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[adversesolutions]

So Challenge 5.... Is the easiest one in the game? One shotted and the only time I even went into forced AR mode was the sniper spawn on wave 5.

Grats on dat 5.

Guess tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the.......is Challenge 6.

Went ahead and edited this for you.

I would seriously budget a month in terms of weekend play on Challenge 6. That's how long it took me, and I suck at action games. Getting from wave to wave is its own accomplishment. Once you get the first 3 stabilized (they're relatively fixed), you get over the instant death rush that is Wave 4, passing it 60% of the time or so, then struggle with sheer survival against the very bad odds of Wave 5.

It's the toughest video game challenge I've ever completed. : /

 

[Teknoman]

Just finished up Act 2.

Great visuals, great flair, mostly great gameplay....but the entire game is brought down by how unfair and frustrating it can be. I've found Normal a bit too hard and Casual a bit too easy so far - been switching it to Casual only for the bullshit one hit kill boss fights.

Not gonna lie, sort of disappointed. I was super hyped to play this game but I didn't realize how much a bunch of small bad points would constantly pour cold water on the whole thing (i.e. one hit kills, melee taking the WHOLE charge not 1/2, dying so quickly from normal enemies, not enough charge in general, etc).

Mreh. Not sure I see myself playing through this a second time. Too frustrating. Or am I missing something here?

Have you played Contra before? Get in that mindset, then play it. Normal really isnt that hard, and I dont think i've ever been one shotted by any boss. Just gotta keep on the move when its time to do so, use slo-mo to your advantage, and take cover when a hail of bullets come outta nowhere.

 

[sixteen-bit]

I'm psyched to get this game, but really confused on what system to get t for.

I usually purchase multiplatform games on the 360, but I see the PS3 actually has no screen tearing, which is nice.

I would love input on the controls and if its better suited maybe for a certain console, thanks!

I bought Vanquish on PS3. Controls are fine, even though I was used to Gears and other TPS on 360. I adjusted.

Vanquish has demos on both platforms, so if you're still in doubt, try them both.

 

[Dyno]

I would seriously budget a month in terms of weekend play on Challenge 6. That's how long it took me, and I suck at action games. Getting from wave to wave is its own accomplishment. Once you get the first 3 stabilized (they're relatively fixed), you get over the instant death rush that is Wave 4, passing it 60% of the time or so, then struggle with sheer survival against the very bad odds of Wave 5.

It's the toughest video game challenge I've ever completed. : /

Hit up YouTube and watch some true heads finish Challenge 6 with style. It might give you some pointers.

 

[HyperZone<3]

picked it up on from Target on the cheap and I love it SO MUCH.

Going through Act III now, and the gameplay is just so damn rock solid. If its not the best playing third person shooter this gen then it has to be at least in the top 3. I really can't stress enough how satisfying and fun the combat is and its because the act of moving and shooting and aiming and firing is just so well done.

Also, the crazy-awesome stage design helps a lot, the enemy AI doesn't suck entirely either. And the hectic backdrop that's in every stage doesn't overwhelm the action and things are as focused on the terrific gameplay as they should be.

The story and many bite sized cutscenes are kinda dumb, but at least mostly inobtrusive. I love Vanquish and hope its seeming lack of financial success doesn't preclude a sequel such as in the case of Anarchy Reigns.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

I got a buddy from work to buy the game at Walmart for 19.99. Sweet!

I'm currently working on another. hehe

 

[shintoki]

Gave 6 two tries this morning. Already got Waves 1 and 2 down.

Basically to sum it up. Open Area > Closed Small Linear Section. Wave 2 surprised me a bit, but once I notice there is a laser cannon. Pie.

 

[Dyno]

That people are finally discovering this game and how hard it rocks is good.

I'm a little sad though that it took this long. This game needed way more launch day love. We're liable to not see another one.

This industry is so messed up and illogical.

 

[Piano]

Have you played Contra before? Get in that mindset, then play it.

Yeah. I'm awful at Contra. Maybe my reflexes just aren't fast enough.
Also the difference is that in Contra you die quickly - but then you respawn right where you died a few times.

Normal really isnt that hard, and I dont think i've ever been one shotted by any boss. Just gotta keep on the move when its time to do so, use slo-mo to your advantage, and take cover when a hail of bullets come outta nowhere.

I've actually been one-shotted through cover. There is no damn excuse for one shot kills in any game, ever. It's unfair, not fun and demands needless memorization.
Maybe I'm trying to play the game at too slow of a pace, but I've found that cover simply isn't as useful as I want it to be. Bullets seem to get through it pretty regularly and enemies have a nasty habit of walking around to my blind spot and opening fire.

In fact, that's one of my main issues with the game - the level design doesn't seem to take into account the limitations of the gameplay. The cover system, slow-mo and offensive maneuvers are great but they're all set up in such a way that they work best when you're moving forward, taking out enemies as you slowly progress. Even the camera seems set up to emphasize moving forward and has huge blind spots during your best maneuvers. Gears of War sort of had this same issue...but it never became an annoyance because the level design seemed aware of it and mostly stuck you into 'linear' combat situations where you were moving forward against an enemy onslaught rather than getting assaulted on all sides. It doesn't help that the radar in Vanquish is trash.

The game falls apart when it throws you into giant arenas where enemies are coming from all different directions - there simply is not time to react to getting shot from all directions before you die and are forced to restart. Way too many times I end up auto-activating my dying AR without even knowing what hit me so I just have to boost to the sidelines in order to figure it out and then wait out the sloooow overheat meter. It's not fun. As a reaction to this I started playing way more conservatively, always sticking to cover and slowly scoping out the environment before I proceed, but I found that doing so isn't fun at all because the whole damn game is pushing you to be stylishly offensive!

Basically, Vanquish is a lot like Contra - but Contra gets to be unfair because it gives you multiple lives with which to instantly continue and the bullets enemies are highlighted and easy visible. I got really tired of playing any large firefight in Vanquish 2-3 times just to figure out where the enemies are so they don't end up beside or behind me (and playing boss fights 6-10+ times to figure out how to dodge their one shot bullshit).

Well, I'm hoping that if I grind my skills for a couple more hours the game will finally 'click'

Not sure I have the patience to keep it on Normal, though.

 

[Piano]

Working my way through Act 3 and so far encountered a couple more large enemies which can shoot through or destroy my cover, rendering the whole mechanic pretty useless. Sigh. Considering cranking it down to Casual again.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Working my way through Act 3 and so far encountered a couple more large enemies which can shoot through or destroy my cover, rendering the whole mechanic pretty useless. Sigh. Considering cranking it down to Casual again.

Yeah, just play on whatever difficulty is enjoyable for you.

 

[soldat7]

Working my way through Act 3 and so far encountered a couple more large enemies which can shoot through or destroy my cover, rendering the whole mechanic pretty useless. Sigh. Considering cranking it down to Casual again.

Keep in mind that Vanquish is not a traditional third-person shooter. There's a ton of depth to the combat with the sliding, the bullet-time, and the various weapon upgrades. My advice to you is to :

• Don't rely on cover too much.
• Always be on the move and roll often. Use bullet time as much as you can!
• Manage your suit's heat gauge carefully. There are multiple visual cues.
• Go for head shots on normal enemies whenever possible. A single bullet to the head from even the weakest gun can one-hit some enemies and do great damage to most.
• Upgrade your weapons. When you die, you only ever drop one upgrade. If you die multiple times in a row, you won't continue to downgrade.
• When you respawn after a death, go hunting for the green boxes (they get re-stuffed), even if it means traversing back through the level away from the action. You can get many upgrades this way (just be sure to equip the weapon you want to upgrade and make sure it has 100% ammo.)
• You can drop a weapon that is partially empty, pick up any other weapon in its place, pick up a full ammo weapon of the type you just dropped, and then pick up your old partially full weapon and you'll get the upgrade. Abuse this!
• The DLC weapons are fun to use but VERY cheap. Pick these up if you're really frustrated. The laser is awesome.
• Don't be afraid of the bosses. They don't have that many attack types and they telegraph their moves pretty well.

I actually found Normal to be far too easy. I'm currently playing on Hard with no DLC weapons and it's still easy. Bring on God Hard!

 

[sajj316]

just ordered the game on amazon, I can't wait to get my hands on this!

 

[Riposte]

The DLC weapons are fun to use but VERY cheap. Pick these up if you're really frustrated. The laser is awesome!

People have successfully made me feel bad about my day one hard clear because of how cheap those weapons appear to be.

 

[Anteater]

I've actually been one-shotted through cover. There is no damn excuse for one shot kills in any game, ever. It's unfair, not fun and demands needless memorization.

Oh yea, there are a few attacks that goes through walls, some curves through it purposely (like the romanov homing missiles and the huge laser from that first boss, and some big attacks from the BIAs goes through it. As a general rule of thumb, when you hear them scream and do crazy attacks, you should get ready to roll out of the way or shoot them down, cover is good to avoid normal enemies' fire.

One thing that I do find flawed on design is the last boss, not going to spoil it but don't rely on cover, it's not 100% safe for some attacks.

You could also go for the higher structure/vehicles and cover/shoot behind those, those usually don't get destroyed. Those helps tremendously when I was fighting BIAs on GH :lol

Edit: Mikami usually made the one shotting moves really obvious and slow though (readying animation, voice, etc), so I don't think it's unfair. If anything his games are usually pretty fair in that aspect.

 

[Retro_]

Yeah most of the one hit kills are really obvious I thought

I mean with all your mobility options, I can't imagine why anyone would just sit behind cover while a robot charges its giant laser instead of just moving out of the way

Why would you want the game to work that way?

 

[strem]

I'm playing on hard and have found out the hard way that staying behind cover is the worst thing you can do. If you sit in one place to long you are a dead man.

I'm in act 3 and having a blast. Kinda surprised how many times I have died. The game punishes you if you try and be Rambo or Master Chief and I love it

 

[Teknoman]

I need to start my Vanquish Hard run since I just beat Bayonetta normal.

 

[shintoki]

I think I'm going to take break for a bit. I'm not finding 6 difficult. I've beaten 1-3, and 4 didn't seem that hard yet. But I'm worn out from about 10 hours on 4 to really get motivated.

 

[japtor]

I used cover like hell through the first few acts and was fine with it, and yeah the stuff that can go through covers (basically big slow lasers) tend to be obvious.

My only real gripes with the game are:
-Act 2-3, or whatever the "shoot out the spotlights" level is, it's hard to even believe that was from the same game as every other level.

I bombed that one hard. I think I either didn't notice two of the sniper rifles, and/or I just spent a bunch of ammo shooting the wrong thing.

I ended up just setting the alarm off with my regular guns and shooting down the missiles they fire on the way into the tunnel.

-For some reason you can't move along/exit cover while you are reloading, just a really simple thing they somehow overlooked.

Tried doing the cancel reload animation trick? I think you just switch to another weapon and back any time after you hit reload.

-I wish there was some kind of Max Payne horizontal dive move that triggered the bullet time, it was always kind of awkward to slide sideways and shoot at the same time.

Tried aiming/zooming + roll? Aiming also works to trigger it when jumping over cover/kicking off melee iirc (basically anything other than running I guess).

 

[CatPee]

Yeah. I'm awful at Contra. Maybe my reflexes just aren't fast enough.
Also the difference is that in Contra you die quickly - but then you respawn right where you died a few times.


I've actually been one-shotted through cover. There is no damn excuse for one shot kills in any game, ever. It's unfair, not fun and demands needless memorization.
Maybe I'm trying to play the game at too slow of a pace, but I've found that cover simply isn't as useful as I want it to be. Bullets seem to get through it pretty regularly and enemies have a nasty habit of walking around to my blind spot and opening fire.

In fact, that's one of my main issues with the game - the level design doesn't seem to take into account the limitations of the gameplay. The cover system, slow-mo and offensive maneuvers are great but they're all set up in such a way that they work best when you're moving forward, taking out enemies as you slowly progress. Even the camera seems set up to emphasize moving forward and has huge blind spots during your best maneuvers. Gears of War sort of had this same issue...but it never became an annoyance because the level design seemed aware of it and mostly stuck you into 'linear' combat situations where you were moving forward against an enemy onslaught rather than getting assaulted on all sides. It doesn't help that the radar in Vanquish is trash.

The game falls apart when it throws you into giant arenas where enemies are coming from all different directions - there simply is not time to react to getting shot from all directions before you die and are forced to restart. Way too many times I end up auto-activating my dying AR without even knowing what hit me so I just have to boost to the sidelines in order to figure it out and then wait out the sloooow overheat meter. It's not fun. As a reaction to this I started playing way more conservatively, always sticking to cover and slowly scoping out the environment before I proceed, but I found that doing so isn't fun at all because the whole damn game is pushing you to be stylishly offensive!

Basically, Vanquish is a lot like Contra - but Contra gets to be unfair because it gives you multiple lives with which to instantly continue and the bullets enemies are highlighted and easy visible. I got really tired of playing any large firefight in Vanquish 2-3 times just to figure out where the enemies are so they don't end up beside or behind me (and playing boss fights 6-10+ times to figure out how to dodge their one shot bullshit).

Well, I'm hoping that if I grind my skills for a couple more hours the game will finally 'click'

Not sure I have the patience to keep it on Normal, though.

No offense, but you are playing this game soooooo horribly wrong. Never stay in cover for more than 5 seconds unless you need to cool down or is severely overwhelmed by some boss.

Slide, slide, and slide some more until there's 1 pixel left of the bar. Slide into cover, vault over, aim into AR mode while in mid-air, blast enemies, land and vault over cover again back behind it and aim while in mid-air. Giant enemy robot? slide out and do a vault kick, then aim while in the air and shoot the weak point for massive damage. Hold down X/A and continuously roll all over the place to dodge bullets. Huge group of bad guys, 1 bullet, and 1 grenade left? Chuck the grenade, pop over cover, go into AR mode, shoot said grenade.

I could go on and on about how to get the most out of the game, but it's better to see some expert play in video form.

 

[pseudocaesar]

Picked this up for $25 bucks the other day, holy shit it is amazing. I should have bought it day one, worth well more than 25.

 

[tusken77]

I could go on and on about how to get the most out of the game, but it's better to see some expert play in video form.

Ok, that was impressive.

 

[Curufinwe]

How come he didn't have to fight the Bogey at the end of the Challenge?

 

[Anteater]

How come he didn't have to fight the Bogey at the end of the Challenge?

That was the challenge demo from psn I think, it's not the full challenge

 

[mjemirzian]

I've added Vanquish to my list of the most difficult and/or competitive single player games.

It joins a very elite and prestigious list of exceptionally difficult and skill based games.

 

[Gaogaogao]

No offense, but you are playing this game soooooo horribly wrong. Never stay in cover for more than 5 seconds unless you need to cool down or is severely overwhelmed by some boss.

Slide, slide, and slide some more until there's 1 pixel left of the bar. Slide into cover, vault over, aim into AR mode while in mid-air, blast enemies, land and vault over cover again back behind it and aim while in mid-air. Giant enemy robot? slide out and do a vault kick, then aim while in the air and shoot the weak point for massive damage. Hold down X/A and continuously roll all over the place to dodge bullets. Huge group of bad guys, 1 bullet, and 1 grenade left? Chuck the grenade, pop over cover, go into AR mode, shoot said grenade.

I could go on and on about how to get the most out of the game, but it's better to see some expert play in video form.

huh, wha? oh wow.

 

[Riposte]

I've added Vanquish to my list of the most difficult and/or competitive single player games.

It joins a very elite and prestigious list of exceptionally difficult and skill based games.

Pretty cool list. (Though last time I checked Civ 5 was stupid easy thanks to the AI completely sucking at war.)

 

[∀ Narayan]

Fiddling around with my HD-PVR. Here's some footage of me going through stage 1-3 on Hard mode. Unfortunately, the video didn't upload in 720p. If you guys want me to make some HD .gifs, let me know.

(Video)

 

[sixteen-bit]

Fiddling around with my HD-PVR. Here's some footage of me going through stage 1-3 on Hard mode. Unfortunately, the video didn't upload in 720p. If you guys want me to make some HD .gifs, let me know.

(Video)

I'm getting a 720p option. Perhaps youtube just wasn't finished encoding?

 

[sphinx]

I bought this game 5 days ago for 10 pounds in london, thinking that I'd be able to sell it for more but I am not sure whether I should unwrap it and try it or keep it there...

 

[∀ Narayan]

I'm getting a 720p option. Perhaps youtube just wasn't finished encoding?

Oh. Sweet!

 

[mattp]

I could go on and on about how to get the most out of the game, but it's better to see some expert play in video form.

WOWWWWW that was ridiculous

what the hell was that thing he did with his hand around 16 seconds?

 

[∀ Narayan]

He timed the shotgun's backhand with the grenade's detonation.

 

[BIONIC-ARRRMMM!!]

Fiddling around with my HD-PVR. Here's some footage of me going through stage 1-3 on Hard mode. Unfortunately, the video didn't upload in 720p. If you guys want me to make some HD .gifs, let me know.

(Video)

I knew that you loved the game man, but I never knew that you were actually good *applauds*

 

[∀ Narayan]

Haha. Thanks! I'll upload more if you guys want.

 

[Carbonox]

Seeing this thread bump up every now and then reminds me that I still need to find the statues and finish off Challenge mode for the Platinum Trophy. D:

My last play-throughs were focusing on doing well on the leader boards. Got number 1 on Casual, number 1 or 2 on Normal and I believe I went for some sort of run on Hard.

That was way back when though.

Summer is blank for me (Shadows of the Damned is still a maybe) so it may give me an opportunity to return to the shooter perfection that is VANQUISSSSSH.

 

[jett]

Bought this game yesterday...finished it today. Wow. It really is as short as the reviews said. :lol

Overall it's a badass, creative and really intense shooter. The mechanics of the game are excellent, the rest not really. Everything in this game is white and grey for some reason, story is lolz-worthy just like Bayonetta but unfortunately the characters are bland and not fun like in that game. Lots of slowdown too on the PS3 version. Game is still awesome despite all that. Only problem I had was that aiming grenades was extremely difficult, I was mostly just aiming at the floor.

Time to put some time into the challenge modes and harder difficulties. Are my powered-up weapons gonna remain powered-up in subsequent playthroughs? And what are those statues for? Just worthless collectathon?

 

[∀ Narayan]

Are my powered-up weapons gonna remain powered-up in subsequent playthroughs? And what are those statues for? Just worthless collectathon?

Bolded: No.
Unbolded: Achievement/Trophy. Worthless if you aren't into those.

 

[jett]

Bolded: No.
Unbolded: Achievement/Trophy. Worthless if you aren't into those.

Daaaaaaaamn that really sucks. Running around juggling weapons for upgrade-purposes was by far my most disliked thing about the game.

 

[jett]

It's pretty funny how Sam tells himself "good shot Sam!" :lol

 

[Rewrite]

That video was too fucking awesome, &#8704; Narayan. You did an amazing job.

 

[∀ Narayan]

It's pretty funny how Sam tells himself "good shot Sam!" :lol

You mean on the tram level? There are soldiers behind you who comment on your kills.

That video was too fucking awesome, &#8704; Narayan. You did an amazing job.

Thank you.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Daaaaaaaamn that really sucks. Running around juggling weapons for upgrade-purposes was by far my most disliked thing about the game.

Just play on God Hard where there are no weapon upgrades.

 

[Duffyside]

I'm sorry, v Narayan, but I can't watch your video. I've reached the point where watching Vanquish videos makes me sad, as I know we'll never see a sequel.

 

[Duffyside]

Bought this game yesterday...finished it today. Wow. It really is as short as the reviews said. :lol

Overall it's a badass, creative and really intense shooter. The mechanics of the game are excellent, the rest not really. Everything in this game is white and grey for some reason, story is lolz-worthy just like Bayonetta but unfortunately the characters are bland and not fun like in that game. Lots of slowdown too on the PS3 version. Game is still awesome despite all that. Only problem I had was that aiming grenades was extremely difficult, I was mostly just aiming at the floor.

1. It makes the enemies "pop" out more, as well as weapons, upgrades and such. You'll notice it's only the bigger/huge enemies that are silver or grey themselves, while the smaller enemies are red, blue, green, etc. I always presumed that the story reason for this would be "it costs too much to paint the big ones."

2. If you were just throwing them at the floor, you should have tossed them while sliding, as Sam just drops them right off his hip as he zips on by.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

This game is 20$ MSRP now so I picked it up and I feel kind of bad. I love action games (Master Ninja Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, God Hand) and this game is so ludicrously good. Absolutely zero fucking filler, nothing but game.

I beat it on normal to warm up for the harder modes and I can barely believe how fucking great it is. Platinum games needs to announce more games (besides Anarchy Reigns).

 

[mjemirzian]

Glad you're enjoying the game but you're a little too late as far as encouraging the developers to produce similar games or a sequel.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Glad you're enjoying the game but you're a little too late as far as encouraging the developers to produce similar games or a sequel.

I think I'd be happy with any single player experience platinum games crew would put out whether it's similar or not. Or it would be great for Mikami to announce what he's working on next at Tango.

 

[DiddyBop]

Just bought this the other day and damn it's amazing so far. The controls are fantastic and overall it's pure gaming bliss. The graphics and overall presentation and style of the game are all consistent and great. I can tell this will be one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences of this yr.