Vanquish [PS3/Xbox 360]

[nintastic]

It's already at £30 at Zavvi

[rmoxon]

I maxed out the HMG during my Hard playthrough (which means I also died a lot), and I did death grind sometimes.

It seems weapons lower a level if you deliberately quit the game. I'm sure it didn't lower at all times when I died, or I didn't notice.

I dont think thats right at all. When you quit the game does not save, so when you load again you will have whatever level weapons you had the last time you reached a checkpoint.

The game does save when you continue stright after dying though, this usualy lowers the level of at least one weapon,. but not allways, and it somtimes lowers the level of all weapons, Ive no idea why its different every time.

Quiting the game deffinitley dosent alter a weapons level though, death is the only thing that can lower a weapons level. Death grinding requires you to mess about picking up and droping the weapon you want to level up before you die, its much easier just to quit to title screen as you die, as then you dont lose anything you had before the previous checkpoint.

Ive only done even that a couple of times though, its too much messing about for my liking, even if the game does load up pleasently quick.

On hard I had 82 "official" deaths and still managed to level up two weapons to maximum.

[teddymeow]

It is a great game but some of it feels a little dated. The opening FMV looks almost PS2 in terms of the human characters moving and the grainy nature of it.

Luckily it plays sublimely!

[crocky-chocky]

It's taken all of chapter 1 and 2 for me to fully click with this. But now I know what's what, it's just frigging fabulous. I'm barely using cover at all and zooming and rolling all over the shop. I love how steadily it throws new enemy types at you, and that re-appearing ones often have new tricks up their sleeve. Also, Platinum have continued to monkey around with gravity and play areas much like with Bayonetta. It's brilliant.

At times it's an easy 10, but it does get a little too hectic at times. Think it perhaps needed a little more time for certain bits to be refined. I've triggered a few too many slo-mo's where my sight's been blocked too.

But yeah, it's well good.

[spagmasterswift]

That bit on the monorail is aces innit!

[losersclub]

That bit on the monorail is aces innit!

Yeah i loved that bit too

Loved the rest of that Act as well, has raised the game from just "good" to "brilliant" in my eyes

[Sketcz]

That bit on the monorail is aces innit!

Yes! The game keeps throwing incredible set pieces at you.

The GiantBomb review was epically wrong. He complained it introduced all the weapons and skills at the start, and then no new ones as the game progressed.

Well this precisely how a good game works I feel.

It introduced everything you could mechanically do fairly early, a standardised move set with skills and weapons, and then the game throws increasingly diverse situations for to use those skills in different ways. Elevators, moving conveyors, monorails, flying ships, giant fortresses, and so on.

It's like Mario 64. You get all the skills you need from the start, and then it's up to the level design to be interesting.

I dunno what the reviewer was expecting - some kind of drastic control mechanic change near the end?

[teddymeow]

Anybody notice that the guy that runs to jump on the Monorail at the end of Chapter 1 is

->Open Spoiler<-

Mikami himself!!

Awesome!!

[MisterBubbles]

This game ROCKS, the production values are off the scale and the graphics are just lush and particle effects amazing , everything works well and sliding about into cover is just fun. Its a pity that the vast majority will shun this and wait for COD BO.

[yesteryeargames]

i really want this, but it will be in the &#163;20 mark before too long so its a hard choice to get it now or wait a few weeks

[spagmasterswift]

It introduced everything you could mechanically do fairly early, a standardised move set with skills and weapons, and then the game throws increasingly diverse situations for to use those skills in different ways. Elevators, moving conveyors, monorails, flying ships, giant fortresses, and so on.

Getting the "You have used all the weapons that will be available in the game" achievement pop so early in was a little disheartening (albeit wrapped up in GEES so not that disheartening I guess). I like the idea that its not your character that changes, but the world around him that does in order to present new challenges. At times it felt new and surprising, but in truth I'm not convinced that adding some moving platforms is enough to justify such a limited skill set.

The basis for something great is there, but just not turned up that extra notch to be incredible, which ultimately felt a little patronising. For example, right at the start you're asked to flank some robots who are killing your manz (damn them robots), so you zoom through a tunnel and proceed to kick arse! However, in the tunnel is a low ledge that can only be passed while zooming. This is presumably a device used to encourage the player to engage zoom and get with the zooming already, as at no other point do you need to pass under something low. How cool would it have been for one of the big bosses to have a low attack that you had to evade in this manner (clearly signposted with visual and audio cues of course)? Even better have a weak spot underneath that you could slow/zoom attack for massive damage?

Instead of shooting at an arm or leg joint for what seems like all eternity.

The point when you encounter a huge deathray machine and realise you need to pass through its gut tubes before you can pull out its power lead is a highlight for me. But the race against lazor death ended up being pretty dull imo. Taken to a higher level that section could have been epic, instead of simply repeating a zoom from one safe place to the next. It could have almost been a tutorial of how to zoom set next to the tunnel bit I mentioned. I was a tad disappointed and hoped that something more involved was going to pop up later in the game...sadly nothing new did.

I feel the final stages of a game should be the ultimate challenge of all that you have learned, obtained, mastered through out the experience. Which is probably why I found the last section to be incredibly unsatisfying. How far can you really be tested when you've been taught/given so little?

[Sketcz]

at no other point do you need to pass under something low.

Au contraire. There's a bit near the monorail where you're pinned down by a long row of robots behind cover, with snipers on top of trucks. Now, at first I thought: take cover myself and slowly take them down.

Then I noticed the truck on the right had an opening between its wheels, very low. Aha I thought!

So I dash under it to end up BEHIND ENEMY LINES, roll and enter slow-mo, then in a flash shoot every robot in the back and manage to take out one of their mobile cover robots before exiting slow-mo and switching to shotguns for some close up action. Finish off the snipers and Bob's your proverbial niece.

Also, most giant boss battles I zoom between their legs to flip round and shoot them in the back of the knees.

I will agree though that it's very easy (sometimes too easy), to just use basic cover and shooting to win. After maxing out my assault rifle I found it's all I used, leaving the more exotic weaponry behind, so I had to make a conscious effort to use stuff like the disk launcher and LFE gun - which while more difficult to win with, proved rather amusing and quite satisfying in places (love cutting off enemy legs and such).

I'm hoping later in the game or on higher difficulties it necessitates more unconventional playing. Perhaps the fact you can play it as just a bog standard cover shooter is their attempt to appeal to the masses? There is potential for crazy stuff, but the onus is on you to do it (would have loved it if it forced you to be more creative).

[rmoxon]

Getting the "You have used all the weapons that will be available in the game" achievement pop so early in was a little disheartening (albeit wrapped up in GEES so not that disheartening I guess). I like the idea that its not your character that changes, but the world around him that does in order to present new challenges. At times it felt new and surprising, but in truth I'm not convinced that adding some moving platforms is enough to justify such a limited skill set.

The basis for something great is there, but just not turned up that extra notch to be incredible, which ultimately felt a little patronising. For example, right at the start you're asked to flank some robots who are killing your manz (damn them robots), so you zoom through a tunnel and proceed to kick arse! However, in the tunnel is a low ledge that can only be passed while zooming. This is presumably a device used to encourage the player to engage zoom and get with the zooming already, as at no other point do you need to pass under something low. How cool would it have been for one of the big bosses to have a low attack that you had to evade in this manner (clearly signposted with visual and audio cues of course)? Even better have a weak spot underneath that you could slow/zoom attack for massive damage?

Instead of shooting at an arm or leg joint for what seems like all eternity.

The point when you encounter a huge deathray machine and realise you need to pass through its gut tubes before you can pull out its power lead is a highlight for me. But the race against lazor death ended up being pretty dull imo. Taken to a higher level that section could have been epic, instead of simply repeating a zoom from one safe place to the next. It could have almost been a tutorial of how to zoom set next to the tunnel bit I mentioned. I was a tad disappointed and hoped that something more involved was going to pop up later in the game...sadly nothing new did.

I feel the final stages of a game should be the ultimate challenge of all that you have learned, obtained, mastered through out the experience. Which is probably why I found the last section to be incredibly unsatisfying. How far can you really be tested when you've been taught/given so little?

For me what you describe you want would have made the game worse, the great thing about these modern and somewhat bonkers japanese action games like DMC, Bayonetta and Vaquish is that the bosses and even the standard enemies can be tackled in mutiple ways, it makes them more fun than alot of other games becuase youre not repeating the same manuver (ie sliding under a giant robot repeatedly to avoid attacks), over and over for an hour.

Your point about shooting the limbs on robots is wrong too, there are no enemies in that game at all where you are required to shoot at limbs if you dont want too.

Fights feel like proper fights that you are in control of as opposed to being told what to do, and thats a good thing really.

[spagmasterswift]

For me what you describe you want would have made the game worse, the great thing about these modern and somewhat bonkers japanese action games like DMC, Bayonetta and Vaquish is that the bosses and even the standard enemies can be tackled in mutiple ways, it makes them more fun than alot of other games becuase youre not repeating the same manuver (ie sliding under a giant robot repeatedly to avoid attacks), over and over for an hour.

Thats not what I'm suggesting, what I'm suggesting is that more variation to tackling a boss would have been a good thing - instead of requiring you to simply shoot at it over and over for an hour.

Your point about shooting the limbs on robots is wrong too, there are no enemies in that game at all where you are required to shoot at limbs if you dont want too.

I'm all for giving peace a chance but - w00t!!1

[rmoxon]

Thats not what I'm suggesting, what I'm suggesting is that more variation to tackling a boss would have been a good thing - instead of requiring you to simply shoot at it over and over for an hour.

To be fair the boss fights are very short, bar the last one they only last about a minute once you know what youre doing.

During that minute they certainly have plenty of variation for me, you have quite a few ways to tackle them, as the battles are relativley freeform. You could probabaly even melee most of the bosses to death if you wanted, though that would be hard.

I'm all for giving peace a chance but - w00t!!1

Presuming you mean the big bosses with the glowing joints, there are multiple ways to kill them, you never have to shoot the joints if you dont want.