PlatinumGames is at it again with Vanquish did they bring the hype like Bayonetta or were they just a one hit wonder?
Gameplay -
What can I say about the gameplay that other reviewers haven't yet. Its over the top, fun, and non-stop action what is exactly what I was expecting from a PlatinumGames title. The game is kind of misleading though they say Sam is a football star, but all of his moves are baseball moves. I guess they were trying to pull the American audience in more. It's not game breaking, but it bothers me.
Sam can baseball slide to get to one place to another in a couple of seconds which is very needed in later parts of the game. He can also use that slide at an enemy and kick off of that enemy and slow motion shoot him while flipping through the air. The weapons includes Shotguns, Assault Rifles, Snipers, Rockets, Grenades, and so on. His arsenal isn't the most creative, but it makes up for it when you switch from one gun to another. The gun TRANSFORMS into the other gun which blew my mind when I first saw it.
There is a cover system that surprisingly works well it actually protects you from cover and he has some pretty cool stances while behind cover. You can blind-fire and throw grenades from behind cover which is the basic stuff for games with a cover system.
He also has a melee system which is pretty outrageous he can combo these really strong strikes and demolish the enemies in 2 to 3 hits. Also the bosses/Mini Bosses have little QTE which i'm fine with some confused me though like spinning the joystick. I wasn't ready for that.
Lastly the Slow Motion mode Sam has this mode where he slows down everything around him including himself. It happens when you launch yourself off of enemies or when you are on low health, so you can get away and get to cover.
Story -
To be honest I really don't know what happened during the story. All I remember is Russians, Terrorist Attack, Sam and His Team, Evil Bosses, Revenge, and Some girl..Oh yeah and Space we can't forget space. In all honesty I didn't expect much from the story because the action alone made up for it.
Graphics, Presentation, and Sound -
I enjoyed the graphics very much the detail on Sam's suit was amazing the enemies which I should mention are all robots looked very detailed and how they presented it all worked out well. The menu screen was kind of plain I was hoping for some music that pumped you up to play, but nope nothing just sound effects. I do remember some weird Music during the menu or Options Menu, but it wasn't really all that well. Some songs got you pumped during boss fights, but some songs just made you wanna mute the game which disappointed me because Bayonetta had such an amazing soundtrack. That when I heard this I was very disappointed. The noises of the melee hitting your enemies was very satisfying and made it actually feel like you were punching a robot. The gun sound effects were good. What made me happy was when a robot was about dead you would hear it spark and crack like it was actually breaking down.
A.I. -
The A.I. was some of the best A.I. I have seen for a shooter in a long time. They stayed in cover when you would suppress fire towards them and they would blind-fire hoping to hit you. The A.I. only got difficult when you played it on hard because they would up the damage to make it difficult at times. If there are gun turrets placed around while you are getting to a destination they would not shoot till you get out of cover which was kinda dumb because I was hoping for them to suppress fire on me while I was in cover, but only the little bots did that. The boss fights were actually intense at times because they would actually beat you down and you have a chance to fight back other than they beat you down and you can't do anything back to them. There were a couple of bugs like the minions would just stand there sometimes just staring at me doing nothing. Little bugs bothered me, but overall the A.I. was very well done.
Overall -
This game is made for fun I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys action packed shooters that are fast and easy to learn. I had trouble getting into, but once you get the hang of the controls you will be doing things that seemed impossible when you first started. I would only pick this up for the gameplay the story is kind of bland and boring, but this is one of the best shooters out there in terms of gameplay.