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"[GAME] Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance"

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Wed 06/03/13 at 00:15
Regular
Posts: 261
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game that has had a rocky development. First announced as Metal Gear Solid: Rising in 2009 it was then quietly cancelled in 2010 as Kojima Productions struggled to create the game based on the concept of cutting everything. In 2011, Kojima managed to get Platinum Games to develop the game under the new name of Metal Gear Rising: Revengance.

The game caught my interest due to “Blade Mode” because I enjoyed the motion controlled swordplay in Zelda: Skyward Sword and wondered whether a game with normal controls could allow precise directional cutting to increase the depth of a typical hack and slash game. After playing Rising I believe the answer is yes, although Platinum Games didn’t manage to explain or execute blade mode as well as I hoped they would.

Blade mode is used a lot in Rising, but nearly every instance of its use allows the player to wildly button mash to slice the enemy into pieces. When an enemy is low on health the player can activate blade mode to “Zandatsu” (cut and take) your enemy’s fuel cell which recharges your health and fuel meter. When this happens time slows down and a red square appears on the enemy which you slash and press circle to take the cell. On higher difficulties you have to quickly hit this spot as you are vulnerable to attack, but on normal you can mash horizontal attacks with square and vertical attacks with triangle and still hit the red square easily. This conditions you as a player to always use square and triangle when using Zandatsu. However, on two separate bosses late in the game you are presented targets that are meant to be hit diagonally and there are no tutorials to explain to you that the right control stick is used for these moments. Maybe it is common sense as no button was presented for diagonal attacks but a tutorial on it would have prevented my moments of frustration. I mean there is a tutorial dedicated to teaching you to click the L3 and R3 buttons together to activate Raiden’s “Jack the Ripper” mode, so why they omitted something arguably more complex is beyond me.

Although you can unlock new moves for Raiden to use, the game won’t tell you how to execute them. Before I received the game I read that you press Square and X simultaneously to dodge but I couldn’t see this information when I unlocked the move. I’m not surprised when many reviewers claim this game doesn’t even have a dodge move.

Platinum Games may have taken inspiration from Bayonetta in that you are rewarded for timing your defensive abilities. In Bayonetta just avoiding an attack with a dodge would trigger “Witch Time” a few seconds of invincibility and increased damage to go crazy on your opponent. In Rising you are rewarded for timing your Parry which is blocking an attack with a sword swing. If timed correctly, many attacks will be countered allowing you to slash like crazy in blade mode. To Parry you flick the left stick in the direction of the enemy and press square while stationary. The direction of the enemy is relative to where your camera is facing and unfortunately the camera has issues on occasion. If you don’t flick towards the enemy Raiden won’t block at all, forcing you to dodge or run. Considering that the game asks you do not get hit to obtain an S rank score for a section, it is annoying that the camera could spoil it for you.

Although I mention that the camera can mess up your ability to block, if you have a view of the enemy you can exploit the parry system by rapidly flicking the left stick and mashing square at the enemy as correctly parrying will cancel any attacks triggered by an incorrectly directed left stick flick. If you ignore this exploit and play normally it makes you feel like a ninja bad-ass to block a barrage of attacks like one of the boss fights where the enemy throws down a smoke bomb at darts at you from all angles of the screen. However, with the exploit it can be reduced to child’s play and considering defensive parrying is the main focus of combat this is arguably game breaking.

Although I complained about a lack of tutorial for using the right stick with blade mode, the highlight of the game was one of the bosses where you can make it easier by using blade mode to slash in certain directions with accuracy to break their defenses and finish them off. However, I believe that it sometimes fails even when you have slashed perfectly.

On Normal difficulty it is fairly easy to hack and slash through most enemies leaving the bosses as the main challenge. However, many of the bosses drop a lot of health packs which took away the challenge for me. There was a section in the game where they decided to implement quick time events that kill you instantly if you fail them, which was the lowest point of the game for me although you aren’t sent far back.

At the end of my play time I clocked in at just less than 7 hours. I’m not sure whether VR missions added to this total but it’s a fairly short game. The story has some crazy over the top moments, but it isn’t as deep compared to previous Metal Gear Solid games. Like many games recently, it pulls a story twist to try and make you feel guilty for playing a violent game but it then proceeds ahead as normal anyway. It is possible to stealth kill through large sections of the game without alerting every nearby enemy making the game easier if you are successful at it, making stealth more important at higher difficulties. However, the way that enemies can spot you seems inconsistent, either being deaf and blind or spotting you in ways you didn't think possible.

Even with these issues, I enjoyed Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and consider it a must rental for hack and slash fans. If the game is played as intended the game is pretty engaging as you watch the enemy for parry-able attacks and run or dodge from unblock-able attacks and bullets. The one boss fight in the game shows how fun blade mode is when executed well and there is so much potential with this in a sequel. Then again, in Skyward Sword the direction that you swung your sword (e.g. left to right) was relevant when countering an enemy which isn’t the case in Rising, so technically Rising is a step backward in swordplay mechanics. It is a minor nitpick that is easy to change, but when developing a game based on sword play it is wise to look at what has already been done.

The story didn’t do much for me but the gameplay and bosses have decent enough mechanics to make the game worth playing, but it is only worth full price if you enjoy replaying the game for better scores or on higher difficulties. I hope the game sells well enough for a sequel so that the parry and camera issues are fixed and for blade mode to be used more like in the one boss fight across the game. Platinum Games shows that they can replicate deep swordplay without motion controls although time is slowed down to allow for it. I love this part of game more than anything found in Bayonetta or Devil May Cry but there isn’t enough of it in Rising for me to adore it. When played normally the game tests your observation and reaction skills and it is as engaging as the best of the genre, but assuming you know the exploit you just feel like you are making work for yourself when you don’t use it. Considering its development issues the game has turned out surprisingly solid and I’m glad they made it.

Ultimately though Metal Gear Rising makes the Zan, but fails to Datzu the crown of its genre.

7.5
Wed 06/03/13 at 15:10
Regular
Posts: 261
pb wrote:
A good read. Not sure about this, but it sounds more accessible than previous Metal Gear games to me.

Thanks Pb.

Considering the complexity of Bayonetta and previous Metal Gear Solid's stories Risings tale is pretty straightforward to follow.

As for the game it doesn't do a good job of teaching the controls and if a player is unaware of the parry exploit then I can understand why some would find certain sections challenging. If you don't get to grips with or exploit parrying then it would be difficult to beat the second boss that a few people gave up on in the demo. But considering Rising is more of a hack and slash to Solid's stealth I find it hard to compare accessibility.

For me personally though I thought normal difficulty was fairly easy and that Hard should have been the default difficulty.
Wed 06/03/13 at 11:47
Moderator
"possibly impossible"
Posts: 24,985
A good read. Not sure about this, but it sounds more accessible than previous Metal Gear games to me.
Wed 06/03/13 at 00:15
Regular
Posts: 261
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game that has had a rocky development. First announced as Metal Gear Solid: Rising in 2009 it was then quietly cancelled in 2010 as Kojima Productions struggled to create the game based on the concept of cutting everything. In 2011, Kojima managed to get Platinum Games to develop the game under the new name of Metal Gear Rising: Revengance.

The game caught my interest due to “Blade Mode” because I enjoyed the motion controlled swordplay in Zelda: Skyward Sword and wondered whether a game with normal controls could allow precise directional cutting to increase the depth of a typical hack and slash game. After playing Rising I believe the answer is yes, although Platinum Games didn’t manage to explain or execute blade mode as well as I hoped they would.

Blade mode is used a lot in Rising, but nearly every instance of its use allows the player to wildly button mash to slice the enemy into pieces. When an enemy is low on health the player can activate blade mode to “Zandatsu” (cut and take) your enemy’s fuel cell which recharges your health and fuel meter. When this happens time slows down and a red square appears on the enemy which you slash and press circle to take the cell. On higher difficulties you have to quickly hit this spot as you are vulnerable to attack, but on normal you can mash horizontal attacks with square and vertical attacks with triangle and still hit the red square easily. This conditions you as a player to always use square and triangle when using Zandatsu. However, on two separate bosses late in the game you are presented targets that are meant to be hit diagonally and there are no tutorials to explain to you that the right control stick is used for these moments. Maybe it is common sense as no button was presented for diagonal attacks but a tutorial on it would have prevented my moments of frustration. I mean there is a tutorial dedicated to teaching you to click the L3 and R3 buttons together to activate Raiden’s “Jack the Ripper” mode, so why they omitted something arguably more complex is beyond me.

Although you can unlock new moves for Raiden to use, the game won’t tell you how to execute them. Before I received the game I read that you press Square and X simultaneously to dodge but I couldn’t see this information when I unlocked the move. I’m not surprised when many reviewers claim this game doesn’t even have a dodge move.

Platinum Games may have taken inspiration from Bayonetta in that you are rewarded for timing your defensive abilities. In Bayonetta just avoiding an attack with a dodge would trigger “Witch Time” a few seconds of invincibility and increased damage to go crazy on your opponent. In Rising you are rewarded for timing your Parry which is blocking an attack with a sword swing. If timed correctly, many attacks will be countered allowing you to slash like crazy in blade mode. To Parry you flick the left stick in the direction of the enemy and press square while stationary. The direction of the enemy is relative to where your camera is facing and unfortunately the camera has issues on occasion. If you don’t flick towards the enemy Raiden won’t block at all, forcing you to dodge or run. Considering that the game asks you do not get hit to obtain an S rank score for a section, it is annoying that the camera could spoil it for you.

Although I mention that the camera can mess up your ability to block, if you have a view of the enemy you can exploit the parry system by rapidly flicking the left stick and mashing square at the enemy as correctly parrying will cancel any attacks triggered by an incorrectly directed left stick flick. If you ignore this exploit and play normally it makes you feel like a ninja bad-ass to block a barrage of attacks like one of the boss fights where the enemy throws down a smoke bomb at darts at you from all angles of the screen. However, with the exploit it can be reduced to child’s play and considering defensive parrying is the main focus of combat this is arguably game breaking.

Although I complained about a lack of tutorial for using the right stick with blade mode, the highlight of the game was one of the bosses where you can make it easier by using blade mode to slash in certain directions with accuracy to break their defenses and finish them off. However, I believe that it sometimes fails even when you have slashed perfectly.

On Normal difficulty it is fairly easy to hack and slash through most enemies leaving the bosses as the main challenge. However, many of the bosses drop a lot of health packs which took away the challenge for me. There was a section in the game where they decided to implement quick time events that kill you instantly if you fail them, which was the lowest point of the game for me although you aren’t sent far back.

At the end of my play time I clocked in at just less than 7 hours. I’m not sure whether VR missions added to this total but it’s a fairly short game. The story has some crazy over the top moments, but it isn’t as deep compared to previous Metal Gear Solid games. Like many games recently, it pulls a story twist to try and make you feel guilty for playing a violent game but it then proceeds ahead as normal anyway. It is possible to stealth kill through large sections of the game without alerting every nearby enemy making the game easier if you are successful at it, making stealth more important at higher difficulties. However, the way that enemies can spot you seems inconsistent, either being deaf and blind or spotting you in ways you didn't think possible.

Even with these issues, I enjoyed Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and consider it a must rental for hack and slash fans. If the game is played as intended the game is pretty engaging as you watch the enemy for parry-able attacks and run or dodge from unblock-able attacks and bullets. The one boss fight in the game shows how fun blade mode is when executed well and there is so much potential with this in a sequel. Then again, in Skyward Sword the direction that you swung your sword (e.g. left to right) was relevant when countering an enemy which isn’t the case in Rising, so technically Rising is a step backward in swordplay mechanics. It is a minor nitpick that is easy to change, but when developing a game based on sword play it is wise to look at what has already been done.

The story didn’t do much for me but the gameplay and bosses have decent enough mechanics to make the game worth playing, but it is only worth full price if you enjoy replaying the game for better scores or on higher difficulties. I hope the game sells well enough for a sequel so that the parry and camera issues are fixed and for blade mode to be used more like in the one boss fight across the game. Platinum Games shows that they can replicate deep swordplay without motion controls although time is slowed down to allow for it. I love this part of game more than anything found in Bayonetta or Devil May Cry but there isn’t enough of it in Rising for me to adore it. When played normally the game tests your observation and reaction skills and it is as engaging as the best of the genre, but assuming you know the exploit you just feel like you are making work for yourself when you don’t use it. Considering its development issues the game has turned out surprisingly solid and I’m glad they made it.

Ultimately though Metal Gear Rising makes the Zan, but fails to Datzu the crown of its genre.

7.5

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