Tired of the same third person shooter with steroid consuming mass of muscle? How about stuck a bunch of rockets to the hero's behind and blast him like experimental science subject? This is the base of Vanquish, basically make third person shooter faster, more bullets with 80' macho one-liners. Surprisingly it works, much like Bayonetta to action games, the over-the-top campy guilty pleasure will make you smile for brief hours this game lasts.
The story is very simple with just a minor twist; you play as Sam, there's the bad guys, they are the ones shooting at you with those hundreds missiles, you shoot them back until one of you die. Easy and simple. While the story won't win any awards for depth or writing, but the overall vibe is quiet epic, it somehow reminds me of old PSX game, Silent Bomber. They even play alike when you obtain one of the weapon called Lock-On Laser. Safely say that this is a new approach of TPS, like the other end of spectrum from Gears of War. It even has contrasting pristine and glossy look compared to the other TPS.
From Platinum Games which brought crazy witch last year, it'll be everything but normal. The basic TPS's mechanics are still present here. The cover system, peek-and-shoot, evading roll etc work well and smooth. But the main attraction is the rocket sliding, in which you boost yourself with aforementioned rockets on your behind to flank, approach or escape enemies. The speed at which you do this is ridiculously fast and the essence of your survival. It give you the ability to slide, on you knees sometimes, a la futuristic suster ngesot.. That sounds wrong, like Angelina Jolie's knee sliding at Wanted, that's better.
In case you haven't notice, the flashy suit has distinct gimmicks than the usual grunt, the AR mode. It is simply a stylish bullet time that you can activate in various conditions whether it's automatic use when near death or manually triggered. You can jump out of cover with it, slow down time and shoot while sliding, flip-evade from any position, practically dodging bullets like heroes always do post-Matrix. The AR mode also triggers when you are wounded by strong projectiles, but bear in mind that these plethora of actions use the same gauge, even melee uses it.
Although the gauge will constantly replenish itself quiet fast, it will overheat if you used up all, rendering it unusable for a limited time period. This takes away precious seconds and important defensive measure, mostly will result in death when facing harder foes, so perform acrobatic stunts sparingly and effectively. The weapons are consisted of the basic ones, like assault rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher and more unique ones, such as disk launcher or Lock-On Laser which can be upgrade respectively. Upgrades are dropped randomly or when you pick up the same type of weapon repeatedly, they are already fixed so you won't have freedom on what aspect of gun you want to improve. The number of guns and upgrades are somewhat lacking.
Visually the game is remarkable. So many details span over such large battlefield including several dozens bullets and missiles from allies and enemies the same without even frame drop is quiet a feat. The animation is fluid and flowing realistically for everyone present. Character models are well crafted, while it does has distinct Asian vibe, it also implemented rugged look from western TPS. The facial outlook is quiet amazing, you can see freckles in Elena's face or facial hair in Sam in scrutinizing details.
While the setting has certain atmosphere throughout the game, it managed to differentiate the areas from one to another. They are vast and span a long distance, albeit you can only travel linearly, they do make an interesting backdrop. When AR mode comes into play, the view comes to almost a halt, making players appreciate the beautiful graph in every explosion, missiles launch, wind trails of the bullets and gruesome slow-mo deaths.
Unfortunately the dialogues on the game are still as cheesy and corny as ever. This is not like Bayonetta' s quips which sometimes can be witty, but more like something Ahnold would say. Every line is delivered this way, the writing is just plain flat and pretentious. The dub itself is quiet good, everyone holds their respective cliche role well, although some lyp-synch inconsistency makes it harder to take the story seriously. I have to give credit for doing multiple language, the cast is not many so it's not that hard, but the thought is always welcomed.
Japanese dub has better flow, but lip-synch suffers greatly. Ultimately just take it as comedy take of TPS. Sound effect is good, the noises are spot-on, they can even help time dodge an attack. Bullets pass when AR mode is activated sound subtly hissing, muffled explosion and speech are also well done. Soundtracks of the game fit the heart pumping fast pace appropriately, but you probably too engaged in combat to notice.
The game keeps track of your points from your kills, deaths, allies saves etc, so it gives a bit motivation on clearing the stages as well as possible. For all the epicness, this game is short. Seriously short, I finished Hard on 5 hours, give and take some deaths and it's still less than six hours. There are God Hard mode, Mission select and Challenge, but they don't really give much incentive of playing it again. If you are looking for short burst of exictement, Vanquish is one of the best so far.
Graph : Beautifully made characters and backgrounds. 9/10
Sound : Good and suited for the fast pace despite the corny dialogues. 8/10
Gameplay : Loud, fast and engaging with plenty of WTF moments. 9/10
Presentation : The set pieces are epic, but the story is cheesy and too short. 7.5/10
Overall : 8.4/10
No comments:
Post a Comment