Vanquish Interview With Director Shinji Mikami

Japan-based development studio PlatinumGames is made up of former key members of Capcom's Clover Studio including none other than Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami. Mikami has finally released details on his latest project, Vanquish, his first game in four years since martial arts brawler God Hand. Read on to find out more about the upcoming speedy sci-fi shooter including the game's backstory, the importance of the main character Sam Gideon and his Augmented Reaction Suit, and more.

Can you provide a few details regarding Vanquish's backstory?

In a nutshell, the Russians have used this satellite to blast an American city. In response to that, the American military mobilizes to attack this outer space colony. As part of that, Sam, as a member of DARPA who is one of the developers of the suit, joins this invasion headed to the colony, utilizing the suit he has helped to create and his knowledge of it to be of assistance and get in there with these guys.

Sam's Augmented Reaction Suit plays a pretty big role in gameplay. What else can you tell us about it?

The suit isn’t a plot device that plays into the storyline per se, but it is what allows the main character and the player to use superhuman actions within the game environment. The main connection between the suit and the main story environment is that Sam as a member of DARPA wouldn’t necessarily have the ability to simply jump in with the space marines and go attack this place, but it's this suit and his knowledge of it that allows him to operate it at the same level or even a superior level to these guys.

So far we've seen some pretty standard weapons (shotgun, machine gun). What other types of weapons will be available?

The remaining weapons we haven’t seen kind of take it to another level. Because this is a science-fiction style of game there are more "science-fiction-y" type of weapons.

Will Vanquish have a multiplayer component?

There’s no online multiplayer. It is very much focused on the single-player experience. What that means is by focusing on the single-player experience it allows us to operate on a higher spec with the game engine, and graphics and so on. You’d have to scale it back to accommodate for all the multiplayer elements and there’s also the high-speed element of the game. It’s much more doable with just the single-player game.

Another third-person shooter title that you worked on, P.N.03, received a lukewarm response when it released, and you've been quoted expressing your dissatisfaction with the way the game turned out. What have you taken from this experience now that you're working on Vanquish?

The development cycle for P.N.03 was much different. Here we have much more time, almost four times as much to concentrate on and develop this game. Vanquish has been in development for two years. Of course the experience of developing the game under those conditions is a merit to developing future products. And in this game the character is obviously carrying a gun.

Finally, the game has drawn comparisons to other action-centric games, specifically Halo. What sets Vanquish apart?

The biggest thing is to try playing the game and you’ll learn immediately how different it is from all of these other games so there’s definitely a whole lot to look forward to. With the actual hands-on experience you’ll know the difference.