Vanquish 2: 10 Things That Need To Change

Last year’s Vanquish was a breath of fresh air that was sadly overlooked. With cool sliding mechanics and a exceptional sense of pace, Vanquish was a sorely overlooked modernisation of the arcade shooters of old. It wasn’t without its faults though so, if Platinum Games were to make a sequel, here are ten changes we’d like to see made.

A new protagonist

Power suit aside, this guy doesn't really have much going for him

As far as protagonists go, Sam Gideon wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. Paper thin, generic and generally boring, Gideon needs to go. There just wasn’t anything engaging or interesting about his demeanour or back-story and, with a new protagonist, we could hopefully get a bit more of a solid story and narrative out of Vanquish.

A more even gender representation

One of the few female characters in the game and she's relegated to a desk job

Quite a lot of modern action games seem to be very male orientated. I can understand the logic, with the average gamer being male, but there is definitely a large female audience that is being neglected by the lack of strong female characters in games like Vanquish. Throughout the game the only major female presence is Elena Ivanova and the US president in small doses, and even then these characters only serve in supporting roles. No other female characters are present who fight on the front lines, making for a very two dimensional representation of genders in the game.

Better voice acting

The voice acting really accentuates just how corny some of the dialogue is

The dialogue in Vanquish, in conjunction with some quite corny delivery, made for a rather hollow narrative. The voice acting, particularly Sam Gideon’s vocals just seemed to gruff and macho. It all felt too pig-headed, leaving little to the imagination. This is one area where a more subtle touch may benefit the game’s storytelling.