Anyone else really enjoy Vanquish?

[Zing]

I'm a person who usually hates generic space shooters, especially on consoles, I decided to rent Vanquish because I thought the slide gimmick and bullet time would be pretty cool. What I found was a pretty unique space adventure with some really awesome gameplay and some amazing sets. I say sets because environment doesn't really seem to cover it.

What did everyone think of Vanquish then?

 

[Harlemura]

I've only played the demo.
I found the sliding too hard to control, the controls a bit fumbly and the boss whooped my ass.
I gave up on it.

 

[Zing]

I've only played the demo.
I found the sliding too hard to control, the controls a bit fumbly and the boss whooped my ass.
I gave up on it.

What do you mean by fumbly?

As for the sliding, don't know what you mean there, I mostly just used it to slide into a good position then use the roll/bullet time to take out a group of enemies, or to escape behind cover, never had any trouble controlling it though.

So far bosses have been a bit of a challenge, which I honestly like, but nothing to unforgiving.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I enjoyed Vanquish a hell of a lot. It's really sad because Vanquish should be selling better than Halo or CoD or even MoH but it won't. Vanquish is a truly innovation and extremely fun shooter. Vanquish is better than your regular FPSs and cover shooters because Vanquish's gameplay is at a level beyond them. In your standard FPS (Halo, CoD, etc.) nowadays you can't even lean and the gameplay has devolved, older FPSs had more gameplay depth. And, your regular cover shooters like Gears and Uncharted (and I do love Uncharted 2) are inferior because you are just playing some grandiose HD version of whack-a-mole. In Vanquish, you only take cover to jump over it slow-mo and kill baddies or take a smoke. Vanquish is not to be played by taking cover and waiting for the enemy to pop his head out, Vanquish is about sliding up to him and tearing him apart with the shotgun while in slow motion. Vanquish is a HARDCORE action game with deep gameplay that involves animation canceling, properly using the game's weapons (the disk launcher is an anti-Romanov gun and the LFE is awesome), knowing enemy weaknesses, and more.

You can read my full thoughts on Vanquish here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.240728-Vanquish-Japans-commentary-on-Western-gaming?page=1] if you like.

 

[EinTheCorgi]

I dont know I played the demo and enjoyed it also it gets extra points for having a main character with facial hair...what to many guys in games look like girls or dont even have faces...YEAH master chief im calling you out and noble six to...

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I've only played the demo.
I found the sliding too hard to control, the controls a bit fumbly and the boss whooped my ass.
I gave up on it.

I found that the slide was a gimmick that didn't work at all and that the story actually gave me additional reasons not to play it ever again.

If the slide didn't work or was just a gimmick, you wouldn't be able to play like this:

Spoiler: Gameplay from Challenge 6

The slide mechanic is very tight control-wise, it just takes a little time to get used to.

 

[Daipire]

Disliked it from the demo.

The boss? LAAAAAME.

 

[Harlemura]

I've only played the demo.
I found the sliding too hard to control, the controls a bit fumbly and the boss whooped my ass.
I gave up on it.

What do you mean by fumbly?

As for the sliding, don't know what you mean there, I mostly just used it to slide into a good position then use the roll/bullet time to take out a group of enemies, or to escape behind cover, never had any trouble controlling it though.

So far bosses have been a bit of a challenge, which I honestly like, but nothing to unforgiving.

Well, for the controls, there just seemed to be too much to remember. Dodge and aim to activate bullet time, which drains the same bar as the slidey thing just made me think "Wait... whut?"
I'm sure I'd get used to them eventually, as I'd get used to the using the sliding to get around rather than for an attack which didn't get me very far, but they're things I can't be bothered to spend time getting used to.
I'd rather spend my time looking for a game I enjoy right off the bat.

 

[Nomanslander]

The game is awesome, although a little too short for full price, so that's why it's better to rent it for now. Oh, and don't listen to the few comments already posted, I have no idea what they are complaining about, sounds like they're just the type of players that won't like it unless IGN.com gives the game a 9.5+.....lol

 

[omega 616]

I enjoyed Vanquish a hell of a lot. It's really sad because Vanquish should be selling better than Halo or CoD or even MoH but it won't. Vanquish is a truly innovation and extremely fun shooter. Vanquish is better than your regular FPSs and cover shooters because Vanquish's gameplay is at a level beyond them. In your standard FPS (Halo, CoD, etc.) nowadays you can't even lean and the gameplay has devolved, older FPSs had more gameplay depth. And, your regular cover shooters like Gears and Uncharted (and I do love Uncharted 2) are inferior because you are just playing some grandiose HD version of whack-a-mole. In Vanquish, you only take cover to jump over it slow-mo and kill baddies or take a smoke. Vanquish is not to be played by taking cover and waiting for the enemy to pop his head out, Vanquish is about sliding up to him and tearing him apart with the shotgun while in slow motion. Vanquish is a HARDCORE action game with deep gameplay that involves animation canceling, properly using the game's weapons (the disk launcher is an anti-Romanov gun and the LFE is awesome), knowing enemy weaknesses, and more.

You can read my full thoughts on Vanquish here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.240728-Vanquish-Japans-commentary-on-Western-gaming?page=1] if you like.

Vanquish is a TPS (third person shooter) comparing it to COD or MOH is the good old apples and oranges comparison.

Granted I only played the demo but thought it was average, you can do the whole jumping over the "chest high walls" littered everywhere or you can duck behind every "chest high wall" and, as you so elegantly said, play a "grandiose HD version of whack-a-mole", who says that is the wrong way to play it? I ran through the demo in this fashion on the hardest diffuculty I could.

There is a demo that came out at the exact same time as this and it's exactly the same, just a gears of war feel to it (everything is a brown and there "monsters" not humans working for the enemy) and different weapons. I will have to have a thunk for the name.

 

[Physics Engine]

I'm enjoying it, at least for the whole evening I've played it so far. It's definitely got a Bayonetta "stylish action game" element to it, which is great. Spray and pray 3rd person shooters are pretty boring to me.

The action is fast, but confusing, the enemies are too small for the most part and the action so fast, that it's fairly easy to get disoriented and then owned. I think it's just because this is my first time playing the game and I'm not used to the controls yet. Coming to this straight from Dead Rising 2 makes it harder to amp up my gameplay style to match the game, but I'm not giving up on it.

My only complaint so far is the lack of a jump button. The walls are mostly chest high, why do I have to take cover behind the wall before I can jump over it? It's a minor complaint though.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I liked it quite a lot, in spite of some flaws here and there. The last boss fight was especially evil.

 

[Sonicron]

Not a full price purchase to be sure, but I, too, was pleasantly surprised. I went into it expecting a reasonably entertaining generic distraction, which is fine for a rental, and then the game exceeded my expectations on just about all counts. Despite the ludicrously overdone acting I actually found myself caring for Burns and Sam at the end of the game, the weapon upgrade system was very well thought out, the controls were tight, the sliding worked well, using the same resource for both bullet-time and sliding worked like a charm, the environments and set pieces were awesome most of the time, and the enemies and bosses just rocked (both design- and gameplay-wise).
Long story short, once Vanquish gets a reasonable price drop I'll most likely pick it up.

 

[freedomweasel]

I played the demo, and it was fun-ish. I'm not sure if I was "playing it wrong" but I beat the boss by just rolling, and then shooting mid-roll to get the bullet time effect. It wasn't much fun. I enjoyed the regular fighting more, with the combo of cover and crazy sliding. That plus the apparently short length and overall japaneseyness which I tend to not like, makes it a pass.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Granted I only played the demo but thought it was average, you can do the whole jumping over the "chest high walls" littered everywhere or you can duck behind every "chest high wall" and, as you so elegantly said, play a "grandiose HD version of whack-a-mole", who says that is the wrong way to play it? I ran through the demo in this fashion on the hardest diffuculty I could.

Just because you can play Vanquish as a cover shooter doesn't mean you should. Vanquish is not meant to be played in that fashion, Vanquish is an action game with guns. I'm sure you can play Bayonetta just holding down the shoot button and dodging if you wanted to, but that would ignore the deep combat mechanics of the game. Vanquish gives you the tools to play the game as an action game and not a cover shooter. In your standard cover shooter, the game doesn't give you the tools to be played any other way unless you're playing on super easy and you can stay out in the open because your character is a bullet sponge. On the hardest challenge in Vanquish, you might only be able to get through 20% of it if you play it as a cover shooter; standing still behind cover will only get you killed, you have to keep dodging and boosting the whole time. Vanquish gives you the ability to stay out in the open and not get killed.

You can read a bit more about in this article [http://www.thegamingvault.com/2010/10/protip-vanquish-is-not-a-cover-shooter/]

The slide mechanic is very tight control-wise, it just takes a little time to get used to.

Either way, it isn't fun to use and fits with the shittiness of the rest of the game.

If the creators meant it to be like a poorly made western shooter, bravo. If not, then never try to make a game like this again.

It's more like Western shooters are a poorly made Vanquish. The regular Western shooters are either FPSs like Halo and CoD or TPSs with cover shooting like Gears and Uncharted. The FPSs aren't anything great and their gameplay has devolved over time instead of evolving (no lean, regen health, etc.). Cover shooters are just a grandiose version of whack-a-mole so they aren't anything super special. I love Uncharted 2 but the game is great not because of awesome shooting mechanics (it's cover shooting is probably as fun as cover shooting can be), Uncharted 2 is great because of the whole package: the shooting is fun (nothing deep), the platforming, the puzzles, the story and characters, the set-pieces, etc. Uncharted 2 is like a summer Hollywood blockbuster that's executed to near perfection; however, summer blockbusters don't win Best Picture because other movies are just at a level higher than what the best summer blockbuster can be. Vanquish right now is at a level higher than the best Western shooter. I'm not at all saying Japan is better at shooters but right now the West is stuck in a FPS and cover shooter TPS funk of making the same games over and over again.

 

[Kenny Doyle]

I found the demo fun, just a nice fast paced shooter. I prefer it a lot more than Gears of War due to Gears being the slowest shooter I've ever come across.

I'm guessing of the sliding is to add something new, I'm presuming the purpose for the sliding was to get to once piece of far away cover quickly, not necessarily for manoeuvring around terrain.

Don't think it deserves the hate it gets though, it doesn't really fall in the line as a "shit" game.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

I don't have a clue why you think your opinion interests me enough to warrant you quoting me, but HELL THE FUCK NO.

Not an element of the game works. The story is a damn atrocity. The characters are unlikable versions of people from other forms of entertainment. The shooting doesn't work, the combat isn't entertaining in the least, and the sliding thing is a pain to get used to, a dissapointment to use and ultimately a cheap gimmick that adds nothing to (and possibly subtracts from) the overall, already shitty experience.

I think it's a horrible fucking game. I don't care what you think. Stop quoting me.

You use story and characters as the main 2 reasons for not liking the game and neither have anything to do with gameplay. Second, the story and characters are meant to be a parody of a typical serious space marine shooter. How is the shooting bad? You can take out the sliding and slow-mo and Vanquish's shooting is as tight as any other TPS (the only thing you can't do is switch shoulders). Not one review has taken points off because Vanquish has poor shooting, points have mainly be taken off for length. The sliding takes like 5 minutes to get used to. The only issue I had was that I'm used to using my index finger to cover both L1 and L2 but in Vanquish I have to use my index finger on L1 and my middle finger on L2, and I got used to that while playing the demo for a 2nd time. How is the sliding a gimmick? It allows you to get the enemy quickly without getting hit on the way to him instead of, you know, staying behind cover and shooting the enemy while he pops his head from out behind cover.

I don't have problems with someone's opinion if it makes sense. The story and characters might not be your cup of tea or you don't think the parody works, that's fine but it has nothing to do with gameplay. The fact that you say the shooting is bad is just plain wrong, Vanquish has tight shooting controls. I can see someone not liking the sliding and slow-mo mechanics (that's an opinion) but to say the sliding has control issues is just plain wrong as well. You need to rate games objectively and not subjectively. There are several games that get praise that I just don't like (like Assassin's Creed 2 and FFX which I would rate around a 6/10) but I will never say that said game is a horrible fucking game because they are not. Any game that gets a review average of over 80%+ is not a horrible fucking game, it might be average in your eyes but it has several good things going for it, it's just that its flaws grate on you more than most.

 

[omega 616]

Just because you can play Vanquish as a cover shooter doesn't mean you should. Vanquish is not meant to be played in that fashion, Vanquish is an action game with guns. I'm sure you can play Bayonetta just holding down the shoot button and dodging if you wanted to, but that would ignore the deep combat mechanics of the game. Vanquish gives you the tools to play the game as an action game and not a cover shooter. In your standard cover shooter, the game doesn't give you the tools to be played any other way unless you're playing on super easy and you can stay out in the open because your character is a bullet sponge. On the hardest challenge in Vanquish, you might only be able to get through 20% of it if you play it as a cover shooter; standing still behind cover will only get you killed, you have to keep dodging and boosting the whole time. Vanquish gives you the ability to stay out in the open and not get killed.

I watched that video you posted and to be honest it just looked ridiculous, Just watch around the 1:40 mark, what the hell is that? In hitman your given plenty of guns to use, who says which way your meant to play the game?

You can boost around on your knees with flames coming our your ass but you look like a psychotic pyromaniac with a soft spot for louge, doesn't mean thats the way the game is meant to be played.

By deep combat mechanics, I assume you mean press square, square, triangle thought the whole game?

I don't know about you, but in my experiance you either take it slow, steady and methodical or die, which lends it'self to cover based shooter. Since your provided with plenty of "chest high walls" to cower behind and press the most useless button in a game ever ... the smoke button, then thats what you do.

It's only in stupidly easy mode/games do you act like Rambo and stand in front of an army firing at them and survuvng.

In your standard cover shooter, the game doesn't give you the tools to be played any other way unless you're playing on super easy and you can stay out in the open because your character is a bullet sponge. On the hardest challenge in Vanquish, you might only be able to get through 20% of it if you play it as a cover shooter; standing still behind cover will only get you killed, you have to keep dodging and boosting the whole time

What? So, to survive in vanquish I have to roll around like I am on fire and cover kills you? I think, for some reason, your trying to make this game sound alot better than it is.

It's a cover based shooter with a few gimmicks in it, like smoking (even Snake had a reason to smoke in the first game) and sliding, which I am pretty sure is just to make look "cool" when your going from one chest high wall to another. Maybe there shooting for if we make them boost around and roll around, while shooting we can add some sense of excitment and speed/action into this game.

I also found it pretty hard to die, when you get low on health you go into slow mo mode, meaning you can have the most god awful reactions and still get out of trouble 99% of the time.

 

[De-Moti]

I really enjoyed it.
Tis fun.

 

[Delock]

I felt it was almost a parody and thoroughly enjoyed the story because of that (how can you not laugh when both of the main characters are chewing on gravel as they speak while a woman who fits almost every support character cliche guides them during a journey where they will enter helicopters that only sometimes crash, at least when the main character isn't genre savvy enough to realize that Helicopter+enemy controlled airspace+action game=crash, and smoke way too many cigarettes?).
As for the action, the slowmo slide was a *****, but the other bullet time methods worked out well, the bosses were fun to fight even if they were all shoot the weakpoint battles (though that fight with the russain can piss off and die in some godforsaken hole where I never have to see it again), many times I frequently let out a "holy shit" at something I just did (sliding behind a tank with a shotgun and blowing it apart in slowmo made my day), the guns all felt powerful as they tore through robotic minions, and the enviroments I went through (while they blend together to the point that I forgot I was fighting my way up a giant transforming robot/cannon, not an easy task) were exceptionally nice to look at.

Also, I got the game for half off new so I can't complain really.