In an age where developers seem to be trapped in a crazy race to make games with 50, 60 or even 100+ hours of gameplay, it’s refreshing to see a game which goes in the opposite direction. In fact, the 5 hours it took me to finish the main campaign of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, packed in more intense fun than any of the super long titles you care to name.
This game is, in a word, insane. A relentless, non-stop action-fest. In it, players get to control a cyborg-ninja armed with a sword which can slice just about anything into hundreds of tiny pieces. Fences and walls? Check. Helicopters? Check. Bipedal mechanical monstrosities? Double-check! Where most games will start slow and ease you into the action, getting more and more intense, Revengeance simply goes, ‘nah’, and within the first 3 minutes has you battling a 10-story tall robot armed with machine guns, rocket launches, and plasma cannons. And believe me when I say that, on reflection, this was simply the warmup act.
Forget relatively modern concepts like ‘story’ or even logic (after all, why shouldn’t a bipedal robot, with cannons mounted to its head which vaguely look like horns, ‘moo’ and bullrush you?), what this game does is give you the world’s best action figure, some completely over the top scenarios and then say ‘all yours’. Because action is what this is all about, and, being made by PlatinumGames, it’s utterly brilliant. Controls are tight and responsive, movements smooth and flowing, and the combo system one of the easiest to pick up and remember.
At the center of all this is the swordplay. While standard and heavy attacks act as you’d expect in most action games, land enough blows and you can activate a special blade mode. This slows down time, lets you control the angle of your slice, and then dice your foes into as many pieces as you see fit. More than just a gimmick (though it is a brilliant one at that) it also plays into tactics: aim your slice at the right place, and you can extract the enemy cyborg’s healing unit, allowing you to repair damage and recharge your fuel cells, which in turn lets you activate the blade mode again.
While you can earn upgrades to increase health, damage and the like, this is a game that rewards skill above all else. The difference between scraping through a fight with barely enough health to see off a mosquito or cutting through your enemies like they’re not even there all comes down to skill and mastery of the game’s mechanics. A single fight which could take you upwards of 40 seconds to complete when you first started the game, can take as little as 3 seconds once you know what you’re doing. Foes which once made you hesitate will be seen as nothing more than a chance to show off. It makes that much of a difference.
And believe me when I say, that by the end of the game, you will have acquired a high level of mastery. Simply because there’s no other way. The boss fights in particular are designed to test just how well you’ve mastered all the moves. Whether it’s launching surprise attacks from different angles forcing you to become an expert at blocking, or by hurling cars, tanks and trucks at you so you can slice them apart with carefully controlled use of blade time, or by using super-fast attacks which hone your ability to dodge and counter, unless you’ve become the boss, you will get beaten. Again, and again, until you finally master it. But once you do, oh boy, the difference it makes is extraordinary. This is all helped along by the fact that the animation is brilliant. This is one of the few games where the in-game action is as flashy as it is in the cut-scenes.
And then there’s the quicktime events. (You know, where the game plays an animation and you have to press the prompted command at the right time or you fail.) There are several of these, and they’re not particularly short. Usually this is the sort of thing that would drive me crazy, except firstly, they’re entertaining, secondly, the gameplay lives up to the ridiculousness of the cinematics, and, thirdly, they offer a much needed chance to rest your hands. (If you listen to the devs, this is actually a deliberate decision. Believe me, your hands will welcome the rest.) On that note, while it is possible to play with a keyboard and mouse, you really will want a controller for this. Also, once you’ve finished the game, there are multiple arenas and challenges for you to test your mettle against, as well as two shorter campaigns, focused on two side-characters.
If you love action games, then Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is just about as good as you can get. Insane, intense, and incredibly fun. Highly, highly recommended. ■