How the Meaning of Vanquish (and Spec Ops: The Line) Changed

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Vanquish was recently re-released on PC to the delight of the cult following it has developed since 2010. Whilst the experience has remained largely unchanged, however, as a whole it meant something very different to me now than it did back then; all because of the new context under which I was playing it.
This also got me thinking about games whose themes rely on context to convey meaning. Spec Ops: The Line turns five in June, and yet the industry it was furiously reacting against has changed dramatically since then. In this episode of Writing on Games then, I want to explore just how much a shift in context can have on the meaning of a game, and what this means for the future of our medium.
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EA turns horrors of WWI into tone-deaf Battlefield 1 memes, quickly deletes them (Polygon) - www.polygon.com/2016/10/31/13...
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Call of Duty WW2/Infinite Warfare footage from Activision
Battlefield One/Army of Two footage from EA
Far Cry 5/Rainbow Six Siege footage from Ubisoft
Gears of War footage from Microsoft
Bayonetta footage from Sega
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50 Cent Blood on the Sand footage from gamesoverdose - • 50 Cent: Blood On The ...
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[@DomTarason]

My read on Vanquish at the time is largely the same as it is now - it IS a throwback to pure arcade design, and that's great, because it was something almost entirely forgotten seven years ago, and something we're only just getting back to at present. Vanquish to me wasn't some grand thumbing-of-nose at Gears of War. It was 'What if Contra in 3D was good?'. It still has a surprising amount of depth compared to most modern shooters, too, but at have stuff like Titanfall 2 to show that high skill ceilings are viable.

[@zerospice7173]

I would like to add that the claim stated that Vanquish isn't that one of a kind shooter it used to be is also false in that it still is the only FPS game that has a system of combat that is based on a hack and slash by which i mean its mechanical focus is the same and uses advanced hidden mechanics in order to combo together kills with style and efficiency akin to Bayonetta and DMC. it's still the only one that does that on this level.

[@Gaff.]

Exactly. ​@@zerospice7173 Also, exactly. No other shooter feels like Vanquish. It is a masterpiece. I'm replaying it now and it is so much better than I thought it was even though I loved it the first time.

[@sheercold26]

@@zerospice7173 exactly. That critique of his really stood out to me. Felt like he was reaching

[@Phase4TheProphet]

Re: Spec Ops specifically, I think we're looking at the start of what might be considered "Video Game History" in the same way you'd look at "Film History" or "Music History"; if you go back and watch German Expressionist films now, the strides they made in technique may feel quaint since they're so ubiquitous now, but the fact remains that they serve as a kind of signpost for where the industry was headed at that point in time. You mention how gamers are now more prepared to examine the values of games based around warfare and that this makes Spec Ops perhaps less meaningful in the current context, but with something that is critiquing something so specific about the culture surrounding an art form, I think when you place it among modern games it's more appropriate to treat it as a point of lineage; without games like Spec Ops, would that thoughtfulness among gaming consumers be so prominent? I can't say for sure, but I'm inclined to think not. That's the nature of the beast when creating critical art - once that criticism has been accepted and incorporated into future works, the nature of the game changes. We interact with these games not as something that changes the way we think about the medium now, but that were a formative experience that shaped how the industry presents itself to us in the first place. This is why, as you said, preserving not just games but also information about when they released, what else was coming out leading up to that, and how it was received is crucial in assembling any kind of historical record of the medium.

[@EngelSpiel]

Sort of like the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" phenomenon?

[@Phase4TheProphet]

Sort of - except I think the overt references to other works of literature (as mentioned in another comment by Mercenary artist) will encourage people to keep what it was trying to do and when it was trying to do it in mind. Games are still in a place where they have to really go out of their way to be seen as artistic by general audiences I think, and Spec Ops certainly has that quality. As games start to find their unique footing as a medium and rely less on external references, I think the artistic style that pervades games like this will sort of mark their age and as a result get people to be more understanding when looking at them in retrospect. Like, Seinfeld may occasionally reference elements of the late 80s and 90s just due to the fact that it's a product of that time period, but no element of its construction clearly marks it as a product of its time. Games like Spec Ops, Braid, and The Talos Principle all have these references that are only really acceptable now because we as an audience need something to clue us in that this isn't just entertainment; like, take some of the philosophy references in NieR: Automata and place them in a novel and it comes off as pretentious. This practice of kinda shoving players into thinking differently about play is something that I think is going to clearly identify games made starting about 8 years ago probably into the next five or ten. Or until the relationship between medium and audience reaches a point where we can be more subtly pointed towards more artistic appreciation and interpretation.

[@EngelSpiel]

I'm very sorry but I'm not sure if I entirely understand your response. Do you mean to say that games will be moving in a direction, in which their meta-context will require less consideration? What do you mean by "thinking differently about play?"

[@Phase4TheProphet]

So, what I'm getting at is that currently developers kind of rely on references to other media (like books or movies) to kind of clue you in that a game is supposed to be "artistic". To go to Spec Ops again, things like the co-opting of elements from Heart of Darkness is supposed to indicate to you, the player, that this isn't just some gory shockfest but that the developers have a message in mind they want to convey. I think as the medium continues and more players get used to the idea of games having that artistic quality, we're going to be more interpretive by default where before a Call of Duty game was just a fun game where you shot guns and everything was cool. That re-evaluation of what games can mean and what engaging with those messages does for us as an audience is what I mean by "thinking differently about play". Like Hamish said in the video, in a world where we've had Spec Ops, we're more likely to be critical of the messages a military wank shooter will convey; equipped with the knowledge that games can really tackle those themes, we seek out that meaning in future titles regardless of whether the game references an old author or film director. The artistic quality of the game is intrinsic rather than being borrowed from other media. And with that evolution, I don't think we'll see those references go away, but they'll be more subtle and be more like window dressing than central elements that are shoved in your face.

[@EngelSpiel]

Ah, I think I might see what you (and Hamish) meant now. But I would argue that there is nothing wrong with those references sticking around to some extent, like how Star Wars drew from Akira Kurosawa movies and the concept of the mono-myth, or how Inception drew from the anime movie Paprika. Can one say that there exists any media that is made without implicitly or explicitly drawing from another, pre-existing work? If not referring another work, then a story just draws from day-to-day anecdotes, right?

[@MCCanaryVideos]

I would still argue that in a vacuum, spec ops the line is a well handled work of gaming. I understand its contextual importance to other games of that time, but its message is allegorical, since it is based off of Apocalypse Now and The Heart of Darkness. The message is still the same and it's critique still is valuable, as well as just being a great psychological thriller, something I would say most games are not known for. I don't disagree the context will be loss, but I still think that Spec Ops the Line holds merit beyond it's contextual release point.

[@neocow2]

Yeah, i feel it's self contained with its own mechanics, and not just a standing comment against the industry of the time It works by being a self-contained critique. It's helpful to remember that spec ops was a series before The Line; as well.

[@WritingOnGames]

Mercanary artist oh for sure. This was actually something I was worried about with this episode; that it'd come across as if I'm ragging on Spec Ops which is absolutely not the way I feel. I still think that game is meaningful on its own having played it again for the video. I just feel that a great deal of its meaning comes from its context as a game about an era of games. Obviously there exists a cavalcade of examples of other media created in response to the texts being created at the time, but those also have the benefit of having their context taught in classes; something which games don't necessarily have yet (at least in a mainstream sense). That's the kinda stuff playing the game recently got me thinking about - how do we convey this stuff to future generations so that these texts retain their meaning? TL;DR - I personally still adore Spec Ops. Thank you for watching!

[@jasoncook7003]

Forgive the slight irrelevance to your comment, but I've been aching to express this for ages and I want you to see it lol. Personally, I play shooters that pit me against non-human opponents most of the time. I loved the first FEAR and when playing the second, you start off fighting mercenaries. There was a moment when I moved around a piece of cover and saw an enemy who only had time to turn his head towards me, his gun still pointed harmlessly away, when I shot the shotgun I had trained directly at his head. I paused the game and stepped away to collect myself after the shock and disgust at what I did set in. In the context of the game world, that man had a family, a life, a story and I had personally ended it as a player in the sanitized context of a combat situation. In games (and even real life warfare if you want to get political) you're supposed to dehumanize the other party as an 'enemy combatant' and dispose of them like you're doing dishes or scrubbing lime scale deposits off of bathroom tiles and I couldn't do it. I was deeply affected by it, and while I did finish the game, that moment has always been a reminder that I can't let the artifice of games desensitize me to what violence is, it is a force that has the potential to end real lives and it is committed all around the world, all the time. When I got around to playing Spec Ops: The Line, I hadn't played many sanitized war shooters, I couldn't stomach the GTA series and mechanically, I resonated with FEAR the first and Dead Space more than the cover shooters that took over the shooting genre at the time. That completely muted the appeal of the game for me, it was saying nothing new, its mechanics were repetitive and boring and when using the white phosphorous was shown to be a non-choice (I literally tried to kill everyone with bullets, ironically the most humane thing to do), I didn't feel personally responsible because it wasn't me making the choice, it was the character. Spec Ops didn't challenge me morally or mechanically and it was the dryest, the most un-fun game I have ever forced myself to finish. I did like the cutscenes a bit, you can't go wrong egging Apocalypse Now and applying it to the Middle East, so the narrative was interesting during the non-interactive moments, but the meta-narrative, the thing that so many people praised it for seemed so rudimentary it made me question the industry that became so bog-standard in its implementation of shooting mechanics and so morally bankrupt that 'shooting people is actually bad' was a groundbreaking thing to add to a video game made me feel a little isolated in how I felt about Spec Ops. To actually answer your point though, we could eventually come up with periods like film history has such as the "French New Wave" or "Noir Cinema" that would have a set meaning we could use to contextualize the language of games during different periods. Shorthand like that can encompass a lot of artistic decisions made (and the lack thereof) in a really concise and simple way. P.S. I strove as hard as I could to not kill another human in Metro 2033 and got through that game as a stealthy ninja who did it not for a lack of skill with a gun, but a moral imperative to preserve life, especially when life was so sparse and precious. #sewerninja

[@kevinthompson2917]

I think Spec Ops: the Line was more of a response to the glut of military shooters, rather than a commentary on them. A statement of "You can do better," kind of.

[@bhlaab]

Disagree. Apocalypse Now and Heart of Darkness have profound statements about the state of the world at large at the time of release (Vietnam, Colonialism). Spec Ops uses the same framework (some might say "rips them off") to make a(n ironically) flippant, snarky rebuttal to the state of a facile entertainment genre. In effect, using very serious subject matter to make a point on a trivial matter. It is therefore guilty of the same thing it's condemning others of doing, imho. To put it simply, Apocalypse Now has a lot to say about being a professional killer. Spec Ops the Line has a lot to say about being a video game. One is far more valuable than the other in my eyes.

[@eclipse9304]

Vanquished and spec ops have strength in each others weakness's, The Lines gameplay is nothing special but the story telling is top notch, Vanquished story telling is weak but the gameplay is very liberating for the time and is still quite exciting.

[@sslugboy]

i think this kind of thing can be linked to music, genres like proto punk and their value, no one disregards them because punk or post punk is better, it's still valuable and unique to some degree.

[@night1952]

Vanquish weak parts are mostly thanks to the trends of that time, like forced walking and an boring color palet, but the gamepaly itself is as unique and amazing as ever and being a better player and knowing hidden tech i didn't know back then my last playthrough was the most fun i've had with Vanquish.

[@CoreIdeas]

It's the same issue films of certain time periods will be seen further down the road. The James Bond franchise was set in the Cold War for so long, that once it inevitably ended, the older films were made outdated. Less about reshaping the context in an entertaining way and more "Hey, look how the world used to think of each other". Which lead to the reboot with Daniel Craig, facing more prominent modern day issues. Vanquish may suffer from the fact that it was a reaction at the time but it also benefits from it. It allows those who weren't around during that period in time to understand the social viewpoint of late 2000 gaming culture. Another excellent video, man!

[@WritingOnGames]

Core Ideas thanks for watching! As I mentioned in another comment, the benefit that film or literature has in particular is that these texts are taught, which means the context they respond to is taught. Games don't have that in the same sense quite yet. It'll be interesting to see how that evolves in the future because the change in context somehow feels more accelerated just now.

[@CoreIdeas]

Writing on Games Definitely a good point. We are seeing a shift in the perception of gaming culture, though. So I wouldn't doubt games will start being taught. Perhaps not academically but at least an opportunity will arrive sometime in the future.

[@LIONREV7]

Even if you remove the military shooter element, the game still treats an universal theme of gaming: "You are the HERO"

[@TheNobodyNamedDubyaBee]

And that's how and why Spec Ops: The Line ages wonderfully well-because _that_ message remains all too applicable to *all* games far beyond the specific genre it commented on.

[@vali6717]

I loved Vanquish. I first played it in late 2012 after it came out and after I played through a slog of Call of Duty, the Gears of War series, Warhammer Space Marine(which was quite good if you are a fan of Games Workshop's IP), Binary Domain, Dark Souls, and even Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Vanquish was such a breath of fresh air. I still have it for my 360 and even though I have newer titles for newer systems, Vanquish is still one of my favorites for one reason, the same one that drew me to it. It was and still is fun. In spite of the quality of games these days, it is still one of the most fun games I have played, and actually feels like one of the hardest that I have got my hands on(probably because of a wonderful mix of fantastically over the top boss fights and the fact that the small number of QTEs were all fantastic moments. I will always have the one where you are countering sword swipes with energized punches engraved in my memory.) Newer games are good, but Vanquish just beats them out because it delivers that dose of adrenaline that make me love games. I know my logic isn't much more than 'I like it because it's fun' but video games don't need to be more. They can be and are welcome to be, but Vanquish is still one of the best at delivering the classic arcade action feel that seems to be lost in at least the shooter genre these days.

[@siddharth846]

Vanquish will always be unique, it's the freedom it offers and cinematic gameplay it offers, is nowhere found except titanfall and doom eternal. This game has so much depth to it.

[@PsychoRavager]

My perspective on the context of these two games is quite different from what you've shown here. To me, Vanquish is a lot like Max Payne 3 in the way that there's still a rarity of video games these days that focus on linear shootouts without being too restrictive on players or so obsessed with slowing things down too much for the sake of moments where the narrative takes a hold that all you can do is walk (something like Uncharted 4). I think there's a constant, consistent market gap for singleplayer games that play like the two aforementioned titles (Vanquish and Max Payne 3). When it comes to Spec Ops: The Line, the many, many video games that have tackled politics today have yet to be as smart and precise (without being annoyingly preachy) as the video game in question was able to pull off. Spec Ops: The Line managed to provide narrative choices without obvious prompts on the screen, and it was able to cement itself as a rare gem. It wasn't pretentious, too, which is the case with a lot of AAA titles that have tried to tackle warfare in a darker, grittier, more "realistic" light. Both Vanquish and Spec Ops: The Line and other games like 'em have actually been able to maintain their significance and overall context, at least to me, even after the various changes towards a perceived progress in game design have transpired. Great video, but I really have to respectfully disagree for the most part. I understand your point of view, of course. It's just not one that managed to resonate with me that well.

[@Redem10]

I like how the Deus Ex felt ike it became more revelant as time went on

[@bhlaab]

Metal Gear Solid 2 as well. But in the context of the world rather than gaming.

[@Razzpen1]

Have you played "this war of mine" by chance? I think it'd make an excellent game to analyze in the future

[@madness1931]

And a pretty decent game to go along with Spec Ops, in use for this point.

[@azureknight777]

Very glad that YT suggested your channel. Great observations mate!

[@Kleshtrem]

fantastic video! opened my eyes to a whole lot of things. thank you so much!

[@RamHoot]

That bit at the end about how game preservation is no longer just about technology but also about context, that was really strong. I've had many discussions with people about that, specifically with respect to ratings. Understanding the environment in which I game was released is a crucial step in establishing the context in which is should be received. But yeah, that bit about presentation was a strong closing. I was a bit confused as to where you were going with this peace until then. Dango soggie keep it up jimmie

[@cynical8330]

I like Vanquish's stupidly fun story. But it's also good to note that there aren't many shooters with what are essentially combos.

[@noOtherFs]

It's not just that people suddenly think that they need to make the gameplay as flashy as cutscenes that gives Vanquish the context it had, people has always think that way, it's that Vanquish was one of the games that managed to take the idea, successfully executed it, and have adequate hardware to back it up, that it became the symbol of "we can do better" you mentioned. Remember when we dreamt of being superheroes saving people in the city, or being some street racer going from one race to another, always watching out for the police? Spiderman 2 and NFS made that possible in the gaming landscape back then in the PS2 era. It's not that we never thought of making the games more awesome, it's that our aim shifted. Back then it was to explore the world in the games, These past 2 generations has been about making awesome feats easier. It always has been that way, and who knows what's next

[@Kyleology]

Its the same thing for movies. Dr Stangelove and Planet of the Apes can't have the same meaning now after the Cold War. You need to look at media in the context it was made.

[@No-hf1xq]

I totally agree with this statement, Dr Strangelove just felt weird most of the time and I actually had to read up about the whole context behind everything to understand the more subtle messages.

[@DemonKnight94]

"After the cold war" lol

[@PauLtus_B]

I feel like these "timely" games might go into history as turning points. Once upon a time in the West is still a classic for that matter. However, because games aren't (necessarily) about storytelling this becomes a lot more complicated.

[@Ssalamanderr]

The story in Vanquish is one of my favourite parts. It reminds me of Starship Troopers- ridiculous action with over the top characters.

[@sauceyvirg1n910]

It's nice to see games like these get put together in the same video. Who would've thought I needed a video with Vanquish and Spec Ops in it, both games I 100%.

[@Jack-wn4li]

This is a great video, good job!

[@112523]

these games brought things into perspective at its time. and newer games will also try to do this.

[@3333218]

Thank you for this amazing video!

[@nakenmil]

A lot of what you touch on here is a widely discussed topic in literary analysis in general. It's essentially the conflict between analyzing a literary work's meaning in the context it was first published and how the author intended, and analysing it according to the context in which any given reader engages with it. As you imply, the two aren't actually really at conflict, rather, the differences between them give us valuable insight into how society has changed in the interim. Take how someone would be reading 1984 in the 50s versus how they would read it now.

[@Dindosh98]

i think that this is the first game that i pointed out how amazing the graphics are and how they feel so real. Now looking back i feel nostalgic

[@JayfroC]

To this day, Vanquish is still in my top favorite games of all time ^^ it's fun as hell

[@CloakedC]

Did you play PC Vanquish with a controller? Or Keyboard and Mouse? That would affect it a hell lot.

[@travdump209]

This is the episode I've been waiting for!

[@jayde_d]

This makes a great point about context of what games were compared to what they do now. The biggest example I can bring to mind in Half-Life 2, especially compared to the first Half-Life. The second one focused so much on it's fancy Havok physics that it just does not hold up. I'm not the first to say this, not by a long shot, but HL2 does not have the sticking power like the first game did, simply due to the gunplay and enemy AI taking a back seat to the physics they pushed so hard.

[@InfernalMonsoon]

I'm the opposite on that. I think the second game far surpasses the first one. In essence, the first game is very much just a retelling of Doom instead replacing Hell with Xen and making the game environment more believable rather than abstract but unlike Doom, its visuals, gameplay mechanics and level design has tarnished heavily with age for me; I find it so hard to go back to it. Half-Life 2 stands out to me because it did an incredible job fleshing out this really awesome and unique world of humanity being oppressed by the alien combine overlords after Xen bled through onto Earth and is done so in really great, subtle ways where players are mostly forced to figure out the details themselves (and this is coming from someone who cares little about story in games). Sure it has a fetish for its own physics and makes some missteps in the gameplay with some rubbish sections such as the driving parts but I think the gunplay is great fun and encounters are interesting and hell Ravenholme is one of my favourite levels of all time because its that awesome blend of action, horror and light puzzle solving, it's so memorable whereas I forget a lot of the first game's level layouts even though I remember the aesthetic. I guess the moral of this story is that different things appeal to different people.

[@avd7288]

John D. HL2 felt like the game itself wasn't the product, but showcasing the powers of the Source engine (in combination with Havok). Felt the same with UT, Quake, and Crysis. As games, I found HL2 and Crysis rather disappointing. As tech demos, they were perfectly fine.

[@crozraven]

Too much overthinking in this video. Vanguish was fun in the past with 30fps and now it's more fun than ever with upgraded graphics and glorious 60fps. That's it and that's my whole experiences of it. And I will gladly welcome it if Platinum make a sequel out of this somehow especially judging from how well its receptions on PC market.

[@alexaj19960814]

I don't think Spec Ops: The Line can lose its meaning anymore than Apocalypse Now can lose its meaning. it's message isn't necessarily constricted just to modern war games, or even games in general. It's a criticism of the glorification of warfare and conflict in the face of the human tragedy that it causes. It serves as a reminder that in a game about modern conflicts or past ones that there is no good and evil.

[@trystanvanbruggen6094]

Important question: How did you get subtitles on Spec Ops The Line? I couldn’t figure out how to get them.

[@RichardJamesMendoza]

They're in the settings/option menu, somewhere around there.

[@texasranger9599]

How's the soundtrack? Any rules of nature on there?

[@meris8486]

wow I didn't even realise Bayonetta came out on pc so recently

[@khandarwilliam5439]

what other shooter makes you sucker punch a giant robot?

[@Fullbatteri]

Sometimes, short games are good. It's like with books, not all days you feel like getting invested in a 1000-page book. Sometimes you need the comfort of a 200-page book to feel at peace.

[@michaelthomsen6810]

I don't know if you read comments on old videos, but I recently discovered your channel and began to watch your back catalog. Vanquish came out the same year as Mass Effect 2. I for some reason played them pretty close to one another. First Mass Effect 2 when Vanquish. All the time playing Vanquish I kept thinking, that Mass Effect 2 would have been much better with Vanquish's combat system.

[@milanajtic7913]

Great video.

[@Matt-iy4tn]

What do you think of Prey?

[@cloudcity4194]

Are you the kind of person who looks back at Aliens and thinks, "what a dumb tropey popcorn movie"?!

[@aquietwolf225]

Kind of more on the subject of game preservation, but do you think that the cross platform remakes of a game changes to a game bring different contexts with them? And more specifically how do you think that the game would be affected over time? Like how Vanquished's controls being initially made for consoles have to change with the shift to PC. Or say Kerbal Space Program having to use a game pad for its console versions.

[@Chris-xr6jg]

I think the time or era a game is released is what it's context should be. We have the option to analyze an old game in context of today's environment or yesterday's, but I think it's important to recognize the fact that it was released in yesterday's.

[@PMWV]

This happens with every kind of art. A piece of media will never be seen the same way as time goes on. But that's not even necessary. The meaning they had at the time must just be remembered and considered when ever judging them. You really wouldn't go to a museum to see a renaissance painting and say that It isn't art anymore because it's meaning doesn't hold up anymore.Sadly we will never be able to enjoy forever art the same way as it was meant to be. But we can remember and register, making it part of our history.

[@ccampbell475]

Vanquish on the switch what’s your thoughts.

[@Tir33nts343]

Vanquish was years ahead of its time

[@TheGreatDarkOne]

Well said. The perceived importance and meaning of games (and other art forms for that matter) changes over time based on various factors. This is why the preservation of video game analysis/critique is soooo important. Your video reminded me of my experiences with "ICO" which is a game that blew my mind (and other minds) for several reasons. But now minimalistic, atmospheric games are much more common and in a world with interesting and comparatively complex companions such as Ellie, Elizabeth, and Trico my friends have a hard time figuring out how the game influenced me so much. It is so outdated and unimpressive by today's standards.

[@SpenceSession]

I will have to reevaluate how I view rereleased games. I would think about it with OLDER games but I didn't think about how much ten years can change the context of the game itself or what the game itself was trying to say at THAT period of time. I sorta just wrote off Vanquish as a product of its time (which it was but) but I didn't think about how and why it was a product of its time as it was more then just another 3rd person shooter trying to make a quick buck (I think). I might be putting too much thought into it but I still have much to learn about game writing/critique it seems like.

[@TillPunx]

But stuff like vanquish/dmc 4/bayonetta are not really games you play to have some big experience, you can have those yes but the point of those game is replailabity, playing levels all over again doing them better, faster, with higher scores, with better combos, without taking damage, without dying once, these are what vanquish, dmc 4, and mostly all action games are and all they want to be.

[@killerexe007]

Wait, Bayonetta is on PC?

[@thecasualreviewer2148]

Vanquish is great to have for hope that it will influence other game designers.

[@HxH2011DRA]

This is damn deep

[@JK9091]

I've been waiting for a review video like this since 2010, I'm of completely the same mind as you, bought vanquish thinking it was a whole new and unique universe for it to eventually become a disappointment. Needed this, thank you so much!

[@CtisGaming]

1:00-2:00 wasn't Vanquish released in between a Gears of War and COD game, like the same week but literally in between them? There's also the fact that like Anarchy Reigns Sega never really advertised it.

[@Olphas]

I was thinking about giving Vanquish another spin, now that it's out on PC. But I decided against it (for now) because I had pretty much the same thought you talk about here and I kinda didn't want to take away from the impact the game had on me when I first played it all those years ago. I couldn't tell you anything about characters or story of this game, but the gameplay has burned itself in my memory, because it really was something else back then.

[@jayde_d]

Patreon

[@Olphas]

I'm one of the people named at the end so I got to see it a day before.

[@grassninja]

Story is still just a flimsy means to push your progression forward and nothing more, but the gameplay still holds up, and feels a lot more crisp & fluid than it did on PS3. While the points made in the video that many games since have adopted facets of the Vanquish formula, it's still the only game using the entire formula (that I'm aware of). It feels old while still feeling fresh IMO.

[@Mark-fc7tu]

Vanquish is an example of the philosophy that drives gamers to play games more than one. To improve one's skills through hard work and dedicating, stemming from the ancient days of arcade games. Spec Ops was created as an excuse to guilt-trip gamers over wanting to play violent video games, regardless of whether or not they glorified war. And it doesn't mean much unless one is aware of how many people hated the console gaming industry for what it did to the PC gaming industry.

[@WilliamBrayton]

Vanquish was supersceded by Titanfall. As much as Vanquish is a good game, Titanfall took those concepts of fast moving, sliding and more with jetpacks and applied them to a game which also included giant pilotable robots.

[@hhdhpublic]

This is same issue that happens with all media from literature to music to movies. If youve grown in culture with all the things like Song of Ice and Fire and other huge fantasy works and then read LoTR, you probably won't understand how revolutionary Tolkiens work is. You might actually say its bit meh and then someone comes and tells you how that when the stories came out nobody had done that and how it was huge. Same with for example The Beatles seminal classic Sgt Pepper. At the time it was out of this world, nobody had done anything like it but to someone who doesnt have the historical context and has grown with modern music probably won't understand that because much of what they have done is constantly done these days. Or someone won't probably understand the influence of French New Wave on cinema and how they broke all the rules because everything they did back then is so common these days that what was once a rebellion, a revolution against the mainstream cinema is now mainstream cinema. This is just how things go. Things develope. Things change. Those things that once were revolutionary become common when new media is influenced by them and takes cues from them. Future is always built on past and as such, always makes the past common and somewhat obsolete.

[@Revz8bit]

I picked up Vanquish about 3 months after it came out in a bargain bin. Enjoyed the hell out of it, so underrated

[@ChinoWantan]

I was really looking forward to this game on '10 but the critics bashed all over it, so I never played it

[@darkdave1998]

I think using DMC as an example of a game where the flashiness of the cutscenes isn't present in gameplay isn't right, since the combat in that game is pretty damn flashy

[@DeMomcalypseLive]

Dave The Knave It's more like, the gameplay will never be AS flashy as the cutscenes

[@bobrown4609]

Awesome.

[@andiplatt]

i think rs6 siege is doing way better than the new hitman

[@valentinegutierrez5553]

Well I mean anything that comments on the trends of a specific time period will eventually be seen as "obsolete". Eventually those trends won't be prevalent anymore and we'll eventually have something else critique the new trends. Spec ops is good as a think piece for a specific era in games. Of course it's critiques won't be applicable to newer games since the games industry is so wild and likes to run where the money is

[@GenJotsu]

Lost Planet 2 is a hidden gem as well. Too bad LP3 buried the franchise... such an awesome pure fun game.

[@denzelromero4796]

I'm even more surprised you didn't bring up RE4 which would have been a perfect comparison to what you are feeling. RE4 "started" trends and mechanics that have been in the gaming industry for years and coming back to RE4 , it feels exactly like you said : "A popcorn action flick"

[@michaelkenner3289]

Surely the goal of all parody and satire is to make us think about tropes and assumptions that went previously unchallenged. That's something that can only really happen once, although potentially there's still room for detailed examination and nuanced review. I'd say that ironically for satire becoming redundant is the highest possible praise and remaining relevant is actually a failure to achieve what it set out to manage.

[@MrRandyDandyAndy]

Vanguish FTW! such an underdog.

[@rustyspoonss]

spec ops the line messed me up. replaying it you notice all the things you didn't. notice that you just assumed things and I swear it's like it was a completely different game second time round

[@Chaosrunepownage]

Wow, this is some excellent content. You've earned another subscriber.

[@WritingOnGames]

Chaosrunepownage thank you so much!

[@elderjose9662]

Don't surprise me that at this time people don't give t metal gear rising the importance it has, they don't understand the premisse of what a stylish ove the top game is

[@insertnamehere001]

Forget all context, enjoy a game for what it is.

[@Phase4TheProphet]

Oh, unrelated, but what's your favorite game of this year so far and why is it NieR: Automata?

[@TheInevitableAir]

I really love your content so much that it has influenced me on the way I look at games and appreciate the work put into them by the creators. Although I'm nowhere near as you at analyzing games I wish to see you continue to create such amazing content.

[@MrRenatopepin]

Where is this accent from?

[@ragenFOX]

am i one of those people who played vanquish when it came out and didnt like it? i played 3 hours and it was non stop action that i got bored tired of it and never played it again.

[@bakuhakudraws5603]

I know there are other comments that reflect this same notion, but I don't think there's ever a point where these sorts of self-critical 'anti-meta' games will ever become properly 'irrelevant' simply because the gaming landscape has moved past them. In the same way that classic works of literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scarlet Letter remain relevant by virtue of giving the audience the context that made their counter-cultural message so important in the first place, these games (as long as they're well-made) will be capable of putting the players in the shoes of the gaming landscape at the time to show what message they meant to convey to the contemporaneous industry, and how they meant to deliver that message. Using 'To Kill a Mockingbird' as reference (since that's the one I remember most clearly), there is no modern context for the sort of extreme racism that book decries, and a modern reader would have no use for the story if it weren't so well-crafted as to give such a strong sense of time and place that allows the audience to understand what culture was like at the time of its writing, and thereby give weight to the message it carries. Of course, those literary examples are a bit more universal as they speak to broader culture, as opposed to their own medum. In a more meta sense, books like House of Leaves and Slaughterhouse Five are perhaps a bit more analogous to something like Vanquish or Spec Ops, as they are making a particular point of bucking conventions, both in structure and genre, that have (or had) become not only commonplace, but expected of the medium. House of Leaves is, admittedly, a niche title with a small cult following, and Slaughterhouse Five is a bit more niche than something like To Kill a Mockingbird, but I think It's safe to say they can be pointed to as touchstones of the medium, important for the growth and progression of creative writing, and important to know about for anyone who cares to gain a greater understanding of the literary arts. Does that make sense? does this analogy hold up through its entire duration? I can't even tell, I'm pretty sure I'm just rambling at this point.

[@gangatalishis]

I just bought this game on the fucking ps3 and then they release it on PC. nice.

[@thefrenchbastard1646]

I really dont see this change in landscape you are talking about yeah there was a short jetpack mode for a year or two but it's already over and none of those integrated it into there core gameplay like vanquish and those that did like the first titanfall backpeddled and we are back to the same old military shooters as before

[@travdump209]

Will you talk about Metal Gear Solid 2? I think Bunnyhop's take on it's context is very interesting.

[@WritingOnGames]

Trav that Bunnyhop video is the reason I don't talk about that game much despite it being one of my favourites. I mean, where do you go from that video? What's left to say? He nailed it in every conceivable way.

[@TheKatamariguy]

There's always more to say. That's why we never stopped creating new readings and insights into classic films and literature.

[@0ctopusComp1etely]

Something I've thought about in passing recently is how The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is going to be "referenced" in the future. It's a fantastic game with some rather astounding polish and potential for organic experiences, revolutionizing the entire series "back to its roots". So... what comes next? Will the series try to emulate the explorative magic caught with BotW? If it does, will it succeed in providing new unique experiences that stand on its own, or will players only be able to compare it to BotW and possibly doom one to be "inferior"? Would new environments and polish to compare it to make BotW into a monument of the mentality of fans at the time, or would it be seen as a forerunner for lasting changes? Will the series still make games with the old "go clear out a few dungeons" format, something I still rather enjoyed and would like to continue to see, even if only occasionally? Would the more "formulaic" games in the series even be WANTED anymore by fans? Or would the series build a new "formula" focused strictly on the exploration BotW pioneered? Would THAT lose its charm overtime, until a new "renovation" would be needed? With age I've been realizing that I'm never really going to be "in this time" of my life again; there is NO rewind on age or progress. That's been carrying over a lot into how I've been viewing games and prospects for the future recently. Things like comparing Persona 5 to 3, how impactful Nier: Automata's various meanings are to me personally, and even what long-standing beloved series like TLoZ might mean for me in the future. I'm undoubtedly thinking too hard about things far beyond my control, but I can't help but contemplate what the future might hold sometimes.

[@mtotowamidiri]

Never played Vanquish but I'll be damned if it doesn't look just like Metal Gear Revengeance

[@MagicMooMoo274]

I think each game should be critiqued based on the context it was originally released in, but truly great games are timeless and are masterpieces regardless of context. Of course what is and is not a masterpiece is at least somewhat subjective, but no-one can deny the impact of super mario 64 at its time for instance, even if you may argue that it dosent hold up to today's standards. However a game like tetris is almost as good as it is today as it was back then, the difference being that there are more games to compete with tetris now

[@InfernalMonsoon]

One game nobody can argue the impact of is the original Doom. When it comes to timeless classics, that masterpiece should always be mentioned. Plus the modding scene is just utterly ridiculous and amazing.

[@TheCivildecay]

basicly we have indie-games these days to fill up the void

[@FrogFraction]

Did you just use devil may cry 4 as an example of games that don't allow you to do things in-game like what you see in cutscenes? Or was that kind of an example of how it could be done?

[@ClarenceDass]

I bought Vanquish the week my ps3 dies, so I never got to play it properly. When I heard it was gonna be on pc I was so stoked. I told all my friends about it, those that didnt have a ps3 back then and a console now, that this is THE console port everyone has to play! Then it released and I bought Player Unknown's Battleground instead >_

[@TheMEGANON]

Is it good because it's fun?

[@RRRadish]

I really dislike the current videogame audience expectation that every game has to be subversive rather than an expertly crafted, fun gameplay experience. Vanquish was never good because it was divergent but because it was simply really good at what it set out to do.

[@user-lq3op9gy4o]

7 years later nothing comes close to Vanquish when it comes to Third person shooters. Learn to play Vanquish at a master level. Comparing the movement mechanics in AW to Vanquish is an insult to Vanquish.

[@eldestsucubus]

i only watched half the video but just about every clip had him depleting his boost bar to 0, and hes playing on normal no less (see: weapon upgrades) vanquish is still shitloads faster than TF2 or and cod game, its just people like this dont know how to play it to the full extent. add in some boost canceling, cover sliding and melee cancel dashing and youre pretty much playing a mix of a racing game meets a TPS. if your gauge is hitting 0 on NORMAL mode, youre not doing it right.

[@user-lq3op9gy4o]

I showed my friend your channel once because he didn't have a console and didn't know what Vanquish was.Vanquish is still my favorite third person shooter. I hate it whenever people say it did nothing amazing when they don't even use the full extent of the skillset. Titanfall 2 if you are using grapple you can get across the map in less than 2 seconds. Check it out. Both Vanquish and Titanfall are my favorite games. Either way I am sitting here praying for a Vanquish Sequel I already bought the game for a friend and got a copy myself.

[@eldestsucubus]

Eikichi Onizuka. id love a sequel. i think vanquish is even more relevant now since FPS has oversaturated the scene to the point of absurdity. back in 2010s TPS were still pretty big, currently theyre pretty much non existent. there was MGSV a few years back and gears is pretty much dead. i hope vanquish doing pretty good on steam shows that theres a market for this sorta thing..

[@ThrottleKitty]

I found it awkward and uncomfortable, rewarding erratic twitch shooting over anything like actual strategy or skill... :< I usually died to getting stuck in the environment, which is just super silly and awkward feeling! To the point I found myself focusing on the ground more then enemies, even on hard...

[@ThrottleKitty]

Haha, act more insecure kid.

[@OninRuns]

This has never been an issue in literature or cinema.

[@andresarancio6696]

As all forms of media, games should be seen in the context they were made. It would be unrealistic to think a game could be meaningful to any state of the industry, the political state of the world and society in general. The most meaningful books and movies talk about the human nature through their authors, and their visions are products of their time. Timeless films and books and tv series are rare and I really don't think we have a considerable amount of timeless games with actual deep meaning out there (maybe Persona 3 and other games that talk of some eternal anxieties of human kind like death? Even then the feel they convey is probably very different depending on the time). However, does that make Spec Ops: The Line, Vanquish, etc meaningless? No, of course not. The same way books and films that condemn Stalinism and Facism in general do not hold the same meaning after WW2 and the cold war but still hold meaning, they do have something to say. Will they become history pieces, mostly to explore the landscape of the videogame situation of the early new tens? Maybe. Maybe not. But they surely meant so much when they came out, and the fact that they meant something in the past means they mean something now.

[@theslydog59]

'The world is gubbed' yes it is

[@TurinTurambar200]

Is there meaning in trying to maintain in ones mind the historical context of a piece of media when viewing it? We either respond to this question with a loud resounding "yes", or we admit that the vast majority of cultural works over the course of history are no longer of value.

[@vearheart42]

Vanquish and Crysis were both made out of frustration of the norm. Both feel like a cheap Grindhouse thriller now a days though.

[@timothymclean]

Fun fact: Initially, _Romeo and Juliet_ was probably intended as a tragic parody/deconstruction of a type of romance popular at the time. Yet as theater changed, and as Shakespeare himself changed theater, R&J remained relevant because it was still a good play. I don't think the likes of Vanquish or Spec Ops: The Line are today's Shakespeare. (Maybe they are, but who can claim to know?) My point is much simpler; if a work subverting a genre continues to stand out as that genre vanishes, it can often stand on its own merits. We're still talking about these games, after all; if they've left us something to talk about, surely they still have some value in today's culture and market.

[@JoPeTuYaTroJoueY]

Hey kuddo for beeing on the "oldschool veteran 360/PS3 players who originaly noticed the game and praised it" ;) my 360 copy is still here ! and i was like you "dammit !! it's only NOW they notice it's a great game and an hiddem gem ??" :p the same effect it was for me when i already known System of a Down here in France with their first album and music-videos, but when Toxicity was out EVERYONE was listening to SOAD !! i was pissed of :p

[@Sellipsis]

Vanquish was very intriguing to me but it did one thing one that ultimately broke the entire experience for me. The Repetitive boss battles I could deal with, the plot was a total WTF that really didn't need to be complicated but they did it anyway. What was broken was the bullet-time mechanic. The recharge/cooldown was easily manipulated by the fact that if you made sure to cancel it a second before it was empty that it would recharge just as fast as if you used it for only a split second. This then can be exploited to ad infinitum and proceeds to make every encounter you experience from then on to be an absolutely trivial affair of spamming bulletime shots over and over again. The other factors I mentioned didn't help it either of course. IOW, as excited as I was to play it back when it released, I was profoundly disappointed. Spec Ops the line is fantastic though. And I'm glad as someone who was waiting since it was first anounced. Though I hate how they changed the art style from the original trailer shown at Spike E3 awards, and the sand mechanic turned out to be a stump in regards to innovative gameplay mechanics.

[@ISetYourFaceOnFire]

Trivial huh? I'm guessing you beat challenge 6 and god hard without any trouble at all.

[@Densoro]

old post but, idk if this is an 'exploit' so much as introducing stamina management before the Souls games took off with it.

[@JimmyDThing]

Spec Ops is far more about PTSD than anything else.

[@matthewlee4834]

Interesting video, but your whole argument rests on determining a video game's quality based on how revolutionary it is, and that simply isn't a good way to judge any piece of art or entertainment. Some of the greatest video games of all time either stick to certain tropes or plot formulas, and that's ok. A game doesn't HAVE to be completely unique in every way in order to be good. Additionally, when judging any form of art, you should also be factoring in the context of said art. That's the whole point. When analyzing All Quiet on the Western Front, 1984, etc., you have to look at the context those pieces of art were created in