Vanquish storyline detailed in latest issue of Famitsu @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on March 31, 2010

News: Space lasers... super suits... bullet time... yup, it's the future.

The latest issue of Famitsu (via Andriasang) features a new report about Platinum Games' Vanquish, which includes a bunch of details about the game's storyline.

Early footage of the Shinji Mikami-developed game (who was also the creator of the Resident Evil series) showed a futuristic war on terror. Apparently, this war involves space lasers:

Vanquish begins in space, on a cylindrical colony known as Providence. This is actually America's 51st state. It was created in order to gather solar energy. The energy that it gathers in its power generation plants is converted into microwaves and beamed down to Earth.

This is where the expected "but" comes in. Someone has taken over Providence and converted its power plants into weapons of mass destruction. The enemy targets San Francisco with a blast of energy from the colony, instantly wiping out 500,000 lives.

The attack was instigated by Russian terrorists, who threaten to use Providence to blow up New York unless the government surrenders. Since Jack Bauer is unavailable, the US turns to Sam, a soldier with an Augmented Reaction Suit. The ARS "was designed to give a single soldier the same attack, movement, strategy, and information processing capabilities as the latest MBTs (a combat tank)."

In addition to the gunplay provided by the ARS, the suit will allow Sam to deliver devastating punches and kicks, which Famitsu says will be an essential part of the game. Other specialties courtesy of the suit include a Boost mode that will give Sam superspeed and a bullet time mode, here dubbed Augmented Reality Mode. While the ARS makes Sam a one-man-army, he will also be joined by a squad of other soldiers during the fight.

According to Platinum Games, Vanquish is about 80% complete and will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this Winter.

We'll have more soon.