Vanquish

“An Epic Third Person Sci-Fi Action Shooter from the Critically Acclaimed Game Director Shinji Mikami”

Vanquish

Developer: Platinum Games, Inc. | Platform: Xbox 360 | Released: October 19, 2010 | Publisher: Sega | Originally Played From: July 10, 2012 – September 14, 2012

Unlocked One Day at DARPA

Sam Gideon seems pretty gruff for a scientist. He smokes like he’s jealous of Solid Snake.

Sam is a member of DARPA in the far-off future. The Russian government has been overthrown in a coup, and the same group responsible, The Order of the Russian Star, hijacked a North American space station specializing in the creation of solar energy to declare war on the US. All that stands between Sam and the Order is his Augmented Reaction Suit. Is Sam a bad enough dude to save the US? Probably; he is voiced by Gideon Emery, after all.

Act 01: The Landing

Unlocked “Helloooo, Nurse”

The graphics look really nice, and the gameplay seems cool, if a bit overwhelming to start.

Cool moment: A soldier next to me gets hit, and some of his blood winds up on the screen. I’m strangely moved by that.

“I think I’m gonna need a bigger gun.” OK, Cable!

“Monococque?”

Unlocked Home Run

This game is intense.

Those Pangloss Statues are weird.

Four golden Pangloss Statues were hidden in each chapter. You get an achievement for shooting them all. And… that’s it? Darn.

Aw, I missed an upgrade.

“Not your turret bitch, Burns.”

These robots remind me of the Geth from Mass Effect.

Both Vanquish and Bayonetta let you slow time while dodging. It’s a pretty cool feature.

Burns: “Whiskey-a-go-go, baby.”

All of the guns have different reticules.

Unlocked Gun Runner

This game gives your instincts plenty of opportunities to take over.

Unlocked Going in for the Kill

This game is so intense, is leaves me out of breath.

Unlocked Trick Shot

So we went to such lengths escorting that armored vehicle, and it up and gets destroyed anyway by a buzzsaw-wielding mech?

Lieutenant Colonel Burns is eminently quotable already.

Woah, one of the cheevos is called Space Normandy, and that’s what the Marines’ infiltration of the colony reminded me of. Another cheevo references Splinter Cell.

Burns seems to enjoy a stiff drink.

Unlocked Home Run God

I keep losing upgrades in the environments somehow.

Unlocked Space Normandy and Hole-in-One

Burns: “I want you to shoot if you see so much as a fucking Roomba!”

Act 02

Unlocked That Ended Up Working Quite Nicely

Flying on the enemy transport is so cool!

Unlocked 40 Yard Dash

The way that Sam breaks out of a dash makes him look like a crazy-legged breakdancer.

Unlocked “Romanov This!”, Piece by Piece, and Knight in Shining White Armor

I hate failing to rescue guys in time. You get extra ammo if you do.

When you slow time down, you’ll be amazed at just how many things are flying around you at any time.

I discovered by accident that you can look around on the title screen with the right analog stick.

The game normally shows three grenades no matter how many you have at the time, but if you have less than three, it actually shows two or one.

The Disk Launcher is a gimmicky weapon, but it’s melee function acts like a chainsaw.

Unlocked Storming Grand Hill

Zaitsev has creepy holes in his head.

I think that the sniper rifle is my most upgraded weapon.

Kinda nice to see the shopping district of the colony, although it’s already been wrecked.

Unlocked Fisher is the Other Sam. Damn right.

It’s really not a good idea to expose your back in this game.

In Act 03, you get to fight alongside an “S. Mikami”.

Unlocked Auld Lang Syne

I hate it when other soldiers bump you out of cover! I was here first.

This Kreon thing, which is somehow “100 feet tall”, is annoying. When it blasts its leg burners, it overloads the ARS, limiting its capabilities.

That Unknown thing was a pain to fight with its cheap, rush-and-grab instant death attack.

Unlocked King of the Hill

I killed a robot with its own missile. Interpret that how you wish…

If you destroy one of those big robots’ heads, it goes berserk.

Now that I’ve gone in alone to destroy the Kreon, I miss those Marines.

Sadly, you can lose upgrades in this game. Just another reason not to get killed.

I found robots. Idly grooving to. Music on a random, huge boombox. What.

The Russians built robots capable of appreciating music, and they send them to war?

Unknowns are easier to destroy with rocket launchers.

Unlocked “I Don’t Speak Kreon!” and Civil Disobedience

Some of these robots jump amazingly high…

Pangloss Statues make funny noises when you shoot them.

Argus robots suck to fight against. Weren’t three of them enough already?

Some of the enemies and allies zone out pretty hard sometimes.

Some Pangloss Statues aren’t very well hidden.

Act 04

Unlocked Two Birds with One Stone

Sam: “Yeah, any way to avoid said kingdom come scenario?”

Grassi: “Praying.”

Burns: “Thank god I’m an atheist. Let’s go!”

That Crystal Viper thing reminds me of Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen.

The LFE Gun seemed pretty worthless at first, but it’s pretty effective against Dr. Manhattan Seth from Street Fighter the Crystal Viper. Redeemed!

What is it with these military games and tragedies involving microwave beams?

Amazingly enough, Sam still tries to get Burns out after he betrays him in accordance with his orders. At least he died with his dignity as a soldier intact.

This Zaitsev guy does kinda seem like a Metal Gear villain…

Hear that, Raiden?

Unlocked End to Major Combat Operations

So the President blows her brains out to avoid getting tried for high treason and the Russian baddies got away. Great. A cliffhanger.

Unlocked Survivor

Final Results

Space Score: 9430

Total Score: 216,280

Time: 7:55:44

Cover Usage: 37.47%

Distance Traveled: 44,332

Munitions Fired: 32,842

Deaths: 50

Confirmed Friendlies KIA: 713

Wounded Friendlies Assisted: 38

Confirmed Kills: 942

Pangloss Statues Destroyed: 13

Developers Destroyed: 74

I vanquished Vanquish.

Final Thoughts

Vanquish is a decently fun, but kind of forgettable. A lot of criticism goes towards the plot for being clichéd, and playing all of those clichés straight. This pits Vanquish against similar Platinum efforts like Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which have more unique quirks to their gameplay, and Bayonetta succeeds in having a far more memorable protagonist, while MGR:R boasts its relation to Metal Gear Solid and its embrace of an utterly wild and animesque plot. Bayonetta and Raiden are characters that you could hang a weak plot on, not Sam Gideon. Heck, Burns was the only quotable character in the whole game.

It’s interesting to compare and contrast Vanquish with a later Mikami game: The Evil Within, which also weathered criticism of its storyline. But those criticisms were more for how the plot didn’t make much sense. If anything, Vanquish’s plot issue stands opposite from TEW: it’s too straightforward to even have the latter’s mystery element. Also, Ruvik was a much more interesting antagonist than Zaitsev.

Despite these criticisms, I still recommend Vanquish for its slick looks and gameplay. It has been made available on Steam, though I feel that its default price ($19.99 USD) is a bit high for a game with a short campaign and no multiplayer. Discounted, though? Oh my, yes.

The game received very little advertising because Sega chose to throw the PR money at Sonic Colors, which makes sense from a pragmatic standpoint. Sonic is their cash cow.