Set against a near-future backdrop where earth's superpowers are at war over energy resources (huh, imagine that ever happening!), players take on the role of special US government agent named Sam who must defend what's left of the United States in the near future from Russian invaders after a full scale assault on San Francisco. While there was "much more to the story than that" according the Sega representative, this was all that Sega could share with us at this time. But who really need to hear more than that to be given an excuse to go out and blow stuff up, right?

While it wouldn't be a stretch to confuse Vanquish with the myriad of other third person shooters out on the E3 floors at first glance, the "Action Shooting" description that Platinum Games has come up with for the title comes into focus with a little bit of time following Sam. While players are expected to shoot at things, use cover, and tactfully take out the bad guys, Vanquish allows players to do this in Platinum Games' stylishly unique way. The biggest difference you'll see between this game and the other sci-fi shooters around is the speed. Instead of "roadie running" Sam has high-speed jets strapped onto his boots, giving him a Mega Man-like posture as he slides and flies between cover points. Sam doesn't even need to reach behind his back in order to draw another gun, since the Blade System will collapse the firearm he's currently using into the a simple gun grip and then expand into a new weapon in the blink of an eye. Sam's cybernetic suit also allows him to perform some incredible melee attacks that look like something that Dante would pull off before someone resembling Master Chief. And finally there's the nearly obligatory "slow motion" mode that can be activated that speeds Sam up so it only feels like the world around him in moving slower. Once each of these elements are brought together, the game runs at a sickeningly swift pace that will make even the twitchiest twitch shooter feel as slow as Killzone 2.

The levels and environments shown off in this demo were some of the best visuals of the show. We're talking about large, detailed, and expansive battlefields that don't appear to have many invisible walls to funnel players. Adding to the already epic feel are constant battlefield "events" to ensure that the player doesn't stay in one place too long. One of the examples of this shown to me in the demo was Sam attempting to take over a checkpoint stationed at the top of a steep hill. As if the challenge of barging uphill wasn't bad enough, the mayhem of the battle took a toll on the surroundings causing large structures to fall over and onto unwitting bystanders. The Sega representative noted that the game is aiming to feature so many uniquely dynamic situations like this that there will be only a few spots in the game that will be what he called "stationary levels."

It's hard not to be impressed with this demo. It was extremely focused and showcased the team's incredible precision in designing new combat systems. Due to this, or maybe in spite of this, Sega was prepared to inform everyone that they are not planning any multiplayer features for this game before anyone got their hopes up. With a very serious look on his face, the Sega representative explained that multiplayer is simply something that Platinum Games isn't known for, would negatively cut into the feature set planned for the single player gameplay, and not part of the story-driven experience they set out to create. I consider this a pretty ballsy move on their part since just about every shooter today includes some type of co-op or competitive multiplayer, but maybe that's the point. But why introduce something into your game if all it's going to do is break it, right? Why should the team feel obligated to do something everyone else is doing just because? If Platinum stated doing that, Bayonetta might not have been the extraordinary action experience it was. Platinum Games is certainly giving gamers something very different with Vanquish even if it doesn't look like it at first. Players will be able to see for themselves this winter when the game ships.

It should also be noted that Platinum Games is developing this game for the 360 and PS3 in house, side by side. Those players that were miffed with the differences between of Platinum's 360 and and Sega's PS3 versions of Bayonetta will see nothing to complain about here.