The Shoot and Scoot Suit- Vanquish Review

Following the precedent of every other medium, we are beginning to see a comprehensive chronicling of interactive entertainment. While game history is often structured around specific hardware generations, there has also been a number of periods inspired by artistic movements. One of the most revered of these eras rose out of Japan during the mid 90’s. Known for a fastidious amount of polish and frantic gameplay, development houses like Treasure, NCS Corp, and Technosoft outshined their Western competitors, earning a legion of stalwart fans. 

While Japan’s Golden Age faded as gaming entered the new millennium, a handful of resolute holdovers remain. One of the most prominent of these survivors is Platinum Games, a development house led by former Clover Studios talent- the makers of Viewful Joe and critical darling, Ōkami. While not all of Platinum’s output has lived up to the studio’s precious metal moniker, titles like Bayonetta recall an epoch marked by non-stop, controller-clenching sessions amidst virtuoso visual design. The studio’s latest effort-Vanquish abides by the formula, offering one of the year’s most accomplished and intense action games. Despite the game’s well-publicized five to six hour playthrough time, nary a minute is squandered on incidental elements. Like the game’s Augmented Reaction Suit-wearing protagonist, Vanquish is a blistering fast, well-armed powerhouse.

After a faction of Russians hijack an space station, and use outpost’s offensive capabilities to  destroy San Francisco, they threaten to make New York City their next target. To prevent that scenario from happening, DARPA agent Sam Gideon must utilize every element in the ARS suit’s arsenal to halt the group’s nefarious plans. Beyond the ability to toggle between three of a dozen different types of ballistic weapons, players are outfitted with two different types of grenades, the ability to slow down time, and well at streak across environments with the suit’s thrusters.

Sam’s bended knee boost-slides across each stage are more than a mere signature visual gimmick, they are also part of Vanquish‘s intriguing risk/reward system. Boosting, decelerating time, and a devastating melee strike all increase the temperature of the suit, leading to an overheated condition – which can leave players in a particularly precarious situation. Successful players will learn to adopt a strategic cadence, which has the hero alternating between cool down-initiating covered fire and fully prone blitzkriegs. Like the best action titles, deaths in Vanquish rarely seem unfair; demise is typically instigated by pushing at foes a bit too forcefully. The one sole exception can be the energy beams fired from bosses which can one-hit kill players. By being observant to patterns, even these can be evaded.

Avoiding the woes which plagued the PS3 port of Bayonetta, both the 360 and PS3 iterations of Vanquish perform commendably. Despite intricately detailed backdrops and an impressive amount of on-screen foes, the game’s framerate is consistently solid, only faltering during the game’s furious final stages. Enemy design is especially capable, with mace-wielding goliaths, a hovering angel of death, and a particularly lethal scrap metal pile. Regrettably, there’s some recycling of bosses, although each confrontation is slightly tweaked.

For player’s accustomed to paying sixty dollars for a prolonged solo campaign accompanied with a robust multiplayer component , Vanquish‘s seven hour campaign might seem a bit underwhelming.  While the title’s five main acts (each with four to eight missions) contain a suitable number of memorable set pieces- from a perspective shifting train ride to a brief excursion in zero gravity, even a small reduction in the game’s MSRP would have offset the game’s brevity.

Aficionados of intense action titles will surely relish in Vanquish‘s callous-inducing ballistic barrage. Recalling the frenzied skirmishes which once captivated Genesis owners, the title’s refined delivery  evokes the splendor of Japan’s reigning era. Although Shinji Mikami has parted ways with Platinum Games to start a new studio, hopefully the vision which drove Vanquish will continue to saturate his work.