Vanquish

Vanquish is a third-person shooter video game developed by Platinum Games and published by Sega for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released in October 2010, after having been in development since 2007.

Plot
The story is set in the near future. Russia and the United States are vying for ownership of the world’s fast-depleting energy resources and the US has constructed a space station in order to harness energy from the sun. Russian ultranationalist forces capture this space station and divert its harvested solar energy into a blast wave that destroys San Francisco, aiming to force the US into a total and unconditional surrender. In response, the US tasks its armed forces with recapturing the space station before the Russians can annihilate their next target – New York. The player will take control of Sam Gideon, a government agent fitted out with a futuristic battlesuit called the Augmented Reaction Suit (ARS).

Gameplay
Players control Sam Gideon, a DARPA agent armed with the Augmented Reaction Suit. If the player takes too much damage, the suit will automatically enter Augmented Reaction mode (AR mode), which slows down time, helping the player to avoid being killed. The player can also manually enter AR mode by holding down the target button while evading, allowing the player to target enemies easily. At any time, the player can use boosters on the suit to move quickly across the area. If the player uses AR mode or the boosters too much in a short time, the suit will overheat and will require a short period to cool down, during which Sam is less mobile. The suit will also overheat instantly if the player performs a melee attack, and certain areas will also overheat the suit.

Sam's weaponry consists of the BLADE weapons system and two types of grenade. The BLADE system can store up to three weapons at a time (from a total of eight weapon types), with the player able to swap weapons if he encounters a new one. These weapons, and the grenades, can be upgraded by collecting upgrade boxes, or by collecting the same type of weapon while it has maximum ammunition. Upgrading these weapons improves their abilities, such as their maximum ammunition capacity, accuracy, and blast radius. Players can aid injured allies on the field to earn weapons, or find them in crates or weapon lockers. In Normal difficulty or higher, weapons are downgraded if the player dies.

Other gameplay mechanics include the use of explosives during certain areas, commandeering enemy vehicles or turrets, the ability to use cigarettes to distract enemies, and quick time events during certain battles against larger enemies. It has also significantly improved upon the cover system, which it has been credited for taking "to the next level." In contrast to previous cover-based shooters, Vanquish has bullets and missiles coming from all directions in a manner reminiscent of bullet hell shooters and the cover is easily destructible, forcing the player character to be on the move, while the game also penalizes the player's score for the amount of time spent in cover.

Its most important innovation, however, is the sliding-boost mechanic that allows the player to slide into and out of cover at high speeds (and in slow motion using bullet time acting as a defensive escape and an offensive set up, opening up new gameplay possibilities for cover-based shooters and increasing the pace significantly, the game also has a unique end credits sequence, which is interactive and plays like a rail shooter, with the lead designer Shinji Mikami being the most difficult 'enemy' to take down.

Development
The game's director, Shinji Mikami, stated that Vanquish ' s graphics were partially inspired by Casshern, a 1970s anime television series by Tatsunoko Production. Mikami also stated that the game design itself was inspired by Casshern. Mikami originally wanted to create a game just like Casshern, but with the addition of guns, since Mikami had already previously created a brawler with God Hand. However, while making Vanquish a shooter, Mikami still wanted to maintain Casshern ' s "feeling of speed" which is the reason he introduced the sliding-boost mechanic. Vanquish uses the Havok physics engine.

The game's development began in 2007; in January 2010, a pre-rendered video trailer was released. Atsushi Inaba produced the game. Mikami has stated that the game is being developed with the PlayStation 3 as its lead platform in an effort to "help avoid dodgy PS3 ports", commenting that it was a "great success."undefinedIt is Mikami's only game under the Platinum Games brand.

Main Article
For more information please visit the Vanquish wiki page: Vanquish