Nope, but by definition it was a bit more original than this setup (although I still found it a bit bland).  I mean, US vs Russia.  Enough already.  This old cliche died for me when Roger Moore was still Bond disarming nuclear bombs planted by rogue Russian Generals dressed as a clown!

I've played it a few more times and found that the less I play it like a cover shooter the better it is, so its growing on me.  But the one hit melee, at least based on the demo, isn't feeling balanced for me even after a few play throughs.

To answer your questions, when you take a massive amount of damage AR automatically kicks in as a safety mechanic when close to death.Health system is similar to modern day regenarative health giving visual cues on screen( red stuff).Smoking regens health and the bud flick causes a distraction to enemies.

The melee attacks will probably have upgrades simalar to bayonetta accessory feature.

Seems you're getting nearly killed alot that's why you can't cancel AR, btw my speed run of the demo so far is 6 minutes 4 seconds :D

Hope this changes you mind and the some others on the gameplay of the game hopefully you can get the hang of it by the time the game is out.

Reasonable, you are taking Vanquish much too seriously. THe whole point of its setting is that it's a parody of American action movie/action game stereotypes, meant to harken back to Contra and Gears of War in the same way that God Hand arkened back to Double Dragon and Fist of the North Star.

If you're looking for originality or storytelling integrity in a way that doesn't evolve parody and satire, you are barking up the wrong tree.

Yeah the sterotypical russian/german villian thing is played out.

Who is this Vanquish guy then, is he with the Russians or Americans or is he neutral?

I don't see any evidence of satire so far - just something a Japanese developer might feel is 'Western' enough to be appealing.  But this game is fairly low on my radar next  to stuff like LBP2, Last Guardian (show us more!) and the like so maybe I just need to find out a bit more about it.

BTW if the game is good I won't let that put me off, I mean the bakground just felt like window dressing from the demo, something simply to allow for the mayhem as it were.

But, for an older gamer like me this is a veryyyy old cliche, parady or not.  I'd just prefer something like the ISA/Helghast or COGS from Gears, something at least a little more than US/Russia.

It's just a demo everybody. I personally thought the demo was nothing special. It was'nt bad,but nothing ah-inspiring. lol

Plus points:

Gameplay was smooth, fast and fun.

Boss on the demo was cool to battle.

Minus points:

Graphics are a letdown.

Voice actors are cringe worthy.

Set up and story seem typical "buff dudes saving the world and being manlier than everyone else".

I'm aware of how it works, but it doesn't feel very good. I don't feel like I always know where I'm at healthwise.

w00t? I haven't seen any smoking outside the cinematics.

I hope so, draining all the energy is really annoying!

I know it can be cancelled normally, I just think it's really annoying that I can't cancel it when I get close to death.

That didn't really do anything for me, sorry.

I can't believe Baynoetta is only at 1.5 million.It deserves so much more. Needs to be published by EA or Activision. Actually I can believe it. It's a bit wacky for Western tastes and PS3 version was well inferior so the JPN looked the other way.