What a world we live in. We as gamers should feel so lucky to have such a variety of
different genres, fleshed out plots and characters and a bevy of mechanics to choose from,
unfortunately though if you chose to play Vanquish you got none of those things.
Vanquish is a 3rd person shooter brought to us by Sega and Platinum Games and directed
by Shinji Mikami, of Resident Evil fame.
by Shinji Mikami, of Resident Evil fame.
The story goes thusly: Earth has gotten too crap for humanity so America decide to take that
upon themselves and create a cylindrical hub, called Providence, for everyone to live on
instead, this hub running on a solar energy microwave transmitter as an alternative energy
source. Why does America think that they can solve everything? I mean, I guess they’re
probably the ones that caused Earth to run out of resources in the first place but there’s a
sense of arrogant bravado about them every time they try to rush to aid the entrapped
masses that ticks me right off.
upon themselves and create a cylindrical hub, called Providence, for everyone to live on
instead, this hub running on a solar energy microwave transmitter as an alternative energy
source. Why does America think that they can solve everything? I mean, I guess they’re
probably the ones that caused Earth to run out of resources in the first place but there’s a
sense of arrogant bravado about them every time they try to rush to aid the entrapped
masses that ticks me right off.
Anyway, shit hits the fan when Russia decide to hijack Providence and use the solar energy
microwave transmitter to destroy San Francisco and threaten to turn it on New York unless
the American government surrender. I’m not entirely sure what they think will happen when
they do surrender. I guess Russia will control America at that point but the way they portray
it in the plot of Vanquish is that America is the key to the door that is Earth, if you control
America you control it all. This is another gross misunderstanding of America’s social standing
on this floating rock we call home; just because you’re a fairly big country it doesn’t mean
you’re the be all and end all guys, there are plenty of other countries that Russia would have
to conquer as well they don’t all just fall like dominoes once America is under the thumb.
microwave transmitter to destroy San Francisco and threaten to turn it on New York unless
the American government surrender. I’m not entirely sure what they think will happen when
they do surrender. I guess Russia will control America at that point but the way they portray
it in the plot of Vanquish is that America is the key to the door that is Earth, if you control
America you control it all. This is another gross misunderstanding of America’s social standing
on this floating rock we call home; just because you’re a fairly big country it doesn’t mean
you’re the be all and end all guys, there are plenty of other countries that Russia would have
to conquer as well they don’t all just fall like dominoes once America is under the thumb.
You play Sam Gideon, a Darpa agent equipped with an absurdly versatile Augmented
Reaction Suit, is sent in to help the American space marine force and stop Russia from
getting their hands on a giant orbital space laser. A couple of things: 1) Gideon’s a bit on the
nose don’t you think Sega? You may as well of just called him Sam Savesusall. 2) Darpa?
Really? This stands for Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency which in all honesty just sounds like a load of words that someone thought fit and they were just thrown together.
But I digress. Sam is paired up with a no nonsense, manly tough guy Lt. Col. Robert Burns,
who is more mech suit than man - honestly this guy is built like a tank, and wearing most of
one, and can still move pretty quick without herniating anything.
Getting back to your Augmented Reaction Suit for a second. This suit is equipped with jet
boosters that help you merrily glide across the floor on your knees like Sam is celebrating a
wonder strike goal in a Sunday league match. It also comes with an adaptable weapons
system that scans existing weapons and morphs to fit their shape. It seems a good idea in
theory but what it really means is the designers couldn’t be bothered to animate the guns on
Sam’s back and instead opted for a much easier re-skin whenever you change guns. The jet
boosters add a new dimension to gameplay, letting you fly around the battlefield shooting
anything that moves. The problem with this is twofold: 1) You move way too fast to hit
anything consistently, which is probably why the game gives you a bullet-time mechanic to
mess about with as well. 2) Using your jets runs down your power gauge giving you a small
amount of use, this would be fine if the game just stopped you from using the jets for a while
but it doesn’t stop there. Your power gauge running low not only stops you from using your
jets but also weakens your shield until it regenerates, and Sam lumbers around the battlefield like a lemon for a while which is infuriating in the middle of a firefight.
Sam is tasked with the quest is to retrieve some scientist who was taken by the Russian’s.
This scientist was the brains behind Sam’s AR suit so naturally makes one for the Russians
which completely outclasses Sam’s suit, I mean this one has wings and lock on missiles how can you compete? Long story short, Sam and Burns manage to get to the scientist just as he gets assassinated... by Burns - I know right, huge twist - but not before he tells Sam that he managed to disable the giant laser and that Burns and Winters (the American president in Vanquish) have betrayed the United States. Burns tries to manually move the disabled space laser to target Russia in an attempt to fulfil his duty of destroying Russia, however after a little scuffle between Sam and Burns Burns decides to have a change of heart and, after letting Sam get far enough away, blows himself and the rest of his troops to kingdom come.
Sam potters about for a little bit longer before running into not one, but two AR suits
controlled by the head of the Order of the Russian Star, the guys that have been controlling
this whole coup from the start. He informs Sam that everything that transpired had all been
due to Winters support of the Order of the Russian Star, though she had decided to betray
them and use the tragedy as a pretence to invade Russia. Sam defeats both AR suits and,
after finding that they were both being remotely controlled, decides to leave quietly, Nah,
only joking, one of the suits has a bomb in it that gets activated blowing up everything that
Burns didn’t manage to. Sam manages to get to an escape pod and...game’s over. It’s
honestly as quick as that, I even double check via a YouTube video that my game hadn’t
glitched or anything.
I kinda felt a bit cheated really because neither the fight with Burns nor the fight with the two
AR suits felt like an end-boss fight, I was prepared for more like Sam plummeting back to
Earth to expose the American government. But no, Winters is allowed to go about her daily
life and put a gun to her head in a very unexpectedly and overly graphic suicide scene:
close up, blood everywhere.
I’m not going to mince words here, Vanquish is a very underwhelming game. The gameplay
is repetitive and executed poorly, none of the characters are interesting in any respect and
the story is all over the place. The main thought that I had throughout my time playing this 7
hour train wreck was “isn’t this a nice ego boost for Americans.” the whole game is draped in that “holier than thou” attitude that America goes into everything with, the fact that there was no backlash for them blowing up New York on the President’s ok baffles me, mainly because this is a Japanese game! It feels like a power complex being written by a teenager, they understand that real life Russia are the real power of the world and America could never overthrow them but they can dream though.
So this has been my rendition of Vanquish, I hoped you enjoyed reading and make sure you
keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming, news and updates and check us
out on Twitter at @gcgamingtank.
Happy gaming guys!
Reaction Suit, is sent in to help the American space marine force and stop Russia from
getting their hands on a giant orbital space laser. A couple of things: 1) Gideon’s a bit on the
nose don’t you think Sega? You may as well of just called him Sam Savesusall. 2) Darpa?
Really? This stands for Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency which in all honesty just sounds like a load of words that someone thought fit and they were just thrown together.
But I digress. Sam is paired up with a no nonsense, manly tough guy Lt. Col. Robert Burns,
who is more mech suit than man - honestly this guy is built like a tank, and wearing most of
one, and can still move pretty quick without herniating anything.
Getting back to your Augmented Reaction Suit for a second. This suit is equipped with jet
boosters that help you merrily glide across the floor on your knees like Sam is celebrating a
wonder strike goal in a Sunday league match. It also comes with an adaptable weapons
system that scans existing weapons and morphs to fit their shape. It seems a good idea in
theory but what it really means is the designers couldn’t be bothered to animate the guns on
Sam’s back and instead opted for a much easier re-skin whenever you change guns. The jet
boosters add a new dimension to gameplay, letting you fly around the battlefield shooting
anything that moves. The problem with this is twofold: 1) You move way too fast to hit
anything consistently, which is probably why the game gives you a bullet-time mechanic to
mess about with as well. 2) Using your jets runs down your power gauge giving you a small
amount of use, this would be fine if the game just stopped you from using the jets for a while
but it doesn’t stop there. Your power gauge running low not only stops you from using your
jets but also weakens your shield until it regenerates, and Sam lumbers around the battlefield like a lemon for a while which is infuriating in the middle of a firefight.
Sam is tasked with the quest is to retrieve some scientist who was taken by the Russian’s.
This scientist was the brains behind Sam’s AR suit so naturally makes one for the Russians
which completely outclasses Sam’s suit, I mean this one has wings and lock on missiles how can you compete? Long story short, Sam and Burns manage to get to the scientist just as he gets assassinated... by Burns - I know right, huge twist - but not before he tells Sam that he managed to disable the giant laser and that Burns and Winters (the American president in Vanquish) have betrayed the United States. Burns tries to manually move the disabled space laser to target Russia in an attempt to fulfil his duty of destroying Russia, however after a little scuffle between Sam and Burns Burns decides to have a change of heart and, after letting Sam get far enough away, blows himself and the rest of his troops to kingdom come.
Sam potters about for a little bit longer before running into not one, but two AR suits
controlled by the head of the Order of the Russian Star, the guys that have been controlling
this whole coup from the start. He informs Sam that everything that transpired had all been
due to Winters support of the Order of the Russian Star, though she had decided to betray
them and use the tragedy as a pretence to invade Russia. Sam defeats both AR suits and,
after finding that they were both being remotely controlled, decides to leave quietly, Nah,
only joking, one of the suits has a bomb in it that gets activated blowing up everything that
Burns didn’t manage to. Sam manages to get to an escape pod and...game’s over. It’s
honestly as quick as that, I even double check via a YouTube video that my game hadn’t
glitched or anything.
I kinda felt a bit cheated really because neither the fight with Burns nor the fight with the two
AR suits felt like an end-boss fight, I was prepared for more like Sam plummeting back to
Earth to expose the American government. But no, Winters is allowed to go about her daily
life and put a gun to her head in a very unexpectedly and overly graphic suicide scene:
close up, blood everywhere.
I’m not going to mince words here, Vanquish is a very underwhelming game. The gameplay
is repetitive and executed poorly, none of the characters are interesting in any respect and
the story is all over the place. The main thought that I had throughout my time playing this 7
hour train wreck was “isn’t this a nice ego boost for Americans.” the whole game is draped in that “holier than thou” attitude that America goes into everything with, the fact that there was no backlash for them blowing up New York on the President’s ok baffles me, mainly because this is a Japanese game! It feels like a power complex being written by a teenager, they understand that real life Russia are the real power of the world and America could never overthrow them but they can dream though.
So this has been my rendition of Vanquish, I hoped you enjoyed reading and make sure you
keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming, news and updates and check us
out on Twitter at @gcgamingtank.
Happy gaming guys!
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