Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

I have been playing Metal Gear, since the days of just Metal Gear on NES. I've played through all the existing games, even VR Missions and the PSP turn-based games. Over the years, I have found all of them enjoyable to some degree. I thoroughly enjoyed Raiden's character in MGS4 and when I found out that Metal Gear Rising was starring Raiden in the time after MGS4, I had to give it a look. My fear, was that the departure from MGS-style gameplay might take away from the game, I was incorrect in this assessment. The departure from MGS-Style gameplay is precisely what the franchise needs in terms of development. Raiden's character has developed past his initial appearance in MGS2 and the end result is a very fun, very playable, fast paced, and exciting adventure.My take is the gameplay is very reminiscent of another favorite Kojima project of mine, Zone of the Enders. If you enjoyed ZOE, back in the day, you'll love MGR. If you didn't, you're going to hate this game. If you're expected elements of stealth, or heck even a convoluted storyline that leaves you guessing ala MGS, wrong game, you'll hate it. But fast pace, intense focus, and perfect timing are required in this game. Patience is the real winner in MGS, aggression is the winner in MGR. Right so a bit more about gameplay, levels are exceptionally linear with minimal places to investigate and go, backtracking is virtually non-existent. The environments aren't particularly varied, nor are the levels particularly long. You do get plenty of baddies to chop up, which you're going to want to enjoy Raiden's badass ninja moves. Control is fluid, intuitive, and very well executed, which is a hallmark of the MG-Franchise.The game progresses quickly and even on Hard Difficulty, I am able to beat it in under 3 hours. Which leads me to probably my biggest complaint of the game, lack of depth. It's not difficult after just a few playthroughs to have in essence unlocked all of the weapons, skills, costumes, etc. While replay value is high, because you'll enjoy destroying things and cyborgs, the overall end result of Story Mode is disappointing. The story here is one-dimensional and the critics of Raiden's character have plenty of ammunition to use against him. In addition, components of the plot do not make any sense, until you play the two DLCs through (both of which can be completed quickly). After that things get a bit more clear, but even still, you're left underwhelmed by the character development and story-integration throughout the game. The game relies heavily on Codec-style dialog to convey the story. It gets annoying, quickly, to be consistently interrupted by the damn floating screens. This isn't solely an MGR fault, it is an over-reliance by Kojima on dialogue to convey the plot and move things along in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, at times it feels like you spend more time in endless dialogue messages, than you do enjoying that stellar gameplay. Fortunately, you can fast forward through the dialogue conveyed via Codec and skip cutscenes, but it doesn't stop the pop-ups from occurring regularly and interrupting your flow. Finally, I'll say that the mechanics and control of the game are fluid, but there is a real lack of depth in terms of combinations and weapons. The fact that you spend the entire game staring at a dagger on Raiden's back, that he never once uses, is the point that reinforces the meat that Kojima and Platinum Games left on the bone. Did they forget the stunningly beautiful cut scenes of Raiden in MGS4 that quickly? I wanted nothing more than to integrate some of the very moves Raiden uses against Vamp, but NO - they don't exist in the game. That's a real shame, a huge shame. In addition to the lack of fighting combinations and depth, Raiden's super strength and speed, are not adequately displayed or conveyed. The consistent slowdown to use blade-mode in Zandatsu kills, interrupts the flow of the game. With work you can start to use the environment in your fights, but Raiden's jumping/running/moving abilities feel so "ground" limited. It's a shame they weren't more fully developed and utilized.Final Verdict - I love this game, but I admit to being a proud Raiden fan. I would rate it about 7.5 on a standard scale of 10. Imminently playable and fun, you probably won't regret buying it, as long as you recognize that it isn't Metal Gear Solid. The gameplay is solid, with very few annoying issues, the story and characters are all pretty flat, except perhaps Raiden. The story is typical Kojima, excessively complex and convoluted, with an over-reliance on Deus Ex Machina and standard literary tropes to convey the plot. The real shame though, is not the storyline, it's the lack of depth in terms of fighting and movement in a fluid and otherwise beautifully programmed physics engine that gives you pretty much all that you want. Combine this with the rather boring, generic, and bland environments, and you see the real tragedy of MGR isn't that it isn't MGS, which it never pretends to be, it's that it isn't as good as it could be.

I am not a Metal Gear Solid fan, so I can’t comment on how it compares to or relates to the overall story of other games from that series, but I absolutely loved playing through Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.It is similar to other types of action games such as Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God of War. It might not have as many combos in its gameplay as DMC or Bayonetta 1 & 2, but it more than makes up for it with its challenge, music, and ridiculously badass moments. In fact, it’s level of difficulty is nearly identical to something like those games, because there is an emphasis on learning how to fight the game’s various enemies and bosses, as well as ways to improve how you play the game while completing it fast, finding secrets scattered in the levels (i.e. DMC’s Secret Missions and Bayonetta’s Alfeim Portals), and taking little to no damage to receive a good rank at the end of each level. Also like Bayonetta, there are hidden optional fights with more enemies you can choose to seek out to help improve your score to increase your chances of getting a good rank.The characters, enemies, bosses, and interactions between those three in cutscenes and gameplay are all entertaining, cool, can sometimes be humorous, and very memorable and quotable. Even though this game is not super new, it is totally worth your time as an action game fan, and seems to be cheap to get your hands on a brand new copy of it. As an added bonus, there is DLC of two other characters you’ll meet throughout the game. Their stories are essentially mini-campaigns, and are not that long, but the good news is that they are 100% free to download. I’m not sure if they were required for you to pay for at one point in time, but when I played through this game in the not-to-distant past, they were free. They will add I think another 2-4 hours on top of the around 10-12 hour main story, but the game also is highly replay able like the other series that it seems to be somewhat based on/inspired by, so you do not need to worry about the game being short or whatnot. Like the aforementioned other actions games I listed, there is heavy emphasis on improving your skills, so this is not exactly and ‘play through it once and be done’ type of game.Although not as recent as action games such as Devil May Cry 5, Nier: Automata, Darksiders 3, or God of War (2018), Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is still worth a buy and at least one play through.Also, unlike Bayonetta on PS3, this game seems to run at a solid 60 frames per second, or at the very least smooth and consistent.