What is Vanquish? Vanquish is a Gears of War and Devil May Cry (DmC) lovechild with a healthy helping of japanime exaggeration. Does that sound appealing? If so, then you'll like Vanquish. As far as the game goes, however, don't expect overwhelming value or playable sustainability. As such Vanquish (great name) is a mixed bag of contradictions. The game is possessed of solid graphics (for 2010-11) and often visually-interesting character/weapon/map design. The characters animate fluidly and dynamically. Weapon play is fantastic and the actual combat is by far the greatest element in Vanquish. It is, in fact, the combat and visceral animations that carry an otherwise mediocre (at best) game.

The game packs a variety of weapons and many feel really good and are justified by their varying effects. Melee is also competently executed and the game's primary slide movement adds a speed and impetus that few games can hope to match. In a way, this game feels like Mass Effect 2 on fast forward xx4. The game runs well and is well composed, rarely exhibiting slow downs and never crashing. However, the game is fraught with an avalanche of flaws that would bury any normal title. Platinum's impeccable work on combat keep the title from becoming a putrid mess.

The game lacks any multiplayer and, instead, encourages logevity by replaying chapters to find limited easter eggs and to best your previous performance. However, many maps are very samey both in appearance and in objective and while the combat feels great, replaying the same maps over and over can quickly feel staid, unless you are an avid gamer completionist. Therefore, one quick, 6 hour play through Vanquish will display 85% of what the game offers and value becomes a tough sell for the title. While the game runs well, it is not super optimized for PC, despite mouse and keyboard gunplay being mostly superior to a gamepad/controller. Twenty USD is a comparatively big price to demand for a game that is almost a decade old and that only fashions about 4-8 hours of play value for most gamers.

The music in the game is forgettable at best and obnoxiously laughable at worst, bad textures abound and the maps are extremely linear. The game has only marginally more exploration than something like House of the Dead. Even Gears of War had multiple routes you could occasionally take. Some weapons are significantly weaker/less useful than others and the AI as a whole is as dumb as a box of rocks. Don't expect intelligent response from enemies and look forward to increasing waves of often cheap mobs that shoot almost a dozen missiles/rockets/grenades/bullets/lasers et al at you at any given time. The game is rife with quicktime events which showcase some very cool cinematic events. However, those same cinematic events come at the expense of gameplay as players often don't have a choice in how to proceed during a fight.

Those same quicktime events will, of course, lead to several deaths. And those events, when coupled with some admittedly cheesy bosses that fire half a dozen wide-range AoE weapons at you at once, will require you to play certain battles over and over. And over. And over. Especially at harder difficulties. Again, if this is something that you like and you derive satisfaction and achievement from such difficult gameplay executions, you'll probably enjoy it. However, if you are like me, and just want to enjoy the game's best elements: the combat, without constantly replaying areas and you have better things to do both online and in real life, the game can become obnoxious quickly.

No critique of Vanquish can exist without a short detail of how attrociously juvenile and flat-out dumb the plot is. As an action game, Vanquish shouldn't be expected to ponder weighty concepts. The gameplay doesn't have to be remarkably deep either. However, characters in this game are an insult to "cardboard cutouts" and they act with volatile inconsistency, attempting to kill each other one minute and *literally* protecting each other the next. The hero protagonist is charged with saving a space colony from destruction and yet the game's end hardly gives you a feeling of success or accomplishment. The story is hackneyed and, created by a predominantly Japanese developer, is very anti-American in both its context and writing. There are probably only 6 truly unique characters all game and, therefore, Vanquish feels more like a carnival shooting gallery than a living, breathing world.

In short, after playing hundreds of games on a variety of platforms over the last few decades, I can clearly profess that Vanquish has perhaps one of the top five *worst* plots I've ever encountered. We're talking Transmorphers/Sharknado/Piranha II plotting bad. Like, laughably bad. Ridiculously bad. And yes...insultingly bad. The game lacks even a proper ending and instead gives you a chopped, deformed cliffhanger ending. When considering the music, the shallow gameplay mechanics and horrendous plot, it is almost easy to bash Vanquish. However, the combat, coupled with the visceral graphics keep pulling the player through the game and it's hard not to fall in love with a shooting gallery that feels this good. I purchased the game for 20 USD and I feel that it was a bit pricey for what I got.

If, however, you can find this title on sale for 10-15 USD, I recommend you pick it up. It's a solid game that does twitch gallery shooting as well as any other title out there.

Recommended.

7.5/10.

What is Vanquish? Vanquish is a Gears of War and Devil May Cry (DmC) lovechild with a healthy helping of japanime exaggeration. Does that sound appealing? If so, then you'll like Vanquish. As far as the game goes, however, don't expect overwhelming value or playable sustainability. As such Vanquish (great name) is a mixed bag of contradictions. The game is possessed of solid graphics (for 2010-11) and often visually-interesting character/weapon/map design. The characters animate fluidly and dynamically. Weapon play is fantastic and the actual combat is by far the greatest element in Vanquish. It is, in fact, the combat and visceral animations that carry an otherwise mediocre (at best) game. The game packs a variety of weapons and many feel really good and are justified by their varying effects. Melee is also competently executed and the game's primary slide movement adds a speed and impetus that few games can hope to match. In a way, this game feels like Mass Effect 2 on fast forward xx4. The game runs well and is well composed, rarely exhibiting slow downs and never crashing. However, the game is fraught with an avalanche of flaws that would bury any normal title. Platinum's impeccable work on combat keep the title from becoming a putrid mess. The game lacks any multiplayer and, instead, encourages logevity by replaying chapters to find limited easter eggs and to best your previous performance. However, many maps are very samey both in appearance and in objective and while the combat feels great, replaying the same maps over and over can quickly feel staid, unless you are an avid gamer completionist. Therefore, one quick, 6 hour play through Vanquish will display 85% of what the game offers and value becomes a tough sell for the title. While the game runs well, it is not super optimized for PC, despite mouse and keyboard gunplay being mostly superior to a gamepad/controller. Twenty USD is a comparatively big price to demand for a game that is almost a decade old and that only fashions about 4-8 hours of play value for most gamers. The music in the game is forgettable at best and obnoxiously laughable at worst, bad textures abound and the maps are extremely linear. The game has only marginally more exploration than something like House of the Dead. Even Gears of War had multiple routes you could occasionally take. Some weapons are significantly weaker/less useful than others and the AI as a whole is as dumb as a box of rocks. Don't expect intelligent response from enemies and look forward to increasing waves of often cheap mobs that shoot almost a dozen missiles/rockets/grenades/bullets/lasers et al at you at any given time. The game is rife with quicktime events which showcase some very cool cinematic events. However, those same cinematic events come at the expense of gameplay as players often don't have a choice in how to proceed during a fight. Those same quicktime events will, of course, lead to several deaths. And those events, when coupled with some admittedly cheesy bosses that fire half a dozen wide-range AoE weapons at you at once, will require you to play certain battles over and over. And over. And over. Especially at harder difficulties. Again, if this is something that you like and you derive satisfaction and achievement from such difficult gameplay executions, you'll probably enjoy it. However, if you are like me, and just want to enjoy the game's best elements: the combat, without constantly replaying areas and you have better things to do both online and in real life, the game can become obnoxious quickly. No critique of Vanquish can exist without a short detail of how attrociously juvenile and flat-out dumb the plot is. As an action game, Vanquish shouldn't be expected to ponder weighty concepts. The gameplay doesn't have to be remarkably deep either. However, characters in this game are an insult to "cardboard cutouts" and they act with volatile inconsistency, attempting to kill each other one minute and *literally* protecting each other the next. The hero protagonist is charged with saving a space colony from destruction and yet the game's end hardly gives you a feeling of success or accomplishment. The story is hackneyed and, created by a predominantly Japanese developer, is very anti-American in both its context and writing. There are probably only 6 truly unique characters all game and, therefore, Vanquish feels more like a carnival shooting gallery than a living, breathing world. In short, after playing hundreds of games on a variety of platforms over the last few decades, I can clearly profess that Vanquish has perhaps one of the top five *worst* plots I've ever encountered. We're talking Transmorphers/Sharknado/Piranha II plotting bad. Like, laughably bad. Ridiculously bad. And yes...insultingly bad. The game lacks even a proper ending and instead gives you a chopped, deformed cliffhanger ending. When considering the music, the shallow gameplay mechanics and horrendous plot, it is almost easy to bash Vanquish. However, the combat, coupled with the visceral graphics keep pulling the player through the game and it's hard not to fall in love with a shooting gallery that feels this good. I purchased the game for 20 USD and I feel that it was a bit pricey for what I got. If, however, you can find this title on sale for 10-15 USD, I recommend you pick it up. It's a solid game that does twitch gallery shooting as well as any other title out there. Recommended. 7.5/10.