Vanquish

Overview

Vanquish is a 2010 third-person shooter developed by PlatinumGames and published by Sega for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was directed by Shinji Mikami, began development in 2007 and was released worldwide in October 2010. A Windows port followed in 2017, and a remaster came to PS4 and Xbox One in the Bayonetta and Vanquish 10th Anniversary Bundle in 2020.

You play Sam Gideon, a DARPA agent in a prototype Augmented Reaction Suit. When Sam takes too much damage the suit enters AR mode, which slows time so he can dodge and aim at weak spots. You can also trigger it by hand. Boosters let him slide quickly across the map, but using AR mode or boosters too much overheats the suit and leaves him slower until it cools.

Sam carries the BLADE system, which can scan and store three weapons at a time out of eight standard types. Weapons and grenades are upgraded by picking up chips. On Normal and Hard the active weapon drops a level when you die, and God Hard turns upgrades off completely. The cover system is built for bullet-hell style fights, with destructible cover and a slide-boost that lets you move in and out of cover at speed.

The story is set in a near-future where the United States launches a solar-power space colony, SC-01 Providence, and a Russian faction called the Order of the Russian Star takes it over and uses it to destroy San Francisco. Sam joins Bravo Company to board the station and rescue a scientist, and the mission turns out to involve a bigger betrayal at home.

Mikami has said the look and feel came partly from the 1970s anime Casshern, and the slide-boost was added to keep that sense of speed. The game uses the Havok physics engine. PS3 was the lead platform, and the PS3 port was handled by Nex Entertainment; it is Mikami's only game under the PlatinumGames name.

Reviews were favourable. Critics praised the pace, the visuals, the boss fights and the original ideas, and criticised the writing, the voice acting and the short campaign. Famitsu scored it 37 out of 40. It debuted at number four in Japan on PS3 with 48,318 copies, and sales passed 830,000 on PS3 and Xbox 360 by March 2011.

Official trailer

Vanquish Launch Trailer, SEGA. Watch on YouTube

Gameplay

Vanquish PS3 Full gameplay, RyoGamestation. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Third-person shooter

Developer

PlatinumGames

Publisher

Sega

Series

Vanquish

Composers

Erina Niwa, Masafumi Takada, Masakazu Sugimori

Designers

Masaaki Yamada, Shigenori Nishikawa, Junichi Oka, Hiroki Kato

Writers

Hiroki Kato, Jean Pierre Kellams

Producers

Atsushi Inaba, Jun Yoshino

Directors

Shinji Mikami

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

No

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Subscription history

Disc IDs

The serial printed on the disc and the case. It tells you which region a copy is from.

Trophies

Trophies51

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

3

Silver

5

Bronze

42

Total

51

Points

1350

Platinum time

15 to 35 hours

100% time

15 to 35 hours

Difficulty

9 out of 10

Playthroughs for platinum

1

Playthroughs for 100%

1

Platinum without online

Yes

Online trophies

0

Boosting needed

No

DLC has trophies

No

Platinum includes DLC

No

100% includes DLC

No

DLC still for sale

Yes

DLC note

The Tri-Weapon Pack adds no trophies

Missable trophies

0

Chapter select fixes a miss

Yes

Separate trophy lists by region

No

Only in a language other than English

No

Online-only version

No

Digital-only

No

Disc-only

No

Trophy list shared with other versions

No

Other versions

The PS4 version has its own lists

Players with the platinum

2.25%

• Platinum Earn all available trophies in VANQUISH. Platinum 2.25% of players
• One Day at DARPA Complete all DARPA training exercises. Bronze 78.12% of players
• Space Normandy Complete Act 1. Bronze 63.78% of players
• Storming Grand Hill Complete Act 2. Bronze 54.37% of players
• I Don't Speak Kreon! Complete Act 3. Bronze 48.05% of players
• My Way Complete Act 4. Bronze 44.93% of players
• End to Major Combat Operations Complete Act 5. Bronze 43.2% of players
• Survivor Complete all Acts. Silver 40.33% of players
• Operation Overlord II Complete Act 1 on Hard difficulty or above. Bronze 16.8% of players
• Ain't Life Grand? Complete Act 2 on Hard difficulty or above. Bronze 14.47% of players
• Cry on, Kreon! Complete Act 3 on Hard difficulty or above. Bronze 13.32% of players
• The High Way Complete Act 4 on Hard difficulty or above. Bronze 12.67% of players
• Mission Accomplished Complete Act 5 on Hard difficulty or above. Bronze 11.86% of players
• ARS Operator Complete all Acts on Hard difficulty or above. Gold 11.52% of players
• Gun Runner Scan and acquire all weapons. Bronze 64.15% of players
• King of the Hill Level a weapon up to maximum operational capability. Bronze 47.96% of players
• Fight or Flight Manually trigger AR Mode and destroy an enemy robot. Bronze 73.63% of players
• Adrenaline Rush Manually trigger AR Mode and destroy three enemy robots in a row. Bronze 39.77% of players
• Going in for the Kill Destroy ten enemy robots with melee attacks. Bronze 55.93% of players
• A Heartbreaker and Lifetaker Destroy 100 enemy robots with melee attacks. Silver 11.76% of players
• Helloooo, Nurse Revive a friendly troop. Bronze 86.11% of players
• Knight in Shining White Armor Revive 20 friendly troops. Bronze 49.27% of players
• Death Wish Destroy three enemy robots while in damage-triggered AR Mode. Bronze 55.38% of players
• 40 Yard Dash Maintain a Boost dash to the limit of the ARS reactor without overheating. Bronze 43.78% of players
• Home Run Destroy an incoming missile or grenade. Bronze 83.43% of players
• Home Run God Destroy ten incoming missiles or grenades. Bronze 76.4% of players
• Brutality Bonus Destroy a Romanov's arms and legs, then finish it with a melee attack. Bronze 26.94% of players
• Romanov This! Destroy a Romanov with a melee attack. Bronze 41.83% of players
• The Hand of God Destroy two Romanovs in a row using only melee attacks. Silver 12.75% of players
• Robots Tend to Blow Up Destroy three enemy robots at once with one hand grenade. Bronze 67.69% of players
• Hole-in-One Destroy a Chicane with a hand grenade. Bronze 24.87% of players
• Short Circuit Destroy ten enemy robots that have been disabled with an EMP emitter. Bronze 46.94% of players
• Two Birds with One Stone Destroy two or more enemy robots at once with the LFE gun. Bronze 47.09% of players
• Trick Shot Destroy three enemy robots at once with rocket launcher splash damage. Bronze 51.24% of players
• Flash! King of the Impossible Destroy four enemies simultaneously with the Lock-on Laser. Silver 17.5% of players
• Piece by Piece Destroy the arms, head, and back of an KNRB-0 Argus robot. Bronze 36.62% of players
• That Ended Up Working Out Nicely After taking control of the enemy transport in Act 2-2, do not let a single enemy escape. Bronze 57.26% of players
• Failure Breeds Success Destroy two Argus robots in Act 2-3 while they are in bipedal mode. Bronze 11.31% of players
• Leibniz Defense Agency Defend the Pangloss statue in Act 3-2. Bronze 11.73% of players
• Tightrope Walker Destroy two cannons in Act 3-3 and complete the mission. Bronze 10.36% of players
• Fisher is the Other Sam Proceed on the monorail in Act 3-4 without being spotted by the enemy troops or searchlights. Bronze 20.87% of players
• Flyswatter Destroy all the floating turrets in Act 3-4. Bronze 8.94% of players
• Guardian Do not allow any friendly armor to be destroyed during Act 3-5. Bronze 20.35% of players
• Hurry the #@$% Up! Destroy five or more enemy transports from atop the Kreon in Act 3-7. Bronze 19.56% of players
• Civil Disobedience Ignore the elevator start order in Act 4-1. Instead, hold position and destroy all reinforcements. Bronze 15.61% of players
• Buzzard Beater Destroy the Buzzard without allowing it to reach ground level in Act 5-1. Bronze 11.92% of players
• Smoke 'em if ya got 'em! Destroy 10 enemies distracted by cigarettes during one mission. Bronze 8.4% of players
• Auld Lang Syne Destroy two enemy robots who have been distracted by a cigarette. Bronze 17.66% of players
• The Best of All Possible Worlds Find and fire upon all of the Pangloss statues hidden on the colony. Silver 6.12% of players
• Tactical Challenger Complete all of the Tactical Challenges in VANQUISH. Gold 2.29% of players
• Living Legend Complete the game without dying, regardless of difficulty level. Gold 9.72% of players

Space and patches

Space neededAbout 11.6 GB

Update patch25 MB

Version 01.01, the latest Sony hosts.

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

DLC

One DLC pack was released, the Tri-Weapon pack, which began as a North American pre-order bonus and went on sale in November 2012.

Items

Name	Adds	Price	Obtainable today
Tri-Weapon Pack	Three extra weapons for the BLADE system.	US$1.99	Yes

Playable today

Playable offline todayYes

Single-player only, with no online features.

Online

Plays offlineYes

Vanquish is single-player only and needs no online service.

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	84	100

Critics

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
IGN	PS3	8.5	10
GameSpot	PS3	9	10
Edge	PS3	8	10
Eurogamer	Xbox 360	9	10
Game Informer	Xbox 360	7.75	10
GameTrailers	Xbox 360	9	10
GameZone	PS3	7	10
Famitsu	PS3	37	40
The Escapist	PS3	4	5
The Daily Telegraph	Xbox 360	9	10

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Shinji Mikami
Producer	Atsushi Inaba
Producer	Jun Yoshino
Designer	Masaaki Yamada
Designer	Shigenori Nishikawa
Designer	Junichi Oka
Designer	Hiroki Kato
Writer	Hiroki Kato
Writer	Jean Pierre Kellams
Programmer	Kiyohiko Sakata
Programmer	Shuichiro Chiboshi
Artist	Naoki Katakai
Artist	Yusuke Kan
Composer	Erina Niwa
Composer	Masafumi Takada
Composer	Masakazu Sugimori

Cast

Character	Actor
Sam Gideon	Gideon Emery
Robert Burns	Steve Blum
Victor Zaitsev	Marc Worden
Elizabeth Winters	Lee Meriwether
Elena Ivanova	Kari Wahlgren
Dr. Francois Candide	Benito Martinez

Notes for collectors

• The PS3 version was the lead platform, which Mikami said was meant to avoid a weak PS3 port. The Xbox 360 version was still reported to run better.
• It is the only game Shinji Mikami made under the PlatinumGames name.
• The Tri-Weapon pack was a North American pre-order bonus first and was sold on PSN in November 2012. Those three weapons are included in the later ports.
• The end credits are a rail shooter where the staff faces appear on asteroids.
• The US PS3 disc has one patch, 01.01, a 25.8 MB download listed as content data, and it needs system software 3.10.
• Several European retailers gave a free copy of Bayonetta with Vanquish pre-orders.
• The Living Legend trophy asks for a full run without dying, on any difficulty.

Credits

Publisher

Sega

Developer

PlatinumGames

Director

Shinji Mikami

Released

2010-10-19

Age rating

ESRB M

Disc ID

BLUS30543

Region

US

Time to beat

about 6 hours

Copies in the shop

• Vanquish (PS3) CA$22.99