Post by solidbatman on May 31, 2011 13:00:48 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.4/10
Like everything about this game, the visuals are over the top. Unlike a lot of shooters, there seems to be no limit to the number of enemies that can appear on screen at once, and the game handles this very well with absolutely no slowdown what so ever. The suit that Sam, our main character, wears is impressive looking and the blur effects of his rocket slide are great. The game takes place on a giant space colony orbiting Earth and the developers did a great job making the environment fit the setting.
-Sound- 8.5/10
The music featured is a techno soundtrack, which fits the setting of the game and adds to the environment. The voice acting, while not incredible, is decent enough and does convey proper emotion. The sound effects are loud, loud loud. With bullets flying around, things blowing up around you, and your fellow soldiers dying around you, it can sound pretty hectic.
-Gameplay- 9/10
Vanquish is a fast paced stylized third person shooter. Pretty much, nothing is worth doing, unless you can make it look awesome. To make this happen, Sam is equipped with a suit called an Augmented Reaction Suit. This suit, developed by DARPA, essentially turns you into a walking tank. Unlike a tank, though, you can move extremely quickly utilizing a rocket glide that allows you to slide along the ground at a very fast speed. The suit will overheat if you slide for too long though and it must cool down. When this happens, you will be a lot less mobile. The game forces you to slide from one point of cover to another point of cover to avoid taking damage.
If at any point you take too much damage, you will enter Augmented Reality mode, which slows down time and allows you to find cover. Upon exiting AR mode, your suit will need a cooling off period, just like using the rocket slide for too long. You can also manually turn AR mode on to help you clear out a group of enemies if there is little cover, or to get behind larger enemies to get their weak spot. Boss battles are a huge part of Vanquish. I say huge because the bosses are just that. They are just massive. Of course, the boss battles are as simple as finding the weak point of the boss, and laying waste to it.
Vanquish scores everything that you do as well. Like many arcade shooters, you get points for completing the level quickly, killing and blowing up plenty enemies, and making it all look good. Naturally, you lose points for allowing team members to die, dying yourself, and you lose a time bonus for taking too long. One of my only complaints about this game is the length. I finished the game in just under 4 hours. It was a fun 4 hours, but i wished it could have lasted longer.
-Story- 7/10
Not much of a story, but to sum it up, the United States government is at war with Russian extremist that have taken over the Russian government. The US had launched a space colony to use sunlight as an alternative fuel source, but the Russians end up taking it over and turning it into a weapon to destroy San Fransisco and call for the immediate surrender of the US or have New York City destroyed. The US president instead sends marines, under the command of decorated war hero Robert Burns, to the colony to take the colony back. Sam Gideon, out main character is also given a secret objective; rescue Dr. Francois Candide who is working on the colony and is trying to disable the colony. There is very little character development and I felt a lack of connection to the story.
-Overall- 8.3/10
The best way to describe this game is style over substance. It looks and plays great but lacks a good story and character depth. It also is very short and doesn't have much in the way of replay value. It's a fun game and a great way to kill a few hours if you're bored.