3 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 18.8 hrs on record (18.7 hrs at review time)
Posted: 24 Feb, 2014 @ 6:45am

Metal Gear Rising seems to be the product of (a) very peculiar mind(s), tailored for a narrow niche. In the world of Metal Gear (Solid), Metal Gear Rising throws out any competent stealth, rendering even the idea of crawling around in prowl of carefully-aimed headshots pointless. Instead, it opts for a much more action-oriented style of gameplay.

Oddly enough, even the stealthier parts of Metal Gear Rising take influences from outside of the Metal Gear Solid games. The path to infiltrating a location without getting discovered (albeit made nigh impossible in most cases) involves sneaking up to an enemy and pressing a button highlighted on the screen, which summons a killing animation and a swift death. From the more gun-oriented Metal Gear Solid games (which do have some limited melee fighting, which never quite reaches competency) where most deaths are dispensed with a well-placed headshot and then a hiding of the victim, quick melee kills from behind was something it never quite dabbled in. Metal Gear Rising feels a slight obligation to include stealth elements, but by no means should - or would - anyone ever think it's much to write home about. This is, first and foremost, a hack-and-slasher, a game where the only thinking you do is the combo you want to string together, and retaining a sense of when to press a button prompt.

In some regards, though, Metal Gear Rising still makes a case for carrying the Metal Gear name. Winding codec conversations peppered with snarky remarks and a lingering sense of (oftentimes forced) camaraderie are still present in the game, albeit not to the extent they've been presented in past games. There's a lot of left-overs from previous Metal Gears, like the presence of nanomachines that were a focal point of Metal Gear Solid 4, the appearance of Sunny, appearances by towering Metal Gears, and of course, Raiden. Purely looking at the main conflict that carries the story, however, shows a game which, while holding the Metal Gear name, doesn't lend itself to much creative liberty to do whatever it wants to with the series. The conflict centers around characters never seen before, in a premise years away from the last Metal Gear Solid, with implications far-reaching, and touching upon the previous staples of the Metal Gear series (like The Patriots and the idea of PMCs, like the Desperado Enforcement LLC, which much of the game centers around).

All in all, the story sets itself up to have a far-reaching impact on the Metal Gear universe, but ends up falling flat, mostly positioning itself in the timeline as a pocket of Raiden's life, a tour de force on a revenge path, finishing the game with the general world none the wiser about the events that transpire during, and shape, the game.

Aside from the bland and mostly insignificant plot, however, is a game which does make some contentions on being its own entity in the hack-and-slasher genre. Instructions are very down-played, and many players (including some reviewers who've written about the game) may find themselves (unnecessarily) frustrated. As personal experience has shown, the existence of a dodge button is hidden away under lock and key, something many players have managed to miss throughout a whole playthrough. Even with its existence, though, it's still easy to get hit in a crowd of enemies, and the life supply in Metal Gear Rising isn't cranked up quite as high as you'd expect. After some time with the game, you'll realize this is a hack-and-slasher much more built with blocking and parrying in mind, facilitating success by way of careful timing and precision. Recovering health works by going into blade mode, and quickly - but precisely - cutting through a square that's shown somewhere on the enemy's body, and then slamming on the highlighted button prompt after you manage to successfully cut into it.

There's different responses you need for different enemies, some having attacks with an area of effect that can still catch you even with a dodging attempt presented at the right time, some being unblockable (or unparryable), some triggering quickly after you initiate an offensive towards the enemy.

This is a huge focal point of boss battles. While the bosses aren't as fascinating as some of the other boss characters in the Metal Gear Solid series, all of them are intricate battles with different sections and stages that require different responses (from parrying to dodging to attacking at the right time, either normally or in Blade Mode), with most of them being, admittedly, frustrating. The game is not very accommodating with the bosses, dealing exorbitant amounts of damage to players who miss a cue for an attack or make any other mistake. This makes the absence of a save/load function especially frustrating, seeing as often you can end up initiating a cutscene leading up to a boss fight, where you might find yourself with no healing or attacking items, leaving you in a situation where you have to either find ways to abuse the game's bosses' responses/attacks (which is possible with some of them, to an extent) or just run through the strategy the developers have intended the player to go through perfectly, which can lead to some frustrating sessions, with a low margin of error (especially dealing with Blade Mode) and a high level of punishment for making a mistake.

Overall, though, the game is a delight. Raiden's movement is extremely fluid, and his attacking is both flowing and complex, making you feel both powerful and poetic in combat, especially when you notice small touches, like Raiden using his feet to fight and so on. Dodging and parrying works well, and Blade Mode, while fidgety in occasions where both you and the enemy move, giving you an extremely small window of time to successfully slash through them, is functional, and is a great, interesting way to finish off enemies, never leaving even the kill of a pawn soldier unsatisfying. If there's nothing else objective to say about the game and its quality, then what can be agreed upon without room for disagreement, is that Platinum is a mechanically competent developer of hack-and-slashers. Their animation is great, the combat is refined, and the numerous costumes and weapons add customization to the game that add longevity.

Overall, Metal Gear Rising is not particularly noteworthy. The story is one-note and the writing, while decent, is not as memorable as the previous Metal Gear Solid games, and trades in touching, affecting moments for comedy and angst (one particularly egregious example being George, the funny Guyanese kid whose largely defined as being the comedic relief). The combat, while extremely fluid and refined, is a different experience from most hack-and-slashers, and requires a more careful and methodical approach than others. The enemies are mosty bland soldiers and robotic constructs, and, while the bosses in the game do offer variety in that respect, most of them are still one-note characters who aren't overly memorable. The extra items are fun to discover, purchase, and use, but don't offer quite enough for subsequent playthroughs.

In the end, I would recommend Metal Gear Rising much more as a gameplay experience than a story experience. While there is a story there and it does strive to be a serious, thought-provoking narrative, it falls flat most of the time, and the characters, issues and locations it deals with are fleeting, unmemorable and insignificant.
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