Vanquish failed to grab me right away, and I was a little miffed about that. Then I shelved it for a few years, came back to it, and was still miffed when it still failed to grab me right away. But that was silly.

Once I gave it the time it deserved and grew into it, Vanquish turned out to be a challenging, deep, exhilarating shooter. Its story/writing are absolutely ludicrous, but besides that, I have no real qualms with it.

Vanquish is hard and frustrating at first. You have to unlearn some shooter habits in order to succeed, but you also have to master some real off the wall mechanics and techniques to feel like a champ. It does not come quickly or easily. But like MG Rising, the payoff is worth it.

The graphics are decent, though somewhat bland. But it's a nifty, very arcadey art style and color palette. It screams Sega to me, which it is (not that that's a good or bad thing). But the animation is crisp and smooth, delivering a mile-a-minute shooter experience that really assaults the senses in a good way.

Overall, Vanquish grew on me slowly, but the more I played it, the more I liked it. I look forward to dipping my feet back in sometime in the future, where hopefully I will fall somewhere higher up on the learning curve again even if it's a couple years from now!