Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Today we slash and dice the most recent entry on the Metal Gear series, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I still haven't finished the game, but I am close to it. So here's my thoughts so far.

Most of you are already familiar with the Metal Gear Saga. Political and warfare conflicts, sneaking and being evasive, with a great narrative from his creator Hideo Kojima. Well, forget about all that, because Metal Gear Rising is completely different from what you are accostumed within the franchise. As in Metal Gear Solid 2, you control Raiden (yes I know what it may sound but bear with me). Here's a little resume from Raiden's history:

Raiden - Real  name Jack, is a Liberian-American Mercenary and former special operations soldier. He was a child soldier, and used by the Patriots for the S3 Plan at the Big Shell. Later he joined the Paradise Lost Army, the anti-Patriots group, but was captured and had his head and spine excised from his body and planted on a cyborg one by the Patriots. He then escaped and aided Solid Snake in the Liquid Ocelot's insurrection on Metal Gear Solid 4 events. After that he joined the PMC (Public Mercenary Company) Maverick and the events of the game start.

The story isn't as deep as in other Metal Gear titles, and it's easier to follow. There are some references from past games but, if you didn't play any of it, you'll still can enjoy the game's story, as it is disconnected to all the conflict and web of schemes from the other series. After the fall of the Patriots, PMCs split up in minor groups, and turned to cyborg technology as a mean to power up their forces. The story starts in a unnamed country in Africa,  Maverick is doing a job of security for the Prime Minister N'mani, a pacifist working for peace in the continent, as a PMC named Desperado Enforcement LLC attacks them and tries to kill N'mani, in a way to keep the countries in Africa fighting and so they can still make profit. Raiden goes to the rescue of N'mani only to be utterly defeated by Samuel "Jet-stream Sam" Rodrigues, a master cyborg swordsman working for Desperado.

Jet-Stream Sam, the most brazilian badass since BlanKa.

In a future mission, Raiden encounters again Desperado and starts investigating it, leading to the events of the game that follow that, and that I won't spoil.

The gameplay is also very different from past titles. In the past there was more of a focus on stealth unlike this one. The stealth is still present, but they give more focus to the battles than avoiding them. As Platinum Games took a more "gore" approach to the game, you can litterally have blood flowing everywhere as you cut through the enemy cyborgs (they say its mecanical fluids and artificial blood, but I like to think otherwise). In the PS3 version you press square for light attacks and triangle for heavy ones, and you can chain both as you please. Pressing X will make Raiden jump and circle for activating a lot of stuff. If you press circle behind an enemy it will be a silent, but not less gory, takedown. R1 gives you the "ninja run" (actual name!), you will run faster and deflect bullets automatically, to parry normally you have to press the light attack button and the direction of the enemy attack. It's hard at the beggining but I found it very interesting. The most interesting is the Blade mode that you enter by pressing L1, time slows down and you can slash at very high speeds, and if the target is damaged enough, you can cut some parts of the body and if you have the skill bar full, you can detect the auto-reparing unit of the cyborg, pull it and smash it to assimilate it and recover yourself. This is called a Zandatsu in game, and Zandatsus are awesome! You get ranks in every chapter and gain Battle Points to enhance Raiden's body and skills. Even Weapons from the bosses. This is a different take in the series. With both Snakes more peacefull approaches were encouraged, in this one it's exactly the opposite. Even the stuff around the level is destroyable, having even happened being needed to cut a bridge to fight a cyborg that was on top of it. Sure the cardboxes are still around, but this game makes you want to slice everything that is around you. And the bosses, oh the bosses, are just epic gameplay.

The visuals, as in every game of the franchise, are simply stunning. From the epic boss battles, to slashing normal enemies everything is so well made it's hard to find flaws. Everything feel futuristic, and the game delivers what you are expecting of a ninja cyborg can do. Even the soundtrack is amazing, being a personal favourite. I haven't heard a soundtrack as good as this in a long time. I have it on my laptop and I can't stop hearing it.

It also has some easter eggs from the previous games, such as the man that hide in cardboxes in every scenario for you to find, to the DLC themes for Raiden. My favourite is the US gamestop pre-order (included in every copy in Europe) Gray Fox skin and his blade. Unfortunatelly as I have the digital copy I don't have it. It's a shame that the only skin in the DLC section for Raiden is the MGS4 look he had. There's also 2 DLCs for playing with Samuel and Blade Wolf, but I'm waiting to complete the game to get them. 

Gray Fox, the original cyborg from the first Metal Gear Solid

This game made me like Raiden, and that's a hard thing to do! (Kojima why didn't you make him like this in MGS2!!??)

Story 3/5 - Not the masterpieces of previous entries but still very good.

Soundtrack 5/5 - Fits perfectly the game and the feeling it gives.

Gameplay 4/5 - It's entertaining, and blade mode is awfully fun to use.

Longevity 4/5 - Despite being a short game, it makes want to clear it in lots of difficulties, and unlock all the good stuff and weapons at Raiden's disposal. There's also a awful lot of trophies to unlock, so it gains a lot of replay value.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance gets a 16/20.