Vanquish is set in the near future on a space colony built by the US in a bid to use the sun’s energy as an answer to the depleting resources on Earth.
However Russian forces manage to capture the colony and transform it into a weapon of mass destruction.
With the colony transformed the Russians fire the weapon on an unsuspecting San Francisco the Russians then demand the unconditional surrender of the US within 10 hours or the next city to be targeted will be New York.

You are Sam Gideon a government agent who works for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency known as D.A.R.P.A throughout the game.
You wear the A.R.S battle suit (Augmented Reaction Suit) which is stronger than steel but weighs next to nothing.
This is why you have been chosen to stop the Russians at all costs before its too late.

As a D.A.R.P.A operative you have a selection of weapons available throughout the game a total of 8 weapons and 2 types of grenades H.E (High Explosive) and E.M.P (Electro Magnetic Pulse).
You can carry any 3 weapons and both grenade types at any one time.
All the weapons and grenades can be upgraded by picking up the green upgrade boxes that some enemy units drop, upgrading weapons will do anything from increased damage, larger magazine capacity and reduced lock times etc.

Your A.R.S battle suit gives you the ability to boost dash and to manually trigger a mode called AR, which once activated slows everything down giving you the chance to shoot incoming missiles down relocate to a safer area and give you the chance to take out large numbers of enemies.



Ok so what’s the game like to play? It’s a fast paced shooter where you need to think fast ,use your surroundings to your advantage and of course the AR mode as this is a life saver at times especially when all you can see is a screen full of incoming missiles.
You fight alongside US marines who will freely engage the enemy but rarely do any damage what they are good at is providing a distraction for you to take advantage of.
Some of the marines will get downed and you have the opportunity heal them if your quick enough if successful they reward you with ammo or weapon upgrades.
The story is made up of 5 acts and each act has anywhere between 3 and 8 missions, while most of the missions are just your standard run and gun there are the odd few that require a stealthy approach and then there’s the mission that puts you on a air speeder just to mix up the game play.
Each mission will usually end with some sort of boss fight with the odd quick time event sequence once the mission is complete a screen comes up and gives you your stats for that mission and your overall stats for the whole game.

The game doesn’t just end with the story mode as if you complete an act on normal or above you unlock a challenge mode map from that act.
Each challenge mode act map consists of 5 waves with each wave getting progressively harder, the challenge here is that you must finish all 5 waves without dying or you go back to square one. Yes that means back to wave 1.
Once you complete all the 5 maps you unlock a 6th map and if you finish all 5waves your rewarded with a nice achievement worth 50gs.



The game has a total of 50 achievements most of which you will come naturally during the story which any level of gamer can achieve. The remaining few are slightly more challenging with the likes of shoot all the hidden statues, complete the game without dying and complete all challenge maps.
If you do happen to miss any specific mission achievements you can always use the mission select screen to replay any missions you need.

Although this game has a similar feel to the likes of Gears of war it still has it’s own unique feel. The one thing I did miss in the game was a multi player mode.
Overall this is a fantastic game with stunning graphics, a great story with all the action at the right pace and most of all is a very enjoyable game suitable for all gamers.
I would gladly recommend this game to anyone and I for one hope to see sequel in the future.

I will rate this game a solid 8 out of 10