Metal Gear Rising Revengeance / Version Played: PS3
Konami / Platinum Games / Playstation 3 – Xbox 360 / February 26th / $89RRP
The game takes place in 2018, four years after the events of Guns of the Patriots. The protagonist is Raiden, a cyborg working for the PMC Maverick Enterprises in order to raise money for his family. He is assisted by members from Maverick Security including a Russian pointman named Boris who communicates with him through Codec. He is accompanied by Kevin Washington, a military advisor, Courtney Collin, a data analyst, and Doktor, a maintenance expert responsible for Raiden’s new body. Things quickly go wrong when Raiden’s protectee is abducted by a group of Cyborgs. Metal Gear Rising’s story starts off completely as you’d expect however by the end it is completely ridiculous. It is so over the top crazy that you’re bound to love it. Don’t expect it to be tugging at your heart strings though.
The graphics in Metal Gear Rising are simply stunning. The whole game runs in at 60fps and only stutters marginally when loading or going through a checkpoint. The framerate makes all the difference with a game that is this quick and it becomes extremely impressive in the later stages of the game. There are little graphical touches like particles floating around the screen that are subtle but make all the difference from setting this game apart. The graphics really work well together to set the scene of a futuristic, war torn battlefield.
The cutscenes are also extremely impressive – There is about 3-4 hours worth of them and they all look amazing. The transition from gameplay to cutscene is also very impressive considering how often it happens. Platinum have also included a skip button for those who are just playing for action.
Platinum games have really outdone themselves with the combat in Metal Gear Rising. The combat is heavily based around defense which is what you should get down first. Once you’re able to successful parry or counter attack your opponent then you can make mince of them easily.
The boss battles in Metal Gear Rising are some of the best that i’ve played in a long time. Every single boss in the game felt completely different than anything else you’d gone against before it. They’re really refreshing and stop the game from feeling repetitive.
I did have a few gripes with the game though. Firstly, the set pieces on the game just don’t feel natural. There are times when you’re in certain battles and a random quick time event will pop up and it just breaks the smoothness of the gameplay. The camera also can feel broken in tense moments. I found the camera facing into the sky mid battle for absolutely no reason on certain occasions. The lock-on button makes this a bit easier to swallow but for such a fast game I thought the camera could be a hindrance at times when going for that long combo.
The game ranks you in every area of battles in 5 different areas. They are longest combo, damage taken, time spent in battle, zandatsus (spine rips) performed and BP accrued by the amount of limbs you sliced off. The points that you earn from these categories are then spent on upgrading weapons and purchasing different abilities. This provides great depth to the game however It felt restricting that you could only upgrade at the end of each chapter (or choose to go to the start of the chapter). Considering how many chapters are in this game I thought it was an odd decision.
Blade mode is one of the defining features of this game. Being able to slice your opponent in any direction is extremely cool when it works. I found it a bit cumbersome when in a battle with several people but it was extremely satisfying to constantly deliver that finishing blow in slow motion over and over again.
Metal Gear Rising feels like a polished experience from start to finish. The framerate being 60fps for the entire game is a feat that the developers should be proud of. There are a few hiccups but this doesn’t take away from the satisfaction that you will get from the combat and that most will get from the story. I would recommend that even gamers who aren’t fans of the series, still pick it up as this is something that has never been done in a Metal Gear game before. You will get a lot of replay value out of this in the form of MUCH harder difficulties and VR missions.