Vanquish Preview: It’s Fast

Pretty much any game with over-the-shoulder, duck-and-cover combat invites a comparison with Gears of War, but here’s Sega’s elevator pitch for Vanquish: It’s much, much faster.

I didn’t spend a lot of time playing Vanquish at Sega’s booth, but I got a sense of what the company is talking about. Cover-based shooting became a popular trope in Gears’ wake, desirable for the way it makes you feel entrenched in the battlefield. Inevitably we see variations on the theme, and Vanquish’s was good enough to make me yearn for more playing time.

There are two gimmicks that contribute in large part to Vanquish’s accelerated pace. First is the ability to dash almost instantly into the distance. Instead of flanking a cluster of enemies, in Vanquish when you can bolt behind them for a quick massacre. The second twist is bullet-time, which can be activated while in movement while diving, dashing or hurdling over a cover point. Follow a strategically-placed dash with slow-motion shootouts, and you’ve got a good idea of what Vanquish is all about. The net effect is that Vanquish feels more open than most cover-based shooters, as the player is free to move pretty much anywhere at any time.

To keep players from spamming their special abilities, Vanquish drains the players’ energy after prolonged use, leaving them vulnerable. Case in point: I got a little too gutsy with the dashing and slo-mo, and quickly got my ass kicked. Enemies in the E3 demo did a good job of covering a large area, so you really need to be picky about where to go.

Even so, I can see this act getting old if not for clever level design and set pieces (the plot seems like a throwaway — a boilerplate futuristic tale of United States vs. Russians). The demo, at least, had some memorable moments, including a big mech you can ride on and an even bigger robot boss with rapid-fire missile launchers. If developer PlatinumGames can keep up this pacing, Vanquish will be quite the thrill ride, Gears of War be damned.

Vanquish launches for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 in October.