Vanquish might feel like a game of a bygone era, when Japanese developers were trying to make dudebro shooters and when the chosen palette of colors was limited to greys and browns, but surprisingly enough most of the game has aged quite well, and that's thanks to its fantastic gameplay, that eventually inspired other games as well. The movement is very satisfying, and the pace of the game turns it into an action game, more than a shooter, which you can take advantage of with the mechanics of boosting and AR, which essentially speed up or slowdown the action significantly. The use of them is basically the defining element of the game, and the result is insanely fun. The set pieces of the game are also surprisingly cool on their own, and deliver some really action-packed moments. It's not a long game at all, but every moment is very satisfying, and you're constantly on the heat of the action. The bosses are repeated a bit, and sometimes their difficulty comes from their number, but I thought most encounters were actually quite good, with a lot of memorable ones. Last but not least, the story is very cheesy and quite dumb, reminiscent of a B movie's plot, but of course it's quite fitting to the crazy setting and the accompanying action of the game.

Overall, a short but extremely fun game, and despite the fact I'm not a fan of shooters or character action games, I loved it quite a bit.