Vanquish Campaign Length Confirmed

StrengthGamer: This month's Game Informer Magazine featured a review of Vanquish. In that review the editor's claimed the game's campaign could be beaten in less then 4 hours. Since this issue was released, there has been a lot of speculation as to how true this really is. Well, thanks to user "IllISTGaMer" for sending this screenshot of his finished game. Take a look at the screenshot below to see just how long this game really is.

[Fishy Fingers]

Ah cool, because I figured the editor of GameInformer was lying. Still, there you have it I guess.

[AvidGamerrrr]

Yeah good call. I think it's more of a call out to Platinum Games than to GameInformer.

[Gue1]

From the article: "While the quality of the screenshot certainly isn't the best, it's clear that the entire game took him 3 hours 42 minutes and 3 seconds." on Normal difficulty

[Winter47th]

Rental.

No bloody way I'm paying 60$ for a 4 hour game with no MP, I'd feel ripped off & not even Shenji slapping his name on the box would justify the purchase.

No matter what excuses you'd give the game being too fast-paced, arcadish..etc, it's simply too short and would bomb in sales I'd recon, then they'd blame it on bad timing/recession/Japanese videogames industry's falling while the truth to the matter is, they're just f'ing lazy & greedy.

[Parapraxis]

Agree 100% Winter47th, a rental it is indeed.

[tacosRcool]

At least MoH had great multiplayer

[SaiyanFury]

While I love PlatinumGames, (I'm currently loving Okami on PS2) I'm not dishing out 60 bucks for a 4 hour game sorry. I'm really short on money these days, and especially since I don't care about online multiplayer gaming, I only buy things with a longer single player mode. 60 bucks nets me only 4 hours and that's it? Sorry PG, not this time. I love you guys but it's not worth the money no matter how impressive the polish is.

[zatrox]

Although, now that I look at it, 16 deaths seems pretty good for a first playthrough on a game where some bosses one-hit you.

Hm, I'll have to play it myself and see how long it takes me.

[despair]

there's a trophy/achievement to complete the game without dying on any difficulty, might be tough.

[TreMillz]

WHO THE HELL SITS AND PLAYS A GAMES SINGLE PLAYER MODE PAST 2 HRS STRAIGHT?! its not even multiplayer geez every game ive played takes me no less than 8 hrs of total completion i search around on my 1st playthrough and loom at a walkthrough to see what i missed. Backtracking and all.

[Anderson8]

...are you an idiot?

[milohighclub]

i play for 8-10 hours straight on single player, 100% ac:2 the weekend it was released.

[Mmmkay]

who the hell doesn't play the single player for eight hours straight ? tacked on mp can wait...

[Christopher]

I do since my time to play games is infrequent, but when it happens I tend to play for 6 hours straight. I can't play every day, let alone every week, for a few hours often, but I do get breaks from very heavy periods of work and relax on a Saturday or Sunday while the wife and mother-in-law are out shopping or doing something else.

[dredgewalker]

@Tremillz

I once did an FF7 marathon for 10 hours straight, and I've heard of some players gaming for more than 2 days. 2 hours for me is taking it easy on gaming.

[NnT3291]

I remember playing Borderland for 17 hours straight

[TheLastGuardian]

I feel bad for platinum games right now. If they have such great gameplay why not make a longer campaign? 4 hours, That is shorter than some $10 DLC. I'm still going to rent it.

[deafwing]

do they actually add up?

Indeed, my recorded mission time shows a low number but it took me 4 hours to complete (or real world time) to complete the stage ... seriously guys we're loosing focus - this game is the most fun I've had with a shooter since Zone of Enders - not sure what all of you are going on about the time.

[Doletskaya]

Why would GameInformer lie anyway? Some people really are paranoid.

[Fan Tastic]

Less that 4 hours!!! Wow, why make a game with a good engine and then not put much effort into creating more environments to play in.

Did it get gimped to fit onto 1 DVD like some other xbox360 games?

[deafwing]

I don't know much shooter type games that are that long anyways (it gets old too quick) i don't think the xbox had dvds had anything to do with it - it's about balance. Personally the length of the game play time (and the actual time that you spend with it) seems to be just right to me. Also, I dare any of you complete in 4 hours on hard ;).

[Fan Tastic]

Hey, if you want to spend $60 for a 4 hour game go for it.

[REDHULKSMASH]

.

[gtamike]

It's not made by them noob

[AwesomeJizz]

I couldn't even finish the demo on hard. So I guess that finishing it under 4 hours is achievable only when playing in easy mode.

@Below normal is still not a way to determine a game's length.

[Fishy Fingers]

Yes... He must of done it on easy right. Lets not click on the article and find out though.

He did it on Normal. But keep that quite.

Edit: What? Normal is the default setting. Of course its the way to determine a games length. Got any other excuses? He used haxs? Has 3 hands?

[-Ikon-]

4 hands

[zireno]

each with 7 fingers

[JokesOnYou]

lmfao

JOY

[Kurt Russell]

lol +bubbles all round :)

[VampHuntD]

The player SAID they played on normal. There is no evidence of that in the screen shot (some games tell you what level you completed it on, this does not, I just looked).

Secondly, we still cant' confirm first/second/third playthrough, that also isn't noted.

While I don't think this guy is lying, (mostly because I don't see why anyone would play through and take 6-7 hours and then play agan to get under 4 just for this screen shot), this shot proves nothing other than it can be done in that long. It may be even shorter as this guy may suck. Or, he could be really awesome and it could be far longer. The screen provides no intel either way.

[AssassinHD]

Normal is the standard difficulty (which is what makes it "normal"). It is the difficulty by which everything should be measured. Hard is just there for people who want a greater than normal challenge.

[FwanK]

They said the same about Kane and Lynch 2

It took me a week on the hardest difficulty

[BillOreilly]

took me like 6 hours, granted 6 very epic hours but thats why it was a rental as is vanquish

[BlackTar187]

to beat it on hard on kane and lynch2?

im calling shenanigans. or is that what the game timer said when in reality it was much more. there were some parts i just dont see anyone flying thru no matter there skill. the hard was cheap it was annoying.

[BrianG]

Look at RE5, I can beat that in under 2 hours. haha, still doesn't make it a bad game.

[BrianG]

Guess I'm the only one that can beat it in 2 hours. hmm, yay me?

[Mmmkay]

i can't even play it for five minutes...

[jony_dols]

Yeah its not a bad game,
its absolute rubbish.

[zatrox]

But doesn't that dismisses IGN's statement of 6-7 hours?

Or perhaps the game's length comes down to the player?

[monkeyfox]

A game could be 8 hours long and terrible...

[Anderson8]

but £50 for a 4 hour experience is ridiculous, i mean, would you pay £50 to watch a film?... i doubt it

[Kurt Russell]

it depends on who's tits are in it ;)

[jay2]

I cancled my Pre-order when I read the G.I info, and it's great to see it confirmed now, so my plan now is to Rent it Friday.

[bubb13gum]

Difficulty of a Title should never determine how big the game is. Obviously the single player is not a big campaign so it shouldn't be sold for 60 dollars. $25 dollar Psn/Xbla download....IMO. To be honest...Alot of single player games campaign is really short this generation. NO WAY I should be able to beat a game in a day...

[MidnytRain]

That's how I feel. Buying a game after work/school then going home and beating it before you eat dinner is almost heartbreaking...

[Anderson8]

so true.. I've had my heart broken many times this gen

[NYC_Gamer]

pretty short game...

[JadedWriter]

I'll be getting this later after a price drop I guess. That $60 will either go to a Logitech G 27 or Tales of the Abyss.

[xxBiG_BoSSxx]

i think it comes down to how you play. based on the stats the guy sent them it seems like he just burnt through the game as fast he could. only 1 pangloss statue found. only 16 friendlies revived out of 300 something killed. that's not how i play games so this will probably take me a couple hours more first playthrough.
Almost any game can be done extremely fast when trying to be quick. Lords of shadow took me about 20 hrs my initial run. My paladin run took only 3 and a half hours.

[VileAndVicious]

I also think Ill start out on the highest difficulty setting for good measure.

[Redempteur]

some comments here ...

Facepalm.jpg ..

it doesn't matter how short the campaign is ..it's how long you can have fun with it ..
shinji mikami never disapointed me before and some of you should just look at his other games to know how full of replay value they were ..

and besides if you look at the screenshot i just doubt this was done correctly
9% of cover ?? only ? 16 deaths ? 1 ( one ) statue found ?
This player was rushing the game ..

[Redempteur]

to the 6 disagreers give me one shinji mikami game that doesn't have an awesome replay value ?
Resident evil ?
devil may cry ?
bayonetta ?

you can replay them in countless ways and still have fun with them .. the "meat " of his games aren't lenght but how fun you have while playing ..

OMG some guy rushed the game and missed almost every secret area and didn't do the challenges rooms ( they unlock after the chapters )
but this is supossed to be proof ?

[VileAndVicious]

shinji mikami
didnt do Devil may Cry or Bayonetta.

But other than that your right Ill still be purchasing this title.

[lightningsax]

He's thinking of Kamiya. Mikami is also part of Platinum, but he didn't do Bayonetta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

That's okay; he just had his names confused.

[VampHuntD]

Actually, he was a part of the team for all of teh games listed. Youw ould think when you cite a Wiki, you would check the other Wiki as well no?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Mikami was appointed as the general manager of the studio, and worked as executive producer for various games, including the original Devil May Cry (originally conceived as a Resident Evil game).

After the dissolution of Clover Studio in 2007, Mikami joined Seeds Inc, now known as Platinum Games, the newly formed successor of his former studio. Platinum Games is composed of several of Mikami's former Capcom colleagues including Hideki Kamiya, Atsushi Inaba, Yuta Kimura, Nao Ueda, Mari Shimazaki, and Masami Ueda. - Bayonetta came out after he came to Platinum Games. He just wasn't the director of the game, but he was on the project as part of platinum games.

[ironcreed]

Everyone ragging on Game Informer, while conveniently forgetting how nearly every developer ALWAYS exaggerates how long their game is. Why is Platinum Games the exception here, because of Mikami and is rep? It is what it is, folks... a short ass game.

I am sure it is a blast, though. I plan to either rent it one day or pick it up when it is extremely cheap. As re-playable as it may be, I am not paying 60.00 for a 4 hour game.

Yes, back in the 8 bit days nobody complained when games took less than two hours to beat, but that is because that was the norm back then. We are nearly in 2011 and there is no excuse for a $60.00 game that has only a single player component to be 4 hours long. Besides, not everyone wants to re-play a 4 hour game 30 times just to climb a leader board and get their money's worth at the same time. To those who do, have fun. This game will not be worth it for me until I can pick it up for around $20.00 or so.

[big_silky]

it's short? play it again. people these days act like a game is a 1 shot deal and the disc erases itself after the first playthrough.

[VileAndVicious]

Exactly what I was thinking!!!

Bubbles.

[Baba1906]

thats like reading a book twice.... it hast to be amazing so i can see the problem.

[vickers500]

"it doesn't matter how short the campaign is ..it's how long you can have fun with it"

Sorry, but 4 hours of fun doesn't justify the 65 bucks that these people are trying to rip us off with. No one is saying that Vanquish is a bad game, just that it's way too overpriced.

For a game that's only 4 hours (and sometimes under that), it should NOT be full price, because it is not a full game. 30 dollars is an acceptable price for a game as short as Vanquish.

[ironcreed]

Exactly, man. Hell, I know it is a great game. I loved the demo and I even had it pre-ordered for awhile. I just cannot justify paying $60.00 for such a short game. Especially with all of the other quality titles that I am going to have on my plate. I think I will enjoy it much more either as a rental or as a pick up on the cheap.

[Redempteur]

you guys are the reason something is wrong with the industry ..

instead of seeing if the game appeal to you , you take cover behind numbers.
i'll tell you what . i finished bayonneta in 6hours .. and you know what i did ? i played it again to look for the secrets , to increase my time, to do the challenges rooms, to see the hiddens things inside the game .. and i had fun with it .

you're all acting like there is nothing to do after you're finished the campaign .the guys who finished in 3hours didn't even see HALF of what the game has to offer .. man that's pathetic .. in 3 hours he did what 20% max of the trophies/achievements ? what about the rest ?

It's because of such stupid way of thinking that some devs waste their time with boring multiplayer modes when they should polish their single player to have a incredible experience and a good replay value .. (something vanquish has without a doubt )

[vickers500]

I don't really care for replaying a game once I've beaten it. Once I've beaten it, I've seen everything there is to see (I don't give two sh*ts about my score, or some little stupid easter egg) and I've done everything there is to do.

Good for you that you can be entertained by sh*t you've already witnessed, but I'm not so easily entertained. Out of the games that have come out this gen, I've only had the urge to re play a HANDFUL of them, and half of those I did solely for the trophies to get the platinum, so Vanquish would have to be simply amazing for me to play through it more than once, and hearing about how it has a sh*t story, I'm not going to put my money into something that only has great graphics and great gameplay. If the game has a sh*t story, and is 4hrs and under, then I'm not paying full price for it. And I highly doubt that the people that complete Vanquish in 3 1/2 hours are going to have a massively different experience the second time through.

This game was competing for my money because there are a lot of other releases coming up which offer far more content for a better price. You do know that some of us aren't rich and can't go spending our money on every game we want, right? This game doesn't deserve 65 bucks from me when it's only going to last me 4-5 hours when upcoming releases (Sly Collection, Prince of Persia Trilogy, Fallout New Vegas, Black Ops, Red Dead Zombie DLC, and a few others I can't think of right now) offer far more bang for my buck.

If we were in a gaming dry spell, I would definitely buy it full price, but we're not, so I'm going to wait. Maybe you should stop trying to defend these devs who pull this sh*t, because a 4hr sp game with no multiplayer costing full price is unacceptable these days when other games offer more content and more hours for the same degree of fun.

[Scotland-The-Brave]

I completely agree with you, when i buy a game and complete the single player i dont go back and play over because i lose interest quick. Its the reason why i dont care about trophies.

[madara0sama]

If its short and repetitive then rent but if its short and very fun to replay then buy.

[cfountain]

gamefly just shipped it off today. ima beat this over the weekend then send it back for something else.

[WLPowell]

all the people saying Sonic 4: episode 1 at 15 dollars was a rip off... Nevermind the fact Sonic 4 isn't that great, the price fits the length (and yes you can play sonic 4 for 500 hours, that doesn't make it worth 60 dollars.)

[SephireX]

This game is meant to be played multiple times though and plus, who plays games on normal? Retards? Play the game on the hardest difficulty and then see how long it takes!

[Redempteur]

you want those people to try to play the game how it's meant to be played ?

forget it , if they start on hard without mastering the mecanics they won't be able to finish it before they have to give it back ( rent or gamefly )

i mean what's the point? you have a cool action game and you love the mecanics , but they don't want to buy it because the lenght is bad the first time ?
who would improve their time or play differently or just go up a difficulty ?? it's no use ..the game is short , it's not like they have lot of things to do with it ..

/s

[Scotland-The-Brave]

i play games on normal, that does not make me a retard.

[VampHuntD]

And how did anyone confirm this wasn't playthrough number 2?

Not saying he's lying, but this isn't solid evidence of anything for one side or the other.

[xino]

Why are you defending Gameinformer?

are these guys farking idiots?

IT'S NOT ABOUT FINISHING THE DAMN GAME ON TIME!

You are telling me this "IllISTGaMer" played Vanquish for the first time in 50hz SD tv so that he could take a screenshot of it and prove SEGA wrong, preposterous!

When you play a game the first time, you don't skip cutscenes, you will die alot and all these things add to the completion time.
This IllISTGaMer, speed run the f*king game.

I mean from the screenshot, you can even see the guy had 16 simple deaths!
Which clearly means the guy speedrun it to prove SEGA wrong. UNLESS NORMAL mode is quite easy!

[radphil]

So you're actually saying that you don't think people have the skill to beat this game with a small amount of deaths, is that it?

I mean ignore the fact that there's people out there that probably both played and beaten NG1&2 and God Hand on the hardest difficulties.

Why are you doubting that the game can be completed in a short time. Don't think that some cutscenes shave off a few HOURS. -_-

[Taggart451]

God of War 1 can be finished in less than 2 hours. Hell there was a TROPHY about beating it on a speedrun. I didn't hear anyone complain about that.

[goodfellas27]

it's five hours, not two

[bviperz]

Without anything extra aside from difficulty settings, this game will be a hard sell. Kind of disappointed.

[GameScrub]

I played Sonic 4 for 5 days straight getting all the achievements and beating times and what not. I replayed same levels over and over and over again to find the best path I can and try to move up the ranks.

It's like a rubiks cube you learn how to solve it but then it's all about how can you do it faster and more efficient. This game can do that for you guys but you are hung up on the hours.

Sonic 4 can be finished in about 1 hour. But the replay value is ridiculous like the good old days.

Now people just play the games like movies and toss them aside. Play the game for what it is and if it's really good you will find the replay value. The question is are you ready to gamble on that?

I think I will buy it and give it a go.

[Djinn]

Anyone who buys this game is a faggot

[OMEGAXS1]

LMAO!!!!!!

[OMEGAXS1]

Um, anyone here have MW 1 & 2 and also going to buy Black Ops 3 & 4? lolz. Maybe the makers of Vanquish will take the funds they recieved and make, a longer and more amazing sequel? Who knows, dont care. I like to play fun awesome looking games and this is one of them. No one is forcing you to buy this or any other.

[bangoskank]

The length for this is perfect for me. I have a life and can't afford to waste time sitting in front of my TV for more than 2-3 hours per session. I had a blast with the demo and look forward to a week's worth of awesomness with the full game. I've got like ten other games I'm still playing through before I even get to it.

[OMEGAXS1]

Get the fck outta here with that "I have a life" sht. Just because someone plays MORE then you doesnt mean they have no life.

[bangoskank]

I suppose I have MORE of a life then ;)

Shit, I hear where your coming from. I used to play for hours but now it's almost impossible to find the time anymore. I've come to realize that I have more important responsibilities than finishing a game. I will always be a gamer but I'm not going to waste time sitting in front of the tube for six hours. That's a bit extreme, especially for someone in their 30's.

[badkolo]

i just got it, i dont care if its 3 or 4 hours long, cuase its a greta game, almost as long as heavinly sword.

[lucied13]

i think there is a big misunderstanding here so let me clarify:

The game is indeed about 4 hours (took less than that the first time on normal) but that is without including the cutscenes so with the cutscenes the game is around 7 hours. I died a total of around 4 times or so.

On normal the game is kinda easy as i have never used cover system, haven't tried harder ones but you can play more than one way. when i first beat the game i was ranked first in the overall ranking. also not all bosses one hit you as mentioned by some i can only think of one boss that does that and even then he is piss easy to beat.

bottom line good game but misses a good story and is kinda short after you play it but still fun.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

but I refuse to dip into a less than 8 hour campaign!

I play games sparringly now as it is... and thats bad if even I can say I'd have the time to beat this in 1 sitting... this isn't even a $20 bin buy for me!