PixlBit

Since the inception of Platinum Games, they have done a great job of taking a specific genre and making it completely over-the-top and intense. MadWorld, Bayonetta, and now Vanquish, are all great examples of this. In the case of Vanquish, players are presented with what can best be described as a third-person shooter on steroids. The action is fast-paced and intense, the control fluid, and the strategy layered and complex. What's most impressive about Vanquish is that it manages to merge the concepts of a modern third-person shooter with the classic appeal of an arcade title.

See, Vanquish is much more than your standard third-person shooter, even if you completely discount the various gameplay mechanisms that differentiate it. The game is split into chapters and acts, and in each one, players are graded on their performance via points gathered in their playthrough. Fancier, faster play with minimal deaths will result in the highest possible score.

Inevitably, players will not be able to score very high on their first playthrough. This is due to a general unfamiliarity of the levels and the proper techniques required to quickly complete them, as well as the overall learning curve of the game's many controls and abilities.

At face value, it's easy to consider Vanquish a slight variation on the standard third-person shooter, ala Gears of War. But when digging into the actual gameplay, what's found is quite a bit deeper than that. Vanquish provides players with a few unique abilities that relate directly to the suit their main character dons. This suit gives Sam Gideon, our story's protagonist, the ability to slide around at will at high speeds and quickly take cover behind nearly anything in the level. Additionally, players can easily activate a slow motion, bullet-time like mode that makes it easier to both attack enemies and avoid fire.

Primarily, the use of these two abilities allows players to quickly navigate around the level in order to get great vantage points on the many enemies in a given area so they can more effectively clear the room. Combine this with slow motion, and players can zip into the middle of the fray, kick slow motion into effect and take out enemies in the most daring of ways. In short, this makes you the player feel like a complete bad ass, and it earns you a crap ton of points because it's typically extremely effective. That's not to say that you will always be successful. Quite often your daring antics will result in death, which knocks down your score for a given area considerably.

With this risk-reward equation in place, players must always take risks to earn the best score possible in a level, which is the true purpose of the game. While players can trudge through its story with the intention of simply completing it, the true enjoyment here will be besting your last time and scoring higher in the end for playing more skillfully.

That's not to say that you can't have fun just playing the game to play it. Its component parts are also quite good. Aside from the particular moves that make the game unique and extremely smooth to play, the overall on-screen action is unbelievably frantic. Enemies are all over the place, and because they are robots, picking them out from the mostly metal constructed background can be a challenge. Players are also accompanied by a team which must be watched after and occasionally saved when they are knocked down. This helps build onto the risk-reward nature of the game, as saving a teammate nets more than points. Here, players will receive ammo for their weapons, which is undoubtedly helpful in the heat of a firefight.

Vanquish also sports a pseudo-RPG system, wherein players can pick up upgrades to their weapons that will increase weapon stats on-the-fly. As with most other elements of Vanquish, this only deepens the experience as players must always quickly choose what weapon to apply the upgrade to from their current inventory of three weapons. Because picking this upgrade up doesn't pause the game, players need to apply it in the middle of the battle when they have the opportunity. Because of this, some upgrades are left as they are not worth the inevitable risk of retrieving and applying them.

Like many Japanese developed titles, Vanquish features some great boss fights that require quite a bit of strategy and endurance. Mastery is by no means easy in these encounters, and unquestionably, they will take a couple of tries to successfully complete. As a culmination to an act, they work quite well and offer a diversion from the typical action the levels provide.

Rounding out the game are the occasional mountable weapons and vehicles. While they aren't a major part of the game, they are fun to use when they become available and they are typically helpful in clearing out a particularly tough room.

The graphical offering found in Vanquish is also pretty impressive as all locations typically feature a number of enemies and grand sprawling landscapes to appreciate while zipping around at lightning speed. Unfortunately, the game's story and dialog doesn't quite match up to the graphics and gameplay, but it's at least serviceable and performs its necessary function of progressing the game.

The only complaint that can be levered against Vanquish is its length and core structure. Beginning to end, Vanquish is at most eight hours long. If you don't really enjoy the arcade approach of scoring the most points possible by mastering the gameplay, you will more than likely feel shortchanged by the game.

As far as third-person shooters are concerned, Vanquish is a phenomenal offering. Its old school approach won't likely be appreciated by most modern gamers, as games today are more about simply completing the quest and partaking in multiplayer thereafter. Without a multiplayer mode, Vanquish is all about replay to earn its value, and if you don't appreciate that, you might find yourself disappointed by the relatively short experience. Unquestionably though, the game's unique mechanics will be appreciated by all as they make for the most fluid and fast-paced shooter ever.