I got pulled into all the hype surrounding Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and made a pre-order some time ago. I wasn’t sure what to expect but took my chances and avoided the demo and let my order get processed. believe that whilst demos can give players a good idea of what to expect from the game, it can also (albeit slightly) ruin the experience by providing an incoherent transition from the demo to the full game. This part is not thought about and feels like you’ve wasted your time playing a part of the game that doesn’t matter. Boy am I glad that I did that.
Metal Gear Rising focuses on a cyborg ninja called Raiden. MGR starts off quite easy to help you get to grips with the combat and the new “Blade mode” system. You’ll soon feel in control of Raiden’s actions and grasp strategies on how to take out certain types of enemies. But even on the Normal difficulty setting, the difficulty seem to spike once you get past the first real boss. I liked the challenge and it was an incentive to explore Raiden’s skill sets and aiming to successfully perform Zandatsus to fully replenish Raiden’s gauges. Zandatsu is the name given to the in-game technique where Raiden cuts open an opponent and quickly takes their energy source out before their body even hits the ground (bits of it anyway).
It took me 9 hours to complete the game. It was difficult, but I really enjoyed the fast paced gameplay punctuated with slow motion sword action. There’s also stealth kills where you kill enemies from behind or above. Its like a free refill. The music was great and I absolutely loved the epic boss battles – even if it did cost me 50+ continues.
There are things which I thought could have been improved though. Such as the voice acting for Raiden, he just sounded weird like Christian Bale from Batman Begins (actually they sound exactly alike). Another thing is the camera angle is not great at times. Cost me a couple of parrying opportunities when the camera decides to suddenly go on the opposite side.
All in all Metal Gear Rising is a great game. It’s not as difficult as Ninja Gaiden but there’s also a lot of variety in the game to keep it interesting. Just wish the voice acting was better.
CheekyChi 