Vanquish -PlatinumGames-

I'm on the third chapter of this and it still hasn't really clicked with me, and I'm not 100% sure it ever will.

I'm going to give it until the end of the game, but I think I might have to call out all those who championed this. It's not really that original when it comes down to it.

Awful, awful story.

After the superb Bayonetta this ain't all that - just by the nature of it, I suppose. Sam needs to be a bit more powerful to get the most out of what they've got here, I reckon. Maybe have put in some sort of combo system to keep your suit going a bit longer. As it stands, having your suit overheat straight after a melee seems to be hampering any sort creativity with the combat system.

I'm calling it here for those tempted to pick this up for the £17-£18 mark.

Vanquish is not that good.

Avon wrote:I'm calling it here for those tempted to pick this up for the £17-£18 mark.

Vanquish is not that good.

It's now down to £14@Zavvi

Avon wrote:I'm calling it here for those tempted to pick this up for the £17-£18 mark.

Vanquish is not that good.

Is it not worth £15?

It's a brief game but every second is awesome (well the last 2 bosses are meh) but apart from that it's strawberry floating off the scale balls to the wall epic fun.

First off it looks amazing, then there is the design and style of the game. It's like Devil May Cry with a robot suit. The boss fights, the combat, the slow mo, the sliding between the legs of an epic mech shooting a fully upgraded shotgun into his weak points. Then there are the characters, not since resident evil has there been so much over acting. It's a fantastic game, and while you may only get 10 hours out of it, it packs more OMG moments and pure joy into those 10 hours than most games do in 40.

Every second is most definitely not awesome, imo. Most of it is very by the numbers, and the fact that the suit overheats so easily constantly breaks up the gameplay and makes sure that it is absolutely nothing like DMC.

Just finished Act 3 and the past two or three chapters have been good. Before that, there's been a few bright spots in what is otherwise a pretty normal game.

Playing it wrong. Blates.

I really don't think I am.

I loaded up some high level play vids on YouTube and they weren't doing anything special.

For example, on the big robots, I'll happily chuck a grenade at one, slide on the floor, shoot the grenade in mid air to hit one of them, shoot another when it launches a rocket so it explodes and then at the end of my slide, melee a third, shooting him on the way down.

My gripe is that after that I've got to hop around dodging everyone else while my suit cools down, and that within the main moves, there's not really that much room to be creative. You just end up doing the same stuff again and again.

Oh and the worst part is, I can do what I just mentioned above and it feels pretty damn cool, but it's more risky and not a lot more effective than if I were to play it as a cover based shooter.

It really is a flawed battle system.

Also there's plenty of "just sit here and use this mounted gun/sniper rifle" bits which are both incredibly by the numbers and pretty boring.

Harry Bizzle wrote:I loaded up some high level play vids on YouTube and they weren't doing anything special.

For example, on the big robots, I'll happily chuck a grenade at one, slide on the floor, shoot the grenade in mid air to hit one of them, shoot another when it launches a rocket so it explodes and then at the end of my slide, melee a third, shooting him on the way down.

LOLWUT. Because you can do that in SO MANY games, right?

Oh and the worst part is, I can do what I just mentioned above and it feels pretty damn cool, but it's more risky and not a lot more effective than if I were to play it as a cover based shooter.

It's all about the danger. You can play it as a cover-based shooter, but then it's far less interesting that way. And it IS more effective to do it the cool way, as it's a lot faster and you'll score more.

It really is a flawed battle system.

It really isn't. I agree that the suit overheats a bit too easily, rationing the cool stuff a little bit, especially if you're a beginner and haven't figured out the best way to use it. Certainly God Hard difficulty ruins the game, because it practically forces you to stop and pop. But on Normal and Hard it's just brilliant.

By anything special, I meant they weren't doing anything I'm not doing. And you're right, you can't do it in that many games, but (you're going to hate this), WET did it. Sure, it wasn't as stylish or anything, but was pretty much the same slide mechanic. In fact, you can actually combo better in Wet. :lol:

And then there's the mystifying decision to put you on levels where you can't physically reach the enemies. They're over a bridge or whatever, and then you're just stuck. Pretty much all you can do then is jump, slow down time and shoot them and not a lot else.

It wouldn't be so bad as a one off, but they happen all the time and don't play to the games strengths at all.

As for scoring more - not even slightly interested, although that's not for want of trying. Scoring system is completely broken, and they make absolutely no attempt to even explain what nets you more points.

So the verdict is it's a bit hit and miss, some like it, some don't.

Bigerich wrote:
SugarDave wrote:
Bigerich wrote:The Checkpoint system in this game is shocking.

Why the strawberry float do they steal my upgrades when I choose to continue from checkpoint?

It's a punishment for dying or restarting.

By making it more difficult? What a brilliant piece of design.

It gives you an insentive not to die and to learn the game mechanics.
And it's not too bad, it only downgrades it a level.

This game is possibly one of the most beuatiful things I've ever seen =O

Are you guys playing in 720p?

Because it really doesn't look that great in 1080p. Sam looks good/great. Everything else is average looking with some pretty boring design and there's some pretty damn awful skyboxes for the city skyline in there - looks like a blown up JPEG in one place.

Jaggytastic for the most part, too.

Yeah 720

Does it even render at 1080?

Upscaled, hence the reduction of quality I expect.

That's the price you pay for it looking eyetastic at 720 =P

rudderless wrote:
It really is a flawed battle system.

It really isn't. I agree that the suit overheats a bit too easily, rationing the cool stuff a little bit, especially if you're a beginner and haven't figured out the best way to use it. Certainly God Hard difficulty ruins the game, because it practically forces you to stop and pop. But on Normal and Hard it's just brilliant.

I agree. If I remember correctly, you can take out a Romanov pretty easily with a well aimed melee attack/boost kick. The melee attack is pretty powerful, that's why it overheats the suit so easily. Obviously with that, there's an element of risk in getting back into cover while you are overheated, but that's what I liked about the game. When you pull off a daring move like that and get into cover safely, it feels awesome.

The game really comes alive on Hard.

Last boss spoilers.

Yeah, those guys are banana splits, although the game checkpoints after you beat one of them. Fighting the leftover one isn't too bad. I didn't even realize that the area changes on my normal playthrough, took me about 20 deaths until I noticed that. It helps sticking to the area where the cover is up and then moving when it goes down.

Still a banana split though.

How do you do the last boss mayne? The two Zone of the Enders type things. Can't do it for toffee

Make sure you skate around and get all of the rocket launchers. Then just make sure you keep on the move and behind cover relative to where they both are, heavy machine gun and grenades. Then when there's one left and he gets close melee and shotgun.

Vanquish -PlatinumGames-

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