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.
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.