Vanquish for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I rented this game after seeing it played at a friend's house and I am glad he let me check it out. Simply put, the game is very fun. I decided to write a review because I feel that the Gamefly user rating is far too low. I would give this game a 9/10, but I am marking it as 10/10 to try and influence the score and get it to the point that it deserves to be.

It is a 3rd person action shooter. The hooks are the boost ability that allows you to speed through the level on rocket propelled knees, the "AR" ability which is essentially bullet time, and interesting and engaging level design. The pace kept driving me forward. The combat was really fun because you would need to keep moving and combining the suit's abilities to succeed. Boss battles are usally "shoot the glowing thing" affairs, but very fun and challenging at times. The cut scenes looked cool and the overall presentation was impressive.

The story didn't matter in terms of dialouge, but I appreciated the feeling of infliltrating the station with a squad of soldiers. Burns may be stereotypical and over the top, but I liked him. The control station girl was also stereotypical, but the camera was almost always positioned behind and below her looking up...obvioulsy the story wasn't meant to be taken all that seriously.

The game also includes an easy to use weapons upgrade system that I found rewarding, adding an rpg element. You can hold three weapons at a time (they actually all transform from whatever gun you are holding in a cool animation). If you pick up an upgrade cube, or the same weapon you have equipped when at full ammo, you go up a rank. At certain ranks you get some boost to the abilities of each gun. In this way you can power up you favorite guns very easily. Other than standard assault rifle, shotgun, sniper etc. there are some cool new guns like the LFE gun that launches a slow moving orb at you enemies like a huge bowling ball.

Short and sweet. A perfect rent.

Just to start off, Vanquish took me 3 hours to beat. I did enjoy that sweet afternoon, but it still took 3 hours. I tried to pay attention to the story, but I found out early on that this game has something in common with Resident Evil 5. It is very entertaining to skip the cut scenes because; A. The story makes no sense (Its a Japanese game), and B. You'll be on a moving train, hit a cut scene, skip it, and BAM! Your now sliding around in zero gravity. It goes from intense action scene to intense action scene, and the cut scenes only slow it down. Some games might take you 20 hours, but how many of those hours were spent walking from point A to point B? (Don't get me wrong. I love open world games). Vanquish is a solid 3 hours of non-stop adrenaline, and as long as your okay with it when going into it, you'll enjoy every second.

Pros
-beautiful graphics
-nonstop balls to the wall action
-smooth and fluid mechanics of shooting and sliding
-enjoyed looking for guns to upgrade

Cons
-too short
-no armor upgrades

Bottom Line
The equation for this game goes as follows: Gears of War + Halo + Zone of the Enders = Vanquish, and thats definitely not a bad thing. This game moves at break neck speed and is a very solid shooter. For most people this game is only worth a rent because it's so short (took me 3.5 hours). But I enjoyed it so much, I think it's easily worth $20, and if you're a fan of 3rd person shooters, then this game is a must.

RENT

Most Import Points:

1) This game is fast and furious. Its so fluid and there's never a hint of lag, framerate drop, or slowdown. I found myself not being able to put it down because it flowed right into the next stage without stopping.

2) It looks gorgeous and very detailed

3) It's a SEGA game and very Japanese (For me at least). I don't mean this as a putdown, just pointing out that there are themes that don't quite click if you are used to playing western developed games. There are story and humor elements that don't quite come across in western culture...and everyone in the US uses the 'F bomb' for punctuation in every conversation</sarcasm>

4) There is some deeper strategy involved with the suit power levels, the weapons you level up, and how you use your dash/bullet time. It's fun.

5) The story is passable but suffers from some bad writing. The gameplay makes up for it though.

Okay, yes I know at first glance it's a "Sega" title, and if you're an avid gamer like me, you know that a game from them within the last 5 years or so has been less than sub-par. Then comes Vanquish, which manages to redefine the 1st personal, tactical, futuristic, crazy boss battles game. You could compare this game to Gears of War, or GRAW in terms of the ability to find cover, and pick off your enemies one by one, but the point of this game is speed. Your character Sam is the sole pilot of an advanced suit of armor. When the western coast is hit by a weaponized microwave (think puppy in the microwave urban myth story) it's up to you and your contact to stop the terrorist threat that just so happens to take place in a space colony just outside of earth's atmosphere. Armed with the ability to replicate any weapon, booster jets that allow you to slide across stage effortlessly and when times get tough, the cool ability to slow down time to a crawl, nothing can stand in your way.

Sound: 8

Although the voice acting can be very cheesy at times, the sound effects are great, and everything fits well within the environment. Explosions sound massive, you can hear bullets wizz past your head, and the cry's of your lesser-equipped team mates dying.

Graphics: 10

This game really shines in the graphics department, everything is smooth and polished. The backgrounds and sceneries are beautiful to look at, and typically something you'll see off in the distance, you'll see it get closer to you with each step. Your suit of armor changes depending on what type of gear you equip yourself with. It feels as though it's alive. Lighting, character animation, and movie sequences flow effortlessly between game play and scripted scenes.

Game Play: 10

If you want a fun game that you'll never put down until you beat it, (which might not take you that long, 8 hours) Then you'll love this game. From when you pick up the controller the action never stops.

Total Review: 9

Great game!

First off, WOW. I went into this game with my hopes quite low, but it proved me wrong. The gameplay is super fast paced, and action packed all the time. As far as graphics go, they were excellent and seemed smooth.

The only thing I didn't care too much for, is the lack of down time. It's literally non-stop action throughout the entire game.

Overall I'd highly recommend it, and I'm giving it a solid 8 out of 10.

Vanquish is only a few hours of single-player campaign, with no multiplayer, but boy are those few hours a blast. Butter-smooth graphics, clean movement and cover mechanics, the ability to boostaround a battlefield, and an almost endless supply of robots to eradicate make for one of the best shooters of the decade.

It's not perfect, but the list of flaws is a short one. Aside from the short campaign, the enemies don't feel particularly varied - most of your enemies are the standard "red robot" cannon fodder that you'll slaughter by the hundreds. And for some reason, although you can find other guns along the game, and assault rifle and heavy machine gun are enough to get you through the whole campaign. Aside from the rocket launcher, there's almost no need to ever swap out for another gun for most of the game.

That said, the gameplay is amazing. Your battlesuit gives you the ability to rocket around at high speeds to flank enemies, or just blitz past them, while your bullet time ability slows things down when you need to take out several enemies at once. You can use both abilities at once, setting up awesome sequences where you fly down an open stretch, then slow down to attack several enemies from the side or back.

The cover mechanics are superb, and very rarely leave you hugging the wrong side of a barrier, or accidentally jumping over it to get shot at. In addition to weapon upgrades, picking up a weapon you already have full ammo for gived you a boost; a few boosts upgrade that weapon as well.

And then you have your melee attacks, which drain your suits ability meter but provide flashy ways to dispatch your enemies up close.

It may not be a long gme, and the lack of multiplayer limits the replay value, but that really just puts it in the same company as Batman: Arkham Asylum, or the first Dead Space - both fantastic games. This one is definitely worth a playthrough as well.

Vanquish sets just 1 bench mark , and does provide a solid 3rd person shooter with a much needed increased of the speed of combat (the benchmark). Slow action is something that drags most cover based 3rd person shooters down.
Here is why...
Duck, wait for the AI to pop out , Fire,repeat.
Vanquish attempts to remedy this
That means-
basically throw the "jump to cover" mechanic of most 3rd person shooters out the window. This game is the "Burn Out" of 3rd person shooters. Gears was great, and even without a "cover" system Bio was great in its own way too. Vanqiush doesn't force you to use its speedy abilities to complete the game. You can duck and cover as much as you like, waiting for the AI to leave itself open for extermination all you want. You could even never use the "power slide" or augmented time powers of your military supplied suit. YOU WILL STILL COMPLETE THE GAME. But.....
What if you could speed combat up, what if you next move wasn't " Press A to move from one side of a doorway to another , maintaining cover"
What if you could slide in and out of cover , covering football feild distances across the battel zone.
Vanquish doesn't flush it's story out like the previously mentioned games. And really lacks the refinement need for todays "epic' games moniker. Nor does it require you to use it's fast evade system.
What Vanquish gives is an easy to follow and "corny enough to like" story line. The voice acting is adequate. I.E. Sort of a "SPOILER"...
After being attacked by your superior in the first cutscene,
your main character responds with ...
"What the F..K?"
How can you not love that, isn't it how we Americans roll?
What the F..K indeed.
Solid 8. Fast, angry.My only beef is this game needed more heart, I felt diconnected , but the game mechanics and graphics just about made up for it. In a nutshell...
Mediocre story..
Superior game mechanics, play, aming adjustment, and upgrade system.
solid f'n 8

For fans of the sci-fi shooter, this is a good but not great game. The storyline is a little bizarre, but the control scheme is super easy if you can remember everything. My biggest complaint is the boss fights. They're just dumb. You have to blow off arms, legs, and computer cores to bring down the massive things, and you'll waste all your ammo half the time just trying to do it. There are some Halo and Warhammer 40,000 similarities throughout the game, kind of interesting. Some of the weapons take some getting used to, because not every weapon will kill everything all the time. Just hang on to the heavy machine gun and the rocket launcher, and you'll be fine.

Man this game is good from beginning to end, although the campaign was only roughly 7 hrs, it kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. I hope they make a sequel. One of the top games this year in my opinion

To all the reviewers that scream this an GOW clone....their wrong. Vanquish is not the awesomeness that is gears but the fluid motion and pace is a grand step from it. I was bored with the whole slow movement and clunky wall to wall handles. Point is that IT ISN'T Gears of War, and shouldn't be compared to it. Rent and find out for yourself. I already have....

I went into this game thinking I was renting a lost gem that had fallen off the average gamer's radar because of a lack of marketing. After playing it, I now know why Sega didn't fully get behind this game. I would like to say that as someone who generally plays games on the hardest level, my review is based on the game's highest difficulty setting.

The graphics in this game are at times impressive, but extremely redundant. Nearly everything plays out in a futuristic space station. The only break you will get from the neutral, angular buildings is when you crash land in a park. This break is welcome, but far too short. Character models look alright but the enemy models are recycled to death. Boss characters are amazing to behold during the first encounter, but will grow old after a couple of views.

The game play is a little loose for my liking but doesn't take long to master. It is essentially Gears of War with a poorer aiming mechanic. The bullet time adrenaline rush is cool and can be whored to death, but also gets old when shooting the same enemies with the same back drop over and over. The upgrade mechanic for your weapons consist of picking up the same gun you already hold in your arsenal as long as that gun is fully loaded. I'm sure on easier levels this is more rewarding, but on a harder difficulty level it becomes frustrating as deaths can result in your weapon grade being dropped. That's right the game gets more difficult after you die and you lose your rewards.

The story line in this game is painful. I literally played over half of this game with the sound off. The voice acting is some of the worst I've ever heard. From the incessant techno beat that pounds your head throughout the game to your characters failed attempt to rip of Solid Snake's voice. Picture the guy at the bar that constantly talks about how sweet he is while smoking a cigarette and annoying every person in his general area to the point they leave. That's your dude, literally.

the people who designed this game want to make an animation series way to bad.
This game wouldve probably got huge scores but the over-abundence of animation with this game makes you want to throw it out the window.

You always make the animiation so people can cut the scene. Especialy when your playing it for a 3rd time for achievments. OMG its beyond annoyance.

otherwise the games not to bad a lil-confusing an some penalities when you die I could live with-out. But, when the characters finaly do shut-up an you play its not a bad game.

This is a 3rd person shooter with great graphics. Good story. Wonderful game play and very fast paced action. Cinematics look really cool too. When I pick up a shooter, I look for originality more than anything. The world war II, modern warfare scene, and so on has already been done. Yes, sci-fi shooters have been done but this game stands alone. What makes this one cool is that you have the ability to rocket slide around everywhere, pull the trigger and shoot everything at high speed. When you slide and shoot at the same time, you enter the slow-mo mode so that you can accurately deliver shots. This is a great ability to use while moving to cover, avoiding huge lasers bombs or whatever. You can also deliver powerful punches in close range killing all trash mobs. There are a ton of mini bosses and main bosses to kill. These things look epic! They are very hard to take down and in order to do so, you must take full advantage of the cover system as well as your suit's ability to slide. This was a very fun game for me. Everything about this game made my eyes pop out and I often yelled "DID YOU JUST SEE THAT!" My adrenaline was always pumping and i couldn't put down the controller. Pick this game up!

The gameplay is pretty good, but the story falls short. It was just not that interesting everything just seems kinda bland. It's a good rental I just have so many others to be playing right now!

Vanquish has great graphics. What Vanquish does not have is exciting game play. I found myself having to play this game in stages because it became so boring. You fight the same guys over and over and over and over and over and over again. Nothing ever exciting happens in this game.

If you played the Demo on Xbox Live, then just imagine that for 7 hours with no change ever.

Sometimes this game seems like it's trying to use some stuff out of the Gears of War game play but it just doesn't compare.

This is one of those games you rent when there aren't any really good games coming out for a while.

Once you've finished this game there is no reason to play it again. You will just fall asleep trying.

Not putting multiplayer or co-op in a game like this is a fail. SEGA you've already mastered failing why didn't you try succeeding?

This will definitely be in the bargain bin within a few months. But even then I would still rent it. This is just a game not worth buying ever because it has zero replay value.

I really hate game programmers that think they are creating games for an arcade. It seems to them that the goal is to make you restart the scene over as many times as possible? But that's just me. I don't like to go to car races to watch cars going around in a circle 500 time either!

Halo on Crystal Meth.

Would be a very cool game if you could tell when you were about to die. They say it's based off your boost gauge, but I died countless times with the darn thing at 100% green. SOOO glad I rented it instead of buying it, I woulda been angry.

Decent game, entertaining for the most part although the "Unknown" bosses were repetitive and uninspired.

Fairly typical for a Sega release, nothing ground breaking.

The graphics are stunning, courtesy of the CriEngine, but the game itself is nothing new.

The only people who will find this game engaging is someone who has never played an action shooter before. It's the same old tired formula of clear an area of enemies, push forward, repeat, broken up only by boring cut-scenes and boss fights.

The only saving grace to the action is that the boss fights can be quite good at times.

Vanquish : Annoying, itritating and just plain bad. Let's start with first boss. You fight this massive transforming robot less than ten minutes into the game. This guy is diffacult to say the least. There are two phases to defeat while running for your life and if you die the battle starts from the begining. The game has typical japenese dialog ( bad jokes with even worse voice over ). There is no real story that I could put together. If you like guys sliding around on there but that cant jump over small creats then this is the game for you. Poor weapons, awfull story and controller throughing game play.
My advice don't waste your time.

I started playing this game and it immediately felt like a gears of war clone. It has some cool features but the game feels a bit cartoony. Its an interesting play. So if your into run and gun gameplay pick it up.

This game is very unique and very fast paced. It handles very uniquely as well. The main character is strapped in to a robot suit that has you zipping around on leg boosters at break neck speeds from cover to cover blowing off robots heads. While boosting around in this robot suit you can activate an adrenaline boost to slow down time and line up headshots with your AR as you pass by enemies.
Now with all of this said, thats just about all their is to this game. I know it sounds awesome and it is for a couple of hours but sadly it gets repetitive. Repetitiveness always leads to monotony, and the garbage story line isn't going to distract you from it at all. But with all the good and bad this game is definitely worth a rent especially if your a shooter fan like me and are in dire need of some variety in the genre.

overuse of bullet-time gimmick ruins what could have been a decent shooter.