even mentioning the story line, which in true Japanese fashion could baffle even Steven Hawking. So why am I so keen on this game, well it works like this, there is no real power up system apart from the weapon upgrade system, your moves and skills stay the same throughout. You may think that sounds a bit limited but is a very effective way of getting you to push the characters powers to the limit and explore different variations and approaches to a situation. And holly crap do you find yourself in some situations. The AI swarms and flanks you constantly, the boss's tower over you Shadow of the Colossus style, but none of this is daunting because you're the baddest, hardest, future solider ever to walk the earth, a friggin one man army no less and it feels so natural.
"The AI swarms and flanks you constantly, the boss's tower over you Shadow of the Colossus style, but none of this is daunting because you're the baddest, hardest, future solider ever to walk the earth, a friggin one man army no less and it feels so natural."
Your main ability is to jet slide on your knee's al la kid at the disco but at rocket speed, this allows you to make it to cover quickly in a fire storm, its a weird sounding mechanic but feels very fluid and natural. Your second power is a slow down ability, its not limitless and also requires a precursor move i.e a jump or somersault. Its in this mode that the game ramps up its intensity as every bullet and projectile moves at a snails pace allowing you to shoot incoming missiles straight out of the air or head shot an unfriendly that's not even began to face you. Its very empowering and really looks spectacular, the detail in the machines and robots as your bullets bounce and penetrate their hard shells is like poetry. This may sound fickle, but a shotgun for me can make or break a good shooter, sometimes they just don't feel right or seem to have an impact on whatever is on the receiving end. The Vanquish shogun is stunning in effect, launching all manner of foes backwards, I could never get enough of firing it. The weapon swap animation also had me smiling like a toothless simpleton, it morphs into the weapon selected with an awesome Transformer-esc animation. Dead Space, hang your head in shame.
To go back to my original point, I would much rather play a couple of hours of Vanquish than go anywhere near Gears of War 2 or 3, don't get me wrong, the Gears series is a solid offering but the impact physics with the bullets on the locusts and general game play mechanics just don't excite me enough. You seem to get shoved into cover and pushed down the same one way corridors that don't massively vary and the AI was a bit uneven, I loved the multiplayer on Gears 1, couldn't fault it, but that was where it ended. If you are under pressure in Vanquish you can leap over the cover in graceful John Woo style slow motion, pin point the heads of all that are firing on you and execute the lot, before even hitting the ground, it doesn't get much better than that.
Vanquish offers huge arena play areas and the AI works on a ranked basis similar to Halo, where they hang back or charge forward depending on their unit function. It also has a horde-esc challenge mode pitting you against an entire levels enemies and mini bosses with online leaderboards.
I don't mind not having an online mulitplayer mode when so much attention is put into the single player experience, developers often fall in to this trap, Bioshock 2 didn't need a multiplayer mode, its demographic wasn't after that, they just wanted more of the before. Closing comments are as follows, its the best cover based third person shooter I have ever played (I shit you not), Platinum games you have done it again, the Japanese can go toe to toe with the west on shooters and win. I doubt well will see a sequel, Platinum are very busy nowadays and with this being a sleeper hit it may not get the attention, me and Stephen Hawking will just have to wait and see.
Yours Sincerely Oscar