In general I think its safe to say that any piece of media, be it a movie, television, or even a video game, should probably have a good story; not to mention a lot of other things. In this instance I think its safe to say that Vanquish is the exception. Vanquish was created by Shinji Mikami, the Game designer responsible for some of my favorite games of all time. They include the Resident Evil series, as well as the ever-so-awesome Devil May Cry, which he contributed to. The game is fast paced and terribly fun. While the story and voice acting can be considered laughable at times this game lacks in very few other areas, apart from not having an online mode and an ending that felt less than half assed. Rather than a spellbinding narrative, Vanquish offers up an action packed experience with tight controls and epic landscapes. Before getting too much further into things, I cant forget to mention that this is a 3rd person shooter. One that uses basically the same control scheme as Gears of War and also allows the player to slide around on his knees with jet packs that are powered with epic badassery all while wearing a rather impressive suit.

The game pits you against a group of evil Russian robots; need I say more? Ok so apart from the terrible story and the cheesy voice acting, this game is pretty awesome. It doesn’t take itself too seriously which is another thing that I really enjoyed about it. After doing a short tutorial to learn the controls you are immediately thrown into a battle that proves to be challenging yet clearly indicative of the uber amounts of fun that lie ahead. As I progressed through the game I found myself enjoying it more and more. Fighting waves of evil robots, using an array of deadly tools, and even having the ability to slow down time much like how bullet time looks in the Matrix.

It almost couldn’t be more fun. There was a great variety of weapons to use as well as enemies to shoot them with. All the weapons you carry stem essentially from one gun. The weapon uses the B.L.AD.E system as it is called and it is a very fluid change from one gun to another. I often found myself laying waste to robots with one weapon then mid slide or bullet time, slow down switching to another instead of reloading. It offered up a fantastic technique all while looking cool in the process. Another thing that really makes this game work is how fluid the movements of the character are. The game plays very smoothly all while maintaining its adrenaline pumping intensity. The pace of the game is also great, apart from an abrupt ending, the only other thing I could’ve asked for is that it was a bit longer. Although the higher difficulties I’m sure would prove quite the challenge, obviously increasing the play time. Even if beating it on ‘God Hard’ isn’t your thing, there’s still much fun to be had after beating the main story. There are an array of other challenges that allow you to fight off waves of increasingly difficult robots, each of which is unique and nothing short of extremely fun to say the least.

Overall my experience with this game was quite pleasing. Extremely pleasing, in fact. Quite possibly the most ‘fun’ I’ve had playing a game in some time. I know its not the game everyone is talking about but to be honest it should be. Capcom has certainly delivered with Vanquish. If you find yourself scratching your head next time you’re at Gamestop looking for a great new game to play, seriously check this one out. You’ll be so glad you did.