Vanquish: General discussion

Yeah it's not finished yet obviously, this is my mind farting. On the bike to work I immediately thought "fuck forgot that" on multiple things. I mention PN03 and its arcade origins, but I really need to trim the article. Way too much fluff in there now.

And yeah God Hard is difficult. Try Hard maybe, lot more fun to toy around in there if you're inexperienced.

I always play hard for vanquish. God hard is not so bad just a few places I can't deal with well n have to be a coward n hide in a corner n shoot from a distance. Hard is best for me it always is for action games.
I like a good challenge but need more room to goof up.

So would u do an article on origins of action games?examining various influences like shmups,beat em ups n fighting games to what they became now.

The transition to 3d was a game changer for action games.

That would clear so much for newbs n even veterans, if u just type best action games it's a complete mess of games that r mostly fps or if u type hack n slash games u may get dmc n bayo but no god hand. Too many get stuck in genres but don't see the underlying thread that links various action games together.

So would u do an article on origins of action games?examining various influences like shmups,beat em ups n fighting games to what they became now.

I can but that's more of a history piece which takes a lot of time to write. I still have some other articles I want to do first but I'll note this one down in my todo-list.

It would help clear up the confusion of what action games r n can be.

That's why I refer to action games as the evolution of classic beat em ups n shoot em ups of various types as opposed to hack n slash which is in inaccurate.

Sengoku neo geo beat em ups r played with a man with a sword, u can also transform into a tengu demon with a pole arm n a ninja dog also, that's sengoku1-2 gimmick.

But say pno3 n vanquish take more from shoot em ups like alien soldier, gunstar heroes n sin & punishment don't u think?

I'll have to find other examples of influences on modern action games.

Of course ninja gaiden black took from classic nes platformer ninja gaiden as well as the beat em up ninja gaiden n dead or alive mechanics r influences.

I'll make a topic for that, action game origins, progenitors of modern action games.

I'm glad u don't give scores for games, that's something I find is only detrimental to a review, giving criticisms n praise of something should be enough, why bother even writing a review or having opinions or thoughts if u gonna slap a number on the end next to some bullet points of said review.

here is what this thing is n what I like/dislike about it in some detail through careful analysis. Or simply stating a games mechanics is too hard for most.

I only care for reviews if they harm a game that deserves sales n praise. It's sad how something masterful as vanquish gets shafted when it's so damn good n just all round fun. Sega also didnt seem to bother marketing it much at all. I was only aware of vanquish due to it being in my local block buster.

Vanquish has a strong origin in old shooters, going back as far as Space Invaders or SpaceWar! if you want to talk real classics haha. Ninja Gaiden has clear and obvious connections to Dead or Alive which was really great at the time before 4 and later entries started ruining it. Itagaki wanted to pay homage but also wished to really change the formula and I approve, while the inspirations are clear the game is very different from the original NES title (or even moreso from the old-style arcade release).

On reviews, it's really hard. Most reviewers probably are allowed to play a game for 2 days before they have to quickly ram out an article - it can be really stressful. I wrote for a few websites before this gig as a freelance writer and would generally get a message "this game is out, buy it, review it within the next 2-3 days if you can". I had to review X-com: Enemy Unknown without having finished it, making guesses on how it worked near the end: a painful thing to do and one of the (many) reasons I quit. 
On the numbers, it works. People have zero attention-span and just want a quick validation on their purchase or something to hate on with their friends. Reading is for people who have time (and they never do). Stinger Magazine is a direct opposite of that and I wish to keep it that way. 

On Sega, they had a strict policy of only marketing Sonic games and just let the other games ... do whatever. It was very sad to see great titles get zero marketing. I never would've played Bayonetta if it didn't come with my magazine-subscription...

Sorry for the off topic post. I just wanted to ask you about your reviewing experience.

Are there rules as to what you're allowed to say or how you say it? The reason I ask is because even with a limited amount of time with a game, every review I've every read states everything as fact based on their limited experience.

Why does no one ever say things like 'this was as much as I could figure out with the time allowed', or 'there's definitely much more to it'?

@birdman I suppose it wouldn't seem very professional and informative for the site they where reviewing for, as they have to keep up a status of authority, from what i know many places do have a rules on what to say, sometimes I think reviewers get sent to reviewer camps for a day to play a game for a bit.

In the case of Jim sterling he is just being an opinionated arse hat as he sometimes is, though he likely didn't have long with vanquish also.

Off-topic extravaganza: To answer your question, it's more an unwritten rule. Even on Stinger I try to keep my opinion separate and put it in Opinion Style near the end. The core of a reviewer/critique is to observe, note facts and make conclusions based on that. By saying it as a fact you show confidence and professionalism, leaving your personal taste behind as well you can to dig into the material at hand.
 
It's a big irony but the deal is that sites are supposedly objective, so they just post facts. Which is absolute bullcrap, as they are beyond subjective. I can ramble on about this but I'll just make a short bulletpoint list on why these things are bad:

• most sites have a ton of reviewers including freelancers, leading to bad consistency. Vanquish got a bad score on Destructoid, but the PC release got a raving review because it was another guy, same with God Hand.
  
• games are subjective, period - as is any other art. What reviewers are 'missing' is the writing/art background in which you are taught that the job of a critique is to analyze it in cohesion with other contemporary material and also look towards the past and future and how much of an influence it will end up being.
  
• most reviewers are either gamers that made it their job, reviewers that ended up talking about games, video-editors that decided to get in on the fun or any mix of these three. Very rarely you'll find what you need: a gamer who's a writer with preferably a background in (game)design. While I can write decent fluff on games as proven by Stinger, I'd probably be on a whole 'nother level if it were about comicbooks since that was my actual degree, namely Narrative Illustration. 
  

If you're interested here's one old review I managed to find:
http://eonculture.com/xcom-enemy-unknown-review/

EDIT: reading that review now hurts haha. So many mistakes and I remember I never even played the multiplayer, just quickly looked up a match online.

Beat god hard(70deaths) with my god hands, wait...wrong game...close enough.

Do you think they based the ARS suit of the god hands, as in the actual god hands,That would be funny. It's the fact that Olivia's clan had the actual god hand arms in a case that gets me, a clan protecting a pair of magical arms in boxes.
Also I think those statues are meant to be professor Pangloss, they have canes, that's what they hold up at you when they turn red.

I wouldn't look that far into it. Mikami stated he was pretty 'done' with God Hand and while fun doesn't hold it as high as the community does. He liked it a lot but Vanquish was a new project with lots of new people. Yes there are some winks and nods but try not to look for God Hand in everything it has haha ;p

And you beat Vanquish on God Hard with only 70 deaths total o_O? Or was that a joke?

God hand nods are more my head canon as an aside haha, I do love those god hands.

70 deaths is what the end game results screen showed, I wasn't keeping count but it was a few moments that gave me trouble, rest was about the same as hard. It was more annoying than hard due to how high damage is and how easily AR is drained if you so much as get love tapped by a gorgie, regular gorgie fire was my bane.
I had to be really lame in some areas and fire from a distance to be safe as I wasn't skilled/confident enough to charge in a lot of the time against big groups,I still did when areas were available to use as cover and such.

Bosses: they were mostly the same like argus, viper and unknown being about same level of challenge, just had to be more alert when they attack is all and shoot off the extra guns on argus.

Burns was more annoying than hard, I died a good few times to him, more so his goons as burns is easy by his lonesome(whiskey a go-go baby).

Bogeys where legit tough fun I didn't have too many deaths against them I'll have to check my results individually. Bogeys are fun to fight since their attacks are well telegraphed and avoided with careful fire,dodges and cover use, really good boss I was super into it on god hard, they where fair but tense. It does help that checkpoints are frequent and ammo refills upon death, don't think I was using grenades as much as I should have early on.

70 deaths is insanely good man. The general average on first God Hard runs is around 500 deaths, some going into the thousands. Many players can't even get 70 deaths. So yeah, color me impressed haha.

Most people quit at the Bogies as they can be downright mean. It's a really scary fight.

Well I'd still only ever say I'm decent haha, I've no need to boast beyond acknowledging that I did something and preferably efficiently. I'm sort of blunt and a tad pragmatic like that, I play for a good challenge and above all fun.
I don't actually like the idea at being untouchable in games usually, I like a bit of back n forth ya know. But if it happens it happens. It does take a lot of effort to untouchable, I do like being that good sometimes, that's true mastery then it's on to speed runs I suppose but that takes the fun out of it for me, I really like to dick around for ages at times, just test a move and watch and listen to the animations.

The game I've died most in is god hand, good thing it doesn't give rankings like dmc and bayonetta, I don't care for scores it's not what I play for, I like beating doods up I don't care for how long it took or how many orbs I farmed.

So in jest I did the thing yay.

I love the bogeys fight, it was much less of a bother than being tapped by hordes of mooks. I found regular battles to be less fun due to all the cross fire of mooks, just 2 bosses with destinct tells in an open arena was refreshing from that, almost FAIR. Or something I dunno. 2 flying bosses is easier to deal with than regular jobber bots for me haha, bit backwards.

Well you should be proud man, that's one insane accomplishment. Even Bick had a total of nearly 200 deaths on just the Twin Bogey fight. My first death-count was 516 on the whole run and my record is 7 deaths. Goes to show a game is different for everyone. On the topic of untouchable, me neither. I don't like playing no-damage as it gives this really boring play style for me. I want to take risks, do stupid stuff and experiment. 

Finally nailed down the Vanquish review. Had a good thought on the bike and managed to sneak it in, makes the review better now since there's actually a negative point in there - as Vanquish isn't perfect either. Now I just want to style it and let it rest a bit, with a little luck I can publish it before I go to Japan on Friday but I'm not making any promises.

I'll just put this here fam.

How are the Dlc weapons? Their melee moves?

Do you know if I can turn them off or if they are always on? if the latter I might have to download it to my hard drive and not memory unit.

Also I agree with how the less useful melee moves should only drain a set amount of meter, no use to use the weaker useless ones otherwise.

This guy gets it:




Love that vanquish is getting some love, I'm sure turbo button and gamingbrit have sold a few copies for sure.

Vanquish: or how to use cover in your cover shooter.

Yo I beat challenge 6.

> DLC weapons
They are generally considered to be among the best. You can disable them by uninstalling them, on the PC you can't though.

> challenge 6
Good job man!

I was messing around with crystal viper and he has a bunch of cool moves he rarely uses; a jumping slash it does after a electric zap, a hand grab that leads into that odd qte sometimes and that barrier he uses and sometimes shoots at you though I think those are 2 different moves(you can see it's skeleton when it shoots its big orb cool detail). I found that you can stun lock viper with the LFE(no brainer I guess), moreso you can stop it's barrier with LFE; viper kept activating it's barrier and I kept cancelling it with LFE, pretty funny.

Also I haven't messed around with those whirly bird mini chopper flying robots much, don't know all their moves in their ground form. They seem to have a lot of life when grounded and have bullet proof armour in areas.

Yeah most of those moves are pretty rare, he also gains a few new ones that are God Hard exclusive such as being able to cancel his dash and other moves into a jumping-slash to catch you off-guard, pretty neat addition. The grab-qte is insanely rare and I, to this day, have no clue on how to trigger this move as sometimes it just deals damage and that's it. Any clue?

The god hard extra moves I've never even seen, bit of a waste since they only fought twice and second is alone with marines. challenge maps seem locked to hard which is a shame. Damn vanquish and every other action games needs a custom map maker, just have it be dlc that's a set amount of maps and give you the assets to customise and set enemies as you please. A debug test room/mode also; nier:automata has both(and custom controls)which is really cool, shame its such a poor game.

The rare grab I think you mentioned in a prior comment, something about you and the viper being low life. I'm not sure about the grab but BigVEE left some substantial comments on your vanquish vids, one I recall was about viper. Viper works best as a stealth unit so they need other mobs to distract you.
Viper has killed me and caught me off guard many times in challenge6 so respect to viper. What do you think about the running slash prompt?
It makes them pretty trivial but if they removed it and they changed vipers ai to do more moves other than stealth and running slash they would be more of a threat. Its way too easy to bait out its 3-hit slash combo it does after its de-cloaked. It's odd as no other boss has such an exploitable qte.

I really want to see a viper/unknown team up. Viper/bogey. 2 vipers and tank.

It's a bit surprising that they decided to make such changes to certain foes on God Hard but have them barely appear. It is that I know this from the guide, otherwise I'd never have guessed they'd made these changes. Would agree with the map-maker content, damn that'd be cool.

About BigVee, yeah we discussed it a bit and he too wasn't able to recall how to exactly trigger it. The mystery of Vanquish ha! The running-slash is a bit too horrible for the Viper in my opinion, mostly because the QTE has no challenge to it. You can (and a lot of players do) just mash Square while playing and you'll get it all the time. It would be fine if he'd just do it once at a certain percentage or that you'd only be able to deal him damage in his 'broken state' and this was one way of triggering said state - but as it stands now it's just too strong a punish for a move that is slow and won't kill you anyways.

That said other bosses have big melee-antics too. You can QTE destroy Argus if you destroy limbs in a clever way and melee overheats can be canceled using cutscenes, the Buzzard has a hitbox for melee on his arms which doesn't trigger overheat and the Bogeys can be 'headshotted' with a boost-melee if you're really good.

I hope this is real, fuck me if it is. Better be 60fps or so help me.

https://www.destructoid.com/it-looks-like-a-bayonetta-vanquish-two-pack-is-coming-to-ps4-and-xbox-one-460212.phtml

I'm both hoping and not hoping. Like I love Vanquish I really really freak'n do, but that would have me own it a billionth time. That said 60fps yes please.

I have to say how smart the choice for regenerating life over life bar and life pickups is, coupled with other careful design decisions to avoid the typical wait for red jam to clear from the screen as I hide in a corner from foes. Like how you can use boost dodge for extra distance, speed lower hitbox and iframes along with slomo to remain in action even if life is red. Also I think slomo regens life faster which is another use for slomo and meter use since life regen happens passively you can focus on combat.

Still waiting for news about the console re-release.

I think that rumor might have been false, though I wouldn't be surprised to see the game launch on the Switch. Nintendo is really making big deals and their relationship with Sega and Platinum is pretty rock solid right now.

Yeah but on Switch what kind of motion control crap do you think they would force? Really hope Bayo 3 is free of it, or at least minimal.

I'd discussed with SBK and others things like desired unlockables (infinite ARS, invincibility, melee with varying costs/cooldowns *only a chance at using ammo with DL slices*, etc.), new weapons (Flamethrower, Railgun, Kreon, etc.), new suits (one for each title *melee w/ bladewolf and motorcycle tank or Bogey with vertical levels like another failed shooter attempted*), etc. I mentioned elsewhere there were a variety of links leading to past discussions at GFAQs regarding the guide, others attempting to make guides, some of my own coverage (weapons testing with a lot of cheap tactics and melee tidbits), etc. Royboy alluded to some of that (was especially pleased with myself using hangars to insta-kill BIAs).

Finally tried this game out since I got it on the Steam sale and fast single-player shooters are a big favorite of mine. This game doesn't disappoint, fun stuff so far after having played a couple hours. Some preliminary impressions (Act 1 and a bit of 2 complete on Hard):

Meter is everything in this game. You are a god if you have it, boosting and slow-moing around while killing everything in sight. Conversely, if you are out of meter you are like a human fly, frantically buzzing around (aka spamming roll) while every robot with a rifle is aiming straight for your cranium. Feels like the roll has i-frames, though I'm not sure yet. Shooting airborne grenades with slow-mo is sick.

Weapons are pretty fun, normally I'm not a big fan of weapon limits in shooters but having 3 instead of the usual 2 weapons, combined with the constant switching for more ammo makes it pretty okay. Shotgun feels kinda underwhelming to me, Assault Rifle on the other hand feels amazing. The reload canceling in this game is also ridiculous, reloading is almost not a mechanic. IDK why the game gives you all your grenades and EMPs when you die, seems weird to me since they are such a powerful resource. Maybe it's so you don't get stuck without any?

The enemies are quite good, even the basic robots can fuck you up pretty bad if you let them. Lots of weakpoints, destructible projectiles, and enemy phases to go around. Enemies are also aggressive, they hunt you down quick unless they are shooting an NPC, in which case they will completely ignore you. I'm still pretty early in so I'm sure there's plenty more enemy types I haven't seen yet.

Minor nitpick but I wish the game wouldn't take control from you so often, after almost every fight there is a small cutscene which dampens the pacing a bit. I think these can be skipped though so no big deal, I wonder how many of these interruptions were used to hide loading times on the original hardware. QTEs are also pretty meh, nowhere near Bayo 1 levels though so I don't really mind.

Looking forward to playing some more later, I did some tweaks to get the game to run in 21:9 and 120 FOV so hopefully that won't fuck anything up with the port.

Fantastic! Always good to see more people get in on Vanquish. My advice would be, if possible, to play with a controller. It is a console game and I feel that by using a M&K the enemies just don't hold up at times. Their speed is tuned to controller aiming, which makes PC-gameplay a breeze at times.

> roll
The official data is there, somewhere. IIRC the meterless roll has one or two i.frames but it is very minor. For regular dodging I recommend "boostdodge", you can read more about the advanced stuff here: https://stinger.actieforum.com/t4-vanquish

> weapons
It really has a lot of fun options and every gun has fun stuff going on. The LFE and Shotgun are the 'top tier' weapons in terms of usability and damage respectively. Note that most notes of such are based on the hardest setting which changes the game quite a bit. The shotgun is an absolute damage beast when you can get all the pellets to connect, while the LFE is great for ringouts, throwing grenades farther, stunlocks etc.

> enemies
Mikami and co. really know how to make fun and interesting foes. The Romanovs alone (those big mechs) are a joy to fight and dismember, lots of available options.

> taking control away
Sadly a lot cannot be skipped, as they were (as you guessed correctly) masked loading times. The game also gets a pretty big 'different style' section around the middle where it's constantly throwing different styles of gameplay at you (turret sections etc.) which can get dull.

> tweaks
The game is technically still 'busted'. It was originally an 30FPS game and a lot of damage-numbers are out of whack as a result which makes some fights a lot harder and some a lot easier. Some boss attacks that used to OHKO you on God Hard now barely scratch you, while some random bullets had their damage values trippled by accident. This was patched, but the patch sadly didn't fix it as intended either and just flipped some numbers around again.

Note, this is purely 'veteran' stuff. If you're new you won't notice this at all.

Have fun man and report back on how you like it later-on! Should you get to the hardest setting soon, don't be discouraged haha. It is quite the jump.

It really is a great game. It took me a few playthroughs to really form an opinion on it, but I settled with the feeling that it's a really enjoyable title. It's right at the top of the "shooters you need to play" list with Doom and (hopefully, when I get round to it ) Ultrakill.

As Raeng has said, M+KB makes the game significantly easier in terms of general combat, so playing on controller preserves the intended difficulty. Honestly, though, I had so much more fun playing with a mouse. The extra speed and precision you can combine with acrobatic moves and trick shots just feels so satisfying. You can still do these on controller, of course, but it obviously won't feel as intuitive. It's up to you to figure out which approach gives you more enjoyment out of the game.

I've played the game through on Hard on M+KB, and it's honestly not very difficult at all. Can't remember dying more than a few times. I've not played God Hard, but if you're looking for a challenge I'd suggest that difficulty (although, heed Raeng's warnings!)

Yeah God Hard is pretty brutal. The jump in difficulty in 1-3 alone made many rage-quit. Just came out of nowhere, especially considering how ... tame Hard mode was.

>shotgun feels underwhelming
Blasphemy.

>game giving you grenade refills when you die
With how difficult God Hard is, and how much utility the grenades have, I’d say this was the right call since drops are mostly random. Going into the second part of 3-2 with no grenades and no drops would be terrible without getting certain weapons.

>enemies are quite good
Romanovs are brilliant, delimbs, staggers, a plethora of attacks, are really susceptible to any weapon, can be rung out, etc. Also has the best final boss ever IMO.

>game taking control away
I must be the only one who doesn’t mind this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ll take a minute of forced talking here and there over entire garbage levels and sections any day.

> I must be the only one who doesn’t mind this. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ll take a minute of forced talking here and there over entire garbage levels and sections any day.

That's absolutely true. Vanquish is one of those few campaigns where there isn't a single mission that makes me go "ugh, not that part". Even the stealth sections is pretty fun and relaxing.

Vanquish is one of those few games, for me, that just has some parts that aren’t quite as good as others(2-5 and 3-4), but no sections that I dislike. It’s much like RE4 and MGS3 in that regard, which are quite a pair of games to stand beside.

Finished Hard mode, didn't take me too long. Regardless this game is super fun so I'll probably play God Hard.

>controller
I can see why it would be more fair, but playing KBM is just too much fun and I have years of muscle memory for KBM shooters at this point.

>shotgun
I was totally wrong about this weapon, it's godlike. Massive damage if all pellets hit, headshots trip a ton of enemies, roll -> slow-mo -> shoot -> roll... is an insane strategy that rips through crowds, the melee can be charged. Maybe it was the sound that initially put me off, this weapon deserves something more visceral.

>other weapons
I feel like there are a couple here I don't understand. The most use I've gotten from the LFE gun was a trip-lock on 2 scorpion enemies in the corner, which was quite useful but needed some setup. Difficult to use otherwise though. I also don't get the disk launcher, does this has some special property other than piercing?

>upgrade system
What is going on here? Getting an upgrade box or three weapon pickups while full gives you the upgrade, that much I understood. It doesn't always say what the upgrade does though, and dying takes the upgrade away only some of the time. Very weird but doesn't seem to make too much of a difference.

>final boss
Really awesome, good telegraphing for each attack and fast-paced. Only took a couple tries on Hard, but this one's probably a doozy on God Hard.

>cutscenes, general interruptions
None of these were really that bad but it makes me think of what could have been. Imagine if the acts were 2 or 3 levels each, with no interruptions in between. Monorail and turret sections were generally lame though, why remove the movement when it's half the game? I agree though that I would rather have stuff like this than extended walky-talky sections or genre switches.

>port issues
That sucks that they didn't fix the framerate-dependent logic stuff, I desperately hope this practice continues to die out as it almost always comes back to haunt 3D games with <60 FPS. 21:9 and 120 FOV worked great though aside from a few minor UI bugs.

It is a good day when the first thing I can do, is talk about Vanquish haha!

> God Hard
Might be worth it to tinker a bit with the Challenge Maps first, get a bit more familiar with the weapons and their usage and how to handle some of them. As it stands God Hard is the highest challenge the game has and you'll need all the knowledge you have.

> shotgun
It is great isn't it? Note that the melee has a semi counter built in, when struck by most melee attacks it will counter them which is pretty neat.

> weapons
I'll go through them one by one:

AR: high stream of damage, great with M&K play as you can just aim it at a weakspot and fire away without any real recoil. Its melee is technically the strongest if you can set it up to connect all hits. Can also be used for increased mobility through canceling
 
HMG: high DPS weapon, but inaccurate as hell. Melee is a nice flip, though that can also be triggered through boost-attacking against walls. Very popular weapon choice though as it can be fire-canceled into shotgun shots, doing massive damage.

BMG: a souped up HMG with a smaller clip, not too unique but very powerful. DLC weapon.

LFE: as noted it can stun-lock foes but there's other things. It is an OHKO against smaller enemies and can be used to spawn kill, it is our 'stun' as well while also being useful to ring enemies out for an OHKO. There's plenty of Romanovs waiting to be ringed out haha. You can also use it to propell grenades forward and other creative stuff. IIRC it deals damage per active frame so its damage is boosted on certain rigs from what I recall but Zaarock is more knowledgable on that part if he's still around.

DISC: it is a free melee attack basically, which is a good start. Note that you can also use its melee while you are overheated and that the melee is i.framed. So it is a nice way to stay safe while your meter recharges after a boost-melee for example (Boost melee is the most damaging out of the non-charged attacks and the ATATATATATATAT from the AR).
It can also be used to delimb enemies really fast. A decapitated Romanov is a puppy for example. Fun weapon!

PISTOL: headshot machine, monsterous damage if used right. DLC weapon.

RPG: as expected, though should be noted that there's no splash damage to us so we can shoot the floor freely. Gets nerfed on God Hard as all pickups of it are removed (meaning we'll only see it drop randomly) and some enemies get a pretty big damage-resistance buff to it specifically. Lock-on tends to be trash.

LoL: fun for reaching out of reach enemies and for quickly clearing small waves of gorgies. Other than that it's a weapon to help struggling console-players out. Very effective after using a flip-attack to get higher up. Useless in smaller areas as the lasers will hit the ceiling.

LC: DLC weapon, drains meter when shot. Extremely powerful when laying down fire, but requires absolute mastery of the game's meter mechanics to use well. Very fun weapon.

> upgrade system
Don't give it too much attention. It was slapped on last minute and is only available on Hard and lower. That said, each upgrade is just a clip-upgrade until the final one, which is a unique bonus i.e. the shotgun shooting mad fast.

> monorail/turret etc
I is mostly just variation for the sake of it. Some of them are pretty neat, like the part where you're on the train and you have to shoot on the train above you.

> Final boss
Really one of Mikami's best fights imo. On God Hard it is just brutal, I've seen many runners quit right there.

Don't think Raeng mentioned this in his summary above - the HMG's melee attack (the backflip kick) can launch enemies without hitting them, if you use it from slightly further away. It doesn't do damage, but it'll interrupt enemy animations and doesn't drain your meter.

Also, doesn't the Disc Launcher's melee use up your ammo for it? Maybe I made that bit up. I didn't know about the I-frames though - are you fully protected through the whole attack?

The HMG flip I've always found to be really iffy, but it does absolutely work that's for sure.

> Disc Launcher melee
It uses up 1 shot yeah. IIRC you are fully i.framed in the animation, but I admit that it's been a while since I've used it.

Just beat Act 1 on God Hard, 1-3 spiked the difficulty way up but after that it wasn't so bad. I think the problem there is the snipers combined with the pretty open arena, if you don't get the snipers under control quickly it's way too easy to get tapped out of nowhere. The near-death slow-mo is so short on this difficulty it might as well not even be there IMO. HMG -> Shotgun (trip) -> HMG on the Romanovs is extremely powerful. Having a huge amount of fun with this game, riding the edge of the meter is addicting.

Here's a fun clip I recorded of some shotgun action: https://i.imgur.com/zvZ5ZTB.mp4

Yeah you always get a modifier on your slow-mo time when you enter it through taking too much damage. That, paired with the now increased meter drain, has it take all of 1,6 seconds on God Hard haha. And yeah riding the edge, always managing your suit and pushing it to its limit, that's the thrill of this game for me. It's even better when you start playing in your mind around having 'reserves' etc. for certain situations and man oh man this game is just so good.

Note: I'd highly recommend practicing boost-dodging and zigzagging. Will definitely improve your play.
Note2: game still is gorgeous imo.

> shotgun
Note that it's so powerful I managed to beat the whole of God Hard with just the shotty. Beast of a weapon. Reminds me I still have to finish that LC run...


> beat 1-3
You'll be pretty set for a while now. There's a few huge spikes like "head to the left of that KNRB0" (that most just skip with smoke+EMP setup), defending the Pangloss Statue and the infamous 'sniper pit'. Aside from those the run killers tend to be Burns and the Bogeys for most.

>LFE
I personally then it’s the best weapon in the game. Being able to knock romanovs around like a hacky sack and kill most low tier enemies in one hit AND in groups is just insane. Not to mention it can be used really effectively against the final boss.

>disc launcher
IIRC decap% goes 75%->65%->55% with each successive hit, and every shot after stays at 55. Aiming at a romanov’s eyes is a great way to get a decap and render them a non-issue as long as you have some distance. Also two melees will usually de-leg a Romanov and completely hinder their mobility, though you have to watch out for the drill romanovs’ new attacks once they don’t have their legs.

>HMG flipkick
Sending the romanovs up into the air without draining any meter is a fun way to get some free hits in.

>LC run
I got to 3-4 and couldn’t do it. The fight with the buzzard seems impossible given the DPS of the laser cannon, I tried probably 50 times dodging every attack and using meter basically perfectly and still couldn’t do enough damage before it destroys the carrier. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me haha.

Edit: forgot to mention, the LFE is also great because it can shoot through walls, immensely useful if you’re behind soft cover and enemies are right on the other side. The disc launcher’s melee also dismantles the Unknown in one hit IIRC, making it a great way to tear through those encounters quickly.

>also use it to propell grenades forward and other creative stuff

Haven't played in years. I remember something about this. Do you mean your own grenades? Can you affect enemy grenades or other projectiles?

>through walls

Was about to mention this. I often used it to knock enemies out of cover. One time I was below some platform and shot it up through the bottom to get some guys.

>backflip

If this is the same attack I'm thinking of, you can also use it from behind cover to get above and shoot. You can go into AR. I used to do it with sniper shots. What's cool is that because of the flip height you can use tons of things for cover that you normally couldn't.

If Ranger doesn't cover it, I'll link to my old coverage (various topics) later.

I keep forgetting to note that it can shoot through walls, you're absolutely right that is also a fantastic part of it.

> disc launcher stats
Wasn't aware of this. Can you confirm Infinity wheither or not you have i.frames during the melee of it? I remember you saying it does but I can't quite find it.

> grenade LFE
Yeah you can shoot at your own grenades to propell them forward. Against enemy projectiles it just blows them up.

> backflip
Yeah that's the one. There's a section early on for example where you need to kill some turrets up high and I always jsut do the flip + LockonLaser to nuke them from afar.

> GmG old topics
Think it'd be good to have them posted here regardless old chum. Might be worth it to make a textual backup here just in case Gamefaqs ever does something stupid again.

2-5 is fucking me up, I could probably do it with some sort of lame sniper strat where I hang back 90% of the time but that's dumb and I'd rather get good now. Just a ton of sightlines to get shot from, combined with a constant flow of enemies and a huge group near the gate you are trying to get to. Maybe rushing into the gate with an EMP slide will do the trick. All the enemy grenades roll down the hill though in this part, makes me laugh a bit.

>boost dodge
So the idea here is that you cancel the boost startup with a roll just as the boost startup iframes end? What's the rough timing, does mashing boost -> dodge -> boost -> dodge work or should I wait more? I've been doing the former but that's probably wrong in retrospect.

>LFE
Knowing that this shoots through walls made it way more useful, easily gets guys off turrets and multikills clumps of enemies who sit around corners. Boosting your grenades sounds powerful too.

>Smoking cigarettes
Didn't even know you could do this, I'll have to test it.