3.1 KiB
| title | subtitle | date | image | tags | year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vanquish | PlayStation 3 | 2017-02-26 | https://cdn.wonderfulfrog.com/PG_Vanquish_box_artwork.png |
|
2010 |
Vanquish is definitely a product of its time. If you don't remember the mid to late naughties in video games, they were rife with cover shooters. Think Gears of War or Uncharted. You're given big open areas with some very inconspicuous cover spots. Vanquish followed the same trend, but to its benefit it at least tried to subvert the genre by changing things up. You can try to play this game like a traditional shooter, but you'll get destroyed quickly. Instead, Vanquish gives you Sam Gideon - an agent from DARPA who has been given the Augmented Reaction Suit. The suit allows you to literally slide around while firing at enemies - and also allows you to enter "AR Mode" (think bullet-time) while sliding. Yes, the power slide is a legitimate and viable combat maneuver! It leads to a pretty fluid combat system where you regularly feel pretty awesome effortlessly sliding between enemies and scoring some easy headshots thanks to the slowdown mode. The problem though is that while it's a cool mechanic, it doesn't break away from the feeling that this is still a cover shooter. Maybe back in '07 this would be okay, but playing it in 2017 it feels very samey and not super exciting.
Again, following the popular trends at the time the game features some heavy cutscene use. It doesn't help that the story isn't entirely interesting, although it's pretty dumb on purpose. Still, it leads you to mashing the skip button because you just want to go back and play the damn game. Auto-regenerating health is another feature of the game - again a very popular choice at the time - but frustratingly there is no representation of your health on the HUD. So you'll be taking some bullet fire, and then suddenly launched into AR Mode (which happens automatically when you reach low health). Wait, was my health actually that low? Then if you're not careful - boom dead. With no actual indication of how much damage you're taking you have no idea how much of a threat some enemies pose. Some are capable of one-shotting you, and then some are firing pebbles at you. It gets very annoying and frustrating at times. Boss battles were pretty fun most of the time, although I can remember one or two that were crushingly hard. Lots of instant-death moves. The sudden jump in difficulty was pretty jarring and frustrating. Still, you can push through eventually, but it can feel frustrating to get near the end of a boss fight and get instant-killed and then forced to restart from the beginning.
Overall, it's not horrible - a pretty decent game. I think if I played it when it first came out it'd be a total blast, but after years of Platinum refining their craft and the cover shooter finally dying off - it feels like a relic from the past. It's got some very cool moments, but plenty of very dull ones too. Worth checking out if you're a die-hard Platinum fan like myself, otherwise you can probably pass. Maybe check out some gameplay on YouTube, it might entice you.