A shooter that doesn't even work, imagine that!
Another Mikami masterpiece. Like what he does with God Hand, The Evil Within and to a minor extent Resident Evil IV, Mikami blows up its respective genre, finding unique manners in which to pay earnest homage to overplayed tropes while subverting them with wacky self-aware humor, innovative cinematic flair, and challenging if at times indulgent gameplay. Vanquish works beautifully as a hilarious satire and mockery of Western third person shooters but stands just as well as a brilliant piece of pulp sci-fi with its nonsensical story, rousing set pieces, and electrifying visual spectacle. It's just gorgeous; zipping through its balletic warzone for six hours made for a surprisingly exciting experience. It feels like the prototype to what Titanfall II would eventually elaborate on with gooey sentimentality and a tighter structure but what Vanquish lacks with looser pacing it makes up for with its almost hypnotic pull. It's a trance-like dance of speeding bullets, pumping testosterone, ardent Russophobia, and endless rocket boosts. Front to back, it never lets up. Verhoeven would be proud.
I don't get it!
Had a good time with this one. Ridiculous story really got good at the end. The visuals are rather muddy and boring, but the gameplay is fun when you get used to the clunky controls. I thought the final boss fights were really fun. Uh, I don't have much to say. I had fun with it, but it didn't rock my world or anything.
The story is a clusterfuck of jumbled mess, but its flair and gameplay saves it from being an ass of a game into one of the most unique and fun entry in Platinum's whole library. Gameplay alone gives it 4 stars IMO.
The way Sam Gideon smokes a cigarette in the most life threatening situations is just full of the exaggerated swagger of an ARS operator with a nicotine addiction
one of the most exhilarating experiences i've had playing a shooter, super stylish and leaves lots of room for you to express yourself via gameplay, good stuff
Technically my first Platinum Games game, Vanquish's gameplay is stylish and cool. Sam's suit has cool movement abilities that make the game fast-paced and badass. The guns also have a variety, though I mostly used the assault rifle you start with. The world design is really cool, it reminds me of the movie Elysium. Character design is alright, the only one that really stands out is Sam the main character.
A less than interesting narrative made up for with an exhilarating and intense gameplay experience. Some of the best gameplay in the action shooter genre, it's super satisfying and never gets old. The 4 hour run time compliments it due to the underdeveloped story/characters that don't add too much to the game, meaning the gameplay remains as less repetitive as it otherwise would be if it had been any longer.
It's very clear why and how PlatinumGames got the go ahead to enter the Metal Gear genre with Rising given the aesthetics of this game are very adjacent in some aspects to the Metal Gear Solid series, almost doing an impression within the action shooter scene rather than the tactial espionage action Metal Gear is known for.
Although not being too fond of Metal Gear Rising myself, I feel like Vanquish really is an overlooked gem from PlatinumGames that deserves more attention maybe even more than MGR.
As is tradition with PlatinumGames so far though, the narrative leaves a lot more to be desired and does feel very generic hardened war heroes "look how badass I am with these corny phrases" that does let it down a bit. But the gameplay itself was enough to earn this title 4 stars alone.
It's very clear why and how PlatinumGames got the go ahead to enter the Metal Gear genre with Rising given the aesthetics of this game are very adjacent in some aspects to the Metal Gear Solid series, almost doing an impression within the action shooter scene rather than the tactial espionage action Metal Gear is known for.
Although not being too fond of Metal Gear Rising myself, I feel like Vanquish really is an overlooked gem from PlatinumGames that deserves more attention maybe even more than MGR.
As is tradition with PlatinumGames so far though, the narrative leaves a lot more to be desired and does feel very generic hardened war heroes "look how badass I am with these corny phrases" that does let it down a bit. But the gameplay itself was enough to earn this title 4 stars alone.
Vanquish is one of the only shooters released in the aftermath of Resident Evil 4 that I can claim is good with no caveats. It's a mechanically-rich game with infinite replay-value.
I really don't want to say a single thing to detract from the above statement, especially because it's so petty, but I don't want to be disingenuous about my feelings; I'd have liked the walking sections that punctuate fights removed in the PC port.
For my taste, it's a perfect game and my goty for 2010.
I really don't want to say a single thing to detract from the above statement, especially because it's so petty, but I don't want to be disingenuous about my feelings; I'd have liked the walking sections that punctuate fights removed in the PC port.
For my taste, it's a perfect game and my goty for 2010.
what if hack and slashes and third person shooters had a baby
what if i nutted what about that
what if i nutted what about that
Rocket knees.
Short and sweet with super entertaining combat mechanics and bonkers boss battles.
The story is...fine? Your lead character is a fun "don't give a shit" kind of guy, but the plot is overly convoluted and yet somehow not fleshed out enough. It's a bizarre combo that leads to what feels like a super rushed ending, but it isn't outright bad. Definitely the weakest link.
The act of blast sliding forward never gets old and always feels good no matter how many times you do it. The action is worth the price of admission, even if the story won't be much to remember.
The story is...fine? Your lead character is a fun "don't give a shit" kind of guy, but the plot is overly convoluted and yet somehow not fleshed out enough. It's a bizarre combo that leads to what feels like a super rushed ending, but it isn't outright bad. Definitely the weakest link.
The act of blast sliding forward never gets old and always feels good no matter how many times you do it. The action is worth the price of admission, even if the story won't be much to remember.
Fun game, Hard is definitely challenging!
This was alright. Great production for sure, but everything cool in the gameplay is buried in the military cover shooting. Why does a guy with jet boots on his legs need soldier buddies to stand around getting shot at? Why is the recovery so damn long? How come you’ve got zero space to slide until they have u running down the hallway like it’s recess?
How come the weapons suck? Not every gun, but there’s one called “LIFE Gun” that shoots a big fat ball of electrical energy. But that mf curve like busy bitch and can barely wipe out one guy. LAME. The whole campaign has that undercurrent for me after beating act 2 and uninstalling.
How come the weapons suck? Not every gun, but there’s one called “LIFE Gun” that shoots a big fat ball of electrical energy. But that mf curve like busy bitch and can barely wipe out one guy. LAME. The whole campaign has that undercurrent for me after beating act 2 and uninstalling.
YEAHHHHHHHHHH
Underrated game
Was awhile ago when I played this but I remember I did the whole thing (~8hrs) in one sitting so safe to say I liked it.
A reactionary response to the slow, methodical cover shooters of the time, resulting in a really finicky cover shooter that doesn't let you be fast and has zero player expression
The beginnings of a fantastic action game. The campaign needed a little more time in the oven but the score system is tight and the guns feel fun to use. I feel the boost mechanic could have been tweaked a little bit since it's a little annoying to have to save your sick melee moves for when you know there aren't too many enemies left since you instantly lose boost upon activating. Maybe there's some hidden mechanics I haven't had the time to try out yet - I haven't tried learning this as deeply as other Platinum releases to be fair.
Lost my shit at the obvious Hillary Clinton stand-in killing herself. Only a Japanese game tackling American politics would think to do that - further reading: Metal Gear Rising.
Lost my shit at the obvious Hillary Clinton stand-in killing herself. Only a Japanese game tackling American politics would think to do that - further reading: Metal Gear Rising.
This review contains spoilers
It's pretty ok for a shooter made by platinum.
It's got some good moments, mainly through gameplay and some bits with its characters (mainly sam and his habit of smoking while in near-death scenarios), and it's got a lot of flair to it, especially seen in the cutscenes.
My main problem though is that it's gameplay is more limiting at times. Like a lot of the cooler options, you can do are tied to a meter. If it drains, you have to wait for it to cool down, which is fine... on paper. The problem is tied to a few things it drains, how they drain, etc. The things that drain it are Melee Attacks, Slowing Time, Boost Sliding, and a Laser Gun also drains it. The latter two are fine, but the combat and especially time slowing is not.
The problem with attacks is that it doesn't let you do it enough. Like if you land one hit, then that takes up all of the meter, no matter how close it is to being full or empty, and forces it on cooldown. That makes it feel too situational, especially since the combat actually can help you take back some advantage in a fight, especially against enemies that like to get you out of cover, which is a lot them.
The Time Slowdown has the opposite problem, it can't help but let you use it. You can activate it manually by evading while aiming or shooting while sliding, which is fine and make some sense, but then every time you are near death, it kicks in with no way to stop it until it drains out, and forces you on cooldown. I know the intent is basically to be used to help a player who is near death stay away from death, but it honestly feels more intrusive more often than not because now i'm locked into waiting on it to stop, which can be helpful, but also mostly enforces a retreat more often than not so i can do other things, which is harder to do if i'm getting caught between so many enemies fire, some that can kill you outright, which especially near end game, is very common. It just feels bad, and compounds with the other issues since if i'm constantly waiting on cool down, i can't do anything other than get into cover or hope for the best.
I probably would've just made melee combat not tied to the meter but made it a bit laggier to compensate, and just give you more agency over the slow-motion mode. I also probably would have made your ammo count and health a little more visible. You can see how much ammo you have for a weapon, but not specifically how much is in a clip, just a little hard to see bar near the reticle. And health's got a few indicators i guess, but one of them is the slow-mode, and the others are the screen having the red lines indicating you're hit and pointing to who did it, aswell as a red tint at critical health points. I found out later in the game that sam's suit also has an indicator as it swaps between red, yellow, and green. It's a neat effect, and i do like some of these, but it does get kind of hard to read when you are in the midst of battle, especially when you go critical when you're in cooldown, it's kind of why I like health bars more as they get information across a bit better to me, but that might just be a me thing. Enemies have one, why can I?
Anyways that's kind of it for gameplay notes, it can often feel stifling and clunky when you try to do more than run and shoot, but it can set up for cool things and is generally really fast and exciting. Though despite how faster paced it can be, I did kind of start to run out of steam for the game like, an hour or so before i saw the admittedly kind of cool credits.
STORY SPOILER STUFF START
The last thing to mention is like, the story. And it's very there. I dunno, like i did like some bits with Sam, and his little chats with Burns, but that's kind of it. Not a lot of the plot really stuck with me, and neither do a lot of it's characters, though they want you to since they have like, two back to back fake out deaths from Sam, and a cliffhanger bit before the story ends. It's kind of odd cuz I feel i'm supposed to interpret more from this, but at least it makes sense in that sequel we totally have (we don't have it). Also on a side note, like I know Sam and Raiden have different VAs, but I keep hearing Sam's voice like he's trying his best impression of Raiden and I think it's kind of funny.
STORY SPOILER STUFF END
Overall, I think it's certainly an ok game. Probably one of the weaker games from Platinum Games I've played... eh, it's at least still kind of cool.
It's got some good moments, mainly through gameplay and some bits with its characters (mainly sam and his habit of smoking while in near-death scenarios), and it's got a lot of flair to it, especially seen in the cutscenes.
My main problem though is that it's gameplay is more limiting at times. Like a lot of the cooler options, you can do are tied to a meter. If it drains, you have to wait for it to cool down, which is fine... on paper. The problem is tied to a few things it drains, how they drain, etc. The things that drain it are Melee Attacks, Slowing Time, Boost Sliding, and a Laser Gun also drains it. The latter two are fine, but the combat and especially time slowing is not.
The problem with attacks is that it doesn't let you do it enough. Like if you land one hit, then that takes up all of the meter, no matter how close it is to being full or empty, and forces it on cooldown. That makes it feel too situational, especially since the combat actually can help you take back some advantage in a fight, especially against enemies that like to get you out of cover, which is a lot them.
The Time Slowdown has the opposite problem, it can't help but let you use it. You can activate it manually by evading while aiming or shooting while sliding, which is fine and make some sense, but then every time you are near death, it kicks in with no way to stop it until it drains out, and forces you on cooldown. I know the intent is basically to be used to help a player who is near death stay away from death, but it honestly feels more intrusive more often than not because now i'm locked into waiting on it to stop, which can be helpful, but also mostly enforces a retreat more often than not so i can do other things, which is harder to do if i'm getting caught between so many enemies fire, some that can kill you outright, which especially near end game, is very common. It just feels bad, and compounds with the other issues since if i'm constantly waiting on cool down, i can't do anything other than get into cover or hope for the best.
I probably would've just made melee combat not tied to the meter but made it a bit laggier to compensate, and just give you more agency over the slow-motion mode. I also probably would have made your ammo count and health a little more visible. You can see how much ammo you have for a weapon, but not specifically how much is in a clip, just a little hard to see bar near the reticle. And health's got a few indicators i guess, but one of them is the slow-mode, and the others are the screen having the red lines indicating you're hit and pointing to who did it, aswell as a red tint at critical health points. I found out later in the game that sam's suit also has an indicator as it swaps between red, yellow, and green. It's a neat effect, and i do like some of these, but it does get kind of hard to read when you are in the midst of battle, especially when you go critical when you're in cooldown, it's kind of why I like health bars more as they get information across a bit better to me, but that might just be a me thing. Enemies have one, why can I?
Anyways that's kind of it for gameplay notes, it can often feel stifling and clunky when you try to do more than run and shoot, but it can set up for cool things and is generally really fast and exciting. Though despite how faster paced it can be, I did kind of start to run out of steam for the game like, an hour or so before i saw the admittedly kind of cool credits.
STORY SPOILER STUFF START
The last thing to mention is like, the story. And it's very there. I dunno, like i did like some bits with Sam, and his little chats with Burns, but that's kind of it. Not a lot of the plot really stuck with me, and neither do a lot of it's characters, though they want you to since they have like, two back to back fake out deaths from Sam, and a cliffhanger bit before the story ends. It's kind of odd cuz I feel i'm supposed to interpret more from this, but at least it makes sense in that sequel we totally have (we don't have it). Also on a side note, like I know Sam and Raiden have different VAs, but I keep hearing Sam's voice like he's trying his best impression of Raiden and I think it's kind of funny.
STORY SPOILER STUFF END
Overall, I think it's certainly an ok game. Probably one of the weaker games from Platinum Games I've played... eh, it's at least still kind of cool.
This review contains spoilers
HILLARY CLINTON frickin BLEW HER BRAINS OUT o_O
vc é um soldado meio robo mto irado
Rating: 9/10 - Amazing
One of the best action games from the 2010s.
One of the best action games from the 2010s.
I remember playing the demo for this game thinking it was awesome. Turns it out it's kind of not. Funny 360/PS3 era game though.
when platnium used to make good games
This game is so goddamn fun, if you put me into a empty room with this game and a bucket, I'd eat the bucket, and play this game for days. It's short, on a take your time playthrough, it's about 6 hours. But in this case, it's by design. It's meant to be replayed so you can get better and better. The gameplay is like a third person bullet hell, and has tons of hidden mechanics and strategies for shooting and punching the shit out of robots and looking stylish as hell while doing it. The story is there. It's more of a reason to give you the game to play, though I do like our main character, think there's a lot of charm there. If you love action games, you owe it to yourself to play Vanquish.
NO COLORS
NO JAPANESE RPG WRITERS
NO PLOT BEATS
100% PURE UNCUT 7TH GEN ROCK
NO JAPANESE RPG WRITERS
NO PLOT BEATS
100% PURE UNCUT 7TH GEN ROCK
It's a pretty good take on what a third-person shooter could be if it adhered more to character action styling. It's got good mechanics that are hindered by the length of the campaign and a lack of level variety.
A game designed to make dudes go "hell yeah"