Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

Blade mode!
Easily the coolest part of Rising is the ability to cut virtually anything. Not only does this make you feel like a real badass, it can also result in some really awesome kills. Even when you’re not cutting your foes down to size, the system also helps to make QTE’s a little more interest/intense. Unfortunately the system is far from perfect (It wasn’t uncommon to fail / mess up a QTE), but it’s quite enjoyable for a first attempt.

Impressive Visuals
As with all Metal Gear games, Rising features some impressive graphics. Many of the cut scenes look top notch and are quite enjoyable to simply watch. In addition to having nice cut scenes, the game does a good job of portraying mutilated bodies. I wouldn’t call it overly graphic, but realistic enough to make it count. This results in a lot of really flashy kills and overly badass displays we’ve come to expect from Platinum Games. With this being said, the same can’t be said for background items. Typically when you cut a box or something into 100+ pieces, it just looks like an awkward pile of scraps. Overall though, they did a fantastic job with the making the most of this unique concept.

NOT

The Sad Realization you SUCK!
Unlike Bayonetta and really most other hack and slash games, Raiden lacks the ability to do an evasive roll. Instead you need to either dodge the attack, do this unlockable side/backjump move or parry to avoid taking damage. To make matters worse, there isn’t much of a need to master these skills against normal enemies. Thanks to the Zandatsu system, you can almost always cheat death by entering blade mode and slashing a red box. If you do this correctly a prompt will appear and pushing that will result in a flashy finish that gives you full life/energy.

By the time you make it to the second boss (first is filled with life drops), you will probably have a poor understanding of the mechanics and could quite possibly lose. This can make it seem like there is a difficulty spike, when in reality you were never playing the game properly. Once you happen to actually master the parry system, the game becomes a LOT more manageable, but you got to make a genuine effort to get better.

VR Missions aren’t too amazing
In addition to having a campaign, there are also 20 VR missions for you to discover. Every VR mission focuses on different skills and have objectives like, kill everyone, stealth kill everyone, make it to the objective undetected, kill everyone via zandatsu and complete the stage with the provided secondary weapon. Most of these missions aren’t terribly difficult, nor are they exactly long. Like the last stealth stage can be completed in under 20 seconds. You can probably complete the first 18 missions in an hour or two, though you’re going to need some serious skill to accomplish the remaining two. While these are a nice change of pace, it would have been nice to see either more missions or longer versions of existing missions.

VERDICT

While Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has a few rough patches, it’s still a pretty solid experience. Even after finishing the game 5 times for this review, I was still discovering new things about it. With this being said, it would have been nice to see a longer campaign/VR missions, but at least there is plenty to unlock to pass the time. I strongly recommend this title to anyone that loves the hack and slash genre or anyone who enjoys the Metal Gear series in general.

[Editor’s Note: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]