Vanquish was one of the few titles that I was really curious about after its E3 announcement. The trailers released were all really fast paced and chaotic and I am so glad the gameplay justifies those traits.

This is a sci-fi third-person shooter with cover mechanics. Yes, we have already seen tons of games categorized under these same genres. However, the way each of them were portrayed and also the little changes made to the game mechanics really help set them apart. This is why when I was playing Vanquish, it is still fun and somewhat refreshing.

You control a character named Sam who is in some sort of sick battlesuit. The demo allows you to play Act 1, Mission 3 of the game. With just this small mission, I was given a pretty good idea as to what this game has to offer. It is also very enjoyable to find out the different ways I can use the battlesuit to take out enemies. Even after my third or fourth playthrough, I was still finding out new controls and tactics. There was once when I was in cover, and I accidentally pressed L2. That made Sam pop open his helmet and smoke a cigarette! Afterwards he just threw it away. Apparently that was suppose to catch the enemy’s attention.

I think I will be playing this demo for a few more times before deleting it.

Explosive, Fast-paced Action

Vanquish’s presentation is great. When an area opens up and enemy starts pouring in, the action pretty much doesn’t stop. You will be constantly running to cover, dodging bullets and missiles, boosting, shooting enemies and so on. While you are doing all these things sparks will fly, different types of explosions will be happening everywhere, smoke trails from missiles in all directions, and bullets whizzing across the area. The controls are sharp so that really helped me to cope with everything that is happening around me.

With so many things going on, I always forgot that there is a slow-mo function which some of you recognize it as bullet time. So far I have only found 3 ways to activate it: automatically triggered when you are in a near-death situation, dodge in any direction and hold the aim button, fire your weapon while boosting. As I am frequently in near-death situations, it is only through this that I remember I can slow down time. However whenever I do remember, it became quite an advantage and a real game changer.

Impressive Visuals, But Blur Ruins It

When I first launched the game, I could not help but just stare and admire at the amount of detail being pumped into the battlesuit. That piece of gear really triggered my mecha fetish. When I could finally take my eyes off it, I started looking at the environment and it is very detailed as well. All this is great, however there is one major letdown…

The entire display has some sort of blurred look. I can understand that if I am moving around there is motion blur, but this blurry look applied even as I am standing still. It feels as if the game is in between 720p and 540p. I am not sure if this is intentional, but it is definitely ruining the overall visuals. It may not be a big deal and that maybe I am just picky, but I just felt that the blur does not justify all the effort they have put into the details. I really wish to see that battlesuit looking crisp and sharp.

Quick-time Event

There are quick-time events in this game. However, they will probably only appear during boss fights. In the demo, there is a quick-time event for the boss enemy’s second form. For every playthrough, it only involves rotating the left analog stick in the correct direction. So I guess it is safe to say that each boss enemy has its own set of buttons to press, which is not very challenging.

I have also noticed that the quick-time event starts and ends at the exact same places no matter where you are at. So if it starts on top of a hill, and you went down because that place is being overrun, you will be magically teleported back. Due to the level design of the demo mission, this is not much of an issue. However the same thing may not apply for every mission in the retail version.

Brainless Enemies Hit Hard

Vanquish will require you to rely heavily on cover. I find myself desperately finding some in a number of situations because these enemies hit hard. I played on the “normal” difficulty and just getting shot a few times could be fatal.

However you will be happy to know that the enemies are not very smart sometimes. Most of them will find cover but there will be a few just standing around in the open. So it is best that you get rid of these enemies first before going for the rest. I know this is bad AI, but they really helped me survive the mission.

Multi – Language

I think our readers should be happy about this one. Vanquish is multi-language! I didn’t count how many are there to choose from, but one of them is Japanese! Yes you can totally switch the audio language to Japanese and then select English subtitles. You can even change the interface to Japanese. The downside is that this game is lip synced to the English voices.

The original English voices are so-so. The guys like to use those rough and tough voices that you can find in several English dubbed anime. Also, be prepared to hear some “badass” lines as I believe I have heard around one or two in the demo. Whether Platinum Games can fit all these languages into the retail version, we will never know until the release. But for now, lets hope the Japanese option remains.

Final Thoughts

Vanquish is really a great load of fun to play. I was entertained from start to finish. However, seeing that in the retail version there will be no multiplayer modes or probably any form of customization, it will be a full-on singleplayer game. It is one of those games that will have a high chance of being forgotten after a few months or so. Regardless, I am still looking forward to playing it.