Vanquish is a futuristic third person shooter from Shinji Mikami, the developer behind the Resident Evil and Devil May Cry franchises.

Vanquish seems to employ the best aspects from a number of highly acclaimed games and game franchises. You have the third person viewpoint and cover system of Gears of War, the regenerating health of Halo: Reach, a hint of Bayonetta's sex appeal, the attitude and mechanized baddies of Metal Gear Solid, the bullet time mode of a lot of games these days, and the rapid-fire quicktime events of…well of even more games these days.



The characters in this game  are incredibly cliche. The main character, Sam, who is described as an ex-college football star whose career was ended by injury only for him to be recruited by the government. This begs the question – is Mikami a fan of the movie Point Break? Continuing the cliches are a nerdy computer whiz girl with an IQ of 183 and short blonde hair as well as a fellow soldier who’s more a pile of muscles attached to a gruffy voice than anything else.



To say Vanquish is fast-paced would be the greatest understatement in the history of any game. This game moves at freakin’ light speed. More bullets whiz by your character’s head and more missiles concuss around him in mere minutes than many real life soldiers see in a lifetime of combat. It’s chaos, but it’s controllable thanks to the physics-defying and awe-inducing capabilities of your character’s mech suit. It’s not just the speed with which stuff happens though, it’s also the sheer amount of stuff. Apparently the air of the future is full of more smoke, explosions, and spent munitions than modern factories can produce in a year.




The game’s protagonist, Sam, lives within a futuristic combat suit called the ARS – Augmented Reaction Suit. It lets Sam pull of some crazy maneuvers, not least of which is the jetpack assisted boosting that you can do across the floor. He may be an ex-football player but in this suit he moves like the deadliest gymnast the world has ever known.

Vanquish’s weapons are pretty slick, if only for the way they transform from one to another. Take some time in the tutorial to just watch the way they morph from one to another. In the one mission available you get hands on with an Assault Rifle, a Heavy Machine Gun, and a Shotgun. The tutorial also lets you squeeze off a couple rounds with the Blade Gun and Rocket Launcher. They all seem like weapons of destruction that, if I had them at my side today, would make it conquering the world pretty easy. (Also, if you think you know how to play the game and want to skip the tutorial I suggest you finish it again cause there is an achievement in it for your troubles.)

I need a smoke – This doesn’t have much of an effect on the gameplay or mechanics of the game, but I had to include it. When ducking behind cover, pressing the left bumper (on the 360 controller) will cue a “Smoke Break,” as the controls screen calls it. Sam takes his mask down, lights up a butt, takes a puff, spikes it, and gets back to work. I’m not sure if this refills his suits energy gauge or something, but at the very least it’s just cool.




Vanquish is like stretching your lips over a fire hydrant spout and telling a water company employee to turn the valve. It’s like using habanero pepper extract as eye drops. It’s like putting high-powered drill bits into each of your ears and hammering the triggers. Well, it’s like all those things except it doesn’t hurt you physically and it will have you coming back for more. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a seizure to suffer. Thanks, Mikami!

I will have a full written review in a few days, so check back soon!