Have the game.

I have been playing the game and an currently on mission 3. I'm having a lot of fun with it so far; not sure why they chose the part they did for the demo, because it seems like the lamest part of the game so far.

I've played most of the Metal Gear Solid games, though I'm not much of a fan of the series. Don't expect MGS when going into this of course, but it retains a lot of the MGS style humor and some other things; cutscenes are definitly more Platinum than Kojima though. The handy cardboard box is back and you can sneak through areas without killing enemies (there is an achievement/trophy for no-kill battles as well), though I haven't bothered to try that yet.

If you have questions, ask away and I'll do my best to answer them.

Combat is fun but not as deep as some other hack and slash titles; you can expand your moveset but you won't be inputting a string of commands for any really complex moves, it's mostly about timing your blocks and parries if you want to be good. There is a feeling of "impact" to some moves but not most; despite that, it always feels good to chop away at things with a sword.

The game is very linear; apart from some offshoot rooms and such for hidden items, there aren't many alternate routes or choices in what you do (I think, unless it's implemented into gameplay somehow [if I didn't kill a bunch of enemies the story so far wouldn't make too much sense, ha]).

[QUOTE="JinKisaragi"]Maybe an awkward question but in the demo Boris calls you and you automatically walk and can't perform any other action, does this happen frequently in the campaign and is it skippable?[/QUOTE]These codec calls happen quite frequently, but I think you can skip them with the Y/triangle button (haven't tried yet since I've been listening to all of them), they're not extremely long calls though. For those who like codec dialoge, you can still go into the menu and make calls to people like in previous MGS games.

[QUOTE="wepeel"]Does the story/plot mesh well with the current storyline established by previous MGS games? Does Raiden's personality come across well in gameplay and cutscenes or does he feel more like a placeholder ninja?[/QUOTE]Raiden certainly shows personality and goes through some character development, though some of it feels forced and a bit rediculous. The plot reminds me a bit of Ninja Gaiden 3, where his enemies guilt him with the lives he has taken from the cyborg soldiers created from people who have all but lost their free will. I actually like Raiden's character and he isn't extremely generic.

Personally I was never very interested in the MGS story, but the story in this game doesn't seem to have much overlap with MGS anyway.

I'm still really enjoying the game; only thing I dislike so far is escaping grabs and stun moves where you have to wiggle the left stick, it's a really annoying action to do frequently and I would rather they let you just mash buttons or something instead.

[QUOTE="wepeel"]Can you feel early on how the plot is going to develop in a straightforward manner, or does the game throw curve balls at you?[/QUOTE]

I haven't been really surprised by any plot developments yet. I've been quite busy and haven't had much chance to play after my first session with it, but I'll probably be finishing it up tonight; I'll post back if the story does surprise me with a twist of some kind.