For The Mag: Club 360 – Vanquish

[360_Mag_Dave]

A personal favourite of mine Vanquish was an awesome third person shooter, but what did everyone else think? Do you remember the excellent cover Will designed for issue 68?

You guys know the drill so go for it! Only, remember that I really, really liked this game

Also, this is for issue 101! Hooray!

[Dante3000]

There came a point last year or so where I decided to try a few games that I wouldn't have deemed my type and it was as soon as I played Bayonetta that I decided to look for further games of the whacky, OTT, Japanese variety... Vanquish was the game I found.
It was relatable in the sense that it was highly Westernised and had a clear 'Gears of War' influence running through it, even reminding me of the Metal Gear Solid series in it's depiction of American characters. But essentially, it still had it's Japanese flair which made it cool, filmic and ultimately exciting. It lasted me all of about 6 hours but I thoroughly enjoyed punching robots heads off, jetting around on my knees in slow motion and .... smoking enough cigerettes to kill an elephant.
It was just... COOL

[nojdanzig]

A very enjoyable game. The whole 'constantly under attack so keep moving' gameplay was extremely challenging on the harder settings and the weapons were well balanced. Had an awesome time with it and for a new IP at the time it wasn't rushed and suffering cack gameplay in any part. The bad guys were well designed and a bit retro too (in a good way) with the 80's bad guy Russians as seen in many films from that period.
All in all I couldn't find much to fault in it except you seemed to smoke a single toke from an inordinately large amount of cigs ( I had only just packed in at that time so maybe I noticed it more )
Japanese weirdness needs to be allowed out to play more in games as it really can add to a game. This was an unsung diamond. Highly recommended

[Bob]

For me.. the one hit kill boss battles felt cheap and where a definite turn off.. so I er.. turned it off.

[Eli Vance]

A hit and miss storyline packaged with a short campaign. On a normal day I'd care about those things. But when a game plays like the equivalent of being strapped to a speeding bullet, I really couldn't care less. Vanquish was an unapologetic spectacle filled heart pounding gameplay thrill ride from start to finish. To think, I dismissed this game completely when it was first released as I don't normally like these types of game.

the one hit kill boss battles felt cheap and where a definite turn off

I agree in as far as one hit kills are a little cheap in any game. That said, the game did balance it out with each boss only having one, one hit kill attack, with a good 3-5 second warning before letting it rip.

[The-Marb]

Vanquish is an interesting one, in many ways its fantastic, in some ways it severely lacking.

The shooting is up there with the best in the 3rd person shooter genre. Its gunplay is fast, slick, well done, addictive and with the addition of the rocket slide, different enough to offer a USP. Basically, it’s Gears of Wars attention deficit disorder little brother.

However the problems don’t lie with the intuitive and fast paced gunplay, its all about the rest of it for me. The game went to the trouble of making great game mechanics and forgot to hang anything else compelling off it.

The characters are either cardboard cut-out archetypes (slightly uptight female commanding officers), or worse, hideously outdated 90s clichés. Not in a knowing GoW type way, more a amateurish, “we don’t care about this so won’t bother” way. The hulking, ridiculously voiced bearded commander would be more at home in a sideways-scroller with text coming out of his mouth for instance.

Plus the developers are under the impression that making the lead character a renegade cigarette smoker is cool, like a fecking Dolph Lundgren film. It’s a game that’s trying desperately to be cool, like your dad putting on a Libertines t-shirt, then rocking up to a house party with a pack of 4 WKD and a quiche.

Add to that rubbish unmemorable villains, incomprehensible plotting / mediocre dialogue and terrible English voice acting (most people sound like they are being played by the same guy who just comedically changes his voice like a ventriloquist) and it just soured the experience for me.

The game is also less than 5 hours long, which just isn’t good enough for a full price game with no MP, sorry. Cant be any excuses for that.

Overall, it felt to me (for the whole 19 minutes it lasted), although I enjoyed it at a visceral level, i never forgot I was playing an arcadey videogame. In the days where we have such brilliantly crafted immersive gaming experiences, it made it stand out for the worse.

I know many of you guys would be happy to have a well done shooter game with crap story and characters, but weirdly I like to be taken on a story ride too and this just didn’t deliver. This is what separates great games from good ones IMO. Although i enjoyed it, 1 year on, I can remember is the 19 minutes of shooting robots in the face.

A solid 7/10 for me.

[Eli Vance]

I like to be taken on a story ride too and this just didn’t deliver.

Surely you don't want that all the time though, do you Marb? I'm quite big on open world and rpg gaming but I can't be doing with that type of experience all the time.

I think the main reason I enjoyed Vanquish as much as I did is because I rarely play these types of games. The closest gaming experience I can compare it to is Bulletstorm, perspectives aside.

[The-Marb]

I like to be taken on a story ride too and this just didn’t deliver.

Surely you don't want that all the time though, do you Marb? I'm quite big on open world and rpg gaming but I can't be doing with that type of experience all the time.

I think the main reason I enjoyed Vanquish as much as I did is because I rarely play these types of games. The closest gaming experience I can compare it to is Bulletstorm, perspectives aside.

I accept that action games story/characters aren't going be great and enjoy stuff like Gears and Bulletstorm for what they are, but there wasn't a single character in Vanquish I didn't want to punch. It's basically an eccentric Japanese developers idea of what a cool action US film is, just doesn't really work.

I'll accept I'm being picky with that, the gamplay is good, it's just not long enough and too vapid.

Treat it like a 50p a go arcade title and it fufills all it tries to do, it just doesn't cut it in the Gears style arena.

[AlexTheLlama]

This is a difficult one.

I definitely enjoyed the first couple of hours, but the whole time/score/arcade whoop-de-doo business made me feel almost under pressure to be quicker. To many, this is probably a good thing, but I like to take my time with games, playing methodically (not necessarily slowly). I simply didn't enjoy the frantic pace. To me, CoD is about as fast as it's allowed to get.

Saying that though, I liked the feeling of grinding along your knees and kicking a droid in the face, chopping off limbs etc. I just prefer games with a little less in-your-face constant barrage of lights and colours (why I liked CoD 4 more than MW2 and 3).

I'm missing the point of this game, I know. It's just not right for me.

[stikboy78]

i absolutely loved this game. it ticked all the right boxes for me. it was like gears of war on speed. total japanese awesome crazyness. i laughed out loud at the scene with the robot that turned itelf into a ghetto blaster and ran away. some people might say it was too short but this is a game that i would na dhave played through again and again just for fun. we need more games like this.

[The-Marb]

Gameplay = Brilliant

Everything else = meh.

In some ways the whole thing is like a tech demo. Its the kernal of a truly great game that needs filling out.

[Dante3000]

It's important to mention that the main guy has a nice ARS

[The-Marb]

It's important to mention that the main guy has a nice ARS

Do blokes in cybernetic rocket suits float your boat Dante?

[Eli Vance]

Everything else = meh.

I did think the story was a bit meh but thats about it. That said, I was too busy wanting to get back to the gameplay and shoot stuff to care. I'd have been happy if the game had been without a storyline at all and the same goes for Gears.

The way I see stories in linear games is simply giving a reason for a player to continue at the expense of interaction. But when gameplay alone is compelling and fun enough are engaging story threads really necessity. Engaging story threads are paramount when it comes to movies and books but not so much with games, imo. The player has no active role within a linear games story so reasons given to continue are assumed. Whereas gameplay isn't.


I totally get where your coming from over stories and I'm not knocking your opinion. I just find the 'story versus gameplay' issue interesting.

[The-Marb]

Good point, well made Eli..

The credits are good, ill give them that, blowing away japanese developers faces disguised as asteroids should not be fun or appropriate, but it works!