Good and original games are far and between. Vanquish is one of those games. There’s not deep value here, no Shakespearean story, no fuss, just pure and fun action. In fact, there might be a bit too much action with nothing in between at times, but for the most part, Vanquish is a great, fun action game.
Vanquish is a third person shooter which relies on heavy action, lots of explosions, and cover as well. If that sounds like many other recent action game,s especially those who are replicating Gears of War, well, Vanquish throws in something new. For one, in Vanquish, you have a ridiculous armored suit which can power slide from cover to cover, and two, you can slow time for brief moments with the “AR” feature. Granted, neither of those are original, but blended together with lots of action, it works quite well. The story is, as you might expect, weak and so are the cut-scenes and dialogue, since there is so much focus on action. But you’re not really buying this game for its narrative drive, you’re getting it to have fun. And there’s a lot of that.
The gameplay, while relying on cover, is actually more or less based on speed, and cover isn’t used like on other games. Your cover is only good for a moment or two, until it gets blown away or the enemy flanks you, so you’re constantly forced to be on your toes and on the move. The missions are well structured and different enough to avoid too much repetition, but there isn’t much breathing room either — you’ll be going from one large set piece to another, and when you do that in an already high-paced game, there’s no time to just relax for a moment or two and maybe catch up on the story or get to know the characters. We’d wish there was. But for pure adrenaline junkies, the gameplay is a blast. One thing that breaks off the battles with countless enemies, are the boss battles, which are structured in such way that they increase in size and challenge throughout the game — just the way it should be.
The game does fall short a few places. As mentioned, we’d wish a bit better pacing than non-stop action during its 6 hour campaign, which is a tad too short, in our opinion. Visually, the game is up to par, and the sound effects are quite good (lots of explosions). Overall, it seems they had more content here, but decided to trim everything down to what the game is: pure action and nothing else. And for that, it’s an excellent game.
The Good:
Lots of fun
Large set pieces
Fast paced
The Bad:
Pacing can be off
Campaign is a bit too short
Overall score: 8/10
