Vanquish — Bullet Hell Ballet

In assembling Vanquish, Shinji Mikami and the team at Platinum Games decided to make their best attempt at fusing high-octane action found in games like the Devil May Cry titles and Bayonetta with common third-person shooter tropes — many of which were established by Gears of War, which actually expounded upon gameplay mechanics found in Resident Evil 4 (which is another Mikami game, meaning we have come full circle). The result is one of the most inventive and intense TPS titles on the market, a game other developers should have taken inspiration from. That would have happened had it actually sold worth a damn.

Don’t take that the wrong way, though. I’m not blaming you, the player, for passing it over upon release. That was easy to do since it released in a packed fall season last year. Sega did little to market it, one that could have easily found an audience considering the genre’s rise to prominence in this generation.  It now qualifies as one of those rare gems many didn’t get the opportunity to give a chance, and that’s terrible.

Sure, it looks like your average shooter…

Vanquish ostensibly sounds like any shooter when you describe the gameplay, but it puts far more importance on shooting and dodging than others. Like the aforementioned high-octane action games, this game’s enemies hit hard, so the developers gave the player a large arsenal to dodge these — though you’ll likely die quite a bit before they click. You’ll dodge most of these while sliding around from wall to wall, making sure your outfit doesn’t overheat for a lengthy cool down process. Getting heavy handed with powerful melee attacks will also lead to that; you’ll be relying on long range attacks most of the time.

Really, having a cool down process actually does wonders for the game’s balance. You’ve been given a vast arsenal of techniques to help you destroy enemies, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be vulnerable. It’s the developers’ way of saying you shouldn’t dance around the battlefield like a reckless fool. The feeling that carelessness can lead to your teeth being kicked in gives it a sense of tension, which in turn leads to its addictive qualities.

…but it’s pretty different! Though it’s a pretty gray game.

The game is balanced around the player using every maneuver, which you’ll be forced to learn when some of the tougher, heavy-hitting enemies arise. At this point, it becomes clear that this isn’t your average shooter, and your strategies will require much more than just going from one chest-high wall to the other and shooting from a distance. That’s not to say you can’t do that, especially if you’re good at grabbing every weapon scattered around the battlefield. That will, however, make the game tougher. It’s also missing the point entirely.

To make things a little easier, though, the suit has an AR mode — which is basically this game’s slow-mo. It will be triggered whenever you evade or when you’re close to death. Remaining in the mode too long will make it overheat, making you extremely vulnerable. If you could stay within it for an infinite time, it would probably break this game and make every encounter too easy.

That sounds sure like a lot to take in when you begin playing the game. Fortunately, there’s an extensive tutorial that will teach you how to control everything. One of the best things about it? It’s entirely optional, something more games should do rather than shove a lengthy tutorial down the player’s throat — especially when it’s not necessary. I’m looking at you, recent console Zelda games. But there are plenty of other offenders.

If you have it in your arsenal, you should use it.

Vanquish is designed around giving the player a good, well balanced challenge. This means it doesn’t throw any cheap, asinine deaths your way with obstacles that no human being not on the dev team could have seen coming. Did you get hit by a slow-moving or charging beam attack that one-hit-killed you instantly upon impact? Well that’s your fault because you should have seen that coming. But that’s OK, though, because the game won’t set you back too far. It’s one of the games that combines old-school design sensibilities with newer conventions. It’s tough, but not frustrating.

The game’s keeps you on your toes at all times in order to make the game an action-packed, fast-paced from start to end. The sacrifice for said pacing is a short overall length; you’ll have the game done in a couple of evenings. But that’s good! Well, from a certain point-of-view. That makes it easier to replay a few months down the line — if not right after you finish it once.

This game has a “storyline” to break up the action occasionally. “Storyline” because it was made by a team aware that video game plots are usually below par compared to other forms of entertainment. Vanquish has one of the most intentionally cheesy and hilarious stories in recent memory for gaming — which ends up giving it a big Starship Troopers-like feel. The main character is Sam Gideon, an ex-football player who previously suffered a crippling injury that halted his career. He found a new mission in life when he became a DARPA agent and donned the Augmented Reaction Suit. This suit is loaded with features that increase the movement and technique capabilities of the average human exponentially.

Both of them ham it up spectacularly.

Sam’s working with the US Government to take back the O’Neill Cylinder satellite, launched as a way to deal with rising energy problems in America because of a high population. Sam (and DARPA, by extension) fights alongside Lieutenant Robert Burns and the Marines, tasked by U.S. President Elizabeth Winters to retrieve the satellite from the Russian Federation of Earth. This rogue organization has made it so the satellite can blast energy to level certain cities, which they’ve already done to San Francisco. The leader of the federation, Victor Zaitsev, demands that the Americans surrender or New York City will suffer a similar fate.

Yeah, that sure sounds like serious business, but trust me when I say it falls into self-parody mode very often. It’s about as serious as God Hand, the developers of which were involved in this game. The voice actors are in on it too. Gideon Emery provides the voice of Sam Gideon, a change of pace from his usual roles — could you tell he also voiced Balthier in Final Fantasy XII by listening to him here? Joining him here is omnipresent Steve Blum, who provides Lt. Burns’ voice. Kari Wahlgren gives the voice of your DARPA support Elena Ivanova (who bear a striking resemblance with each other), and Lee Meriwether voices the president. That last name is probably more recognizable to your parents. Or if you remember a certain segment in Metal Gear Solid 4.

You can still find Vanquish for a cheap price, so hopefully you’ll give it a try. It’s one of the best TPS titles released this generation, if not (arguably, of course) the best. Unfortunately, it’s tough for many new IPs to do well in this market, especially if they’re from Japan these days. And that goes double when the publisher barely advertises it.