Before SEGA and Platinum Games released VANQUISH in October of 2010, they uploaded two distinctly different demos to the Xbox Live game marketplace—that’s how badly they wanted gamers to play it. While only the aptly dubbed “VELOCITY ATTACK” remains available now, their unprecedented strategy must have paid off, as the game fell just shy of selling a million copies worldwide by the year’s end. Not bad for a new IP with little Western presence; Platinum’s recent repertoire is nothing but total unplayed gems.

Since October, VANQUISH has dropped in price to $20, and I promise you aren’t going to find a better way to spend your cash. It’s a third-person shooter with battles so incredibly frenetic that you’ll finish each level sweat-soaked and with a large sigh of relief through gritted teeth. To put into perspective how rapid the action is, your character Sam is equipped with an enhanced battle suit that has rocket thrusters grafted to every joint which drastically hasten your movements. Contrary to how this may sound, it controls with precise fluidity; press A to do a rocket-assisted combat roll, or hold A to endlessly tumblesault at mach speed. Press X to slide into cover from yards away. Hold LB to drop to your knees and turbo-slide over 150 feet, shooting communist robots from drastic angles.

That’s right: communist robots. VANQUISH has your typical this-doesn’t-make-any-sense-but-god-damn-it’s-so-cool Japanese action game storyline in which the President of the United States strikes a deal with a rogue Russian to have him destroy San Francisco with a microwave-emitting laser that literally causes people to implode in graphic detail, all in an effort to incite a war and stimulate a failing US economy. You won’t care about spoilers because you won’t have time to. 

All of this occurred over the span of two hours—roughly half the time it took me to complete the game. VANQUISH’s pacing moves incredibly quickly in an effort to keep up with its gameplay. Momentary lapses of action occur with such infrequecy that they feel more like the eye of the storm, existing solely to establish the next objective and advance the plotline. In the grand scheme, I wasn’t always certain why I was fighting, but upon seeing lots of my dudes out there getting hammered by goliath commie robot artillery, I immediately knew what to do.

This is awesome because it encourages gamers to play the game with reckless abandon, pushing your uber-suit to its absolute limits. When Sam takes enough damage, an emergency protocol initiates and the game goes into slow-motion, allowing you to take out multiple foes with precision when it really counts. If you aren’t feeling brazen enough to charge knees-first into an entire armada of enemies, you can manually activate the slowdown by pulling the aiming trigger after a roll or as you’re vaulting over cover. It’s an invaluable skill that ’ll make you feel like the coolest dude in the world as you’re simultaneously vanquishing VANQUISHing three robots on the opposite side of a chest-high wall.    

From this innovation stems one of my only complaints about the game. During damage-induced slow-motion, I sometimes had difficulty telling exactly how damaged I was, and there seemed to be vast disparities in the amounts of damage that enemies were capable of dealing. One time I was shot and killed instantly by a single marine brandishing a simple assault rifle, while other times I survived epic laser barrages from mechs that engulfed my entire body. It was all a little confusing due to the lack of any sort of health display on your HUD; to gauge your HP, you have to keep an eye on the physical condition of the suit itself. 

In addition to an awesome battle-suit, Sam is equipped with a single weapon that has the ability to aesthetically transform into a handful of different guns in VANQUISH, some of which are particularly cool. There’s a crossbow-esque laser rifle called the ”Lock-On Laser” (or the LOL) that has the ability to lock on to up to four enemies at once, stock—this can be upgraded to a higher number if you collect upgrade tokens from fallen enemies and cargo crates, or if you pick up the weapon when you’re already at full ammo capacity. There’s also a gun called the LFE gun that fires a black hole that lurches forward, dealing vast amounts of damage to anything that passes through it. I found that to be more useful than the shotgun or meleeing for close-combat, so I kept one of my three inventory spots dedicated to it. If you aren’t satisfied with the weapons included in VANQUISH, there’s a three-pack of DLC online for $2 that includes a laser hand-cannon, a cannon that has been stripped off a tank and made portable, and a double heavy machine gun. There’s already one heavy machine gun…how much heavier can it get!?

I’m not even slightly mad that I beat VANQUISH in five hours; in an age where blockbuster titles are purposely designed to “deliver” dozens of hours of gameplay, VANQUISH stands out because it knows when to end to avoid the risk of becoming repetitive or monotonous. It felt just right. Had I paid $60 for it, I may have felt differently, but for $20 there’s not much else I’d rather play.

If you ever wondered what it would be like to play Gears of War while you’re on speed, or you’re a fan of dude-sliding, or you just really hate communists and/or robots, VANQUISH is definitely worth picking up. I found my copy on clearance at Target for only $14, so keep your eyes peeled for even better bargains. It’s so worth it—if you don’t believe me, download the demo, and get ready to ATTACK SOME VELOCITIES.