DISCLAIMERS:
- the reviewer has not finished the game with 100% completion
- the game was played on the Xbox One S using the Xbox 360 version of the game intended for United States audiences through the backwards compatibility feature of the Xbox One series of consoles
Four years after its initial reveal as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the game finally released, but under a different name. During development a decision was made to give the game to Platinum Games to develop, which also resulted in a change of name to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. This review will judge the game on its own merits.
In many ways the gameplay of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is rather generic. There are two attack buttons and a jump button that are pressed in different amounts and orders to execute combos. The player walks through various missions with various walls that block progression until every enemy is defeated in that area. Throughout the game the player unlocks additional weapons to use on their second weapon slot, which is controlled by the second attack button. The reviewer was able to complete the game comfortably only ever using the first secondary weapon unlocked, though. Every part of the various missions is ranked and at the end of every mission the player receives a rank for that mission overall. Players also earn points depending on how well they played during a mission that allows them to upgrade the playable character with various enhancements to the characters weapons, health and meter upgrades, and new abilities before the next mission. All of this is executed well enough, but this aspect of the game feels rather lifeless and gets rather repetitive.
One way that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance sets itself apart is with the playable character’s ability to run. Besides being used to move more quickly and go around obstacles easily, it also gives the playable character additional moves to use. If the player is running they get use either of the two attack buttons to do a running attack, which is not a common feature in this genre.
Probably the most unique aspect of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and possibly its biggest selling point is the Blade Mode. In this mode everything becomes much slower and the player can freely cut anything in front of them, which will result in pieces of what they are cutting to fall off as long as they are cuttable. Usually enemies are made cuttable by dealing enough damage to them or parrying them perfectly. While this mode is engaging and looks good, it is extremely shallow mechanically for the majority of the game. It is only ever developed towards the end of the game, where the player can only cut a specific place or they will be punished and when specific limbs need to be cut off of enemies to progress. This development of the mechanic is appreciated, but it is still easy to pull off and shallow. Environments are also cuttable but this is not a mechanic that is ever really used besides when a cuttable object blocks a path. Blade Mode can be activated by using the meter that is filled by attacking enemies or by pushing the Blade Mode button when the game is briefly in slow-motion generally at the end of combos.
Another way that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance tries to deviate from the generic formula that it otherwise conforms to is through its parry system. Parries are activated by pushing the direction that an attack is coming from and the primary attack button at the same time. The player knows a move is parry-able if the enemy flashes red before they attack. This has extremely forgiving timing so it is hardly difficult to pull off. If the player parries close enough in timing to the attack, which can be a quite bit more difficult, then the playable character will do a counter attack. Usually this counter attack will hit the enemy and allow the player to initiate a series of quick time events that quickly destroy that enemy or make that enemy vulnerable to cuts. Really the only reason that the player will ever fail to parry something is because of the strangely poor camera. The game is constantly recentering on the playable character despite the player trying to look elsewhere with the right analog stick. Even when locked on, some of the tracking moves in the game can cause the camera to move quickly in a new direction right about the time when the player should be parrying, causing the player to fail the parry if they pushed in the direction that the enemy was originally at.
What happens when these enemies are vulnerable to cuts throughout their body is a bit problematic for the challenge of the game. Once the player is in Blade Mode with an enemy that is off guard or cuttable, they can cut that enemy (usually multiple times) and eventually a prompt to press the action button will appear on screen. If the player presses the action button in time, a short cutscene will play where the playable character rips out a piece of that enemy, instantly killing them, and that piece of the enemy is crushed, fully restoring the player’s health and meter. This means that once the player knows how to make an enemy cuttable or off guard, they can easily and frequently instantly kill that enemy and fully restore their characters health and meter. Because of this, many of the encounters in the game feel extremely repetitive and worthless because the player can already easily instantly kill the enemies while also fully restoring their characters health and meter.
One way that the game combats this lack of challenge is by filling areas with many enemies that take a lot of effort to be instantly killable. This basically forces the player to use stealth takedowns and not engage in battle during many areas. Although the stealth works well in this game, it is a bit too basic to be a mechanic that the developer obviously expects the player to spend a lot of timing using, as beating stealth sections also usually involves a lot of waiting as guards walk around. Overall the stealth is a nice distraction at first, if a bit simple and easy, but doesn’t really hold up over time.
Where Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance really redeems itself compared to other games in its genre are the boss battles. Once the player makes the credits roll it becomes rather obvious that a large amount of the effort that went into making the game went into the final boss battles. These fights are easily the most well designed in the game, feature an impressive amount of mechanics, and arguably most importantly are the most challenging parts of the game. These fights, and especially the very last one in particular, are such a high point that they make it difficult not to like the game overall, despite its various problems and the rather generic, repetitive, and simple rest of the game.
Technically Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is impressive. Loading times are surprisingly fast. The entire game runs at a mostly stable 60 FPS, which is better than the majority of Xbox 360 games. This is while there are constant physics calculations being made due to the cutting mechanic too, making this achievement even more impressive. There are also many unique and interesting locations for most of the missions, which makes the game a treat to look at most of the time. It is obvious to see where some corners were cut to get the 60 FPS performance, but the game does still look good. There are also some pre-rendered cutscenes which have some obvious compression and try to keep the same look as the actual game. Because of this and the pre-rendered cutscenes’ 30 FPS rendering, the actual game usually looks better besides a few visual effects and animation quality. Overall Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a great game technically.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance‘s audio is impressive too. As is standard for the Metal Gear franchise, the voice acting is well executed and really adds to the experience. There is also some rather memorable and quality music in the game. Part of what makes this music memorable is the game’s ability to increase the intensity of the music as the intensity of the gameplay and visuals increases. Overall Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is also great in terms of audio.
The plot and writing of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is rather lacking in most places. Throughout most of the games none of the characters really stand out, the world is rather uninteresting, and the writing does not provide many interesting moments. The only real exception to this is the final boss of the game, which is extremely well written and is easily the best part of the game in terms of writing and plot. Overall the plot of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is mostly disappointing until its amazing ending.
The value of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will depend on the type of player. Players who plan to master every difficulty, beat all of the VR missions, and find every collectable will find the game to be worth full price. Players who won’t play beyond their initial playthrough of the game should look for a discounted price before playing the game. When this review was written two free DLC missions with new playable characters were available that added quite a bit to the value of the game.
Overall the reviewer would give the game an 8 out of 10.
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