Vanquish Reviews

yes. update on graphics is cool. still kinda cheezey but still worth the nastalgia.

Finished it on extreme difficulty and I must say. It's hell of a lot of fun! A very fast pased game. So if you are into that stuff, go for it. Pro tip: use a lot of cover, make headshots and take time ;)

21/7/2025 I put "thumb up" since I feel this one is nice. Got it in 2020 or 2021, for free. Sliding, shoot turrets.. lots of chaos if going with team. It is apparent that they reduce the chaos where Sam goes solo, which is weird if thought. Like, "why would the enemies just do not gang up on this one dude?" Issues here: - Enemies are "bullet sponges". I played on normal. I noticed some enemies have apparent weak point which is great. But, the others do not. Does not appear to have headshot mechanic, this game. Odd. - Movement is stiff. Move smoothly if going front/back/left/right relative to camera. No smooth diagonal movement, which is annoying, for me. Vaulting over cover is odd, really odd. Why do I need to hide first to be able to vault? Also, there is no jumping. Even dropping off a platform needs to be done at specific point plus a button press. Looking at how badass the movements are in cutscenes, what are available in-game are not much. Still, the game can be played. ("Mouse and keyboard" ok? I used controller. I might be missing some movement tricks here.) - The graphics is mid. I like PSP/PS3 games' look. Vanquish's is not so ok. Enemies' color may not make much contrast to the environment. But, given it is about "war", camouflage is a thing, so I am still fine with it. Rather a poor choice to have a graphic like this. But, hey, who am I to know much about graphics anyway? - Camera. And aiming. What is going on? Sam is over there, clearly unobstructed, I put the crosshair well on target, and the shots just go not where I wanted it to be. Not hiding behind cover helps with this but... covers are supposedly nice, right? Though the shooting sometimes is fine when taking cover, some other times is not. Also when in AR mode with rolling, camera goes too low that grasses a knee tall will obstruct the view.

Lots of fun and fast-paced. I regret not playing this back when it came out.

Frankly, it's got a neat premise. But the Upgrade system has a major issue: No matter how you die, you'll lose ranks, which is really bad if you fail a certain garbage QTE several times because apparently you need V-Sync active to make it. The game enjoys insta-kill moves a bit too much.

This game is genuinely really fun. In combat you can go from sliding around really fast while blasting enemies, to being grounded behind cover peeking out constantly to fire at enemies before hopping out and repositioning to either cover next to your current cover, or to the other side of the battlefield. you also have AR (Augmented Reaction) mode which works like a time slow, but you can't activate it at any time you want you can only do it after certain actions, now normally this would feel really oppressive, but luckily the devs put plenty of way to activate it in the game, so it does not feel oppressive. You can use AR mode to line up a clean shot, clear out a small group of enemies quickly, style points because let's be honest that one is really important, and at least 1 more that I'm forgetting. the downside is that it takes up suit energy, sliding and melee attacks also take up suit energy. There's a bunch of features that make themselves known but also a bunch of nuances that are never told to you for example, the melee attack you do while sliding is a dropkick, nice and simple right? WRONG if you hit an enemy with the dropkick you jump up off of them and into the air. alright cool that's where ends right? NO wrong again it also triggers when hitting a wall or an ally, but it also does not use energy when triggered like this, the jump is also a way to enter AR mode which means that you can use it to jump into the air and give yourself a clean shot at enemies behind cover and then activate AR mode and tear apart said enemies. but also when the jump is triggered by hitting an enemy, it only uses up your suit energy after landing, which means if there is a group of enemies you can slide in, kill the first one with the dropkick, activate AR mode midair, and kill the rest of the enemies. just like that, a group of enemies gone. and that's one example, there are even more things like that. even though I'm ending my review soon, I want you to know that I still have not even talked about a whole bunch of shit. also this game was developed by platinum games, so you know this shit is gonna be good.

A decent shooter. A bit short...but maybe that's for the best. It will get a bit repetitive at the end and the story is mediocre at best. But I enjoyed it. Get it on sale.

Decent shooter overall with the main game play point of having a extended slide. Overall though the game is forgettable with nothing really standing out and suffers from QTE's. The devs also think they are making cinematic gold with their sub par story since you can't skip and of it and you'll get story after clearing EVERY area and boss. 5/10

Fun game, great on sale. They really don't make them like this anymore. Worth the ~5 hours if you don't replay it.

This one hurts on a personal level, folks. When I played Vanquish back in the days — like 2018 maybe — I thought to myself: “what a fun, neat game, I wish they made another one”. It was a really refreshing experience, with over the top action, cool mechanics and interesting setting. But now, I am older, time passed a little and upon revisiting this game I finally understand why we never got a sequel. But first thing first. Vanquish is a third person cover shooter with strong emphasis on mobility and movement, developed by Platinum Games — the same jolly bunch that gave us Bayonetta or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Same with those titles, you can expect utter, unadulterated insanity and bonkers from gameplay. The game tells a story… you know what? There is no story here. Or rather — it is so poorly designed and executed in such a primitive way, that it doesn't matter at all. The premise? Once again the Ruskie were bad, they hijacked the orbital station and attacked the USA, so America sent “the Boys” to take it back. In the background there is obvious betrayal and double crossing, shown directly to our faces, so you, dear, player, are not confused too much. The plot? Move from A to B, kill enemies, do objectives, proceed to the next location. Characters in this game are no better — just a bunch of paper thin collections of thropes than real personalities. Our protagonist, Sam, tries too hard to act and sound like a badass, but he is too bland and forgettable; Robert Burns, commander of the USA forces is so over the top bitter veteran that was making me cringe every time when he speaks; Elena, our handler, is nothing more than talking head who give us objectives. Big bad dude shows only for like 10 minutes, which is more than madam president, who has maybe 2 or 3 cutscenes. Even regular enemies are also forgettable, because they all are ROBOTS. And you know, what is more absurd? Because the game really, really tries to build some kind of narration. We have dialogues on almost every step, long-ass cutscenes, but it means NOTHING. It baffles how much they show the story, and yet how little it matters. At some point of my playthrough I literally zone out, because this is nothing but noise. Experiencing the story of Vanquish is like going to the cinema to watch some summer blockbuster movie. You are there to socialize with friends and as soon as you leave the building, you completely forget what you just watched. Okay, but seriously, who gives a crap about the story? How about gameplay, eh? Well, I want to split this part into three categories: movement, gunplay and levels. Movement is the main thing in Vanquish. Everything built around it is superb. Sam has this neat armor that allows him to dash for a long distance, punch really hard and give the ability to bullet time. It is fun to use and gives you a massive power tip when you finally figure it out and start dominating on the battlefield. It is very satisfying to slide between the legs of some giant mech and attack his weak spot while flipping mid air. However, there are two downsides of suit mechanics. First — all your actions drain energy from one pool. Oh, you charge at some robot and punch him ONE time (because yes, you can perform only ONE melee attack)? Now you are in the middle of enemy forces, good luck. Or how about bullet time? It will automatically be enabled when your health is low, so sometimes you will end with no energy, because the last enemy randomly headshots you, and after killing him you are stuck for a few seconds in slow-mo, then you need to recharge the energy bar. Why I cannot turn it off with a button, devs? Second — there is no gameplay built around suit capabilities. You use bullet time to better aim at enemies or to escape, melee to fend them off, dash to move from cover to cover and that’s it! Why don't we have some level where we need dash to avoid obstacles, why we don’t have a level where we need to punch enemies because we lost our gun? All of this is just reduced to support shooting and therefore wasted potential. And shooting is bland and generic. Yeah, there is nothing standing out here — you played Gears of War? Then you already know how to shoot in Vanquish. Personally I am not a fan of cover shooters, because this gameplay is very limited with differentiation from guns only, very repetitive and predictable. You are glued to cover, waiting for enemies to pop up, and experiencing terrible bullet spread — which I really hate, because I want bullets to fly where I point. And it is designed with controllers in mind, because when you use a gamepad, you cannot be as precise as with mouse and keyboard, so to compensate developers creates this obnoxious mechanic. That's why I almost everytime pick up an Anti-armor pistol, which is the most precise weapon (aside from sniper rifle) in the game. Which is a good segway to the really bad mechanic in Vanquish — weapon upgrade. During gameplay enemies drop from time to time upgrade chips that you can use on your weapon, which grants you better damage, more ammo, bigger mags, less spread etc. But there is another option to do this — when you pick a weapon with full ammo you get a little “badge” to your weapon level. Collect enough of them and voila! You got another regular upgrade. You see where this is going? You are encouraged to NOT USE weapons you want, because as soon as you shoot from it EVEN ONE BULLET you cannot get a mini-upgrade. WHO DESIGNED THIS BULLCRAP? And guess what? You can easily bypass it by swapping weapons, picking fresh ones and then picking old ones. Why bother then, why waste players' time? To have “content for the sake of content?” Give me a break! Okay, last one — levels. The entire game takes place on this giant-ass orbital station looking like a big cylinder. So when you look above, you can see the entire structure, with all of the moving parts and other shit. It is neat and impressive, but the actual level, where all combat takes place, is very primitive. This is just a collection of corridors, open areas with covers and even more open areas with space to slide around bosses. Even more impressive set pieces, like encounters with big, walking fortresses are nothing but a disguise. The only real break from monotony is on-the-rails level, when you are fending enemies while standing on some moving platforms. Aside from that you will be doing the same for several hours more and more the same. So, how can I summarize the Vanquish in one sentence? All look, no substance. It is a perfect one-time only game, because replaying it is, maybe not boring, but significantly less interesting, even on higher difficulties. Now. It's over. Go home or something.