The sword runs hot in a tale of revenge and vengeance and revengeance. Raiden's tale is a fun, but flawed experience.
The story has changed from the original Rising's. The original was to take place before Metal Gear Solid 4, but now it takes place four years after MGS4. Raiden has joined a security team called the PCM Maverick Securities sent to protect the prime minister of Africa. Things take an obvious turn for the worse when a warmonger group, Desperado, attack and murder the prime minister. They then proceed to beat Raiden to a pulp and leave him. He comes back with more cybernetics and proceeds on his path to take Desperado out and put an end to their war plans. The story seems pretty simple but the dialogue between Raiden and the members of Desperado is usually interesting and well done. It's not complex like the Metal Gear Solid series, but it's still a path worth walking down. Not to mention the final fight is one of the best fights in any game in a lot of ways.
The gameplay is pure Platinum. You aggressively attack your enemies with Raiden's sword and one other side weapon and you can mix the two together for some cool combos. The combat can be on the challenging side as well, you dodge by pressing the jump button and the attack button at the same time, which is a little awkward, and you block by tapping towards an attacking enemy and pressing the attack button. Getting used to these two actions is a must and, while it is quite hard to do, you'll be quite happy when you do. Clearing a battle with an S ranking, zandatsuing everyone involved is one of the most satisfying things in an action game.
The Zandatsu is one of Metal Gear Rising's gimmicks and it's a cool one. As you fight, you fill up your energy meter and that meter can be used to perform a Zandatsu on a defeated enemy to finish them off. When a Zandatsu is performed, the enemy is cut apart and Raiden will rip out their innards and crush them to absorb their power. Doing this refills Raiden's health and energy meters and the game balances this out with a high difficulty level so it never seems easy. The biggest thing about the game, however, is the cutting. When the game was originally shown off, you could cut pretty much anything you wanted which was an awesome idea. The actual cutting in the game is almost all of what they promised. There are a lot of things you can't cut, but these are things that are obviously uncuttable due to game design, this isn't Red Faction after all.
You can cut some of the environment and you can cut the enemies apart while in Blade Mode and it never gets old. The level design, on the other hand, is bland and straightforward. It never surprises you and never awes you with it's level design but it makes up for that with the combat and boss fights. The boss fights are fantastic and clearly a highlight, as was the case with Platinum's own MadWorld. They keep you on your toes and require a specific Zandatsu to overcome. They keep the game fun and challenging and you'll be awaiting each one with baited breath, only allowing you to rest easy when you strike down the amazing final boss. The game is quite short however but, similar to Platinum's previous games, the game ends just as it's starting to get old.
The audio is pretty awesome to say the least. It has it's standard generic-like tracks, but it has some amazing tracks that play at certain points. Some of the battles have tracks that sound like they were ripped right off a new-age rock album and they also accompany the bosses. The boss tracks are even more special however, they start off with just the music and the vocals kick in when things get dramatic. It makes the whole thing epic and unforgettable and it helps that the songs are perfectly serviceable as plain songs for your MP3 player. The voice acting is well done and all the slicing sound effects are fitting though it is a little strange that Raiden is trying to Snake it up by putting on a gruff voice. In the end, the soundtrack is pure Platinum.
The visuals are a little mixed considering the game's history. It looks great as far a character action games go but it doesn't completely hold up to what Kojima showed off previously. The ability to cut the enemies and part of the environment apart is fantastic looking and the character models look excellent but the environments are bland. They all look similar and uninspired and they drag the presentation down. They don't ruin the presentation, however, since the boss fights are fantastic to watch and the normal combat can get pretty flashy as well. So, while it doesn't live up to Kojima's original image, it doesn't truly let him down as well.
PROs
- fantastic, high-adrenaline combat
- Zandatsu is the coolest gimmick for Platinum yet
- Story is simple, yet Metal Gear
- Boss fights are the some of the best Platinum has ever created
- Soundtrack is fantastic and even better during boss fights
- Character models look great
- Boss fights have a lot of variety
- Challenging, but fair
- Combat is visually stimulating
CONs
- Environments are dull and uninspired
- Simple story might turn older Metal Gear fans away
- Focus on action might turn older Metal Gear fans away
- Combat is not the deepest
- Visuals don't hold up to original form
- Game is short
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a great starting point for what hopefully becomes a spin-off series. There is still room for Platinum to improve on the combat and the environments could use a lot of work but the skeleton is there with the Zandatsu and focus on aggression. It's a distinct character action game and if you are a fan of the genre, by all means give the game a shot. It's quite short which is a shame, but they couldn't have packed more awesome into their first shot if they tried. Draw your sword and dive into the Revengeance!
Story: 8.5/10
Gameplay: 9.5/10
Audio: 9.0/10
Presentation: 8.0/10