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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

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By Doubleplus22-01-2014
MrJenssen (editor)
Bobfish (editor)
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

The Defence

Developer:
Platinum Games
Publisher:
Konami
Genre:
Action
Release Date:
09-01-2014

The Prosecution

CPU:
Intel Core i7 3.4 GHz
AMD equivalent
VGA:
Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
AMD equivalent
RAM:
4 GB
HDD:
25 GB
DirectX:
9.0c

The Case

It has been a long wait for PC players to finally be able to play this Hack and Slash spin-off to the Metal Gear Solid franchise. Being the huge fan I am of the Devil May Cry series, I waited patiently for the PC port of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance to be announced. Now that it’s finally here, I got to play it. Now, as far as Japanese Action games go, there aren't a lot of them on PC, so you can see why I so anxiously waited for it. But is the wait worth it?

The Trial

Well let me give you a hint: I was so busy playing the game, I had a hard time doing this review. When I'm finished with this, I’ll probably go back to playing it again. It’s just that enjoyable. I simply can't put it down. The high octane action is just good, plain fun.

It was at this point I realized my pants were missing.

It was at this point I realized my pants were missing.

You play as Raiden, a former child soldier turned cyborg. On a security mission to protect the prime minister of an unstable African nation, the PMC Desperado attack and assassinate the said prime minister. While attempting to pursue them, Raiden fights Jetstream Sam - the Cool Brazilian Wind - barely surviving but losing his right eye, the last human part he had left. He is then tasked to stop Desperado from destabilizing the region any more than they already have.

The combat is wonderfully executed. First you have your quick light attack, your slower heavy attack and, of course, jump. However, that’s where the normality ends. Pressing light attack in the direction of an enemy’s attack will parry. Performing a parry at the exact right moment will do a perfect parry, which unleashes a counter attack. You also have ninja run, which allows you to quickly move over obstacles and close distance while also deflecting enemy bullets. The only real gripe I have with the combat is that the insanely useful Offensive Defensive move, which serves as evade, is an upgrade rather than a standard.

Another combat feature, which Rising seems to be most famous for, is Blade Mode. This mode allows you to cut in any direction you desire. You can do it to either cut enemies into tiny pieces, or give one precise strike to grab their repair units and get your health back. Of course, it won’t do much against armored enemies, so you have to keep attacking them until you break through their armor, or you can get a “Zandustu” (a special move), through stunning an enemy or parrying certain attacks, which will let you do a cinematic finisher ending in an opportunity to blade mode them.

Cue Beyblade theme.

Cue Beyblade theme.

The biggest thing that stands out about MGR is the bosses. Every single one of them is an absolute BLAST to fight and each have their own distinct personalities that make them interesting. Even the ones that are just elite enemies like the GRAD who appear again later, are massively fun to beat. It’s extremely satisfying to parry the long string of attacks from a boss, then unleash a flurry of counter attacks. Even the QTEs manage to be exciting because of how over the top they are. It’s hard to groan at a QTE when you are blocking Metal Gear Ray’s massive blade, picking it up and THROWING it while “RULES OF NATURE; AND THEY RUN WHEN THE SUN COMES UP, WITH THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE. ALIVE” screams in the background.

Speaking of which, the soundtrack is amazing. The fast metal matches the action perfectly, and the vocals kick in during the last part of a boss fight, making it impossible NOT to get excited. There isn’t a single track I didn't absolutely love. From Mistral’s “Stranger I remain”, to Sundowner’s “Red Sun”, every track manages to get the adrenaline pumping. As for the dialog and voice acting, it’s pretty great too, with several lines of dialog being extremely quotable (most of which is from the final boss, which to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say is amazing and is one of the coolest and most interesting final bosses in a long time).

Fans of the main Metal Gear Solid games may feel a bit unwelcome in this spinoff though. While stealth is still present, Rising revolves more around running in and killing everyone in sight. If you are the nonlethal type and sneaking past the enemies without killing any of them is more your thing, you can forget about getting an S-rating here. Even the stealth kill animations are pretty much a big “Why are you doing this?” sort of thing and usually involves doing a flip and landing on top of your enemy, sword side down, or stabbing them through the back and then ripping their spine out.

Pretty much everyone has a shit-eating grin in this game.

Pretty much everyone has a shit-eating grin in this game.

As a port, it exceeds expectations in every way. Well, aside from accidentally launching with an unfortunate always-online DRM that has since been fixed. But otherwise, it’s an absolutely stellar port. Even during intense sections with Zangeki (the new option to the PC release that changes how many pieces you can cut something into) turned all the way up, it never dropped below 60 FPS. Kojima told the truth when he said it was looking “pretty nice”.

It was bit worrying about how it would control with a mouse and keyboard, but Revengeance pulls it off pretty well. The mouse control when cutting is much more precise than using a controller, but somewhat slower. Ninja-running over obstacles feels a bit awkward at times, but not enough to be a burden and feels natural in combat.

The Verdict

While it’s hack and slashy fast paced action differs majorly from the main, largely stealth-focused Metal Gear Solid games, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an amazing game that looks, sounds and plays wonderfully. I can't recommend it highly enough to those wanting a fast pace action game. It’s got a very good price tag, so you’ll definitely get your money’s worth, as well as a few replays at least out of it.

Case Review

  • Play It Again, Jetstream Sam: Massively replayable. You'll want to beat all the difficulties and get the best scores possible.
  • Soundtrack: The Soundtrack is one of the best things about the game and adds to it tremendously.
  • Hurts So Good: Can be challenging at times and its higher difficulties like Very Hard and Revengeance can be fairly brutal.
  • Putting on the Ritz: Lots of clothing and weapons to unlock.
  • Camera Man is Drunk: Camera occasionally spazzes out to a hilarious extent.
  • Over Already?: Campaign itself is pretty short, only about 6 hours for each playthrough.
5
Score: 5/5
Looks like it’s time for Jack...TO LET ‘ER RIP!
Comments (3)
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Posts: 3290

ie That's your cue to fall down

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Posts: 596

Ignore my previous post :P It hit me that cue is also something used for events at a specific time in theatre. Obviously can also be applied to gaming :P

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Posts: 596

*Queue