Vanquish (PS3) review

What better way to follow up the Binary Domain review than with its spiritual predecessor, Vanquish? Though Vanquish and Binary Domain hail from similar roots, they certainly differ when the rubber meets the road. Does Vanquish still hold up after a couple of years on the market, or has its very existence been shot full of holes?

The story in Vanquish is beyond far-fetched. It takes place in a future where the earth has become so overpopulated that America has built a space station orbiting earth for its people to live in. The Russian government has been overthrown by a group of ultra-nationalists. The Russians have begun seizing control of the space station and it’s up to DARPA’s Sam Gideon to get it all back in order with some help from the grizzly war veteran Robert Burns and a few hundred nameless soldiers.

Rocket Sliding around the battlefield is fast and fun.

Sam is outfitted with the Augmented Reaction Suit, DARPA’s most advanced fighting suit ever created. It allows him to increase his reaction time so it feels like time slows down and move around the battlefield using rocket-powered boosters on his arms and legs. It also contains a weapon system that allows Sam to scan and store any three weapons, switching to them immediately as he wishes.

At its core, Vanquish is a cover-based third person shooter with destructible cover. This adds an emphasis on maneuvering around the battlefield, keeping the pace of combat frenetic and exciting. Sam can initiate the slow motion mechanic at-will to help keep combat manageable. Slow motion will also be activated if Sam takes too much damage. Once the slow motion timer runs out, Sam’s suit will overheat, rendering him nothing more than a standard soldier without no suit abilities while the suit cools down. Sam can also go in close for a melee attack, but this will cause the suit to overheat immediately. This risk-reward system makes melee exhilarating as it can have huge payoff or dire consequences.

You'll have all the communist computers sending bullets your way all you could want.

For everything exciting Vanquish does, the excitement feels short-lived. The game itself will take only five or six hours to work your way through. There are five chapters, and each chapter is broken into multiple missions. These individual missions can take anywhere from four to twenty minutes to complete, and players are graded on their performance within each mission. When the end credits rolled on my playthrough, it had literally taken me less than five hours to complete (with a playtime of 4:59:50).

Though the game is short and the scoring is arcade-oriented, I can’t imagine many people will want to play through Vanquish more than once. The story is nothing more than a cobbled-together means to drive the combat. Sam, Burns, and the other characters are irritating. The game also contains the worst kind of quick time events – mash on a single button until you fill a meter.

Content

Vanquish is rated M for Mature by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, and Strong Language. The most noticeable of these is the strong language, which is used all throughout the game and is certainly worth being concerned about. There is as much said here as any R-rated movie will contain, so be aware if choosing this title for a younger audience. The blood and gore is minimal throughout, with an egregious offender of this in the final few minutes of the game. I would go so far as to suggest the scene with the blood and gore borders on disturbing. The game is also rife with intense violence, though at its core, this is what drives the fun on Vanquish, so if you want to avoid it, you probably shouldn’t pick up this title to begin with.

Conclusion

Vanquish makes a few missteps in its storytelling and execution. The combat itself is quite fun, and the enemies are varied enough to keep you on your toes. Given the game’s short length, some may be reticent to pick this title up, but at this point it can be found in just about any bargain bin for $15-20. If you’re looking for something to burn through on a weekend with a lot of flash, this is a title worth picking up.

Note: This review is based on the Playstation 3 version of the game. To the best of my knowledge this is completely comparable to the Xbox 360 version.