On Platinum Games' blog, Shinji Mikami revealed some new information regarding the graphics of Vanquish and some of the ideas that were scrapped or adjusted early on in the development of the upcoming title.

The biggest reveal is was that the original plan was for Vanquish to be open-world. Once the development commenced, Platinum changed their mind and targeted for more of a "linear structure".

Mikami explains the open-world switch:

"Vanquish was originally an open battlefield type of game, where the goal was to move around crushing enemy positions; however, once we got started with development, we quickly made the decision to change to a more linear structure. We abandoned the open battlefield and focused on making each stage as visually dense as possible."

By scrapping the open-world environment, the developers were able to put more time into the enhancement of the visual experience. Mikami is hoping the quality of the graphics are the curator of the buzz around the title.

"As a result, I think the graphics in Vanquish are really quite wonderful. It is one of the main points of Vanquish I want to recommend to people."

Another change to the title was in enemy identification during gameplay. Mikami explains how one type of enemy you'll see the most are robots called Gorgie. The first iteration of Gorgie was mostly white in color, however they were difficult to identify against a primarily gray environment. Mikami received the feedback from gameplay tests and decided that red was the way to go.

"I felt like I was being pin-pricked by the staff talking about how hard it was to see the enemies. Moreover, the enemy character that you see most often, a robot we call a Gorgie, was predominantly white. We had primarily gray backgrounds with white enemies. When you think about it from a realism standpoint, camouflage exists to make things difficult to see, so in that way things make sense, but from a game standpoint, it was not the best idea. I really liked the white enemies, so it took me a long time to come around to the idea of making them red."

I've been looking forward to Vanquish, and these development adjustments are positive in my opinion. Focusing on creating a visually pleasing game and avoiding any unnecessary frustrations are parts of the formula to develop a great title. Although an open-world futuristic space/sci-fi game (done with a hat tip to Red Dead Redemption) could be amazing, I'm on board with the direction Vanquish is going in.

Vanquish is set to hit shelves this winter for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Source: Platinum Games blog