Is Vanquish a four-hour game? | Digital Foundry

Digital Foundry:

During the creation of our Face-Off coverage, I captured our entire playthrough of the game on Xbox 360 - a mammoth 1.29TB of lossless 720p60 game footage, and subsequent to the feature's completion I rounded off my playthrough of the PlayStation 3 game.

While Vanquish maintains its own in-game timers that measure progress as you move from level to level, by stitching together all of the captures into one enormous video, we can time exactly how long it took to complete the game.

[Chaostar]

Whether it's 4 hours or 40 hours, all I know is I'm having a blast playing and that's what matters to me most.

"However, if you're more than a content completist and you buy into this idea of the gameplay experience itself offering value over and above the length of its missions, then in my view it's one of the best single-player shooters money can buy."

This ^^^

[StanLee]

"Even in these ultra-optimistic conditions, the timer winds up at five hours, four minutes. Beating that time on your first playthrough of the game by over an hour would require the ability to sail through losing no lives whatsoever, intimately knowing all the strategies required to beat each level right off the bat. In short, unless you're a superhumanly adept player with a phenomenal gift of foresight, the chances of you completing the game in under four hours are extremely remote."

So it's become clear that maybe the reviewer at GameInformer never completed the game at all.

[Game-ur]

Remember Resident Evil 1 and 2, great games, they can be finished in under 3 hours, doing that that awards a rocket launcher or magnum.

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

but to see the whole story you have to play it twice with each character.

[Army_of_Darkness]

That's cool and all.... But I'm still Not pay $60 for it.

[ico92]

Mega Man 2 can be beat in half an hour if your one hardcore gaming mofo, but most average gamers can just about beat in 6 hours or not beat it at all, Resident evil 4 can be beat in 2 hours it took me 13 hours to beat it, it depends on the gamer

[HolyOrangeCows]

People had fun, so no regrets on spending $60 on it, eh?
lol

[DMason]

I got between 6-8 hrs out of it. I wasnt really keeping track though.

[NeutralGamer]

Dont give me all that bullshit about Mega Man 2 and Resident Evil 2 can be completed in 3 hours!

I didnt pay 92 dollar for them back then (yes a game in Denmark costs 92 dollars)...

Even though they had short lengths Mega Man 2 and RE1 were games with gr8 story that could stand on their own unlike this gen relying on DLC...

Gaming this gen is Bull$hit!

(I just want all here to know that I could complete my favorite game Kirby's Dreamland on Game Boy in less that 15 minuttes)

[barom]

lol Megaman 2 has a great story? Didn't even know it had a story.

RE1, I can say for sure had minimal story. In total I would say there's like 10 min of story in that game. Oh and let's not forget about the great writing and voice work (sarcasm). We all remember "Jill Sandwich" right?

Anyway I personally have no issues paying 60$ for Vanquish. At the end of the day, it's about how much time I spend on the game, not what others spend on it. That said, considering everyone's so negative about it. Sales gotta be sad and thus prices gotta go low soonish, so I'm waiting.

[deafwing]

like zone of enders (1,2), omega boost and other high speed action games (that are all beatable within half a days effort) are short games and all fun to play ... but it's up the consumers if they want to pay for that.

Yet, I enjoyed this game and continue to do so - it's hard and some of the achievements are nightmares on steroids

[Mmmkay]

monkey island can be completed in a couple of hours. took me months the first time i played it...

[MNicholas]

is that they made it too fast, too exciting, and too sophisticated.

History doesn't lie. Simple, stupid and slow is all it would have taken (and a few bribes) to get 10s.

[MmaFanQc]

on normal mode, was fckn awesome even if it was short to some peoples, ...sure its ultra linear but damn that was enjoyable.

[AKissFromDaddy]

This game is sooooooooooo much longer. If you haven't played Vanquish, you'll only speculate how long it, which also means, "You don't know what you're talking about, lol."

[R2D2]

I have been spoiled by games like Castlevania,Fallout Vegas,Infamous,Demon Soul, Just Cause 2. A game needs to be a minimum of 15 Hrs and addictive to get my $60.

It looks like a good game but with no multi-player and no decision making that would effect the outcome of the game on my second play though, makes this a wait till the price drop tittle.

edit: @kiasuk, and now that you finished the game, do you feel the urge to go back at it or trade it to game stop for $25 credit?

[Rhythmattic]

Q : I just want to know if the Game Spot sales dude borrows it ?

A : ?

[poeo]

Demon's Souls can be completed in under ONE hour, like that Japanese player just did (google if you don't believe me). i could beat it in like 3-5 hours. the levels are really short if you know what to do.

that said, it's my favorite game of the past 20 years :) the theoretically possible time of beating a game means nothing.

[AllroundGamer]

soooo much longer? :D my first playthrough on normal difficulty was 4:47 and i died 12 times, and i was collecting all the weapons for upgrading so i sometimes backtracked to a weapon cache...

[AKissFromDaddy]

It took me 10 hours on normal but the game says 5 hours and 37 mins because it doesn't record the time that I use when I restart at a checkpoint from dying or when I choose to restart a level. You would choose to restart a level if you died too many time b/c you lose 1000 points on your final score every time you die and choose to start at a checkpoint, and not restart the level.

I died 6 times on one level and kept starting back on a check point and lost 6000 points on my final score and I only earned 14000 points, lol. I died 27 times in total. This game is long and fun and I started on normal when there are 4 difficulties present: Easy, Casual, Normal and Hard.

After you beat the game you unlock "God Hard", and that probably takes days to beat.

PS. Back-tracking in Vanquish for weapon upgrades makes no sense because if you don't use the weapon, there is no point, let alone you neglect the trophy/achievement for fully upgrading 1 weapon & it takes lots of upgrades to fully upgrade a weapon, let alone if you die, you may lose upgrades on weapons. Upgrading weapons you don't use is equivalent to downgrading weapons you do because different weapons have priority on different enemies, thus making the game that much harder for anyone who would even claim to do what you did on normal settings, let alone the harder ones. You can only carry 3 weapons and I understand switching weapons at the next weapons cache but back-tracking for weapon upgrades is BS.

PSS. When anyone restarts a level, the deaths in that level also get erased, so I died much more than the game counted,lol.

[AllroundGamer]

i started to play SW: Force Unleashed 2 today, it's also a 5-6 hour long singleplayer but you know what? the upgrades will transfer to your new game and the game isn't penalizing you lowering the upgrades after you die, and suddenly i enjoyed starting instantly a second go on the harder difficulty and it was way more fun and yet could still feel, that the game became harder. That's the difference and i see, that the developers of Vanquish made some really bad decisions concerning replayability...

[Neckbear]

So, basically, you're telling me you didn't liked you couldn't keep your SIDE upgrades and things like that?

Bro, let me tell you something. Upgrades in Vanquish meant very little to me- you could die and lose them at any second. If anything, they were a limited advantage. Vanquish is ALL ABOUT DEM SKILL. You might not like this, but I personally love it. It tests your skill and ability over tacking on some action RPG-esque upgrades and letting you have a clear advantage against enemies.

[Chucky2003]

in my first playtrough of the game i did it in 4:28 min,this article doesn't prove anything besides that the length differs from player to player,the guy died 54 times,i didn't,i think i died 5-6 times,most of the people who play games are good playing them so for me every time when a developer says the game is 8 hours long i know for me it will be shorter

[zatrox]

Completion Time pointed out at screen =/= how much time it REALLY took you (Including cutscenes, retries, etc.)

[AKissFromDaddy]

So whatever you write, I'll just read it. Most people are not good at playing games. Assuming other people are as good as you is SO RETARDED and the article did prove what it set out: The game isn't 4 hours. I don't know what difficulty you played on and I'm not going to write that you didn't beat the game in the time you wrote you did but in my opinion, you're writing down the in game clock. When I wrote 10 hours, I timed myself and I began at 1:30pm and end at 11:47pm and the game wrote 5hr and 37mins.

I don't how you tell time, but I know from 1:30 pm to 11:47pm isn't 5hr and 37mins, lol. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed Vanquish.

@zatrox When you wrote you comment, I submitted mine and great point.

PS. I hope more Japanese Developers enter the shooter genre because PG blew it up :-)

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

to me this is a rental because there is no doubt that it is shorter than MOST games. YOu dont have to be an expert at it, like in MGS or RE, to beat this game in a shot amount of time. Better games have been blasted for being "too short" even though they are longer and offer more(GOW 3, halo reach). So ill look past the fact that since its multiplatform it get a pass for being short, and rent it. I hope that the 2nd one is longer.

[KiasuKiasiMan]

I just finished the game with 5 hours of playtime.

But I enjoyed every moment of it and that's what matters.

[soundslike]

if you can afford dropping 60 bucks on 5 hours of fun, then sure "thats what matters"

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

It looks pretty cool, but I could beat it in 2 days so ill rent it.

[00000000000000000001]

I passed because I didn't like the game after playing the demo. The length of the game didn't really matter, just not my type of game.

[memphis2]

ya if you play it on CASUAL-AUTO (super easy). then it's a 4 hour game. i'm playing it on hard and it is taking me beyond 4 hours and i am not even half way through the game yet. i'm having a blast, that's all it matters. people need to stop complaining about how short a game is. since when does length of a game make a game suck because it's short??!!

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

whenever an exclusive on either system or PC is anywhere around 8 hours on easy, even ignoring any other SP modes or multiplayer that game might have, I constantly hear how short they are.

This game looks sweet, so Im going to rent it for sure.

[Ryo-Hazuki]

I beat it on Normal. Now im trying to beat it on hard and then God Hard...not to mention the challenge modes this game is easily worth the price of admission. If you're a casual gamer who just wants to beat it once and then never play again well this game was never meant for you from the start. This game is great

[soundslike]

Every time you buy a shorter single campaign game like this, no matter how good it is, YOU are telling the developers that this is 60 dollars worth of gaming. They will use this information. Don't be surprised when they hold off on content till post launch DLC because YOU told the company that you already got your 60 dollars worth.

[zatrox]

Than when you buy a game as Vanquish, YOU are telling the developers YOU want good games that try something else BECAUSE THEY ARE WORTH 60$.

When you bitch about no multiplayer, DEVELOPERS and PUBLISHERS will both agree that they need to tackle some multiplayer on a game JUST SO PEOPLE WILL BUY IT.

Perfect example: Dead Space 2.

[soundslike]

Where did I mention multiplayer? I didn't. Getting my money's worth is not mutually exclusive with a tacked on multiplayer mode.

[zatrox]

That's what most people bitch about these days.

Anyways, what do you consider "your money's worth"?

For me, it's an enjoyable experience. As long as I'm satisfied with it, I got my money's worth. After all, if I really like the gameplay, I replay games. That's it.

What about you?

[thief]

I dont get it why they couldnt make it a bit longer, say 2 hours? Does it take that much money to make games these days?

[FuckinUsername]

The demo was crap for the game.

[darren_poolies]

Depends, did you complete it in 4 hours.

[Redempteur]

vanquish is NOT a 4hours game ..that's the truth simple as that

[big_silky]

didn't gow3 give you a trophy for beating it in under 5 hours? so that's essentially a very short game with no multiplayer, i didn't see too many people complaining.

[Parapraxis]

"didn't gow3 give you a trophy for beating it in under 5 hours?"
Nope.

[MyUS_ARMY_CPTRespect]

U said F--K yeah U disrespectful U were cheat at game!! U were cheated any game i known u. My b COP/US army arrest u hhhaa I speak GOD never forever u go hell stay life with ur soul. Because U never respect hate vio peoples wow OMG. Come u beat me MW2 or game U check my STAT ratio over 2.20 and BC2 2.00, MW 2.03 and 1 rank 6 time than u suck play loser How u beat me I blow u. 100000-1 K-D I caught u cheat BItc God not like u cheat go hell. U can't read LAW can't tell u bye U never disrespectful lot

[SiteNblog Defender]

It's a rental.

[CYBERHATER]

This game is 4 hours on casual if you turn up the difficulty it will challenge you. However this is a masterpiece! Imagine if Sega would have taken there time on this one. Added Multiplayer, coop, and a firefight mode. This game would have challenged Halo. Sega's constant rushing of games is killing them. Alien Versus Predator 2010 looks awesome in 3D with Direct x 11 on PC but it was rushed and suffered a horrible backlash in the community. :( What a Shame......

[Neckbear]

I completly disagree. It was actually Platinum the ones who stated they didn't want multiplayer on this one, mainly because they wanted to focus on the gameplay themselves and the single player campaign. Now, if you played it, you can see that it paid off. It's incredibly well-polished all around. Besides, mechanics like the ones in Vanquish could have been hard to pull off in a multiplayer game.

Geez, I mean, just look at your picture. Dead Space didn't needed multiplayer, either. But thanks to the constant bitching of this amazingly stupid net we call the internet (Or well, more like the users of it), they tacked on multiplayer on it. Wich I won't be touching.

[floetry101]

The game is absolutely amazing. Whether or not you want to spend the $60 to check it out is up to you. Regardless of the price, everyone needs to play this game. It made for an explosive rental, and I bought it the next day.

[KiLLUMiNATi_89]

What's the concept of this game and is this game any good never heard of it ??