Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Metal Gear Solid’s has won gamers over since the first Playstation, defining the very essence of stealth action. How does this iteration of Metal Gear hold up to its predecessors?
Taken place 4 years after Metal Gear Solid 4, Revengeance’s world is now dominated by Para-military companies also known as PMCs after a global system AI managing soldiers’ nanomachines all over the world was shut down. While nanomachines is still being used, the development and usage of cyborgs on the battlefield has become more prominent despite its costs.
You play as Raiden, who now is a mercenary for hire managed by private military company (PMC) Maverick Security Consulting. Tasked out to protect the president of an African country, Raiden soon encounters a rival PMC known as Desperado Enforcement LLC. Unfortunately for Raiden, despite his best efforts (or yours), the president was killed, and Raiden himself gravely injured.
It may start out as a Ninja Gaiden rip-off to a few, but as you proceed the game feels more and more like a Metal Gear game, filled with with loads of war trivia. While this may be a Platinum Games production, the story still feels undoubtedly Konami; or at least, Kojima. The cinematic cut scenes are not filled with flamboyant camera angles and direction that Platinum Games is known for, but also the typical Metal Gear cinematic experience of the previous Metal Gear games. Metal Gear fans will feel right at home, from cheesy lines and trivia between the characters available for chat via Codec (which, by the way, feels better than Metal Gear Solid 4s’) to paying homage to all past action and stealth games.
The plot doesn’t alienate those who are not familiar with the Metal Gear franchise, and you can find out more through the conversations in Codec. Raiden is a protagonist that everyone loves to hate back in the days of Metal Gear Solid 2, but gained a decent fanbase when Metal Gear Solid 4 released, showing off flashy ninja moves. One gripe about Raiden this time however, is his inconsistencies in character. Sure, he’s a Liberian child soldier made to undergo nasty experiments, but switching between a nice guy and an angry and violent adolescent makes it overly cheesy and clichรฉ. Stop trying to emulate The Dark Knight, Raiden!
Violence is something the game prides itself of, just like God of War. The concept of slicing your enemy’s arms and legs at any angle possible is refreshing and very addictive. Most of the environments suit the whole Metal Gear theme, but Platinum Games tried to put in several variations such as cities and towns, as well as underground bases and airfields.
That aside, the visuals are silky smooth for most parts, until you start going crazy with the Blade mode. Frame rates have the habit of dropping drastically for a couple of seconds right after you make mince metal out of your enemies, especially when you use the light and heavy attack buttons to do horizontal and vertical slices. It doesn’t happen often enough to make you want to put down your controller, though.
The rock soundtrack provides a different yet refreshing feel to all of the battles, especially the boss fights. It is a welcoming move, given that their tag line is “high speed cutting action”.
Camera angles, on the other hand, are more frequent and irritating. It is especially frustrating when the camera angle changes itself to another side during boss fights. It happens often when Raiden and the enemy is near walls and the camera is located behind those walls. Trying to parry or even block can be challenging, especially at higher difficulties.
Upgrade options are plentiful. From health to your Blade mode gauge, and even additional moves for your respective weapons. Purchasing moves as early as possible is encouraged, as opponents get tougher and require all the moves you have at your disposal for different situations. The weapons you pick up after each major boss fight adds variety Raiden’s arsenal, but leaves little to be desired. Combo creation come to a screeching halt as the blade Raiden wields doesn’t compliment each other’s move lists. In short, I recommend you stick to the original High Frequency Blade as much as possible.
One can see that Konami tries to add as much elements of the Metal Gear Solid series as possible into Rising, especially when they added ranged weapons such as grenades and rocket launchers. The unfortunate sad truth is that these weapons are slow to equip and use, giving time for enemies to sink their blades into Raiden’s cybernetic body, or soldiers equipped with machine guns and rockets firing at you.
Despite the short game play of about 6-7 hours on your first playthrough (eight if you try to watch everything and listen to every possible Codec conversation), the gameplay mechanics feel very satisfying and engaging, constantly enticing you to pick up the controller and slices more foes at a tougher difficulty.
It took me a couple of tries to understand how to parry properly during our Tokyo Game Show test demo, and had to do a bit of a refresher when the official demo is out on US Playstation Network. The learning curve is relatively high, as it took me about one hour into the game to get accustomed to the mechanics of Blade mode, parrying, Zandatsu and so on. I reckon that casual players might take up to three hours to be able to block decently.
Frequent automatic save points are abundant, usually within 2-3 minutes apart from each area. Stealth is still a major element within the game, as one can easily get swamped with dozens of enemies, making blocking neigh impossible as they surround you and attack you at the same time. Guards can spot you only if you are relatively close to them, even if you are within their field of vision. As long as Raiden is within a good 15-20 metres away from any enemy, they won’t spot him. The distance can be closer if he is hidden in a box or barrel. Guards will have heightened awareness apart from having stronger attacks and faster reaction timings as you progress further.
Button mashers are forced to learn the mechanics of the game. While the tutorial provides the basics, I feel that the inclusion of a combo tutorial could prove helpful for gamers who are used to the action genre. The tutorial also fails to tell you what attacks can be blocked and what can’t be blocked. Large missiles cannot be blocked or parried, as with melee attacks that glow bright orange as just before your opponents attack you.
Cut what you will
Metal Gear Rising is a very engaging game that all action gamers would appreciate, from button mashers to highly technical players who spent practically their whole lives grinding Devil May Cry’s Bloody Palaces. The concepts of Blade Mode, Zandatsu as well as the tight combos and move mechanics blend very well together in general. Despite all the kinks of gaudy plot lines from Raiden, bad camera angles and relatively steep learning curve, this Metal Gear game will continue Rising for years to come.
