Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Zach Goodier

Raiden, AKA "Jack the Ripper," is working as a cyborg contractor for a 3^rd world government in Africa.  His role is to train the new national army and protect key personnel in order to bring stability to a region ravaged by turmoil.  However, there are people out there that don’t share the same views of peace, for in an era of peace, what use are the soldiers for hire?  They ambush Raiden and his convoy in order to assassinate the Prime Minister, and undo all the efforts toward peace.  Despite Raiden’s best efforts, as well as some explosive action sequences, he fails, and finds out that not only is he going to have his work cut out for him to bring justice to the killers, but that his body needs a serious upgrade in order to compete with this new generation of killing machines.

Raiden has a new body this time around, and it comes with a list of upgrades.

Story:

This is in-game, and it's the first boss fight.  Not all bosses are giants,
but like Devil May Cry, it's usually the humanoid bosses
that prove the most difficult.

There isn’t a whole lot of depth to the story beyond what I’ve already shared, but it does involve more of Raiden’s history as “Jack the Ripper,” a savage child-soldier who embodied all the evil he currently faces, and then some.  While it doesn’t continually come up in the story, it does serve as a struggle that Raiden must face, as he tries to come to terms with what side he truly sits on, and whether the killing he’s doing is truly justice, of it he’s simply falling back into old habits.

In terms of the main story, it’s pretty straightforward.  Following the prologue mission, Raiden embarks on a mission to bring down the rogue mercenary group: Desperado.  Along the way, he must fight several of their cyborg captains in epic boss battles.  Along the way, you start to unravel the full extent of Desperado’s activities, and the deeper conspiracy behind it all.  It all comes together well, but doesn’t really give you a wild ride.  It gives you just enough story to know what your goal is, then sets you on your way to cut through or evade your enemies to get through the missions, which is all you really need, anyways.  However, the story is fairly short, only needing a few hours to beat it on easier difficulty modes.

The "Winds of Destruction:" Sundowner, Typhoon, Mistral, and Jetstream Sam. Sam technically isn't a member, but is still highly active as a mercenary within Desperado

Characters:

Raiden himself is a fairly interesting character, although there really isn’t an extensive amount of depth to him.  I already mentioned his internal struggle of identity, which really plays well into the story, on a more personal level.  Aside from Raiden, there are an assortment of other characters that support him, and they can chat through the menus for tips on how to beat enemies/bosses, or just discussing the mission itself.  This is all optional, and you are left to explore this regularly on your own, but it can add to the characters, and make the game feel more interesting.

Raiden can only recharge his health by using nano-repair units,
 which can be acquired in the field, but are most easily taken from enemies
 by cutting them open and taking them.
This game is definitely not for young audiences.

On the other side, Desperado offers mostly cliché Japanese anime stereotypes.  A femme fatale, a vicious and disturbed psychopath, an oversized strongman, and the hero’s counterpart are all on call here, but the execution for all these characters feels solid and believable.  Jetstream Sam, Raiden’s “counterpart” in Desperado, sets up for a strong rivalry, and helps drive the player along in their quest for vengeance, setting up for an epic, yet straightforward duel that not only challenges the player’s skill in gameplay, but your previous conceptions about Sam.

Gameplay:

Sam takes badass to a whole new level.

This is where this game really starts to shine.  While it doesn’t have the same feeling of depth as other games of its’ type, like Devil May Cry, it does have its’ own charm.  The big addition is Blade Mode, which allows Raiden to seemingly slow time, as he moves at impossibly high speeds to freely slice and dice his enemies into pieces.  Now, this sounds like a horror game where you’re the psycho killer, and that’s not entirely a wrong description sometimes, but it can be especially satisfying when you’re ending a boss battle and you get to vent a lot of frustration on the boss that gave you a hard time.  Level design is varied, and the enemies are just varied enough to avoid feeling bland and boring.  Graphics are also fairly good, although some textures seem a little obsolete at times. 

Blade Wolf serves as a useful scout and sidekick to Raiden later on
in the story, but he doesn't help in combat, which is a shame.

Unlockables and collectables make this game worthy of a replay, especially since it doesn’t take too long to beat, making the whole game feel surprisingly digestible.  You collect points via combat scoring and mission rankings, as well as items.  These allow you to purchase new combos, weapons, and cyborg upgrades that can alter appearance, as well as upgrade your attributes.  For easy mode, you can generally default to run and slice tactics, with the auto-parry doing just about all of the work in preventing you from taking damage.  On higher difficulties, success or failure depends much more on your timing and coordination, since evasion generally isn't a good tactic in this game.  That can really hurt players like me, who have been conditioned by games like Devil May Cry to always evade before even thinking of blocking or launching attacks.  This is still a habit I have yet to entirely break away from, and it has resulted in some frustrating moments for me; but to be honest, it does feel more appropriate to be able to deflect attacks in order to land counters.

Conclusions:

The ability to literally hack your enemies into tiny pieces
can bring a mix of satisfaction and a sudden urge to consult a psychologist.

MGR  is a very exciting game that endeavors to allow players to be the badass action hero you always wished you were.  The story has some interesting and deep concepts, but doesn’t really get as much traction in the midst of bloody, brutal action.  So don’t come here exclusively for the thought-provoking moments, because they take a firm back seat to the explosive and brutal action.  There is a lot to enjoy for such a relatively short game, and the challenge really kept things interesting.  However, there isn’t a great deal of depth in terms of gameplay or story, at least when compared to some of the other RPG games out there.  For that reason, this game sits as a solid B-lister, with a lot of fun to be had, but once you get through it, a few unlockables are all that really entice you to return.  It does in many ways break away from defining game of the genre, like Devil May Cry, and bring it's own flavor that does make the gameplay very enjoyable.

Good:

-Awesome action and swordplay.

-Ability to slice and dice enemies in Blade mode adds a new gameplay element that actually challenges you to collect certain items and allows you to heal yourself.

-A few interesting story elements and thought-provoking moments.

-Interesting villains, even if they fall into cliche anime patterns.

Bad:

-Short, especially for a major title.... I really mean it's short, too.  You can probably knock it out in an afternoon and evening if you wanted to.

-Some textures feel outdated at times.

Scully Rating: 8.9 out of 10