3.5/5 ★ – Pencil_Nexus's review of Vanquish.

Another amazing venture into Shinji Mikami's blessed projects. I enjoyed this one, but not as much as the RE4 and God Hand. I'll start with my criticisms. The melee mechanic in the game is neat in concept, the fact that each weapon has its own melee that is either a parry, launcher, or beat down is great, but the fact that it takes all your boost meter makes it more of a deterrent than an option. Not only that, but the tracking on it is pretty terrible, it works sort of like a soft lock-on, but I find myself missing quite often despite aiming it at the enemy. Upgrading weapons is pretty dumb as well, since it's either from an upgrade box, or picking up the same weapon at max ammo, which led to an exploit that is just dominant strategy, and pretty much trashes trying out other weapons. Other than that, the game can be frustrating at times, since overheating seems to be linked to your health as well, but I'm probably wrong with that. In terms of positives; Holy fuck this game is stylish as hell. All the cutscenes are fantastic and well voice acted. Combat has nice game feel and also makes the player feel stylish. All the animations are cancelable, making reloading back into combat face paced. Slow-mo and boosting are satisfying and fit with the gameplay. It's a good time. Just wish that it got more attention, because that sequel bait led to no fish.