Game Reviews

Firstly, there's the difficulty: Vanquish, like Bayonetta, throws a bone at the casual gamer with an almost condescending 'Auto' setting, although it seems likely that the game's developers would laugh derisively at anybody who played it on anything less than Normal (which is pretty much the equivalent of Hard in most other games). Beyond this there's a God Hard setting that's unlocked when you complete Vanquish's campaign for the first time, similar to the 'Non-Stop Infinite Climax' mode in Bayonetta. Once again, Platinum Games is taking pride in the amount of pain it inflicts on gamers who dare to buy its product and long may this kind of unashamed sadism continue as far as we're concerned.

It's old-school Japanese design to the core: the focus is not so much on offering players a varied gameplay experience throughout the campaign as much as it's concerned with constantly repeating the same core experience while painfully ratcheting up the difficulty to egg you on. However, although Bayonetta always did enough to compel you more than it frustrated, Vanquish often falls short of this compelling desire to beat the game and can leave you feeling apathetic towards it instead. It's a shortfall that's epitomised in the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS) worn by protagonist, Sam Gideon throughout the campaign.Effectively a device that allows Sam to initiate bullet-time, the ARS also has rockets attached to it that propel him along on his knees like a celebrating football player gone berserk.
The suit's bullet-time powers have obvious similarities to Bayonetta's 'witch time' - not least for their stunning slow-mo visuals and luscious magenta colour scheme - while the rocket propulsion stuff is all-new. It's a welcome feature for the most part as well,