8.5? lol.. this game deserves 7.5. its so exaggerate,. very short too ended the gane in 6 hours
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review
Game Emblems
The Good
Fun beautiful graphics different style game as compared to previous MGS titles but great addition to the series
Platinum games has really shown that no other developer can do over-the-top action games better than they do.
In an impressive show of style and technical brilliance, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance takes a turn for the brutal and rarely looks back.
The Good
- The fast-paced combat excites your reflexes
- Depth and accessibility coexist in harmony
- Decimating environments is a guilty pleasure that never gets old
- Raiden's intriguing personal story justifies his return to the spotlight.
The Bad
- Occasional camera issues can be distracting
- Most environmental palettes lack variety
- The predictably political plot fails to excite.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance sees the cybernetically enhanced Raiden severing his ties to the stealthy gameplay of old, charging headlong behind enemy lines with a fresh pack of batteries and a thirsty blade by his side. His newfound lust for battle fits nicely into the quirky Metal Gear universe, thanks to the persistence of the Sons of the Patriots plotline and other carefully laid traces of time-honored traditions. Still, despite these ties to the past, Revengeance is ultimately a departure from the old way of doing things. Almost every scenario demands conflict rather than silent infiltration, and instead of conforming to his environment, Raiden can transform it in a matter of seconds.
Four years after the conclusion of Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden's cyborg-strength is under the employ of a private security firm hired to protect a peaceful and influential African prime minister. His convoy is intercepted by two cyborgs representing the disruptive Desperado Enforcement, and they quickly make a mess of things by kidnapping their target, disabling Raiden, and slipping away unharmed. Not one to stand idly by, Raiden pursues his assailants after receiving the latest cybernetic upgrades from his comrades at Maverick Consulting.
It's a brief yet satisfying ride through a fast-paced action game, and dozens of unlockable rewards continually entice you back into the fray. With its addictive combat and killer sense of style, it's unfortunate that the simplicity of Revengeance's underlying story fails to hit many high marks. Outside of a few memorable antagonists (Sam, for instance, is a sadistic delight), you won't walk away with fond memories of the overall plot, but Raiden's personal transformation reaches an atypical and invigorating conclusion. He's perfect for the role of the antihero, and through his transformation, Revengeance emerges as a fantastic action game set in the Metal Gear universe.
Raiden faces hundreds of cyborg soldiers and biomechanical contraptions while searching for the Desperado elites, and despite a mostly mundane selection of environments, the excitement of taking on sword-wielding, rocket-launching foot soldiers holds your attention from the very start. Enemies don't waste time during battle, and though Raiden's no slouch, it will take considerable practice to completely realize the potential of his various attacks. He's fully capable of bolting through a crowd without taking a scratch, but he's bound to falter in the hands of a novice. Yet regardless of your initial skill level, Revengeance is an accessible action game that emphasizes entertainment without overshadowing the importance of depth and nuance.
Beyond the flow of combos and timely parries, Raiden can enter a heightened state of awareness known as blade mode by siphoning electrolytes from his enemies. You can choreograph precise slices that tear through weakened objects and enemies with as much accuracy or desperation as you desire. Tapping light and heavy attack buttons unleashes a flurry of horizontal and vertical slices, with the right analog stick dictating controlled cuts along a projected vector.
Hitting an enemy's sweet spot, indicated by a pink icon, initiates Raiden's Zandatsu technique. Reaching into his opponent's torso, he tears out the spine-like repair unit, crushing it in the palm of his hand with a push of a button. It not only replenishes his health and electrolyte reserves, but it pronounces his deep-seated ferocity.
Performing the Zandatsu doesn't require a lot of effort on your part, but if your initial trajectory isn't quite on point, small adjustments with the left analog stick may be required. It's usually a simple procedure, but some boss battles require you to find the right pitch and angle under considerable pressure, and it can be a bit of a headache, and frankly a bore, to attempt these same sequences over and over again if you should fail. Such precise demands slow down the pace of combat, one of the game's strongest characteristics.
The merits of speed wouldn't shine if it weren't for the game's consistent frame rate. Outside of loading sequence stutters, Revengeance almost never skips a beat. Deforming models in direct relation to your strikes calls for heavy calculations on the fly, and it's nothing short of a technical marvel that the game's high frame rate doesn't choke in the process. Raiden can capably whittle his way through most objects, from chain-link fences to armored plated tanks, but your happy-go-lucky slicing eventually collides with the cold reality that not everything is destructible. You can thank Revengeance's linear design for these boundaries, but the limitations are only a minor distraction from the enjoyment of decimating foe and prop alike.
Precisely controlling Raiden's katana plays an important role when attempting to remove individual limbs, an optional yet rewarding tactic. Reducing your enemies to limbless worms renders them disabled, potentially allowing for a no-kill playthrough (with a few scripted exceptions). More importantly, 30 specific enemies possess valuable stores of data in their left hands. For every 10 of these hands that you acquire, a powerful new upgrade appears in Raiden's customization menu. It's a task easier said than done; weakening and cutting off a specific limb from a specific enemy can be frustrating when you're surrounded by a half dozen others. You may find yourself resetting to the last checkpoint to take another crack at the challenge, but the payoff is worth it in the end.
By
Peter Brown, Editor
Peter Brown has been writing about video games and hardware since 1999. He grew up with the NES and has an unwavering love for retro and arcade games. Though he's a New England native, he's called the Bay Area home since 2004.
1079 comments
@kratospete Yea it's frustrating; it seems gamespot is super inconsistent with applying their emblems correctly. This definitely deserves the brutal emblem and he even mentions that the game is brutal in the review!
I know most people understand not comparing it to Metal Gear Solid - but if you are craving a more complex story - they really fill it out in detail via codec. It's closer to the MGS2 codec where the dialogue just goes on forever. You'll hear more about the Patriots and the last evens in MGS2 than anything. Snake is literally only talked about during one call with Kevin. Also...cardboard box = adorable.
Very impressive for a first installment. Environments are a little flat but the gameplay makes up for it. A wonderful experience :)
luv the game , but it felt a little short lived . as soon as i began to enjoy the game it was over. which is a shame since the gameplay and graphics r so enjoyable ....
I have to disagree with this review. While on a TECHNICAL level of graphics, controls, and presentation, this game is absolutely stellar, on a more creative level, like fun, difficulty, etc this game fails. Regular enemies are way too easy while bosses are way too cheap. The camera makes this 10X worse than they need to be and the parrying/blocking system is so difficult to pull off successfully (on purpose, less you like me just tap the L analog a million times in the hope you get lucky), you have to be some kind of jungle cat on steroids in order to have the reflexes required from bosses who throw like 20 strikes in 1 second's time (many off camera); also have standard special attacks that are guaranteed to break your block and parry every time. The story is also incredibly silly and lame, environments are plain, and there just isn't much in terms of overall FUN. While I appreciate the game's attempts and ideas (being a HUGE Metal Gear fan), the freaking thing is just too cheap and repetitive.
I caved in an turned on parry assist - it's like the game knows that wasn't the best mechanic.
1 Like @metalgrinch Not to start any game flame war or anything(though I'm sure that will be the inevitable result of this), but I got a chuckle out of complaints of a silly and lame story being lamented by someone with a DmC avatar.
It is easier to think this game as P+ game; like Kojima said, this is a stand alone spin-off game; comparing this game with previous Metal Gear titles will only increase frustration. I must admit that even though the gameplay was very entertaining, better than what I expected; but there were few problems in gameplay mechanism, examples being camera angle and difficult parry system. The plot written by KojiPro was a disappointment, since I felt that there were no deep meanings in the plot with all those cheesy dialogues and story development, instead almost like stories from any other P+ games. I had high expectation on the plot element, but I guess that can be understood since Kojima wasn't the writer for this game. But it also means that anybody can relax, and enjoy the game without thinking too much about these complex philosophy Kojima has in his games. Forget that this game is a typical Metal Gear game, instead think of it as another action packed hack n' slash game by P+. I will recommended this game to anyone whom wants to be a ultimate bad ass, chop gigantic robots into pieces and have fun without thinking too hard.
Like I said before - there are some gems in codec, but overall it relies more on its themes than it's actual story...which is a bit sad. It was weird to see a certain character later on, too, because I thought for the first few hours I was playing that this was a prequel...I think I would have preferred a prequel. They really could have used this opportunity to fill in the gaps between MGS2 and MGS4 with a Ninja Raiden origin story.
But still - over all - it was really enjoyable and I played through twice.
2 Like Ok, for all the folks bitching about " the Metal Gear Solid franchise as we know is dead", and I also refer to the reviewer of the game in the first 20 seconds of his audio review: HAVE YOU EVEN READ THE NAME OF THE GAME?? It does not say "SOLID", but "METAL GEAR RISING"!!!!
Mr. Kojima decided to change the name nomenclature so that it is not confused with the Metal Gear Solid series that have a gameplay very focused on stealth and sneaking around. This game is very focused on hack-and-slash, which is a total departure from the gameplay we have been enjoying since MGS 1,2,3,4, MGS portable ops and MGS Peace Walker. Identically, the Solid name has been dropped from the MG Acid games to reflect a gameplay that is based on cards/strategy/turn-based. The only exception to the naming rule are the 2 original MGs on NES, and that was before Mr Kojima figured out that some naming rules needed to be applied to keep things straight.
Myself, I have been very intrigued by Raiden since his appearance in MGS4 and the fights with the Gekkos and Vamp (amazing cinematic BTW). Never liked winy Raiden in MGS2 so I'm glad Mr. Kojima put forward a game based on that amped-up version of Raiden. Since the hack and slash was so far from his primary artistic view, he passed down the game production from his company to the guys who did Bayonetta. You may recognize the frantic gameplay and play-style now.
So if hack-and-slash is not your thing (and it's my case), and I respect that, please be patient and be ready to have your mind blown by the next Metal Gear Solid: Zeroes, or go replay MGS3 HD. But please just do not diss a game by comparing it to a long running series, with which it has noting to do (other than some story elements) to start with.
The game's still MGS though because of the sneaking, the cardboard box and the characters. Impressively the game has great backstory, a plot that fits the Metal Gear story as a whole and explanations about past games in the codec, like who the Patriots are, the effect on the world as a whole, how Otacon is doing now and so on, so that's enough reason to play the game. I actually spend 2 hours playing the game's codec because they have so many details to them, especially Doctor. And the game itself is so awesome, I replay the game 3 times in a row without changing to other games, and I upgrade my sword till I am able to slice a giant robot with 1 button press.This game is awesome.
1 Like Now playing through the game a second time. It's so awesome to upgrade the blade. Now my blade is so strong, that I can just cut a giant robot with 1 slice. Overall this game is like Tenchu + Ninja Gaiden + Bayonetta + every samurai movie where people get sliced apart. Fucking awesome.
Interesting looking game. Looks like it took inspirations from other notable games such us Ninja Gaiden, Bayonetta, even God of War. Might as well give this one a try being more action an oriented, seems like a nice change of pace from the normally heavy story-driven pacing of the previous MGS games.
1 Like For the one bellow that i posted
SPOILER ALERT
SPOILER ALERT
But it really has to be seen. This game is so badass and insane and yet poignant too. The plot makes sense and the battles are awesome. Not as huge as Asura's Wrath but its still equally awesome. If you want to check it out, go ahead. If you dont, then play the game or see the playthrough because this game is one of a kind and its full of references from the old mgs. It even has sneaking and cardboard box to hide in and do stealth kills. Awesome game. 90.
@Kaz32 Didn't read the comment, but I wanted to thank you for taking the time to actually put spoiler warnings before posting something spoiler-ific. Wish other people on the board who wanted to discuss something to do with the integral parts of the game's parts were as considerate.
3 Like 9.0/10 i'm not a MGS fan since i haven't played any of them...yet, but MGR is worthy of your time and money if you're fan of the fast paced action games (ninja gaiden, bayonetta,)
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@Kaz32 it wasn't funny at all, that and th fact that this is major spoiler for those who haven't played it
1 Like @kratospete @Kaz32 Its only a spoiler if you click on the video, it's your choice, you knew you were going to watch a clip of something that would give away a part of the game. You spoiled it for your self, no one forced you to watch it.
@kratospete
You have no sense of humor. This is a sneak preview of the final battle, only 1 part out of 4. Want to find out the rest? Either see the playthrough from beginning to end or play the game and find out!
1 Like Have you played it? You should know that the game is very straightforward and not that much of a mindbend like previous MgS games. In fact this boss is actually really expected to show up. This is only 1 part out of 4 epic final hillarious battles. Either see the playthrough or not is your choice. It has to be played though, i wont spoil the rest of it cause this part is nothing compared to what's coming next. The final battle is officially the best boss battle Platinum or any action game, except Asura's Wrath, has ever made, and coming from Bayonetta, that's an excellent achievement.
A really good game I like the combats of it and the defence system, the final boss is a real badass !! couldn't beet until now.
also one negative thing that i feel the game is really short !
Why does Sony keep losing all its exclusives? Games just keep getting more watered down for the mass market
@Soulreavercross Want to lengthen the experience? Play it on hard. It doubles the length of the game which is about 7 hours.
@raiden-94 @Soulreavercross I recommend finishing it first on normal .. 2nd play is so enjoyable .. I never play games twice .. i cant stop playing
I can't figure out why they made his voice raspy like Snake's. Raiden didn't sound like that in MGS4, but then again I am not far in yet.
@Rod90 @Rat_King But....ever since the very beginning FF has had a strong Japanese animation art style. The only thing that makes it not anime is the fact it's a video game. If it were any other medium, comic/show/novel/etc, it would be unanimously agreed to be anime.
So he looks like any anime animation based character ever. Best thing to do is get over it cause it's not going away.
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Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Konami
- Developer(s): PlatinumGames
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- ESRB: M
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