LONG ASS TITLE over and
over!) begins in Africa. You are Raiden, the bodyguard of the prime minister of
an undisclosed African state. The first words of the game are “Three years.
We’ve come so far in three years”. These are the words of the aforementioned
leader and the first thought that pops into my head is “Things are probably
going to go downhill for this guy fast...”
Raiden is employed by Maverick, a private military company
in the not too distant future, to guard the prime minister. So he’s rolling
along in his convoy, with a couple of tanks and a few dozen guards and, lo and
behold, things start to go downhill fast.
The convoy is interrupted by some guy who looks like a
futuristic Mitsurugi and he proceeds to defy the laws of physics and chop
people, and tanks, into little bits. Well, turns out Raiden’s a bit of a badass
too and isn’t very happy about this. That’s when things get awesome.
Revengeance is a game which is honest form the start. Raiden
is a cyborg, he has a sword that sparks with electricity, he’s stronger than
most other cyborgs and can deflect bullets. Also, he can cut really big things
in half... If this is something you’re going to have a problem with then it’s
probably best you don’t play the game. If you don’t like the opening scene you
might not get on with the rest of the game and I can understand that, it’s not
for everyone but MAN! Absurdity has never been so good!
So the president is kidnapped and after this introduction
you’re thrown right into the game. You quickly learn that normal cyborgs are no
match for Raiden, defeating handfuls at a time. With basic controls the game is
pretty easy to learn, it’s difficult at first to get the grasp of the timing
required for parrying but once you’ve had a little practice it becomes second
nature. The game starts at an intense pace, and continues like this pretty much
all the way through. It’s not that it’s difficult to play it’s just that it’s
all action, in a good way.
Podcast number 5 was when we first discussed Revengeance.
When Paul (a.k.a. Bez) spoke about it I asked him “Is really hack and slashy?”
He waffled on a bit, but in general the answer was “Not really”. Having played
the game I can say this: Bullshit Paul! It is really hack and slashy! When your
character is overpowered, carries a cool sword, has a combo count, kill count
and ‘how many pieces did you cut this guy up into’ count it’s pretty obvious in
my books that this is primarily a hack and slash game.
That being said, there are breaks in the intensity at times,
with the game throwing in elements of stealth throughout. They’re the sort of
stealth sections which are pretty difficult to get through undetected (or maybe
I’m just a bit crap at being stealthy) but you can still hack your way out if
your discovered (like I was, many, many times). Overall there was enough
stealth based sections to allow a bit of time off from tapping the buttons and
it was also pretty varied and enjoyable using your enhanced vision (Think of
Batman’s vision in Arkham City) and cardboard box to get past enemies.
The combat isn’t just about tapping the buttons randomly as
quickly as possible either. With more challenging enemies it becomes necessary
to master parrying and a perfectly timed parry can set you up to enter blade
mode, a bullet time sequence without the bullets. Time is slowed and a
precision element of the game comes into play. Every enemy has a target square
where, if hit, can chop the enemy in half allowing perfect access to their
spine... As enjoyable as this is for the pure hilarity of ripping someone’s
spine from their mid-air body it also serves the purpose of regenerating your
health and energy bar, which you’ll need if you want to keep ripping spines out
of cyborgs! This is also the part of the game where you get to see how many
bits you can chop things into. I didn’t get tired of this, not one bit.
Downsides of the game are that on occasion you’ll find
yourself against a wall and the camera won’t want to behave itself, refusing to
point away from the wall. This makes it difficult to pull off that perfect
parry at times but it really wasn’t enough to ruin my enjoyment of the game,
more of a small irritation that an issue but it’s a shame it wasn’t fixed.
Also, if you’re having trouble with a particular boss you’ll find their voice
irritating at times, especially if you can’t work out how to block one of their
moves. I think I was asked about 20 times “Does it hurt?” by a boss with a
REALLY annoying voice after he stabbed me in the chest lots... yes of course it
hurts, you’re FRICKIN’ STABBING ME!
You’ll also find that the characters are pretty cliché but
this all comes back to the theme that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously.
It’s sprinkled with moments of genuine hilarity and throwbacks to previous
Metal Gear games. Corny and over the top at times with moments that left me
literally speechless at the absurdity of it all. For a game with approximately
6 hours of storyline Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance packs in a lot. It’s more roller-coaster than train journey and if you’ll let it, it’ll certainly take you
for a ride.
Verdict
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| There's lots of this sort of thing |
I have a dream! A dream with more games that don't stick to a 'proven' formula! With
so many unoriginal games out there these days (I’m looking at you FIFA “Insert
year here” and Call of Duty “Insert title name and sequel number here”) this
game is a taste of something a bit different. It’s something new and for that
alone it should be celebrated, even if it’s not your cup of tea. Add to that
the amusement this game provides and the pure enjoyment the game provides and
you’ve got yourself a fantastic piece of work . An extreme ride from start to
finish, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is like the Cocaine of computer games:
it’ll mess with your head get you pumped up and leave you addicted and wanting
more. It might also give you a headache...
8.4/10
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