| 05 September 2010
Vanquish is the latest game developed by Platinum Games, a studio comprised of some of Japan's heaviest hitters in the videogame development world. The team are made up of ex-Capcom and Clover Studios developers, and includes the creative directors of such games as Resident Evil, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, the Ace Attorney games, and more recently Bayonetta. With such a staggeringly impressive pedigree behind them, you'd expect something truly special from Vanquish, but just what exactly did the Easy Mode crew think of the recently released demo? Read on to find out.
Steve
Vanquish is a game which very openly wears its influences on its sleeve. And why not? After all, the developers of Vanquish are the very same people who developed all of the games which influenced it – games such as Resident Evil 4, Bayonetta, P.N. 03 and quite possibly even a little bit of Viewtiful Joe. As you'd expect from a team with such a storied back-catalogue, Vanquish is an extremely accomplished, fast-paced and polished third-person shooter.
Much like Platinum Games' previous title Bayonetta, Vanquish seems like a game very much suited to players of all ability levels; the basic components of the game's combat system being easily enough grasped so that a player of any level can instantly become fairly proficient, the game's tutorial reveals an almost bewildering number of techniques above and beyond that which you'd find in any conventional cover-based third-person shooter. This leaves you with the impression that whilst the majority of the game can probably be completed without ever deviating from standard cover-based shooter conventions, the game will really open up to the players who embrace these mechanics, and that to truly see the game at its most fluid would require subtle mastery of these techniques.
In terms of the way the game plays, Vanquish certainly possesses a unique flow, and as tactless as the action and cut-scenes may appear, the combat system seems to harbour a strange sense of grace. However, this same sense of grace doesn't extend to all aspects of the game, and the game has a few issues which seem to be largely at odds with what the combat system is trying to achieve. For example, whilst the game relies heavily on the ability to move elegantly between cover, the cover system itself is sometimes a little too imprecise, and you'll often find yourself trapped out in the open because you accidentally boosted past the next piece of cover.
However, what is easily the game's biggest offence, is that the demo's end of level boss possesses an ultra-cheap one-hit-kill attack, which it unleashes just prior to its defeat. This is compounded by the fact that dying at any point during said boss fight (which in the demo was a multi-stage fight) results in the player being kicked right back to the start of the fight. In this day and age, the inclusion of such a mechanic is both cheap and insulting to the player, and seems like an enormous step backwards from all of the improvements made to third-person shooters over the years. So much so in fact, that whilst many gamers would likely have been willing to overlook the minor issues with the cover system, it seems doubtful that many gamers will be willing to overlook such a glaringly contentious and potentially game breaking fault.
Russ
I didn't know a dang thing about Vanquished before playing the demo today, and I came away pretty impressed. There are a few fundamental things in this game that got me really excited - because of their implications for future games.
First, you don't switch guns in this game. Your guns will morph into whatever model you need them to be - it's actually a pretty cool trick. I've always been slightly annoyed by the fact that characters can change guns at lightning speeds, even in more realistic shooter games, and this sidesteps the issue completely. Secondly, we've all been annoyed when you fill up your gun's ammo, only to see more ammo lying around that you a) can't pick up and b) might need later in the game. Vanquished turns this problem into a solution: if you have a gun with full ammo and you come across ammo for that gun, that ammo turns into a power-up, increasing the gun's ammo capacity, etc. It's a brilliant idea. Lastly, if you happen to die and have to go back to the nearest checkpoint, your power-ups come back with you. In essence, if you're stuck at a certain part and can't get past it, as you play that part over and over again, you'll slowly power yourself up and get enough perks to blast your way through to the next area. It's a great way to provide balance - less skilled players will be able to beat challenging parts not through repetition but through a gradual powering-up - and feels less like cheating than BioShock's Vita-Chambers.
When it comes down to it, this game has its ups and downs. It's refreshing to play a game that's akin to Gears of War but doesn't move at a lumbering pace, and there's a very deep control system to this game. I was instantly annoyed by the shoddy localization, and was reminded of Lost Planet a lot of the time. I can see this game ranging from mediocre to solid, and if the end product is well-received, I might pick this one up when it launches next month.
Mark
When Steve asked us all if we wanted to do a Demotopia for this game, I said yes even though I knew literally nothing about it. For all I knew it was a turn-based collectible card trading kart racer (wait...that sounds awesome). So I was happy when I realized that it actually turned out to be a pretty great demo. Well...the first 95% of the demo at least.
Vanquish sort of struck me as a Japanese take on Gears of War, where instead of big, burly dudes one-lining their way through hordes of gnarly monsters, there were svelte, dashing playboys one-lining their way through hordes of shiny mechs. Not such a bad thing, though. The game was fast and smooth, the weapons did their jobs with gusto, and overall it was a lot of fun.
HOWEVER, and I'm sure Steve will say the same thing, the demo's boss fight made the same mistake that Japanese games make over and over again, where when they get down to what you think is their final bot of health NO! they transform into an even bigger boss! And then, just when you finally get that mega-boss down to its final bit of health, it deploys it one-shot-kill weapon and sends you aaaaaallllll the way back to the beginning of the battle. So cheap, so annoying, so the opposite of what should happen.
It was precisely that - being sent back to the beginning of the fight three times - that caused me to turn it off and not finish the demo. It's really unfortunate that one single thing like that can sully the name of what is otherwise a really fun game, but that's just not something that I have the patience for.
I definitely recommend checking out the demo because there is some good gameplay in there, just do yourself a favor and turn it off before you begin to hate it.
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