Platinum Game’s M.O. Could fall under complete interactive insanity or, if nothing else, the purveying feeling that the development team hasn’t been subjected to the creative poison of focus groups. Neither Mad World nor Bayonetta were concerned about the need to appeal to a casual audience, and Vanquish operates under the same school of thought. The cover based shooter aesthetic may look generic, but ten seconds with a controller in my hand was all I needed to discard any fear of familiarity.
The most obvious divergence is your ability to boost. Essentially an extended slide, boosting allows your character to blast off from a standstill and quickly slide across the landscape, or in and out of cover (and on top of being a fresh mechanic, it also looks cool as hell). A gauge-based bullet time effect is also present and while I couldn’t be sure how it worked (I believe a combination of sliding and shooting), it was effective when things started getting too crazy. Other 3rd person staples, like an array of weapons, visceral melee attacks, solid cover, and enemies with strategic weak points were also present.
Getting my ass kicked on the show floor was fun, but the guided demo upstairs with a creative lead from Platinum proved to be much more informative. We saw two additional levels. One was a giant moving platform that functions like a train and seemed to throw enemies from you at every direction at a relentless pace. The second stage placed you on a hill with a 45 degree angle and tasks you with not only ascending the hill, but also dodging the seemingly infinite huge pieces of debris constantly coming your way.
A couple questions from myself and members of our small press group were also answered. We learned that the lead design platform was the PlayStation 3 (as opposed to Bayonetta, which had a 360 lead and a horrible PS3 port). We also learned that multiplayer isn’t being included because, apparently, the ridiculous boosting and incredible chaos created a logistical nightmare for the development team. When asked why Platinum went with a cover based shooter for their next game, we were told it was (as expected) to appeal more to a Western audience, though they did concede that Casshern was a direct influence on their art direction. Someone also broached the topic of possible DLC, to which they said “no comment” with a wry smile.
The big take away from Vanquish was how incredibly hectic it appeared at all times. While the game rarely got out of control, it presented the illusion of doing so at nearly every instance. Millions of missiles coming your way, enemies at every angle, explosions everywhere you look, and bosses the size of small buildings were, somehow, the norm. The climax of insanity occurred during a boss fight; I was on top of the boss, then it shot out a missile, and then I grabbed the missile before finally spinning it around and throwing it right back at my opposition. Mind blowing at every angle, Vanquish is on a mission to add a much needed injection of creativity and spontaneity to cover based 3rd person shooters.
