Sega’s upcoming action title Vanquish is setting its sights on graphically redefining the action shooter genre. In a post on Sega Europe Blog, Platinum Game’s Takeo Kido said that “other shooters are going to seem downright peaceful in comparison” to the action in Vanquish. But with all the space faring action and huge robots, it might surprise you to find out that the development team set their focus on the little things when creating the game’s special effects.

Kido cited the his own personal inclinations and the game’s forward moving action as the inspiration for Vanquish’s minute attention to detail.

“Even when I am watching a movie, I will say, ‘That’s some nice debris.’”

He goes on to quote Vanquish’s director:

“We aren’t going to let the player get away with hanging out in cover as long as he likes. We are going to force them forwards.” He added, “The enemies are robots. When you kill them, they blow up. We are going to put as many of them on-screen as we possibly can, especially the grunts.”

The goal of the game is to create situations that will force gamers to take action or risk getting into game ending trouble. To this end, the graphics and effects had to be able to reflect the game’s direction. With these lofty ambitions in mind, it fell on the game’s team to put together a product that would both run smoothly and wow gamers visually.

This was no easy task, as programmers and designers would have to fit all the big explosive action and small minute details on the same screen.

At E3, it was stated that Vanquish would run at 60 fps and be equivalent to other contemporary shooters. On the surface it would seem like a paradox to want to pack more into the same packaging as other games. However, the guys at Platinum Games seem to embrace this idea when putting the game together. “We were going with quantity over quality because in the end quantity would be quality,” Kido said, “It appears that there is tons going on, both small and large, and in reality, there is a ton going on.”

The end result of their “scheming and planning” is a visually arresting product for gamers. The large action and battles will be punctuated by the small details that the team squeezed into the game. Bullets will whiz, while explosions ring, as enemy bots fill the screen, all creating a graphical experience that will be “far flashier than the normal human versus human shooters on the market.”

Kido, himself, “can’t get enough of the small, pulverized shrapnel flying all over the place” and “floating through the air.”

[Source]

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