VANQUISH
Platform: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Hardcore games love to lament the dying state of the industry, how this company or that neglects them for some other prospective consumer, which makes it an even greater tragedy when a game which is sure to crash and burn at the sales charts is the perfect love letter to their desires.
VANQUISH is a game designed around the idea that combat isn't about getting to the next stage, but about the act of killing. Here is a system which celebrates the art of taking down an enemy with almost religious fervor, lavishing in the rain of destruction that consumes Sam Gideon from the word go. It has almost a form of tunnel vision; every other aspect of the game becomes incidental, an excuse to shuttle you from one incredible set piece to the next while you invent ever more elaborate ways to cause pain.
As a third person action title, the game centers around an armored hero who has the ability to rocket slide in and out of combat, and combines this ability with slow mo and a shot gun blast to the face. The controls are so perfect and the game so responsive that nothing comes off as anything other than a complete joy. You'll revel in the death of your foes as much as the game does. It's action at a blistering, unrelenting pace, and I loved every fucking minute.
There is no story. It's a parody of serious games, the equivalent of a flash screen pulling you along saying "the princess is in another castle." It's hopeful in its production, hinting at the idea that there is more to come, but it is ever in the background, knowing precisely how much value it has.
This game has a sick amount of replay value. On Hard this game feels like some fucking barbarian ballet, sweeping and swooping rocket sliding about to the rhythm of the battle in a beautiful symphony of bullets. The flow of this game is just incredible. Never has the simple details of combat been so fun in a third person shooter. There is an obscene amount of ways to tackle each moment, never exhausting its welcome. And with the elaborate score system intricately tracking every bullet and second of your performance, you'll find yourself endlessly replaying to patch that one second you could have done better.
This is actually a lot more like Mirror's Edge in terms of structure then one might guess: the goal isn't to merely get through the campaign like a bloated checklist of chores, it's to fucking master every moment until you're the most brilliant, lightning quick combat dancer known to mankind. You'll be replaying this shit over and over until your hands blister over from the addiction.
In summary, this is the ultimate high octane arcade game for modern consoles. If this was in an arcade, I would have sat glazed eyed in front of the cabinet for days on end, drool slipping out the side of my mouth like a lobotomy patient. With the score system in place, it's just amazingly satisfying... the replay value comes not from the different scenarios in battle, but from the different ways you take down those same scenarios. I can only hope the game catches on with some level of popularity, so that there is some real competition on the leaderboards as it evolves.
SCORE: ****/****