Sometimes in life you just want to chop things up into a million pieces. You can’t explain it; it’s just one of those mysteries of life. “But Matt,” you say, “how can I chop things up into a million pieces without getting in trouble with the po-po?” Well never fear my friend because the answer can be found in Platinum Games upcoming action game Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
I recently had the opportunity to check out the first few hours of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance and it has definitely jumped up my list of most anticipated games for 2013. Set for release on the 21st of February the game puts you in the metal boots of Raiden who some of you might remember from previous games in the Metal Gear series. If you are the kind of person who hears “Metal Gear” and gets excited well cool your heels pal because MGRR is quite a step away from Metal Gear Solid games. Rather than being a stealth-based shooter Revengeance is all about slicing and dicing enemies, and although you can theoretically play through it stealthily there isn’t much point considering how fun the gameplay can be when you just run in swinging your sword. Not to mention the fact that the scoring system doesn’t really seem to give you much incentive to play stealthily since it’s very much based around combos and speed.
The game opens with Raiden working a VIP protection job as a bodyguard for a Prime Minister of an undisclosed African country. Sounds like a pretty cushy job right? Totally. That is until a crazy cyborg terrorist arrives and starts carving people up of course, including Raiden who gets multiple limbs removed. Flash forward a little bit and we find Raiden all fixed up and looking for revenge with his new cyborg limbs and a shiny new suit of armour. You then proceed to travel around the world hunting down the leaders of the terrorist group and chopping up their minions into thousands of tiny pieces (sensing the recurring theme here yet?)
The main combat mechanics of the game are quite similar to Platinum Games’ previous titles such as Vanquish and Bayonetta with a big focus on smooth flowing combos, however the most interesting mechanic is Blade Time. During battles you can enter Blade Time which puts you in slow motion while allowing you to flick the right analog stick to direct Raiden’s sword in an effort to, yes, chop the enemy into a million pieces. This may not sound like much, but in practice it is extremely fun and it certainly didn’t get boring during the 3 hours that I played the game. You can also carve up environmental objects such as trees and cars with your sword and if you cut them just the right way you can crush enemies with them just as I did when I sliced through the support legs of a ferris wheel. Yeh, a ferris wheel fell and crushed the bad guys. Awesome.
The enemies come in quite a range of forms from your standard foot soldiers to cyborg wolves with chainsaws for tails (whuh?) and you even get to battle a Metal Gear. Then of course there are boss battles which those of you who have played Platinum’s previous games will know are going to be epic.
While this game may not be for everyone I am definitely excited for it and I’m planning on picking it up Day One. I’m even going to splash out for the Collector’s Edition which comes with a 30cm tall Raiden statue since I’m a hoarder of nerdish delights such as that. I cannot wait to get my hands on this game again.
