One of the last generation’s most overlooked games, Vanquish, is now playable on Xbox One via backwards compatibility. The announcement comes via Larry ‘Major Nelson’ Hryb on Twitter.
PlatinumGames’ 2010 shooter received lukewarm commercial success upon release but the news comes hot on the heels of 2017’s PC re-release – there’s no excuse not to play it now, if you haven’t already.
While the Vanquish IP is pretty much dead in the water at this stage, it’s nice to see some love given by Microsoft to one of the most interesting shooters to come out of the seventh generation of consoles. Hesitating about dipping your toe in the adrenaline-filled water? Here’s a primer: you play as Sam Gideon, an agent with a mech suit (this is 2010, remember) who uncovers a political conspiracy and fights it the only way he knows how. Shooting. Everything. It’s great fun, and shows that Platinum, after the brilliance of Bayonetta, could shift genres on a dime and still come up with the goods.
If turbo knee-sliding while firing rockets at Russians in giant mechs isn’t your thing, there are two more backpat games now available on Xbox One. The first, Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light was let loose at strange time for the Tomb Raider, but it’s well worth a re-visit. Bizarrely, movie tie-in Brave is the other Xbox 360 game you can play on your Xbox One from today. Who needs Modern Warfare 2 when you’ve got Brave, right?
All three games are also ready to buy on the Xbox Store if you don’t own a copy. Vanquish is $19.99/£14.99 while Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light is priced at the far more reasonable $14.99/£9.99. Brave is currently $19.99/£8.99 though, with the large difference between those two prices, expect that to shift soon one way or the other. Brave is also free for Xbox Gold users from March 1-March 15.
