Featuring more cuts than a movie by an OCD crew.
I
seem to be making a lot of confessions these days, mostly to myself and the
wall that I seem to enjoy talking to so much, and I’m continuing the trend
here. I have never played a Metal Gear game before, is my confession, and Metal
Gear Rising is my first Metal Gear game. And having the boxes stacked as such
is much like confessing your love to your school crush on the day of her
funeral.
Why
have I never played a Metal Gear game? Bad luck mostly, entirely actually. The
only one I have technically ‘played’, by which I mean I played an hour as
indicated by the single quotes on the word played, is Metal Gear Solid 2… which
brings up all sorts of irony that series fans might be laughing at just about…
NOW. I missed the PlayStation, my PlayStation 2 died around the time Metal Gear
Solid 3 came out (and 2 refused to work), I went down the road of the Xbox 360
and now I go down the singular road of PC, which basically means my chances of
ever playing another Metal Gear game are as existent as the Unicorn of Darkness
from my Dreams on an Autumn Evening in the City of the Monsoons. Thankfully,
Metal Gear Rising made its way to PC and I finally get to play a Metal Gear
game, though not a ‘real’ real Metal Gear game, to make things more
confounding.
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| Raiden must avenge someone and deliver revenge. |
Metal
Gear Rising: REVENGEANCE is also my first Platinum game, isn’t this a game of
firsts now, which is surprising because they have always managed to tickle my
pickle but have also managed to stay out of my grasp, infuriatingly so as I
still trudge on my quest to get my hands on Bayonetta.
60
frames per second is an ideal games should strive for… nay, it’s a necessity
that games must strive for. Sure, 30 fps is good enough in many cases but 60
fps is just better, flat out plain and simple better, much better, to the extent
that if I were to become the Supreme Beloved Dictator of the Earth then I would
make it a law: Thou must haveth your game runneth at 60 frames per secondeth
for my lovelyth patronageth. Unfortunately I won’t be the Supreme Beloved
Dictator of the Earth for another 23 years, so till then we must wait, and hope
that we don’t have more developers striving for a ‘cinematic look’.
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| Raiden is highly mobile and controls fluidly. |
Nonetheless,
Metal Gear Rising runs at 60 fps and we should have it no other way for action
games. The fluidity of control and smoothness of motion are just too important
to sacrifice for a ‘cinematic look’. And Metal Gear Rising is the kind of game
that would be virtually unplayable at 30 fps, and thankfully, Platinum follows
a solemn oath of 60 fps, which is good because that’s great.
Now
for those not in the know, read further to now be in the know. Metal Gear
Rising is a ‘side-story’ of sorts in the long running Metal Gear Solid series
which are all stealth/action games with a story so convoluted, crazy, deep and
complicated that it could easily be adapted into many forms and make millions.
The games are rather crazy but take themselves serious, and interlink
real-world history with its military sci-fi setting to great affect and
generally crazy effect. Rising follows Raiden, an important side-character,
following the events of the fourth game. It’s important to keep in mind the
fact that it is a ‘side story’ since it is quite different from the main
series.
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| Capable of cutting gigantic mechs in half, but can't cut open a door. |
And
these differences start with the fact that it is a straight-up action game,
which is understandable because you controlled essentially ‘normal’ soldiers in
previous games, but here you control Raiden, who is best described as a Cyborg
Ninja Samurai. And it’s about as crazy as it sounds.
Yes,
there are some gimmicky stealth mechanics thrown in into the game, which mostly
just get in the way of things, but it is a straight-up high octane action game
in the vein of games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta and so on.
What
does make the game very interesting is that it is a very different kind of
action game, and perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it’s a bit
like the Ninja Gaiden games and an itsy bit like God of War. I compare it to
Ninja Gaiden because Raiden is very fast and highly mobile, typically being considerably
faster than his enemies, capable of swiftly changing targets, dodging and
countering and so on. And to God of War because it’s filled with its share of
over-the-top ridiculous moments of crazy scales, generally fuelled by simple
quick time events and scripted sequences, such as Raiden running along missiles
to reach a retreating mech, or Raiden tossing a mech the size of building.
Despite how crazy these moments are, they always felt a bit dull owing to their
scripted nature, thankfully there are plenty of in-game ‘awesome’ moments such
as perfectly parrying a group of enemies and taking them all out with a
counter-attack and eating their internal organs as they fall over like
daffodils in a breeze filled with flying chain-saws.
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| The game takes its fair share of jabs at modern culture. |
Now
Rising’s greatest problem is in its greatest strength, the combat, and the
problem here is the fact that despite its comparatively unique nature and fun
rhythm, it is ultimately shallow. Raiden has a very limited selection of moves,
and there is very little progression or divergence to speak of. Even the
alternate weapons you unlock have very limited moves and cannot even be changed
mid-combat, which means that Raiden has very few tools to play with overall.
While there is enough to keep you thoroughly engaged your first time through,
there isn’t enough to make you come back for a round 3, and definitely not
enough to have you return for a round 4.
The
game is also relatively easy, which is why I’d recommend playing it on the
default hard difficulty your first time through, and this also owes to Rising’s
main combat gimmick: Blade Mode and Zandatsu. Blade Mode is a bit like Bullet
Time with a sword, except that it lets you perform precise cuts in directions
of your choosing. Zandatsu is Raiden’s ability to yoink out an enemy
cyborg/mech’s internal organ and absorb it to refill his health and energy.
This actually makes combat very interesting and has it enter a ‘rhythm’ (on
harder difficulties, where you are actively in danger from all enemies) wherein
you struggle through combat while also looking for fresh enemies to perform a
quick open heart surgery on in order to keep you from dying. I had my fair
share of exhilarating moments where you eat an enemy, return from the brink of
death and then proceed to try to get his friends. Do note that I follow a
personal doctrine of never using healing items during combat in most action
games, since they just feel more fun if I don’t descend into a menu in the
midst of combat to mystically repair myself, though Rising’s lets you ‘equip’
healing items to automatically heal you when you dip to zero health, which is
helpful during boss battles.
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| Cut & Heal Man |
And
talking about boss battles, boy oh boy, are they a treat. I’m going to take a
moment to talk about how easy it is for games to make you feel awesome when
your character has a certain title and creed to live up to, which is something
I really liked in the Megaman Zero series where bosses generally called you the
God of Death, and after getting my ass handed to me a few times I’d finally
live up to the character’s creed and feel awesome. And Rising does nail that
feeling of bosses being more than just bosses, with clashes feeling like
genuine (whatever that means) showdowns between incredibly powerful cyborgs and
it’s rather nice that the clash goes beyond the physical realm and ascends to
the realm of ideologies. War philosophy seems to have always been an integral
part of the Metal Gear series and all the villains as well as Raiden, are all
too happy to preach their ideologies to one another. And that is arguably the
best part of the story, and the villains, is that along with each one being a
unique encounter to look forward you could also look forward to get your
philosophical pickle tickled and I rather liked the fact that regardless of how
crazy, deranged or ruthless some of them are, you can’t help but sympathise
with them and their ideologies a little bit.
Of
course, it’s Raiden’s job to cut everything to bits and he does a fairly good
job too, good enough that I would expect to see him take a Masterclass or two
in Masterchef Australia, but that’s beside the point. There’s a pretty variety
of enemies to face and the fact that they have to be approached in differing
ways is great, but the fact that you can largely treat groups of them in the
same way is a bit disheartening, but the variety is just enough to keep you on
your toes during combat. The same can’t really be said for the environments,
and while they are varied they are just backdrops for the action. The game is
at its best in large open areas, mainly because the camera is a bit like a
disappointing son, you’ll bear with it but you secretly want to do nothing but
strangle it. That’s mainly because the infinite number of lethal machines and
heavily armed soldiers you come up against are nothing, absolutely nothing
compared to the wrath of a wall, the wall which will cause your view and
perspective to shift suddenly, making it nigh impossible to parry that incoming
attack, the wall that makes it nigh impossible to see the enemies you want to
see.
And
while a faulty camera has been the bane of many in-door sections in other
games, they can be particularly infuriating in Rising, where you parry attacks
by flicking the movement stick in the direction of an enemy attack and
executing a light attack, which obviously becomes infuriating to performs if
the camera decides that now is the perfect time to take its relationship with
the wall to the next level. Thankfully, open areas are far more abundant and
you typically get stuck fighting in guilty spaces when you muck up some
stealth. The lock-on function tends to be rather useless outside of boss fights
owing to how mobile enemies can be and, you guessed it, make it impossible to
parry attacks from other enemies.
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| The game still has its share of amusing characters. |
Overall
the story is a tad forgettable and, for now, largely throw-away. The bosses and
their aforementioned ideologies are the best part, and even they could have
used a fair bit more of fleshing out. The final boss battle might go down in
your memory for being representative of how Platinum can top itself in the
crazy department but that’s it. ‘A fun romp’ is perhaps the best way to
describe it.
But
combine the flaws with the fact that the game is easily too short, and we have
a pickle to be in. The game left me wanting more, and not in the ‘good’ way of
“Oh that was great, now I really want more”, but in the ‘bad’ way of “Oh, was
that it? I’m sure you could do more and better!” (note the existence of ! and
?, very important details). I just felt like they could have done more, much
more with the formula (and they might, since a Rising 2 is very likely) and
felt that the game fell a bit flat of its own craziness and scope.
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| The DLC is throw-away. Not really worth it. |
The
DLC is also pretty throw-away, worth it only for the story elements, and even
those aren’t anything incredible. They barely last an hour or two and feature
reskinned portions of the main game, with Jetstream Sam being the more guilty
of the two. Blade Wolf has some story details regarding Raiden’s amusing canine
mechanical friend’s background, but is worth little else.
All
in all, Metal Gear Rising is a fun romp but not a particularly incredible romp.
It did a whole lot of good but it just fell a bit short in many aspects… but I
definitely want more. I had a blast playing through it, and while I’d question
its value at full price, it is worth it at a discount, such as the one I got it
with.
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