Vanquish [Impressions & Giveaway]
Comments Closed! ‘Grats to the Winner!
It takes a lot of guts to release a title on the same day as a hyped up, inevitable blockbuster like Fallout: New Vegas. Especially when that title is a brand new, shiny IP. However, when that title has the ability to stand up against a well established series during the holiday gaming rush… then I suppose this kind of launch is understandable.
And Sega’s third person sci-fi shooter, Vanquish, definitely holds its own. Dreamed up by Shinji Mikami, the mind behind the Resident Evil series, Vanquish hit stores last Tuesday, October 19th. And while I haven’t beaten the game just yet, I felt the need to write a little something about a s0-far-outstanding new IP, that I’d hate for you to overlook during the holiday season.
With games like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, Fable III, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, and of course, the recently released Fallout: New Vegas… well, that could easily happen. So I’m going to rant and giveaway my copy, to do my part to ensure that it doesn’t.
I’ve made my way through the first two acts, and two things stood out to me the most. The story and the gameplay. The first, the story… is absolutely terrible. Campy dialogue, ridiculous characters, and cliche sci-fi gibberish make for something entirely forgettable. The brief synopsis of the plot?
“Set in the near future… Russia and the United States are vying for ownership of the world’s fast-depleting energy resources and the US has constructed a space station in order to harness energy from the sun. Russian forces capture this space station and divert its harvested solar energy into a blast wave that destroys San Francisco, aiming to force the US into a total and unconditional surrender. In response, the US tasks its armed forces with recapturing the space station before the Russians can annihilate their next target – New York.”
Ah, Russia vs. the US. You play Sam, a government agent with a ridiculously awesome suit of armor and a love of snippy one liners and cigarettes. For some reason, there are enormous robots to battle in the space station, ships crash through as you make your way through epic battles, which of course, means incredible explosions and wild cut scenes… in a space station. In space. You know, where stuff can decompress and explode.
Whatever. Sure, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. But the gameplay… my God. With a press of a button, you can send Sam sliding across the floor, at super speeds, blasting from his array of weapons, each of which fold out of his armor in intricate, awesome animation. The bosses and robots that inhabit the station are enormous, with large pulsating circles (surprise surprise) for you to blast away at.
But this ain’t no Lost Planet, and thankfully, no Lost Planet 2 (ugh!). These monstrous robotic creations take a WHILE to cut down. On normal, it took me an embarrassing amount of time to defeat the very first boss. The first one. This game will kick your ass… but you’ll love it for that.
Sometimes a story doesn’t matter in the wake of excellent gameplay. The blah story behind Red Faction: Guerrilla taught me that much. Not every space age adventure can be Mass Effect, kids. Vanquish teaches you to just shut up and enjoy the ride.
That being said, I want to share this awesome ride with you, dear readers. Just leave a comment, and I’ll select one of you at random to receive a free copy of Vanquish for the Xbox 360. Contest ends November 2nd, which I hope gives me enough time to beat the game. What? Don’t judge me. This game is awesome. You’ll have your turn.
game looks pretty sweet. would love to try it out
Russia vs. USA? the 80s are calling they want their plots back
i suspect something got lost in translation.
Meh. I like a good story.
A weak story may not inspire me to relearn the controls after the inevitable hiatus, but still might be worth trying.
Looks interesting, I heard the story was pretty awful, but I’m glad to see the gameplay is at least entertaining.
The world needs more giant robots in space
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zljRDFoVt5E
as good a time as any to visit one of the wondrous ways man can get himself into a super suit
I’d love to give it a try. And the 2nd is my birthday! So I guess I have to win, right?
Looks pretty good, gameplay looks fantastic… Though I should like to point out what looks like a typo in your article. “You know, where stuff and decompress and explode.” I’m not quite sure you worded that properly. The journalism major in me comes out…
Hey Eric, I saw the rollerblading mecha guy and I was sold.
This game does seem pretty bad ass! What a way to end their four game deal with Sega!
Sweet! Thanks for the chance to win!
If I win…Happy Birthday to me!
I’ve really been looking forward to this game
The new wall-running: uber-floor-sliding!