Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Rising’s development had been as tumultuous as Raiden himself. Initially presented and perceived as something completely different - through bumpy fail-starts and awkward beginnings, the final product managed to ascertain itself in the Metal Gear fiction and come into it’s own. Yet Revengeance continues to straddle two worlds that are quite at odds with one another.

There are no Snakes in this story

The story loosely follows Metal Gear Solid 4, although you needn’t have played any of the previous games to understand what’s going on in Revengeance - or rather, it won’t help you in understanding what is happening in Revengeance. There are typical MGS call-backs like hiding in boxes, codec conversations, Metal Gears and so forth, but largely this game stands on it’s own two feet in defining a unique story, very loosely borrowing names and characters from the famed series. The world has grown to heavily depend on PMC’s, private armies, their services for sale to the highest bidder and Raiden happens to work for one such corporate entity called the Mavericks. During routine escort duty for a high ranking official in a nondescript third world country, you came face to face with a rival PMC outfit called the Desperados where your client falls prey to kidnapping. After this initial confrontation the action escalates, with Raiden uncovering a dastardly plot that twists and turns, finally culminating in a fever pitch action sequence that defies any boundaries of reason. Strangely enough, despite Hideo Kojima’s studio overseeing the plot development on Revengeance, there isn’t a single mention of nukes throughout the entire game - yah I know, blasphemy.

Gameplay that cuts deep

Having the gameplay aspect developed by Platinum Games, the studio that brought us Bayonetta (possibly the greatest character action title of the 360/PS3 generation) expectations were running high. While not as technically nuanced or polished as the gun toting, leather clad Umbra witch, Rising does offer a unique combat experience. Not surprisingly, a large portion of the gameplay revolves around the sword slicing mechanic teased as a concept study by Hideo Kojima many tradeshows ago. In order to get slicing though, you will first need to master the concept of parrying. Parrying is at the forefront of Rising’s entire combat philosophy. Defense through offense. All your enemy attacks are telegraphed either through a red flash in the eye of humanoids, or a glowing foot of a Gekko, intent on ending up in places Raiden rather not think about. This is your cue to flick your analog in the direction of the attacker while simultaneously executing your own light attack, which if done correctly will result in a parry and your adversary getting knocked back. Once you get confident with the idea of leaping into an attack rather than away from it, you can attempt to parry at the very last second for a counter-blow that activates the wonderful Zandatsu mechanic. In this mode the world enters slow-mo and gives you direct control of Raidens sword through the right analog stick, slicing whoever is unlucky enough to be in front of you to tiny pieces until either your meter runs out or your computer begins to drop into dangerously solitary framerate numbers because of the hundreds of gibblets you’ve just created (it happened around 400 pieces for me, and yes the game keeps count). The way this works is you hold down the left trigger, keeping you stationary in one spot, and using the right stick define cutting planes. It’s a lot of fun but aiming this way in more heated moments when Raiden is flipping over someone, or they’re flailing overhead can get a bit wonky. Of course being able to slice everything to pieces at any given time would make the game trivial so this mechanics is governed by a meter which is fueled by combat. You can enable Zandatsu at any given time, except unless enemies are weakened which is indicated by a faint blue glue, you won’t be able to cut clean through and your sword strikes will simply count as attacks that pummel the unlucky recipient like a punching bag. Aside from being just plain fun, this mechanic is contextualized in a variety of different ways throughout the game. When executing an enemy, a special hitbox will appear which if cut through will produce a nano-spine that Raiden will violently rip out and squish, absorbing delicious nano-healing-juices. The most fun and challenging are robot hands that you need to collect, which happen to be attached to certain higher ranking soldiers on the field and need to be sliced off. It becomes a small minigame of it’s own to weaken such an enemy enough for the zandatsu to take full effect and then surgically remove the desired limb. There are some chests whose locks need to be sliced open and a few doors, but the best implementation comes from the boss fights, which are by far the highlight of the game and are very cinematic.

High highs and low lows

It’s a real shame that these fairly innovative gaming mechanics are locked away in a framework of minor annoyances. The level design in Rising is dull and indistinct. Warehouses, sewers, office buildings - fairly open spaces with little decor and even less character. Thankfully there is no actual platforming, but moving around using Raidens “ninja run” which functions sort of like Assassins Creed right trigger parkouring on steroids is awkward when not running in a straight line, which gladly doesn’t happen very often. The combat while interesting feels lacking in variety. Raiden has a lot of moves at his disposal but there's little reason in using anything but the quickest and most powerful combo. The secondary weapons you receive for defeating bosses are all but useless apart from the L’etranger polearm (which ironically feel a little overpowered at times) and appear to be little more than an afterthought. The idea of offensive-defense is a neat concept. Instead of rolling around like a monkey, you’re facing enemies head on, using your sword to deflect incoming attacks a lot like what we see in samurai movies - two adversaries stylishly clashing swords. Unfortunately this system relies on directional input and the camera in Rising is quite intent on making sure you never see where such attacks are actually coming from as it sways drunkenly about the place. This wasn’t an issue in Bayonetta as that game had a simple dodge button and the view was a lot more pulled out. Similarly a loose camera is not an issue in a game like Assassins Creed where your counterattack is relegated to a single button press, making any situation manageable. In Rising the combination of enemies all attacking you at the once, the camera not keeping pace even when you lock onto someone, and the necessity to not only time your parry correctly but correlate it to the direction from where the attack is incoming makes certain situations a mess. Not helping is the fact that the tutorial in this game is all but non-existent, leaving many people scratching their heads during the first boss fight as to what is even going on.

Graphics

Graphically Rising looks average. There are some nice effects here and there, but for the most part levels are drab, boring tones of grey and brown that persevere throughout your stay. The PC version runs at 60 FPS but at the moment there are a slew of minor issues that are apparently being worked on which can sour your experience. Several people are reporting an issue with the final boss fight that quite literally requires you to drop the game into 800x600 resolution in order for a QTE to work correctly. Character design is the one saving grace in what is otherwise a quite boring looking game. Everyone has a very distinct look to them and even the faceless goons that are destined to end up as mince meat at your feet look pretty cool. Boss design is great apart from the ridiculous final encounter which doesn’t seem to mesh with the overall aesthetic of the game.

Verdict?

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is interesting to say the least. The voice acting and specific Japanese humor make it lot goofier than it should be. Specifically Raidens voice actor does his best David Hayter impression which turns all of his dialog to something that comes across as comedic - his gruff, yet not quite past puberty, voice stands out in a ridiculous way when compared to the remaining cast. The story goes completely off the rails by the end, but that is to be expected. Combat can either be pretty fun or really frustrating depending on who and where you’re fighting. The entire production seems to be a parody of action games, with crazy guitar riffs kicking in at various encounters and moments that anywhere else would seem embarrassingly cheesy, but in Rising somehow elicit a silly grin that keeps you wanting to see more. There is a really solid game here that given one more year of development would have been a real treat. It won’t completely satiate character action aficionados, and honestly fans of Metal Gear that might get this because they love the series and want more might come away confused and disappointed. As it is, the short campaign and rough gameplay make this entry worth trying if you’re a fan of the genre, but should be approached with caution and preferably at a discount.

Score PS: I'd give this game a 3.5 as I think it's pretty fun but just doesn't feel like the quality of the overall product is up to a 4.