Articles
Five Great Last-Gen Games You Probably Didn’t Play
You won’t find much new
here on the gameplay side
of things. Spec Ops is pretty
much your bog-standard thirdperson military shooter with
some light squad-based tactics
thrown in for good measure.
The only other differentiator is
the game’s use of sand which
can be used to kill enemies if
they’re stood in the right place
- for example, underneath a
skylight that’s holding back a
large amount of the grainy stuff.
It’s effectively no different to
shooting a big red barrel, but
it’s satisfying nonetheless.
Chances are that many PC
players already own Spec
Ops: The Line as it’s been on
sale plenty of times alongside
other 2K titles such as XCOM:
Enemy Unknown and The
Darkness II (both of which are
also worth playing) . For those
that haven’t yet given this bold
Issue 62 • December 2014
third-person-shooter a try;
do so, you won’t regret it.
Vanquish
Finally we reach the last game
on my list of underrated
gems, Vanquish. You probably
wouldn’t surprised to hear
that this bat-shit insane thirdperson-shooter was developed
by Platinum Games, the studio
behind perhaps the most
ridiculous action game of all
time, Bayonetta. What might
surprise you is that it had the
same director as Resident Evil
4, arguably the first game to get
third-person-shooting right.
At first glance you could be
forgiven for thinking that
Vanquish is just a generic sci-fi
shooter, and story-wise it pretty
much is. However, after just a
few minutes you’ll notice that
the gameplay is anything but;
a typical enemy encounter in
Vanquish will see you sliding
around on your knees (with
the help of jet-powered boots),
popping off some headshots
in slow-motion, doing a few
somersaults, then hopping
behind cover for a quick smoke.
Plat inum’s partnership with
Shinji Mikami resulted in a
perfect fusion of insane overthe-top action held together
by incredibly responsive
controls. Getting to grips with
the controls can take a bit of
time, but soon everything clicks
into place and the combat
becomes a graceful, almost
ballet-esque affair. Except with
robots and rockets instead
of tutus and pirouettes.
There’s only so much I can say
about the game in text. Most of
the game’s epicness can only
be understood by playing it
yourself; on several occasions
during my playthrough, I
couldn’t help but laugh in awe
of the craziness occurring on the
screen. The only real downside,
other than the forgettable
story, is that the campaign can
be completed in around five
or six hours. Still, while it lasts,
Vanquish is one hell of a ride.
14 • GameOn Magazine