10 Gaming Flops Much Better Than Their Reputations

What do you get if you mix the directorial talents of Shinji Mikami, the man behind Resident Evil 4 and Dino Crisis, and western RPGs like Mass Effect? The answer comes in the form of 2010s Vanquish.

Vanquish was a slick third-person shooter heavily influenced by western game culture. This is obvious throughout the title, from the DARMA space station that clearly took visual clues from Mass Effect's Citadel to the slick third-person cover shooting perfected by Gears Of War. Vanquish still kept a lot of Japanese influence also, with score-attack elements and the obvious Gundam inspired enemies. Vanquish was great looking and slick to play, but this didn't correlate into sales.

There are arguments that Vanquish's critical failure is due to its lack of identity, but the biggest contributor to Vanquish being lost in the void was a game released in the same year was Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 2 was a similar gameplay experience, but whereas Vanquish told a forgettable story, Mass Effect 2 had the suicide mission. Vanquish was a dynamic game that was slaughtered by one of the best games ever made.