Vanquish - The Game Journal Review

Title: Vanquish

Developed By: Platinum Games

Published By: SEGA

Killing with style. This is what my time with Vanquish was all about. By taking the third person, cover-based shooter formula and spinning it on its ear with the addition of the boost mechanic, Vanquish has crafted a unique niche for itself in what has become one of the most over-saturated genres of this console generation.

Vanquish places you in the role of Sam Gideon, a gravely-voiced DARPA researcher who is trying to prevent a splinter group of Russian terrorists from destroying New York city with an energy wave. More significantly, the plot places you in Sam's  Augmented Reaction Suit or ARS.

The ARS affords Sam some special abilities that his his fellow soldiers do not have, such as the ability to boost through around a level at a high speed and regenerate health. The suit can also slow down time (AR Mode), allowing Sam the opportunity to dodge incoming bullets (and rockets) as well as give him easier opportunities to pick off his enemies. As a safety measure, when Sam's health is at a near critical level, the AR Mode will kick in, helping you to escape the situation and find cover. The suit is not perfect, though, as using the aforementioned abilities causes the suit's temperature to rise. If you push things too far, and at times you will, the suit will overheat locking out the boosting and AR modes while it cools. Performing a melee attack will also instantly make your suit overheat, though with most enemies, the damage you inflict with a melee attack can be worth the cost of overheating.

You are also outfitted with a weapons system called BLADE. This system allows you to scan weapons and the BLADE will transform into them. The BLADE can store three weapons in its memory, and weapons will upgrade over time allowing you to carry more rounds or dole out more damage. The upgrades only happen for the gun-type you currently hold, so I found myself switching guns often in order to balance my upgrades.

So now that I've explained the context, how does the game play? Thankfully, it plays exceptionally well. The boost mechanic combined with the cover based shooting and, for the most part, large battle scenarios really allow you to get creative in how you deal with your foes. Want to post up against a wall and pick off your opponents? You can do that. Want to boost past a group of enemies and take them from behind? You can do that. I found myself experimenting often in my tactics. I imagine if you looked at video of two people playing the same level, you'd see a lot of differences in the way they went about it. Someone might fire a couple of rounds into an enemy then boost into them while performing a melee attack. Someone might boost right into the middle of a group of foes, trigger AR mode, slowing down time while they lay waste to those around them. 

Because of its potential for the to overheat, I found myself often pushing the suit right up to its limit. It's really well balanced in making you feel elite but not overpowered. The aiming is spot on, allowing you to quickly train your crosshairs on your target, with enough kickback to keep you from feeling like your weapon has no weight.

You'll go up against some very large enemies. In a lot of games, I feel like the larger the enemy is, the less control I have over how to defeat them. Vanquish has my favorite large enemy encounters of the generation. Sure, it pretty much boils down to "shoot the glowing weak points," but you have more control over the order in which you do so and with the versatility in the combat mechanics, you have more freedom in how you tackle this huge enemy types than in other titles. When you do finally best these Goliaths, you are often rewarded with a wonderful explosion which launches countless particles effects into the air. It's a wonderfully satisfying end to an intense battle.

I never found myself tiring of the game, as its pace is so fast that you rarely have time to pause. While there are a number of cutscenes, up until the end of the game, they're often kept short enough to not interrupt the flow.

Vanquish is a game that's made to be replayed. You're scored after each chapter in a number of categories, with bonuses being given for getting to the end quickly and not losing any lives. The scoring system, which is incorporated into leaderboards, lends itself to competition with people on your Friends List. This adds even more incentive to play the game, and be as creative as possible in combat. After you complete the game for the first time, you'll unlock the God Hard difficulty setting which alters enemy placement, giving even more variety to your future playthroughs. There are also some Challenge Levels separate from the main single player campaign.

Vanquish is a fantastic game. Giving the player so much agency in the midst of elaborate battle scenarios while promoting creativity through its mechanics and scoring system, Vanquish manages to be a unique experience among a glut of cover-based third person shooters. Vanquish puts you in the theater of war, how well you perform depends on your ability to improvisational skills. I don't often finish a game and want to replay it, but with Vanquish, after the credits rolled, I immediately wanted to jump back in. That's about as high a compliment as I can give any game.