| Author | Review |
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Baron Tanks
81,242
TA Score for this game: 1,576
Posted on 05 November 10 at 10:47, Edited on 05 November 10 at 20:18 |
This review has 47 positive votes and 7 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Vanquish
Notes:
This review was written after one playthrough of the game.
This is a lengthy review.
Introduction
Vanquish. According to the dictionary:
a) To defeat or conquer in battle; subjugate.
b) To defeat in a contest, conflict, or competition.
According to the game press, it is the newest game by renowned developer Shinji Mikami, of Resident Evil and Devil May Cry fame (and a whole long list of other games). The game is developed by Platinum Studios, who brought us the excellent Bayonetta earlier this year (or last year, if you imported it from Japan).
According to me, it is a shooter unlike any other (though it has its influences) which caters to the crowd that likes to shoot things, but is tired of the endless stream of (semi)realistic and sci-fi shooters that have been ever so persistent on this generation of consoles. And yes, I realize this game has a futuristic/sci-fi setting as well, but the gameplay makes it stand out so much that I consider it its own category.
Gameplay:
Vanquish is a challenging (more on that later) 3rd person shooter with a twist. Main protagonist Sam Gideon, a researcher for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States Government is outfitted with an Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS). He is sent to a space colony of earth, that has been used to fry San Francisco by the Russians. The suit allows Sam to boost, which is an awesome rocket accelerated knee-slide, drastically increasing his mobility. The second and equally (if not more) important feature of the suit is the ability to slowdown time. When slowing down time you have the opportunity to line up your headshots, blast incoming rockets or make a dash for safety. The slowdown time effect is also triggered when you are in trouble, allowing you to regroup. This is, providing your suit is not overheated. The overheat mechanism restricts the usage of both the boost and time slowing effect. It is up to you to manage the heat produced in the suit to combine both maximum combat efficiency and being able to flee if you are overwhelmed.
The gameplay also features an upgrade mechanic. From time to time, enemies will drop an upgrade cube which can be applied to any weapon in the game. The game features a range of weapons, going from well-known machine guns and shotguns, to the more exotic disk launcher and lock on laser and the inevitable rocket-launcher. Nothing truly new here, but all weapons server their purpose. An interesting feature is that you don’t pick up weapons, but that your weapon morphs into different forms. It makes no impact on the gameplay, but it sure as hell looks cool. But going back to the upgrades, these effect ammo capacities, power, speed and some other effects. You can either pickup an upgrade cube for the next upgrade stage, or if you have a weapon equipped at full ammo and pick it up from the battlefield, you’ll unlock a part upgrade. Grab 3 (or 4, don’t remember exactly) of these and you will unlock the next stage of your weapon.
The suit and weapons are used to destroy the variety of enemies (robots) in the game. Fight your way through enough enemies and stages (including some escort and high speed ride levels, to change the pace) and you will inevitably run into a boss fight. These are true to Japanese gaming tradition and you will be confronted with screen filling, multiple stage badasses that will do everything to destroy you. Including instant death attacks! You’ve got to love it, but yeh, there is an undeniable satisfaction in besting these giants.
As I mentioned earlier, Vanquish tends to be challenging. The learning curve is quite steep, especially in the beginning. You have to grow into the style of playing, to become a real menace on the battlefield, all the while under fierce opposition of a diverse range of enemies. I’d say I died enough times on my first playthrough on normal and I can tell you that, while your skills significantly improve, hard is on another level and requires perhaps a more careful play style. At least it will have you die a lot. If however you like to piss in the face of evil and my previous comments are only for the weak-hearted, be glad to know that after Hard there is a (unlocked after completing the game) God-Hard mode to really test your skill.
In addition to the main storyline, there is also a number (5, with a 6th after completing those first 5) of challenge rooms, each of which are unlocked after completing one of the storyline acts. These rooms feature a Horde/Firefight like setup, where you fight waves of different enemies before you complete the challenge, all the while racking up your score. On a note, score is also featured in the main game. You get points for killing each enemy, with time bonuses and death penalties at the end of the level.
Graphics
This section is going to be short. Vanquish looks awesome. Ignoring the sections with flora, which don’t look that great, you will be served with a great looking world full of high-tech environments. To me personally, the world reminded me a bit of Cocoon from FF-XIII earlier this year. In addition, the suit Sam wears looks awesome too, including all the effects of boosting and what not. Animations are sleak too, as you jump over fences, kick enemies in the face and slowdown time while boosting along the ground creating explosions everywhere. Vanquish doesn’t fall short in the graphics department.
Sound
While the music (mostly technobeats) serves it purpose, it is the dialogue that really stands out in this game. Whether this is a positive or negative note, is all up to yourself. The lines (as well as the story) are full of clichés, corny one-liners and the likes. I found it entertaining enough to last me to the end of the game, but I doubt I’ll be watching the cut-scenes again on my second playthrough. Really, it’s a matter of personal preference if you can handle this. Also, the game features a number of language tracks, so if you want to hear Sam babble in Italian, French or German, your needs are met.
Achievements
Vanquish features a number of different achievements. There are the regular progress and beat game on this and that difficulty achievements. Noteworthy is that this time around there is no achievement for beating the game at the hardest difficulty, just an achievement to beat it on Hard, the second hardest mode. Next to this you will unlock a bunch of achievements if you meet certain criteria in mission specific events. Like protecting your escort, defeating bosses in certain ways, think along those lines. Most achievements are relatively easy to get and you can load up stages of missions to do those specific ones. One note here, if you do this your save is overwritten, so if you’re on a playthrough of the whole game, you will lose the upgrades to your weapons, so be weary if you do this. The only achievement that appears to be a real challenge is beating the various challenge rooms. So good luck with those.
Value (amount of gameplay, replayability)
Vanquish is, in principal, a short game. It will take you around 8 hours to get to the end of the storyline. Next to this, all you will find are the challenge rooms to entertain yourself with. The replayability of this game depends on how much you like to challenge yourself. The scoring system allows you to aim for a good spot up the leaderboards, if that is your sort of thing. Just know that the main game is not all that long and there are no multiplayer modes.
Conclusion
Vanquish is a hectic and spectacular 3rd person shooter. It tries (and succeeds) to do things differently than the competition. The distinct style and gameplay may prove to be not what you are looking for if your regular cup of tea is the CoD’s and Halo’s of this era. If that is so, I can only advise you to pick up the demo. Have a feel of what Vanquish offers. And don’t be scared, I sucked at the demo, wasn’t going to get this game, but picked it up anyway. And I had a blast. As long as you can cope with the style of this game, by the time you master it, you will find that you pull of the craziest moves in the greatest of style. And that is where Vanquish true reward is, kicking ass in style.
Thanks for reading and leave your feedback in the comments.
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redlink13
85,107 
TA Score for this game: 1,576
Posted on 28 January 11 at 16:22, Edited on 02 April 11 at 11:24 |
This review has 10 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Firstly, Vanquish is based in the near future and it is a fight between Russia and America, it begins by showing the captured solar station blowing up a city and as usual, America attacks and you, an agent of DARPA, has to help regain control of the colony/solar station, you play as Sam Gideon, a man inside a super-suit.
Gameplay
As for the gameplay, it is extremely fun, as you are given a sort of jet pack to slide across the floor quite fast, which is a lot more fun when you shoot because you do some pretty stylish moves, the game also features an AR mode, which is basically slow-mo, and it is amazing how they fit it into the game, it can act as a way to cover when you're almost dead, or you can manually trigger it yourself, and is pretty cool, when in AR mode, you can shoot missles and dodge bullets while destroying hordes of robots in a small time frame, the time it took me to finish the game was about 5 hours, but the replayability is good as there are achievements for hard and collectables.
I rate this as;
9/10
Because this game will last some time and is amazingly fun, but it's downside is being a short game
Multiplayer
No Multiplayer.
Graphics
The graphics in this game are actually amazing, and it's going to be hard for other developers to compete with such graphics as this.
It really gives the same it's own unique feel and identity, there isn't much green grass and blue skies but the whole 3D thing is entirely awesome, as part of the game requires you to run around a giant cylinder and is really good.
I rate the Graphics as;
10/10
I honestly think that these graphics are top-notch and really gives the game it's own identity
Storyline
The story for this game is good but isn't as intense as newer releases such as Call of Duty : Black Ops, but does have it own edge as the conspiracy unravels
I rate the storyline;
8/10
For being amazingly interesting, but also expected throughout the game.
Overall
Gameplay - 9/10
Graphics - 10/10
Storyline - 8/10
9/10
TA - 4.5/5
I think that most people, if they played this game, would love it and wouldn't regret where their money went, this is a splendid game and deserves 9/10 |
Yanbbrox
192,481
TA Score for this game: 1,576
Posted on 14 January 11 at 22:42 |
This review has 11 positive votes and 7 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
1ST review so bare with me, long time listener first time caller ;-)
So a new 1st person cover shooter from Japan with a totally different twist on the whole concept.
Think Gears of war with an ability to boost to the other side of the map if things start to go wrong, cover is great boosting away is the key.
It's here where things start to get a messy, you never really know where or what you are supposed to do be doing, a bit harsh I know because the map will guide you somewhat, but there is so much and so many different ways to get from A to B. In the very first mission your guided to get behind the enemy and take them out why they are concentrating on the allies in front. This remains the main front of the game, but this is where it gets fun, your constant need to move keeps you totally on your toes. This is not a cover shooter as such, movement is the key. Move from cover to cover spend at least 10 seconds there and then slow mo(AR mode).
AR mode is nothing new to this genre but the way it is done here makes for much a fun to be had. Basically , it's slow mo that can be activated from the AR suit when ever you need it, use it wisely though when your health is low it'll activate it's self and if your not careful then your really toast epically on the harder difficulties, it takes so much time to re-charge when you really need it.
Achievement wise, play through on hard, which is challenging and try to get the most out of it on play through one. It took me a good few days to get through it, there are some parts that are really hard like the last boss fight and a few bits along the way, but that is for a strategy guide and not a review. Mopping up the rest is easy.
I've not tried the challenges yet which is supposed to break controllers for the final 50g.
All in all a lot of people will miss out on this great game because they don't see it, it's well worth a play and a great game, so many good games go under the radar in the age of the xbox and the triplle A titles that come out all the time these days, people might miss this.
Well worth the play
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CRAZE KILER
447,851
TA Score for this game: 963
Posted on 27 October 11 at 02:22 |
This review has 3 positive votes and 6 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Have you ever wanted to fight in a war against some hostile robots while being in a robotic suit. Well if that is something that your interested in than this is the right review for you to read.
To start off I am going to let you know the story, though not the greatest, it is enough to keep you interested. The levels are short but there are roughly 40 chapters to complete. The campaign is going to last about 4-6 hours depending upon skill level.
The gameplay is where Vanquish really shines. To a point it is your typical run and gun game but it is a bit more stylish. The melee attacks look awesome and they change based upon which weapon you use. The suit you are wearing will overheat, which makes you more vulenarable to damage. After one melee attack you are overheating so you should look for some cover. The awesome thing about this game is you have AR and a sliding mechanism to help you dodge attacks. AR is basically slo mo but it is triggered when you are near death or you can trigger it manually but it will overheat you suit. The sliding mechanism is awesome, you have a limit to how much you can slide but it regenerates quickly. One other feature I find interesting when your behind cover you can smoke a cigerette to distract the robots.
There are also many guns to choose from. There is the standard two machine gun options, shotfun, rocket launcher and frag grenades. There are a couple futuristic guns available, lock on rockets (weak in my opinion), LFE gun (mass ball with little ammo), EM grenade (electronicly freezes enemies). I tend to only use the trusty machine gun becuase I feel it is the most effective, even against bosses. As you progress through the game if you revive teammates or occasionally when you kill enemies they will drop weapon upgrades. In my experience these upgrades drop at random.
Since I am on the topic of bosses, they really are not to difficult. As soon as you seem them you'll see their weak spot and in most cases they are easy to exploit. In reference to regular enemies there is a small variety but as you progess you will see the occasional new enemy. The coolest of is a robot that creates a metal wall that acts as additional cover for you enemies.
The graphics are good, they are not on par with Gears of War or Halo but they are in the second teir of gaming graphics that are available today. I really like the looks of the different bosses, they generally look larger than life which is just awesome.
There is one major mistake made by Sega when they made this game, there is no multiplayer function. This game would had been awesome playing co-op, even if it was on the same console. The addition of some vs. mode would had been awesome too, I personally would have loved playing as a robot in some team deathmatch.
No review is complete without a talk about the achievements. I havent played on hard but with the one exception they are not to hard. You have the general list complete each chapter but the list is diverse. There are many achievements related toward completing specific tasks during levels, which potentially adds some more replayability to the game.
At the end of the day if you play games solely for campaign than this game is a must have but if you require multiplayer this game is not for you. Vanquish is a stylish game and at this time is a steal. You cna get it on Gamefly for under $10, which is an ideal price.
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