Vanquish – Hands-on Impressions: PAX Prime 2010

Vanquish has a huge pedigree associated with it despite it being one of the few brand new intellectual properties for gaming this fall. Platinum Games is developing it, makers of MadWorld and one of this year’s standout games, Bayonetta. Shinji Mikami is directing the game, who has such titles under his belt as the landmark Resident Evil 4 and the cult favorite God Hand. Between all this, can the game live up to the anticipation?

I was able to get my hands on a demo at PAX 2010, which seems to be one segment of a longer level. It was essentially a small arena battle, capped off with a massive boss battle. The first thing that strikes you is the incredible amount of stuff occurring on screen at any one time. The density of the game’s visuals is incredibly impressive. The game also plays unlike any other third person shooter to date, once you get past the basics. Your character has a suit of armor that allows him to move faster than normal with a sort of jet pack. When he’s low on health, the suit will slow everything down to give you time to find cover. These are but two small elements of the game that separate it from everything else, but once you begin to put everything together, you can see how this game stands out above the very crowded shooter pack.

The only negative I felt, which was very minor and specific to the demo, was the high difficulty. I died several times in my first playthrough. However, this will probably be negated during the actual game when there’s been levels prior to this where you learn the more basic mechanics. One of Bayonetta‘s hallmarks was that it felt difficult but never unfairly so. This game seems to take that same mantra to heart. It certainly didn’t sour my final impression on the game.

The PAX demo was actually the exact same demo that recently released for both consoles, so if you’ve wanted to get your own hands on Vanquish, there’s no easier way. Vanquish is shaping up to be just as over-the-top and fun as Bayonetta was. We’ll just have to wait and see if the entire game plays as well as the demo when it’s released this fall.

Vanquish releases for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 19th, published by Sega and developed by Platinum Games.