Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: Re-Review: Hyphenated Nano-Machine Version
Ah yes, time for a game that bucked all of the trends of its Metal Gear namesake by ditching stealth-focused gameplay mechanics in favor of balls-to-the-wall katana-slicing action. Metal Gear Solid this game is not. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t a few MGS holdovers to keep long-time fans of the series engaged. What’s that? How interesting…it looks like we have a transcript of two fans discussing PlatinumGames’s 2013 release.
Cool Guy: Duuuude, have you heard about the new Metal Gear yet?!
MGS Fan: Nah, man. That’s great though! You know I love me some Metal Gear Solid. I wonder where they’re gonna take the series with MGS:V? What’s the weird subtitle gonna be this time?
Cool Guy: Well actually it’s not MGS:V. It’s more of like a spin-off that still takes place in the timeline, but it isn’t a core game. It actually isn’t even called Metal Gear Solid.
MGS Fan: Oh..
Cool Guy: But! It does have a whacky title! Wanna hear it?
MGS Fan: Yeah definitely! Lay it on me slick!
Random Eavesdropper: Huh?
Cool Guy: …alrighty! It’s called Metal Gear Rising…..Revengeance.
MGS Fan: What…the fuck…does that even mean?
Cool Guy: Dude, I have no idea, but it looks badass. It’s super action-packed and crazy and the soundtrack is supposed to be totally rad!
Skeptical MGS Fan: Alright…I guess that sounds kinda cool. More Metal Gear is always a good thing right?
Cool Guy: …
Worried MGS Fan: …right?
Cool Guy: Haha! Sure, man! Whatever you say.
Concerned MGS Fan: I still don’t know how Snake would fit into any of that though. He’s definitely more of a stealth guy and we all know how much he enjoys that CQC.
Cool Guy: Snake’s not in it.
Worried MGS Fan: Well, who else could be the main character?
Cool Guy: …
Panicked MGS Fan: …oh no. Please no. Don’t tell me it’s that blonde (silver-haired? grey-haired?) dou-
Cool Guy: Raiden’s back!!
Disappointed MGS Fan: Fuck.
It’s really hard for me to express exactly how I feel about MGR: Revengeance (better get used that word because I refuse to not type it). On one hand, it’s undeniably fun to play and has well-crafted and satisfying combat. On the other hand, it offers a laughably generic story that thinks way too highly of itself and interrupts the great gameplay too frequently. There were just way too many instances of the different characters — both hero and villain alike — waxing poetic about the supposed moral ambiguity of war and capitalism and technology and blah blah blah. It’s the kind of stuff that only lands when you have it subtly delivered by a skilled hand. Here, the material is delivered with all of the subtlety of, well…of a MGR: Revengeance cutscene which is to say: inexplicably shouted across large distances over the sound of heavy machinery and explosions.
It took me 4 hours and 47 minutes to complete this game and over 2 hours of that was spent watching cutscenes or — even worse — regaining control of Raiden only to be relegated to walking slowly as the game threw more unnecessary exposition/preachy nonsense in my nano-enhanced face. (Side note: I was cruising YouTube for some clips to refresh my memory of some of the cutscenes and I found this gem which is all 2 hours of cutscenes from the game.) Because of the extensive interruptions, MGR:Revengeance somehow manages to be both a joy and an infuriating nightmare at the same time. And before you think to say so, yeah, I know you can skip the cutscenes, but that’s one thing I feel is sacrilege on a first playthrough — no matter how annoying the interruptions are.
MGR:Revengeance is a tale of two games in this regard and, as it turns out, the game that you actually get to play is fucking great. The game you have to watch, however, is considerably less than fucking great. One might be so inclined to call it pretty fucking terrible to be honest. That said, I kind of have to admit that the cutscenes and absurd story are definitely worth experiencing at least once though, especially if you have a soft spot for cheesy C-level (that’s right I said ‘C’) action movies like I do. In fact, I would love watching a completely 4K CG movie version of this game (just the cutscenes put together doesn’t count). Hell, why not go full schlock and make it live-action with terrible…well, everything? If done right, it would be undeniably awesome. If done terribly, then you would still have flashy nonsense to laugh at one-second only to be dumbfounded by its sheer absurdity in the next second, which are key hallmarks of every so-bad-it’s-good movie.
To be fair, the problem with how the story is told in MGR:Revengeance really has nothing to do with the actual (still bad) plot, and instead has everything to do with just how much the cutscenes ruin the flow of gameplay. I understand that on subsequent playthroughs, I won’t be watching the cutscenes for anything more than comedic effect — if at all — but they will still be there to bring the fast-paced action to a screeching halt. The point of the game isn’t to experience a grand, philosophical story worthy of the Metal Gear moniker. Instead, the point of the game, is to stylishly combo your way through hordes of nano-machine enhanced enemies while banging your head to a fitting, high-intensity metal soundtrack. The gameplay is where the game undoubtedly shines and unfortunately there isn’t a whole lot of it. But, what is there is worth the price of admission alone because it’s that damn good.
The are four tiers of increasing insanity for the primary melee gameplay. The first is your normal combat where you run around like a katana-wielding madman and combo your way through hordes of enemies. The second is a more precise melee called “Blade Mode” where you can alter the path of your katana for maximum slicin’ n’ dicin’. You can slow down time and chop your enemies into teeny-tiny pieces like you’re trying to prep some finely minced techno-chili meat. It’s basically bullet-time for swords…a.k.a. it’s fucking awesome. The third tier would be the Zandatsu which is basically a roided up Blade Mode where you carve away at your enemies to reveal spines, hearts and the like that fully restore your health and energy. The final tier is aptly called “Ripper Mode” where you get a huge damage boost and can effortlessly cut through enemies armored or not. It takes the standard ‘first tier’ gameplay, skips 11, and takes the carnage up to 12. It’s all incredibly fun and satisfying and in a game this short this kind of gameplay never gets old. To be honest, I don’t think it would get old if you played the game five times over. It was just that fun.
Since the game is so short, multiple playthroughs are encouraged and I would imagine that the better you get at the game, the more fun it becomes. The only other drawback besides the lengthy cutscenes was the fact that the devs didn’t really do a great job explaining how to get the most out of the game. There was a brief tutorial that explained how everything worked, but it just kind of shows you how cool everything looks. It didn’t really explain the importance of blocking, parrying, back-dodging or anything else that is super necessary for the player to 1) have fun and 2) not die every two minutes. My first impression was that the game was filled with cheap enemies and I would need to spend way too much time improving my reflexes to god-like standards to make it through just part of a level. However, all was forgiven when I remembered that the internet exists and did a quick search and found this amazing video. (Another side note that honestly should probably it’s own paragraph, but I don’t care because I’ve already committed to doing it this way: I know the game is old and everyone has probably played it by now, but if you haven’t, I highly suggest you watch the video I linked above. I loved the guy’s blunt way of explaining how to play the game to me like I was a child. It’s like every single one of his subscribers was pestering him about the game and he told multiple people on separate occasions how to not suck. Then, to keep more people from bothering him he sat down and made this video out of pure frustration. He has the tone of a loving parent who has finally accepted that their child actually can’t be anything they want when they grow up. Not only is it oddly hilarious, the guy really teaches you how to play the game. I couldn’t stop playing after he taught me how.)
Man. That was long.
As a whole, MGR: Revengeance reminded me of NES/SNES-era action games that were all about overcoming the challenge through well-crafted, fun gameplay. Any notion of a story felt tacked on serving as motivation to get the player from point A to point B. Basically, it’s there to tell the player that they’re the good guys who need to kill a bunch of bad guys before they get to the final Big Bad Guy at the end. There’s nothing wrong with an absence of story and it was rare for old-school games to be considered ‘story-focused’ any way with the exception of RPGs, of course. Unfortunately, big titles today (and certainly in 2013) are expected to have a story that’s supposed to somehow make the game more worth playing than if it only has fun gameplay to offer.
Where MGR: Revengeance goes wrong with the story portion isn’t necessarily with the plot. It’s with the egregiously long cutscenes that the Metal Gear franchise has become known for over the years. Only here, instead of getting some interesting character exposition or revelation, we have to listen to roided up/nano’d up people yell ambiguities about war and peace while trying to kill one another. It’s just, like…huh? As I said before, the gameplay is where this game shines and you would be doing yourself a huge disservice by not playing it. It’s the most fun I’ve had with a game in a long time if we’re purely basing that on gameplay alone.
And, oh yeah: something, something memes.
Random Stats and Stuff
Favorite Punctuation Used: The hyphen — I fucking love hyphens as clearly evidenced by my improper/over-use of them :D
Estimated Time to Beat: 7 Hours
Time Played: 4 hours 47 minutes. :)
Recommended to: Any fan of well-made action games that encourage multiple playthroughs for maxing level grades and getting the most of the combat systems. Any fan of terrible action movie plots involving light SF and ridiculous set-pieces. People who think Mountain Dew and Doritos not only constitutes a meal, but should also entirely replace the food pyramid as we know it.
Rating: 211 out of 236 finely diced nano-machine/human body parts.
Next Game on the List: Distraint
