Vanquish

In a future strained by dwindling food and energy, Sam Gideon joins a military strike to retake the captured SC-01 Providence space colony. His experimental Augmented Reaction Suit turns movement, aiming and firepower into linked combat tools as he fights through the Russian Star forces and their machines.

Vanquish is a science-fiction action shooter set after population growth and shortages of food and energy have pushed nations into conflict. The United States built SC-01 Providence, a space colony designed to collect solar energy and transmit it to Earth. The Order of the Russian Star, a military faction that seized power in Russia, captures the colony and turns its energy array into a weapon. One attack devastates San Francisco, and the Order threatens New York unless the United States surrenders. The response is a military operation to retake Providence, led by Marine Lieutenant Colonel Robert Burns. Sam Gideon, a DARPA researcher and American soldier, joins the mission carrying an experimental suit. The crisis provides the setting for a campaign about a rescue and a military counterattack, with the colony itself becoming the battlefield.

Sam’s Augmented Reaction Suit, or ARS, is the game’s defining tool. It gives him the strength and mobility to fight machines at close range and cross exposed ground quickly. The suit’s Boost function uses thrusters to send Sam into a fast slide, allowing him to close distance, change position, or pass beneath low openings. It is not an unlimited sprint: the suit tracks temperature, and Boost shuts off when the system begins to overheat. Other powered functions are unavailable while it cools. The same resource pressure makes each burst a tactical commitment. Players move between cover, fire, evade and then decide when a new rush is worth spending the suit’s available power, rather than relying on a static position for the whole encounter.

The ARS also provides Augmented Reaction mode, commonly called AR mode. When activated, the suit slows Sam’s perception of time, giving the player a brief window to line up shots, target several nearby enemies or move through incoming fire. It can be engaged during a Boost, joining traversal and aiming in one motion. The effect is tied to the suit’s temperature, so it cannot be used continuously; after the gauge rises, powered actions become unavailable until the system cools. A tactical evade supplies another way to escape an attack, while close-range melee strikes can knock enemies away. Together these actions make offense and defence overlap: a slide can become an approach, an aim window or an escape, depending on when the player releases the controls and where the next threat is positioned.

Sam’s firearms run through BLADE, the Battlefield Logic Adaptable Electronic weapons system. The programmable weapon can copy different shapes, from a handgun to a rocket launcher, but its memory holds only three weapon configurations at once. The player can switch among the three equipped slots and decide which capabilities to carry into a fight. Scanning a weapon found on the battlefield adds it to the system; scanning or collecting a duplicate of a weapon already held replenishes or improves that weapon instead. When its ammunition is full, a duplicate can raise its power and maximum capacity. The result is a practical choice between replacing a slot with a different tool and maintaining or strengthening a familiar one. Fragmentation and EMP grenades add explosive damage or a disruption option alongside guns and melee.

The battlefield still uses cover, but it is designed around movement between protected positions. Sam can take cover behind walls and obstacles, move along them, then break away by rolling, running or vaulting over a low barrier. Firing from cover gives a moment to read enemy placements, while the suit’s dash and evades let the player attack from changing angles. Some encounters also provide contextual actions such as commandeering a turret, placing a remote explosive against an obstacle, opening a container or assisting an injured ally. Enemy machines are varied, including smaller robot troops and larger opponents that demand more focused fire. PlatinumGames describes targeting weak points and using AR mode for precise attacks; the practical loop is to identify a threat, choose a weapon, reposition under fire and exploit an opening before the suit overheats.

The story advances through a sequence of Acts and Missions. A mission usually moves across combat areas filled with enemy fighters before a stronger boss encounter, and the game displays a score when the mission ends. Checkpoints divide missions into smaller segments and save progress automatically, so failure returns Sam to the most recent checkpoint. Alongside the combat role, the story pairs him with Burns, whose command of the operation can conflict with Sam’s separate task, and Elena Ivanova, a DARPA analyst who provides logistical support. The mission is therefore both a fight across an occupied station and an effort to recover people and regain control of a strategically important energy system. The campaign’s science-fiction setting combines military forces, powered armour, autonomous robots and the infrastructure of a cylindrical orbital colony.

The main campaign also feeds into replay and challenge modes. Cleared missions can be replayed to improve skills and earn higher scores, while tactical Challenge stages unlock as the story progresses. These are separate arenas for applying movement, weapon choice and ARS timing under tougher conditions, with results recorded for ranking comparison. The game begins with a tutorial that teaches the suit’s basic commands before the more dangerous missions; it can also be revisited from the menu to practise. Difficulty settings affect how demanding the combat is, and the manual notes that on Normal or higher, weapons can lose upgrades when Sam dies. That rule makes staying alive part of weapon progression as well as mission completion. The broader structure rewards learning how Boost, AR mode, cover and the three BLADE slots work together across repeated fights.