So Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a hack and slash genre game developed by Kojima Productions and Platinum Games. This collaboration came to be after the Kojima crew came to a deadlock whilst developing the game saying they couldn't find the right balance between stealth and action and the game was almost even cancelled. But after Kojima (jokingly) proposed to the head of Platinum for them to continue the development of the game and he agreed. Fascinated by the character Raiden and the amazing action sequences in MGS4, he accepted the challenge.
Now after almost 4 years, the game is finally released and let me tell you, it's an amazing and satisfying game, capturing the essence of how it feels to be an invincible cyborg ninja perfectly. And Platinum Games are the only developers who could have pulled it off, being the best of the best in their genre.
Our beloved/hated Raiden
Now to talk about the game itself.
You play as the well-known and loved/hated cyborg ninja Raiden. After he became the main character in MGS2 because of a bait-and-switch, fans were not pleased with how annoying and whiny his character was and how he took himself way too seriously.
The game starts off with a standard bodyguard mission which quickly de-rails into something much bigger. The story itself isn't a masterpiece and tries to be too serious about American and world politics. We don't want entires philosophies, we just want to cut up a guy in millions of tiny molecules. And luckily, we can.
The gameplay isn't as sophisticated as say Devil May Cry. You have a button for light attacks and one for heavy attacks. Also (unconventionally) there isn't a dodge button. Yes, there is a move in the game which let's you dodge but it's an attack not a mechanic like in DMC and God of War.
Raiden isn't a pussy who dodges attacks. He takes them head on with a parry-system. A parry is performed by pushing the light attack button simultaniously with the direction of an incoming attack. Now this is where the game gets hard. At lower difficulties, the time-frame to execute a parry is about 1 second or 60 frames, which is alot. But f.e at the highest difficulty this time-frame is decreased to only 12 frames which is less than 1/5th of a second. And this instantly becomes much much more difficult, especially since there also is an exact parry which is done if you do the parry move 5 frames before the attack hits. But in exchange, you deal a shitload of damage to your opponent.
If you want to get really good at the game and get the most fun out of it, mastering this mechanism is a must.
Blade Mode
Ripper mode
Now let's move on to the main mechanism, the bread and butter of this game. Blade Mode.
Blade Mode is a mechanism which allows Raiden to slow down time and cut anything, anyone and anyway he wishes to. Want to chop off half his head or all his limbs à la Monty Python. Just do it.
But wait, there's even more. If you cut an enemy in a specific place, you can take his spine (or life-batteries) in an awesome and cinematic way and replenish all your health and fuel cells.
Some might say the game becomes too easy because of it and that is partially true for the lower difficulties. But at higher ones you'll be begging for an enemy so you can take his spine out and get all your health back.
Also you can cut off enemy officer's left hands to get collectibles and more XP so you can upgrade your moves.
And lastly there is Ripper Mode where Raiden slips back into his past murderous, kill-enjoying personality. Here, all your normal attacks become like Blade Mode attacks.
Now for the characters. Raiden is easily the most interesting character together with his nemesis 'Jetstream Sam'.
Raiden's character developes well enough for you to care about him and sometimes understand him and his pain whilst Sam plays the mysterious guy and you're wondering why he does what he does. ( we'll be able to find out more in future DLC).
Now I don't want to spoil anything but Raiden's persona takes a major turn around the halfway mark.
The rest of the characters are only there for supporting and comical reasons.
The bosses aren't really interesting, just serving as obstacles in Raidens path to revenge/vengeance but that doesn't mean chopping them up isn't less fun. All of them are amazing to fight and especially the final boss is what a final boss should be. Multiple forms, hard in the beginning and even harder as the fight moves on, testing everything that you have learned in the last 6 hoursand throwing in some awesome cutscenes along the way. Needless to say it's been such a long time since I've felt this satisfied after beating a final boss ( Crisis Core : FF7)
And now, the music. OMG. The music in this game is from the heavy metal genre and boy does it work PERFECTLY with this game. It wouldn't be lying if I said the music was one, if not the best, part of this game. Every tone, every guitar solo and every vocal fits perfectly with what you're doing at the moment, as if the game knows what you're doing and says: 'why don't we make him feel even more awesome and put this track on.
The only problem people could have with the game is that it is a bit too short. Personally, I thought I spend 8-10 hours beating the game until I saw my end-game stats. But even if it felt too short for you, this game has alot of replayability. I've now beaten the game 4 times and I almost platinumned it.
To sum everything up, this game has amazing gameplay, fantastic music and over the top action and cutscenes around every corner.
This game is, for me, a serious contender for GOTY and I give this game an 9,5/10. If you're not a hardcore hack-and-slash/MGS fanatic, this game is an 8,5/10.
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