10 Video Games That Launched With A Severe Lack Of Content

8. Vanquish

vanquish game
Platinum Games

Futuristic exoskeleton suits. An army of synthetic, disposable robots that vary from human-sized to monolithic monstrosities. Bullet hell, score attack-orientated gameplay and a totally nonsensical plot.

Yeah, Vanquish is a Japanese game through and through.

Platinum Games sure do know how to make players of their games feel like total badasses, but unlike the studio's previous game, Bayonetta, Vanquish suffered from a severe content drought when it hit shop shelves in 2011. Despite having incredibly tight core mechanics and a purposefully different, high-octane pace to defy its contemporary Western counterparts that preferred a slower, more visceral type of third-person gunplay, Vanquish failed to tick an important box during development, scuppering its chances of being labelled a classic.

We all know quantity isn't the be-all and end-all bar for which all great video games are universally judged by, but when a full price game clocks-in at less than 8 hours with no multiplayer component, alarm bells will inevitably ring.

Vanquish didn't need more mechanics or gimmicks to bloat its running time for the sake of it - it just needed more of the same. Much more.

Contributor
Contributor

Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.