Review Sita!

Sita: Six in Kiswahili! Thank you Swahili peoples.

Anywhos, it is indeed time for another review!

And the subject of today's review iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis:

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance!

A multiplatform game developed by Platinum Games, produced by Kojima Productions and published by Konami, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (also referred to in this review as MGR, or just Revengeance) is the most recent outing in the Metal Gear franchise, and an attempt at an extreme departure from the normal stealth game formula, chronicling the adventures of Raiden in a flashy cyborg hack and slash frenzy.

Was the transition worth it?

Spoilers: the answer's in the review!

And away we go!

First Impressions

Raiden. Looking cool. Something he spends pretty much the whole game doing.

MGR's opening screen is a lightning filled, occasional camera-angle-switching view of Raiden first opening his eye, then standing all prepared for battle and and looking cool. A fun tidbit is that the Konami Code does in fact work at the start screen, unlocking all of the difficulties from the beginning of the game. You'll know you did it right if you hear Raiden say the title of the game.

Anyway, the game does not spend too long keeping you from the action: There's a solidly comprehensive tutorial right in the beginning of the game, one I personally chose to skip as I do enjoy learning as I play a game for the most part. 

There's a cutscene that gives you an idea of Raiden's situation since the events of the previous Metal Gear game, now acting as a security detail of sorts for the Prime Minister of an un-named African country as a part of Maverick, a private military company.

Missile. Hopping.

It takes no time for things to get pretty hairy, with an opposing force quickly putting the beats on the Maverick grunts, and kidnapping the prime minister, which of course, means it's Raiden's job to get him back, control now being put in the player's hands. Once the action starts, it flatly refuses to stop, with Raiden facing off against other cyborgs, ramping up to helicopters, then giant Metal Gears, all of whom he faces with no problem and a rather ridiculous amount of flash and flare (I mean, when fighting Metal Gears and helicopters, to close the gap, Raiden goes missile hopping, jumping from missile to missile to get close enough to bisect whatever he's dealing with... And this is to say nothing of when the giant Metal Gears try chopping you and get thrown over buildings, chased, and chopped to ribbons in midair for their troubles), and culminating in a fight on a train against your stupendously cool in game rival, "Jetstream" Sam Rodriguez.

One that Raiden rather handily loses.

Raiden's failure to save the prime minister marks the end of the introduction, and the beginning of the game proper.

By the time I was finished running around this intro, chopping things to bits, and defying physics on a regular basis to a tense, action movie styled soundtrack, I was quite hooked.

9.0/10: Cool is the name of the game, and the beginning of Revengeance exudes cool all day, err day, giving you an idea of what's to come.

Overall Presentation

One! One spine. Ah Ah Ah.

Streamlined, futuristic and action packed are the main vibes MGR embodies, with a sleek digital styled HUD, slick visuals, liberal use of neon and blur effects, and a constant and enjoyable pacing that for the most part carries through from beginning to end.

The game, for the most part, keeps it's cutscenes as sort of setpieces and bookends, usually situated in the beginning, middle, and end of the chapters which in some cases, work as excellent breather moments from the constant action, but sometimes are sudden stops that aren't entirely welcome when enjoying a particularly well paced combat section.

'Copter kick!

Moving back to the slick visuals, Raiden and his foes are a treat to watch, with everyone moving in such flashy and vibrant ways, making it so combat is never boring.

Of particular note is, of course, the game's free slicing, cut anywhere ability, the Blade Mode. The slow motion view of things simply separating into confetti as you control Raiden slicing them to bits is simply satisfying as hell, and a well timed or placed chop will usually net you a sweet reward of some sort, accompanied by a stylized Japanese character (and as we all know, stylized Japanese letters and characters are always cool, no matter what.)

The graphics are excellent and consistent throughout, and the soundtrack is mind-blowingly awesome, always capable of hyping a fight up to levels even further beyond, creating a well maintained atmosphere throughout the game.

Voice acting is of high quality, which is not surprising, considering it's an entry in the Metal Gear franchise, and the cutscenes, while sometimes timed awkwardly, provide a good amount of information without being overbearing, leaving extraneous details for classic style codec conversations, which are quite enjoyable, and do well to flesh out this particular entry's world.

The most unfortunate note is probably the game's length. It is only about 7 hours on a regular playthrough, even without skipping the cutscenes. The game could do with being a bit longer, but that's a nitpick at best, as the game doesn't particularly suffer for it's length, I would just personally like more.

9.5/10: Cutscene timing is sometimes a little iffy, and I really wish the game was longer, but the overall presentation for the game is top notch, slick, and cool as hell.

Accessibility

Revengeance, for the most part, starts off fairly forgiving, with most enemies defeat-able using a variety of comfy mashing techniques. But soon enough, it becomes apparent that to progress with any ease in the game, technique is your friend. Fortunately, MGR offers a fairly comprehensive tutorial that's easy to follow from the very start of the game, so it's fairly easy to get used to the basic techniques of the game.

Stifling points more often than not will be getting used to being accurate with Blade Mode, and learning to block and parry correctly, things that will come with practice as opposed to being taught, but they are techniques one will need in order to complete the game without frustration and constant re-attempts.

The action does get a little intense at points however, so if action games in general aren't your thing, it isn't likely that this is going to convert you if you aren't ready to get used to high intensity gameplay of the hack and slash variety.

The story of the game is fortunately a separate story arc from the main Metal Gear series, so as such, the game's story doesn't require that you play the older games to follow it, so jumping right in here is totally fine. Even references made to older games can usually be expanded on via codec conversations, so following the story is a smooth experience.

8.0/10: There are a few techniques that are necessary to beat the game without rage-quitting that may be kind of hard to learn for some to learn, but as a whole, the game is playable by pretty much all comers.

Graphics

Cyborg kick!

MGR's look is heavily stylized realism, often done beautifully under the now common blue and orange screen tones. The character models all move with a sense of action very welcome in a game of this style, and the various lights, blurs and colors that accompany almost every action and menu do a great job of emphasizing the sleek, futuristic action atmosphere that the game puts forth.

The game is practically a 7 hour eye candy trip, with sword swings and explosions accompanied by beautiful effects, and the backgrounds and game world itself are wonderfully detailed, particularly in how nearly everything can be destroyed, more often than not in totally dynamic and not pre-programmed ways.

Fight scenes and the like are handled wonderfully, with excellent choreography (for lack of a better word), and camera angles putting you at all the best points to see the action all up in your face.

One of my favorite parts of the game are the things happening in the background of boss fights that add to the atmosphere of each one, be it exploding gas tanks during the battle with Mistral, the mysterious fog that makes the psychological fight against Monsoon, or the excellent wild west showdown feeling, tumbleweed, swirling sands and all when finally facing down Jetstream Sam.

I do feel the need to tough back on just how much the effects that happen during actions effect the feel of the game. Nearly every swing Raiden makes is accompanied by a blur or an electric blue burst of color that truly adds to the force of the swing, making one really enjoy the feel of throwing down in a superhuman frame. This also extends to the bright orange glow made when slicing through things, as if cutting through like a hot knife through butter, the explosions of sparks when clashes of metal are made, the impact waves when particularly hard hits are landed, and the interspersing touches of lightning that appear during the game, as if to subconsciously drill home that Raiden is associated with lightning. Something that, for me, the game succeeded with.

The biggest downside I can think of is that fairly rarely, the textures on the cyborgs come off as slightly unrealistic, and backgrounds in the distance are occasionally bland and uninspired, particularly when outside. It becomes easy every once in a while to feel like you may have seen a section once before, and not because you're backtracking.

Two! Two spines. Ah Ah Ah.

There are also occasionally camera problems, when things get hectic, it is sometimes easy to lose Raiden amongst similarly colored objects, especially with the perpetual use of blur and the sometimes constant explosions.

Despite this, it just all comes together to make a vibrant and beautiful package.

9.5/10: There's an occasional bland background moment and some camera issues, but more often than not, Revengeance is simply beautiful, rife with vibrant effects and lively characters in excellently rendered locations that can all be chopped to itty bitty pieces.

Sound

Without a doubt, the sound is my favorite part of the Revengeance experience. From the manic, high octane, pulse pumping soundtrack, to the various well selected sound effects, the obviously cheesy one liners seemingly tailor made for the action genre ("Time for Jack to let it Rip!" - heh, Raiden's real name is Jack, he rips stuff apart, he has a crazy murderous side, Jack the Ripper was a crazy murderer. I was amused.), the sound quality for the game is stellar.

Three! Three spines. Ah Ah Ah.

Levels and combat are filled to the brim with the sounds of explosions, loud thudding impacts, ringing clashes of metal, the shrill shrieking of concrete and steel being torn apart by sword, bullets whizzing by, enjoyable repartee from Raiden to his opponents and back, the satisfying crunch and sizzle of crushing an enemy's spine and absorbing the life energy from it, and even the classic Metal Gear sound effect of being caught while sneaking. All of these touches really ramp up the atmosphere of the game, making you always feel like you're either deep in some kind of action, or always just on the cusp of it.

Most notable, however, is the flat out outstanding soundtrack directed by Platinum Games' Naoto Tanaka, best known for his works on the Megaman X and Phoenix Wright series, and composed by Jamie Christopherson, who has done work for a smattering of games and movies, but no work as far as I'm aware so memorable as this.

Literally almost every track skyrocketed my hype level for whatever fight I was about to be a part of, especially during boss fights. The songs just continually escalate in scale and awesomeness, usually playing an instrumental portion during the first half of the fight, then switching to a vocal version when things get intense.

Each track usually contains lyrics inspired by the characters you're facing and their ideals, from "I'm My Own Master Now" when facing off against LQ-84i Bladewolf and "Stranger I Remain" when facing off against Mistral, to the undoubted standout track, and the one that plays in my head whenever I think of epic final battles these days, "It Has to Be This Way" from the final boss fight.

There are only one or two tracks on the whole thing that I didn't outright love and listen to repeatedly, and as far as I'm concerned, the game is worth playing for the soundtrack alone.

10/10: Hands down my favorite part of the game, I can, and often will rant about how much I loved this game's soundtrack.

Gameplay/Controls

Bisection!

MGR is primarily an action game, and the controls are very suitable to that gameplay style, if sometimes a little over complicated. Movement is handled with the left analog stick and the camera with the right, Raiden's movement options allow him to traverse the battlefield very easily, holding R1/RT will allow Raiden to go into a "Ninja Run", which will automatically vault over small obstacles, up small ledges, deflect small projectiles, and create dash attack opportunities. 

As far as offense goes, Raiden's primary attacks are used with Square/X and Triangle/A, the first handling light attacks and controlling Raiden's katana (the High Frequency Blade), the second controlling Raiden's secondary attacks, which by default are kicks where Raiden has the sword attached to a foot using cybernetic foolishness. When equipping a secondary weapon, it will take the place of the default kicks, making your combos a mix between the HF Blade and whatever secondary weapon you have selected.

Sub-Weapons, usually ranged, are also useable by holding R1/RT while stationary, and aiming using L2/LB and the right analog stick.

The D Pad is used to control support options, like using healing items, accessing inventory, and Augment mode, which is a sort of display to help Raiden survey the area.

Four! Four spines. Ah Ah Ah.

Raiden's most interesting form of offense is, of course, the oft mentioned Blade Mode. By holding L1/LT, Raiden will enter an over the shoulder view, taking a classical kendo stance of sorts. While in this stance, things will go into slow motion, an Raiden can begin chopping things into ribbons at your discretion. While in Blade Mode, the left stick controls the camera, and the right stick controls the aim of Raiden's blade, represented by a line appearing over whatever you are aimed at. By altering the direction, then quickly pushing the right thumbstick in that direction, Raiden will quickly slash at whatever you have aimed at, often cutting it in half. Repeated re-aiming and slashing will often lead to your foe in pieces.

If you're having trouble managing the right analog stick, you can aim the camera with the left stick and use Square/X to chop horizontally, and Triangle/A to chop vertically.

Five! Five spines. Ah Ah Ah.

During Blade Mode, if you chop at the right point on a cybernetic foe's body, you will expose their electronic spine, which you can then take when prompted by pressing Circle/B to perform the Zandatsu technique (Zandatsu, meaning "Cut and Take"). Successful Zandatsu attempts will see Raiden taking the foe's cybernetic spine, and crushing it to absorb the energy within, regenerating your health and enregy available to use Blade Mode.

Defense is handled either via Ninja Running, dodging (when acquired) by pressing Square and X/Y and A and a direction, or, more often than not, parrying by pressing Square/X + the left analog stick in the direction of the opponent/the attack on larger enemies.

This being a Metal Gear game, stealth play is also an option, by moving slowly, using cardboard boxes, and stealth killing foes by sneaking up behind them and using the Circle/B button when prompted to perform a "Ninja Kill".

Gameplay is usually handled in chunks, with Raiden exploring an area, then entering combat. At the end of each fight, your performance will be scored, and at the end of the level, your total score will be added together for an end of level grade.

When mastered, the game comes together as a ridiculously cool and fluid experience,and it's very easy to feel like you came straight out of an anime, thrashing things as an unstoppable one man cyborg ninja wrecking crew. But it does take some time to really master some of the intricacies of the gameplay, and admittedly, some features end up falling by the wayside, like the ranged sub weapons.

In addition, while the secondary melee weapons do have their uses, only on or two of them actually feel fluid and satisfying enough to be worth replacing the default secondary attacks with, even for a short amount of time.

8.0/10: Basic controls feel fluid and comfortable, but certain advanced features can feel more complicated than necessary at first, and some features eventually fall by the wayside in the face of far cooler options.

Difficulty

...*gulp!*

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance comes in 5 different flavors of difficulty, all offering a decent level of challenge. For those looking to just enjoy cyber ninja awesomeness, there's Easy, and for the gamer who wants to earn a bit of his awesome, there's Normal. Hard provides a decent bump in challenge level by making AI a bit more aggressive and more powerful, and things ramp up even more impressively on Very Hard.

And for those who believe themselves to be true cyber ninja badasses who want to take on the best MGR can through, there's the Revengeance difficulty, which is at times absolutely cruel, with enemy AI at it's most ruthless, and damage going through the roof. It is a truly unforgiving difficulty, and you had best bring your defensive A game, or die trying to make it past the first segments of the game. Often.

Cause shit like this is annoying on normal. On Revengeance, this shit is flat out unfair.
Why can you break yourself apart, Monsoon? The fuck?

Granted, as far as difficulties go, it takes until Very Hard to get challenging for more experienced gamers, and people who have conquered the likes of Ninja Gaiden on Master Ninja mode and the original American release of Devil May Cry 3 on Dante Must Die mode may not even blink twice at Revengeance mode, but note the calibur of player necessary to feel that way. For anyone else, this shit is still pretty hard at later difficulties.

7.5/10: There are a solid variety of difficulties for all types of gamer, though gamers experienced with high difficulty action games shouldn't really find much trouble until the last two difficulties, if at all.

Replayability

There are plenty of costumes and various extra VR missions to unlock, in addition to the unlockable difficulties. There also DLC campaigns that also come with 5 extra VR missions each, so those who enjoy the game will have a solid amount of reason to keep playing until things are over and done with.

8.0/10: There's a pretty solid amount of extra content to unlock, and a good chunk of it is playable, or affects gameplay, so there's reason to tackle this more than once.

Story

Dog. Man's best friend.

The story for MGR is kind of convoluted, like most Metal Gear stories, but is primarily a message about morals, beliefs, and the things you're willing to do to enforce and protect them.

Or at least that's what I took from it.

Four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden has found himself contracted by the "Maverick Security Consulting" private military corporation (referred to as a PMC in game), a job he took on to be able to provide for his family without having to return to the darkness of direct combat and battlefield situations.

During one of the jobs he was contracted for, a prime minister from an african country was kidnapped and killed on his watch by a rival PMC, Desperado Enforcement LLC, a PMC composed majorly of cyborg soldiers, and intent on using it's resources to violently change the world in a very dark manner, primarily by killing world leaders and supplying terrorists with arms.

Raiden himself was completely defeated, requiring a nearly complete reconstruction to return to service. 

Raiden has no intention of simply letting Desperado do as they please however, and so has his cyborg body upgraded to top of the line, cutting edge technology.

Now physically up to the task, Raiden throws himself into battle, attempting to nearly single-handedly take on Desperado and their own top of the line cyborgs in pursuit of both justice, and Revengeance (which, believe it or not, is a real word. An old one, but a real one.)

The game, when not cutting things to all kinds of pieces, is spent following Raiden's quest for revenge, a quest that often leads him to question himself as his trail of blood and destruction grows, and he finds himself often apathetic, or sometimes enjoying the carnage, and even further questioning himself when not every enemy he faces has the most black and white cut and dry reasons for performing the dark deeds that they do.

Along the way, Raiden's various behind the scenes allies provide interesting different personas to entertain from Raiden's solemn and grim personality, and his interactions with them make some of my favorite moments of the game, particularly with an ally who defects to his side, the Bladewolf.

Backstory is also further explored in the DLC, eplaining the origins of Desperado members such as Bladewolf, and the ever awesome Jetstream Sam.

In the end, it seemed to me like a character study of the human mind on all sides of the coin when pushed to the limit, and it was one I enjoyed.

7.5/10: The story occasionally comes across as heavy handed, but Raiden's sometimes questionable pursuit of revenge, and the motives of his villains were very entertaining as a whole, and, despite some awkward cutscene placement, is in the end told well.

Fun Factor

Motherfucking. Missile. Hoppin.

You know it. You love it. It's time for that ultimate determining factor in a game's worthiness, the Fun Factor!

And holy shit, is Revengeance a rip roaring good time. In fact, I think I'm just gonna let a few images talk for me before I continue.

Good

Times

Were

Had

By

ALL!

This game was an exhilarating experience that I thoroughly enjoyed playing through, and would gladly pick up again. It did a wonderful job of letting my feel like the unstoppable ninja force that only exists in movies and Ninja Gaiden, and the soundtrack alone is worth giving the game an impeccable Fun Factor score.

The shift to action game was very well implemented, and makes all the sense when controlling a monster like Raiden. Platinum games again proves their Action Game know-how in making this wonderful thing.

Totally something I would recommend over and over again.

10/10: A total blast, anyone who enjoys chopping things needs to give this game a shot.

Aaaaaand on to the score! And the survey saaaaays....

THE VERDICT

METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE SCORES AN

87.0

AN EXCELLENT GAME

And the crowd goes wild!

MGR was an excellent non-stop thrill ride. And I can't rave enough about dat soundtrack. Play dat shit.

Was hoping to have this out before today, but that's what I get for procrastinating. But still, I'm already doing better than last year!

New review should be up by mid-week.

Yep.