Vanquish... wow.. Platinum games is definitely establishing itself as a game developer with style and quality. Vanquish is a game that kind of came out of no where. It was off the radar for a long time and suddenly showed up at E3. This game throws everything it has at you from the start and despite a semi-weak story you can bet you will see a Vanquish 2 in the future.Gameplay: Insane. Remarkable. One of the best shooters I have played in ages. Not to say games like Halo, Gears, Half-Life, Doom, Quake etc are average but those are games that focus on many aspects all at the same time. Story line, new cutting edge gaming engine, MP elements... etc etc. Vanquish comes bursting out of the gate in boost mode tossing much of that aside and focusing on a single element. Shooting. The polish on the gameplay is spectacular. The AI in the game is spot on. on "casual" you can expect the AI units to basically be there for target practice yet they still try to flank and will try to overwhelm you. "hard" you can expect very difficult AI that will use cover to its advantages, flank you, and even throw grenades such that it traps you in one spot so a sniper could put you down. The gameplay is fast.. vicious.. unforgiving of mistakes. Your AI marines actually can put up a fight but don't expect much from them. They tend to get in the way and get wounded fast but that is a plus since healing them gives you ammo or a weapon upgradeSound/Story: The sound is fantastic. You will be behind a wall taking cover to heal up, reload or perhaps to take a smoke(yes that's right, Sam will smoke a cigarette while in cover if you wish; however there is a secret little use for this you will have to figure out on your own). Anyhow, while hiding you can tell exactly what is happening or where people are. From the sound of gunfire to the powering up of high energy canons etc. It is polished and sounds fantastic. The static from the comms, or the switching clicks of your gun remodeling itself into the weapon of your choice. Boost jets etc. Story.. well the story is there, don't be fooled by people saying the game has no storyline. It just lacks polishing. The game focuses heavily on combat and mission objectives leaving the storyline as an afterthought that doesn't show itself until the last 20 minutes of the game. Could be a good thing though as it could leave you wanting more, being a real storyline actually exists under all this chaotic actionGraphics/Presentation: The graphics are spectacular. Presentation spectacular thanks to graphics and polishing. The suit Sam wears is just out of this world. The amount of detail and subtle things going on are countless. From grenades switching out, drag flaps opening and closing while boosting, the BLADE changing shapes, visor opening and closing. Just as much detail went into the environment and while invisible walls exist (in a way), the environment is also destructible on a small level. You'll be behind a cement barrier safe and sound.. wait.. i just got shot how? wha... will be your reaction as you look back over your shoulder to find a grenade, missile or just constant bullet fire tore that cement barrier to shreds and now your head is out there just screaming hello to a sniper.Length/Replay: The game is short.. I beat it on "casual" in 4hrs 12mins.. "HARD" took me 40mins to get to act 1-5 and that is just 1/2 way through Act 1 so you can see how the game ramps up in difficulty and time harder it gets. HARD seems like a 6-8hr playthrough as enemies have at least double the HP as casual and have the aim of a sharpshooter + the marines are basically just in the way at that difficulty ( GOD HARD difficulty scares me ) Replay is like any shooter. If you like it you will come back to it over and over until you find something better usually a squeal.Summary of "cons" I have for this game (with positive re-enforcement)- Storyline could of been polished better. It is there and has the makings of a good storyline. [By the time you are done playing the gameplay more than makes up for the weak focus on story]- Scoring system doesn't seem that polished up(far to simple) [seems like a last second addition in the dev process but a smart one. Would like to see it evolve into Halo's scoring system in a way. Have some detail so people can show off their HS count or nade kills.. melee kills etc]Overall Score: 96%A great shooter. A game the console generation has probably been waiting years for. While it isn't has hyped up as Halo, Gears, Killzone etc and has *no multi-player* the game really doesn't need it as badly as one might think (could just be that I grew up with games that were only SP prior to high speed internet being readily available). It plays fine and has incredible replay value simply on the fact it keeps track of your stats and there are 112 hidden gold statues around the game. ... (*opinion*) besides, why spend time developing a MP mode if people are just going to be playing Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo MP etc. I would of liked to see a "Co-Op campaign" mode though. It would fit the gameplay much better than a simple thrown together Multiplayer system like Uncharted 2 hasI love everything about this game: the look, the weapons, the movement, the world, and the cheesy cut-scenes!The Good: The ARS suit adds great tactical gameplay, some unique weapons, battlefield ready upgrades eliminate menus, fun boss fights, ending credits are very uniqueThe Bad: Bland, generic, and stereotypical characters, cheesy voice acting, almost no story to speak of, very repetitive, doesn't use the ARS suit to it's full potentialJapanese developers have a lot to learn from Western developers but Vanquish shows that they are slowly catching on. Vanquish is infused with Western shooter's big explosions and lots of shooting fused with Japanese fast paced action and quick controls. Vanquish is like a third person shooter on speed thanks to the ARS suit. Sam Gideon can slide around at super speeds on the ground as well as slow down time during dodges. This allows for very hectic gameplay against robots of all sizes and shapes.The plot is paper thin and only advances at the very end of the game since the middle has absolutely nothing to do with the plot because you're just dealing with in-the-moment problems, but the over arching story is pretty standard affair with Russia trying to take over the world with a giant microwave emitter that destroys San Fransisco. Its nothing to get excited about so just pop in Vanquish expecting fast shooting. The shooting is great thanks to useful weapons than can be upgraded throughout the game with droppable upgrades. Everything is done on the battlefield so there's no menus to fiddle with. I wish more shooters would use this idea so it doesn't draw you away from the action. You get a load-out of three weapons and two different grenades. EMP grenades stun robots and incendiary blow them up. Different weapons range from your standard affair of shotguns, heavy and light machine guns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles etc, but there are a few originals such as the disk launcher, LFE gun that shoots huge blobs of purple energy, and the laser rocket launcher.Thanks to the ARS suit it allows for what would normally be an impossible amount of enemies to kill in a standard shooter, but being able to slide around at fast speeds and slow down time isn't the key to staying alive. If you get shot too much your suit will automatically slow down time and burn up your energy meter. This allows you to kill any immediate danger and get to cover, but if you continue to get shot you will die. The energy meter determines all your special abilities and if you overheat you have to wait for it to cool down. I found this a little annoying especially when you start dying and you can't shut off the use of the auto slow down which will actually cause you to die during boss fights since you can't slide away after its burned up.The best part of the game are the boss fights since you have to shoot weak points and some times this will trigger cinematic QTEs (Quick Time Events) but the biggest fall back for Vanquish is the repetition. Sure there are some different gameplay stuff thrown in like firefights on rail carts, turret sections but I felt the game never truly took advantage of the whole ARS suit system. This is where the typical Japanese game generic atmosphere and aesthetics brings Vanquish down for me. While everything is responsive and sharp it all feels generic with weapons feeling like they don't pack a punch and just feel like pop guns. There's a good variety of enemies in here, but they are all just robots and you can pretty much use the same tactic on all of them. Boss fights recycle after Act 2, and the environments all look the same after Act 1.The game looks good but it is also generic looking thanks to the typical Japanese art style of sterile white washed environments and copy/paste feeling levels. The characters are the usual stereotypical, cheesy voice acted, empty feeling people that you can't really get attached to or don't make much sense. I want to get attached to the characters but they just feel to cheesy and stereotypical and are completely forgettable. So why should you play Vanquish? The fast paced action is undeniably addictive and 6 hours is just enough to not get too sick of the game without wanting it to just end. On a side note the ending credits are probably the most original I have ever seen in my 19 years of gaming. The developers faces are on asteroids and you shoot them as their names pop up. The more important guys are harder to shoot and the lead designer ends everything as a final boss fight. Kudos to Platinum for making credits more interesting than scrolling text.Insane, i bough this game last year with a tone of cheap PS3 games and waited a while to start playing it. Well i shouldn't have, the suit is amazing, i love it, you can turbo charge with it, the weapons are not that varied but fun to use. This is what gears of war should have been. Playstation for life babyGreat condition and as described. Fast shipping too. Thanks!Solid game with slick controls. Even though the first play through will probably take about 7 hours, Vanquish is a dynamic action packed game with no filler. The graphics are great and the game play makes up for a weak story. All in all, this game is my favorite third-person shooter.An explosive experience just on PS3, I was very lucky to get mine here.Didn't expect much from this game when I first bought it, but the first level was absolutely insane. So much going on I could hardly register it all. Overall, loved it. Fantastic action components, everything was just so intense. Definitely recommend.