When you take the Metal Gear series stealth action into pure action you get Metal Gear Rising.
Metal Gear Solid is a series everyone should know about (well not everyone but a lot) a series that can make any player shed a man tear. Metal Gear was the first in the entire series and then Solid was the main name. Now Metal Gear is changing into Metal Gear Rising Revengeance from tactical espionage action to high speed action, but can it live up to it's name?
The Story:
You play as Raiden instead of Solid Snake (like Metal Gear Solid 2). This takes place 4 years after Metal Gear Solid 4 so in reality Solid Snake is dead by then since he only had a couple of months left to live at the end of 4. The future is bleak, cybernetic arts/parts (human replacement) is becoming more efficient/necessary to protect their society, people are trying to get back to their daily lives after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, war was ending and the economy is getting better. Raiden became a body guard for the President who is trying to build a better future without war. After talking about it for a bit someone gets in their way and starts killing all their guards, who is also cybernetic as well as his accomplice who then captures the president. After a chase you run into a custom Metal Gear Ray. After obliterating Ray you run into a chase scene and after catching up to them you find out what their motive is: War Economy. War brings up the economy for them, apparently war isn't always a bad thing for everyone. After that they kill the president. You then fight the cyborg Sam who proceeds to cut Raidens' left eye and Raiden's left arm. All that in just the beginning of the game (Mission R-00). The story takes a weird turn when Raiden gets vulnerable when killing the soldiers when hearing their thoughts and crying out they don't want to be here or they don't want to die. Then Raiden confesses his past will never leave him and that the justice and protect the weak is just an excuse (hiding), the fact is he loves to kill no matter who it is, that he was born this way. What bothers me after all that crap they let it slide. Same with the 3 month period of Raiden when he becomes a cyborg. And the true antagonist the Senator was just bull. Other than that it's ok.
The Gameplay (w/ game mechanics):
Platinum games knows how to make action packed games. Metal Gear Rising takes stealth into high speed action. You can literally cut many things, boxes, people, bridges, gates, etc. But you can't literally cut everything (explain that later). It is easier to cut more using Blade Mode. Blade mode is a technique that allows Raiden to cut with easy making time go slower and aiming better. You can proceed to go stealth but that really doesn't work, you'll get caught most of the time so it's better to take the high profile but don't worry you can get caught and still achieve an S rank. You can also customize Raiden, increasing his armor (heath) or blade mode, buying weapons (most of the time is the weapons of the bosses you kill thorough the game) and equipping what I can assume is costumes (changing body armor) using points you gain called BP points through the game. Problem is when customizing Raiden you have to exit your current position and go into the customization screen and after done you load up a saved checkpoint you can't do it freely. Also no dodge, you can only bloc using parry and even then it's still not enough. Game is pretty violent and gory when cutting soldiers up and their parts are flying everywhere. You also have an AR mode where Raiden can see where enemies are located, where prisoners are, where item boxes or items are, or what objects you can cut. Using AR is pretty useful but you cannot run or attack when using it so use it wisely oh and can let you see in the dark.
The Sound (sound effects, voice acting, etc.)
The Music is kickass. Platinum knows what they are doing. Fighting bosses, or regular soldiers, geckos, etc. Music knows when to kick in. The Voice acting is solid. Raiden still sounds like the good old Raiden (same Voice Actor). Everyone has a good actor or actress and even Sunny has the same voice actress and she sounds pretty good, and even though I hate the senator I must admit voice actor is pretty good, got the character right. The sound effects sound great, explosions and cuts, blade, gunfire, defecting, and rumble sounds great.
The Graphics (w/ concept):
Graphically looks great. Raiden looks amazing with his new Cyborg body, and his new and improved HF Blade looks like a beauty. Character models look great, soldiers, important people like Sam or Sunny, Geckos, Metal Gears, weapons, and even the environment. Frame rate is smooth but rarely it tends to go below 60fps. I also love how whenever you cut someone/something into pieces all you see left is just the parts like string if you cut to much.
The Controls (w/ presentation):
The game plays smoothly and responds well too. I had no problem parrying many attacks but when the camera starts to spaz, parrying gets hard to do. Using the Sub Menu for weapons and items gets annoying to use since you have to stop moving to use it or you have to hold the left or right d-pad to use it. The Boxart looks great, Raiden cutting a cyborg in half and full on color booklet to boot. I didn't get the Limited Edition but I've seen some online and man I should have gotten one.
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance is a different take on the Metal Gear Solid franchise but in a good way, in fact I am glad this game happened. If they start with the Rising series I wouldn't mind, just add more stuff to do and fix some of the issues and we could be looking at the next king of high speed action games.
Overall:
Story: 7.5
Gameplay: 9.0
Sound: 10
Graphics: 9.5
Controls: 9.0
Overall: 9.0