I played the PS4 version on a PS5, it's the first time playing this game.

The gameplay here is top tier, as it's expected from Platinum Games, but everything else is super boring. The gun upgrading system is very engaging and it makes you want to try out different weapons. It would get old fast if the game was any longer, but it's short enough to keep things interesting for the whole game.

Story and characters are all "US good, Russia bad, protect America", which is boring and not interesting at all. Non of the characters have any background or traits that make them interesting. I understand this is not a story-driven game, but I believe the story should be at least engaging, but it's definitely not.

Overall, it's worth a play as it's a short game and the gameplay is very fun, sliding around on your knees never loses the appeal. 3/5 is more than enough for this one.

not without it's flaws; took me a second to adjust to the fact that this is primarily a cover shooter more then anything, the weapon upgrade system is kind of abysmal and I still don't know how I feel about the melee system (I appreciate it in theory but idk if it ever fully clicked for me) but man this is a fucking blast lol; usually cover shooters annoy the shit out of me but I think the movement system here makes it a lot more dynamic then it'd be otherwise; giggled a lot when I realised that the cover in the final boss fight rotated around the arena. don't really have much to say here, it's a great game! credits sequence is rlly cute lol

Vanquish is absolutely wild. The amount of bullets flying in all directions at any given time is insane. Playing the game as intended by sliding around from cover to cover and using your slowmo ability by dodging, sliding or meleeing enemies will inevitably lead to damage being taken and even a few (or a lot of in my case) lives lost.

I wish the health system was a little more clear since sometimes I'd have full boost meter and still die instantly to an explosion, and other times it'd just put me in a critical state. Also another small problem I had was the walking bits for dialogue exposition. The story is crazy and fast paced, but it isn't THAT deep. Trying to give the player these slower moments in a very arcadey style shooter is a bit disjoined.

I also didn't end up sticking with any of the more gimmicky guns like the saw blade shooter, aerial lock on bow, or energy ball blaster. An assault rifle, heavy machine gun, and rocket launcher worked great, especially with the upgrade system where picking up duplicates and upgrade cubes would increase their power, ammo pool, or other attributes to the weapons.

Overall though, very fun shooter that flashes that Platinum level flair in its cutscenes and pure spectacle during gameplay.

Pure video games. First time playing this since it came out and I'd forgotten just how much of a "video game" it is. Vanquish isn't worried about telling a story let alone a good one. Like Doom 2016 and Eternal it has plenty of modern day gaming elements like actual cutscenes, but none of that shit matters. Get out there and shoot the shit out of robots for 4 and a half hours. It does this all so right and constantly that being upset about the near nonexistent story would just be silly. Game feels great and it's fun. All I need.

Platinum's output from Madworld all the way to Bayonetta 2 is just so, so special. It's such a sadness their CEO is going to lead them to a slow bleed out from working on live service bullshit.

Vanquish feels so at odds with itself that I found it difficult to really get into it. And, I mean, I really wanted to get into Vanquish! It always looked pretty cool and who among us doesn't love a dedicated button for smoking a cigarette at any time during a game?

I think the biggest problem is that it's a typical cover shooter which means the levels are scattered with barriers to hide behind and shoot from. I don't mind a cover shooter, but this level design seemed to actively prevent the cool parts of the gameplay (boosted power sliding and bullet time) from reaching their full potential. It feels great to jump and activate bullet time in just the right place to light up every enemy still on screen, but it feels a lot less satisfying when it's preceded by starting and stopping bullet time a handful of times prior because your dodge put you behind just enough of a piece of cover that all the enemies are hidden from sight. Similarly, going fast with the power slide largely ended up being relegated to traveling from one combat arena to the next, instead of facilitating cool moments during combat. A big part of that is that power sliding and bullet time have the same shared power supply so you may boost into enemies just to be out of energy to activate bullet time.

The story is similarly a land of contrasts. The full cutscenes, typically between acts, are a real treat in terms of your typical action move schlock taken to the extreme. It's genuinely a lot of fun and feels pretty engaging. (Although, the final set of twists feel very unearned.) Unfortunately, the majority of the story isn't told in these cutscenes but during mid-mission moments that turn to a first-person view with green scanlines and talking heads telling you the most rote action game minutia all without subtitles. It felt strange to say the least.

At the end of the day, I just was Vanquish was cooler! It has some neat ideas, but it doesn't take them far enough to truly feel like a step above the majority of the cover shooters from the 360/PS3 era.