3 Sep, 2010
Today marks the release of the new Story trailer for Vanquish, a chaotic 3rd person shooter. It also marks the release of the demo. So I thought I’d give it a go, and blimey was I in for a shock, a good shock at that. I had seen bits and bobs of the game floating around the web and gaming magazines, so I didn’t know really what to expect other than a cover based 3rd person shooter. None the less I fired up the demo and got myself straight into the action.
If you decide to be a mug (like yours truly) and ignore the training option in the menu then you’re going to need a few minutes to work out the basics. Luckily the controls aren’t too hard to grasp and you’re blowing people heads off in no time. As far as I could tell there wasn’t actually a jump button, which is slightly off putting. The A button instead is used to roll about the place like some sort of shiny hyper hedgehog. You start off with three weapons, a heavy machine gun, an assault rifle, and a shotgun. Pretty standard but all vital for eliminating any potential threats you can see. Anyhow, you get plunged into some fire fight with some red dudes who want you dead for one reason or another. Now this acts as a lovely opportunity to test out all the controls and possibly some of the hand to hand combat. After you advance a certain distance and kill a good few enemies you are allowed to advance upstairs.
By This point you have a pretty firm grasp of all the controls you need, so it’s at this point they decide to lob some hulking great robot at you, just to see if you can handle it. If you thought things up to this point were chaotic then you’re in for something else here. This robot comes out all guns blazing, firing rockets everywhere and firing his laser. Naturally your job is to take this bastard down. Hopping between cover here is essential, and luckily the quick paced gameplay allows you to do this seamlessly. Eventually you are able to take it down, which is when it switches up into its second form like some sort of reject Transformer. Now you’re left fighting some humanoid laser firing thing, and upon defeat the demo is over. You can now breathe again. Vanquish does mayhem well, and that’s what makes the game fun. If you’re lucky enough to take cover and heal up (comically done by the character having a smoke), then be prepared to plunge yourself back into some acrobatic shooting action. The game has a feature called AR mode. This mode causes time to slow once you have taken a critical amount of damage, thus allowing you to take out any main threats or move into cover swiftly. The mode can also be triggered by aiming during boosting or dodging. As you can imagine it is incredibly useful in times of panic and a lovely method of death-dodging.
Graphically the game is wonderful. The main protagonist’s armour is just a joy to look at. The slick mechanical design of everything allows this game to define itself as more than a generic space cowboy shooter. Just taking the time to move the camera about and take a small gander at everything is well worth it.
It’s hard to tell how people will react to Vanquish. Personally I found it to be a very good game. PlatinumGames has obviously put a lot of effort into making the game look good and play well. Hopefully people will recognise this and give the game a go. At least download the demo. * Insert pun here*
I also played the demo, and found it a fun challenge, but I did find the whole thing extremely hectic and often found myself standing there in a confused daze. I wanted to keep playing, which I think is the best sign there is!