Platinum Games was in real danger of releasing two serious ‘Game of the Year’ contenders in 2010, with Bayonetta earlier this year, and now Vanquish, the developer’s latest game.

Featuring at least a few new game mechanic tricks and a heap of gameplay refinements, Vanquish is at its heart a third-person cover-based action shooter in the same vein as Gears of War, only once you’ve seen all there is to see in Vanquish, and you’ve carved your way through every combat encounter you’re challenged with in this game, Gears of War’s gameplay situations will seem extremely tame in comparison.

Even during the tutorial I was shaking my head in disbelief at the insane abilities you have access to in Vanquish, and my eyes glazed over thinking of the possible gameplay scenarios to come – pure craziness was sure to ensue!

Not… quite.

I won’t deny that Vanquish includes insane battles with extreme amounts of visual insanity exploding all over the screen, but despite the fun of the core shooting gameplay matched with excellent levels that enable some memorable enemy encounters, the developers don’t do enough to fully exploit what’s unique about their game and unfortunately leave it to the player to have fun in their world, rather than manually renew and refresh the experience with effective pace changers and original challenges.

Continue reading El33tonline’s review of Vanquish.