Vanquish (2010)
Vanquish is a 2010 shooter video game made by PlatinumGames and Sega.
Sam Gideon is a researcher in an Augmented Reaction Suit deployed to retake a space station from a Russian nationalist faction that has already turned its microwave cannon on Providence, Rhode Island. Shinji Mikami's 2010 third-person shooter builds its combat around Sam's ability to boost-slide across the arena at high speed and trigger a bullet-time AR mode that lets him line up shots mid-sprint. The game is short, the set pieces are relentless, and the enemy design escalates from soldiers to mechs to things that have no business existing. It asks for mastery and rewards it.
Quick answers
What is Vanquish about?
Sam Gideon is a researcher in an Augmented Reaction Suit deployed to retake a space station from a Russian nationalist faction that has already turned its microwave cannon on Providence, Rhode Island. Shinji Mikami's 2010 third-person shooter builds its combat around Sam's ability to boost-slide across the arena at high speed and trigger a bullet-time AR mode that lets him line up shots mid-sprint. The game is short, the set pieces are relentless, and the enemy design escalates from soldiers to mechs to things that have no business existing. It asks for mastery and rewards it.
When was Vanquish released?
Vanquish was released on 19 October 2010.
Who made Vanquish?
Vanquish was made by PlatinumGames and Sega.
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A few thoughts on Vanquish
For powered-armor action with an anime sensibility, Gun x Sword runs on a similar register of high-velocity combat and stylized mech design. The Centurions is the older western series that Vanquish's high-concept military exosuit premise feels spiritually connected to.
Scientists forced into the last stand
Vanquish drops a researcher into an Augmented Reaction Suit and expects him to hold a space station alone, and these stories put ordinary experts in the same impossible position. Old Man's War recruits aging civilians into elite troops, Project Hail Mary hands a lone scientist a rescue mission, Half-Life 2 turns a physicist into a resistance fighter, and Agent Kim Reactivated pulls a retired operative back into the field.
Power armor and the soldiers fused into their machines
Vanquish straps Sam Gideon into a suit that turns him into a weapon built for one mission, and these stories chase that same fusion of body and machine. The Centurions armors its soldiers head to toe before Vanquish existed, Gun x Sword pushes that fusion into mecha western territory, Ghost in the Shell asks what is left of the human underneath, and Fullmetal Alchemist trades lost limbs for engineered ones.
Sci-fi concept albums built for a losing war
Vanquish escalates from soldiers to mechs to enemies that should not exist, moving at a pace that matches these sci-fi concept records. Blade Runner's score and Deltron 3030's future-war raps both build entire worlds out of dread, Simulation Theory and Universal Migrator, Part 2 chase the same widescreen collapse, and Repo! The Genetic Opera stages the whole thing as a rock opera.
Enemies that escalate until nothing makes sense anymore
Vanquish pushes its enemy roster from soldiers to mechs to things that have no business existing, and these stories chase the same dread. The Boys keeps raising the stakes past every ceiling, Hunter x Hunter escalates fights into territory the story invents new rules for, and Stranger Things sends its leads deeper into a world that stops following normal logic.