Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)

A wild ride with over the top ridiculous characters and gameplay. I am a massive fan of Kojima's games, so may be a bit biased.

The story was fine, not as involved as most Metal Gear games, but made up for by the sheer ridiculousness of the combat and characters. If you want to run around as a cyborg ninja in high heels, while cutting everything you see into 1000 pieces, then this game is for you.

Would recommend on sale though, as it is shorter, and most of the replay value comes from using different weapons and/or achieving better combat scores for each level.

This game trades Metal Gear’s traditional stealth gameplay for high-speed, over-the-top action. The MC now is the legendary Raiden, a cybernetically enhanced ninja armed with a katana and the game’s signature “Blade Mode,” which allows you to slow time and precisely slice through enemies and objects. And while we had seen this character in the mainline series before, you could never play as him, so this was a very different and unique approach, and even though it divided fans at the time, I enjoyed this one a lot even though I'm a big fan of the MGS franchise.

The combat is flashy, responsive, and bolstered by a bombastic soundtrack and some of the most memorable boss fights in the action genre, even though this is the first time this franchise had an entry like this. The story is deliberately over-the-top, leaning heavily into camp and political satire, but it lacks the depth and complexity of the mainline Metal Gear series. The campaign is short, often taking less than eight hours to complete, though its pacing is tight and the boss encounters make up for the brevity. Replay value comes mainly from higher difficulty modes and the satisfaction of mastering the parry system.

On PC, the game suffers from some technical shortcomings. The camera can be frustrating, the controls feel clunky without a controller, and the port has resolution and frame-rate quirks. Despite these flaws, the core gameplay remains exciting, and with a gamepad, it offers a thrilling, stylish action experience. For those who value spectacle and fast-paced combat over stealth and deep storytelling, it’s a sharp and satisfying ride, I'd say this is a must for fans of Hack'N Slash titles such as Devil May Cry. This one also inspired a lot of memes going around even to this day, since it's characters are very charismatic and exaggerated, it is worth playing solely because of this.

HACK-AND-SLASH - Raiden grapples with his past and personal identity as he embarks on a personal quest to save the lives of children from the Desperados.

PROS:

++ Exhilarating and fluid gameplay. This is the first Hack & Slash game I've played and what an introduction to the genre! MGR is a spinoff of the MGS series and instead of slow, methodical stealth-action, MGR is the exact opposite of what the series is known for. The moment-to-moment gameplay was exhilarating, engaging, and just the right level of difficulty to make the combat tense but fun. If I had all the time in the world, this is a game I would replay again and again to try and master the combat since there's great depth to it. Visually, the combat was also amazing since Raiden moves so fluidly and the effects really sell the idea that Raiden is incredibly powerful. On top of this, Raiden moves fast on the battlefield and automatically blocks gunfire while dashing. All this to say, MGR makes you feel like the ultimate warrior.

++ Excellent boss fights. The bosses were great and none of them ever felt cheap. Literally every single boss was fun to fight. MG Ray, Mistral, Monsoon, Sundowner, Jetstream Sam, MG Excelsius, and Senator Armstrong were all exhilarating battles with bombastic endings.

++ Hype soundtrack. The soundtrack was amazing and just like the combat, it was the opposite of what I was accustomed to in the MGS series. It did a phenomenal job of hyping me up.

++ Phenomenal opening chapter. I was instantly hooked especially because the first boss of the game was METAL GEAR RAY!!

++ Blade mode. Enough said.

++ Raiden. Though I felt that the attempts at characterizing Raiden missed the mark, this game only cemented Raiden as one of my favourite videogame protagonists.

++ Great visuals & performance. Graphics were exceptional, especially being a 7th-gen game. And the performance rarely stuttered which is really important for a game like this.

CONS:

-- Incredibly short. A playthrough on Normal lasted just over four hours. This does make the game easier to replay, but I wish it was longer.

-- Forgettable story. The story was not that compelling since none of the antagonists (Sundowner, Mistral, Monsoon, and Senator Armstrong) were interesting. The only antagonist I really liked was Jetstream Sam but his story is only explored in the DLC which I don't own.

-- Secondary weapons were wasted. Minor gripe but I would have liked it more if all the secondary weapons were not things you had to equip, but rather expansions to Raiden's moveset. As it is, you can only equip 1 of the 3 and there's no incentive in exploring the other two. Making all three accessible at any time would have made the combat even more fun.

-- Stealth. Stealth was shoehorned in, even though there was no point in having it in this game.

-- Unruly camera during combat. Camera wasn't terrible per se, but I did have to wrestle with it at times when I was fighting a lot of enemies.

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure

Game number 47 was Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. This is an action game set in the Metal Gear universe… and I think it may be the best DMC type game I have ever played!

Graphics/Sound: This game looks so good! The only thing on the 7th generation that looks better is probably Final Fantasy 13. The graphics are masterfully done and I don’t think anyone can possibly have complaints. It looks good even in comparison to some games coming out today. The style of the graphics is also something to note. It feels like every design choice in this game was made to further badassness. The visuals are great and will have you glued to the screen and the sound effects are powerful and compliment the action in every way. Finally, the soundtrack and voice acting are superb and are filled with absolute bangers! (10/10)

Story: You play as Raiden (the person you play 80% of MGS2 as) while he is working as a mercenary a few years after the events of MGS4. The game opens up with Raiden as he is working to support the military of an African country. During this job, the country is attacked by more cyborgs… Raiden is a cyborg himself. Raiden attempts to fight them off, but they eventually take down the prime minister of the country and kick Raiden’s butt. These people say that they don’t want peace to exist in the world because they enjoy war and profit off of it too much. The rest of the game is basically Raiden seeking revenge on this group of cyborgs for undermining his job in Africa and kicking his butt. The story is actually better than average and has some really cool moments. I just need to warn you that this game is definitely a product of 2012 and edge culture of the time. If you think anime like Death Note or God of War 3 are too edgy and stupid then you will also roll your eyes at Raiden and some of his BS later in the game… thankfully I have a healthy appreciation for edgy trash and loved it here. The most of the game sees Raiden battling an internal conflict of his and justifying why he fights and the fact that he kills lots of people. About 75% of the way through the game he just says fuck it and acknowledges that he also likes war and killing people… I thought this was pretty stupid but it was also surrounded by badass fights. Honestly, I really enjoyed this story and it mainly served as an excuse to escalate things and create bigger and bigger battles throughout. (7/10)

Gameplay: The gameplay here is absolutely spectacular! It is primarily a beat-em-up system where you fight soldiers and giant mechs. You get the standard of stringing combos with light and heavy attacks. Combat is so fast, but the effects also give it so much weight. Every time Raiden swings his sword it feels like he could be killing 10 bad guys. In addition to the main sword swings, you fill up a rage meter and get to do manual sword swings when it is full. This involves a mini game where you use the right stick to direct Raiden’s sword and attempt to cut off limbs and slash the heart of the enemy. When you deal a killing blow in this rage mode and also manage to slice the heart Raiden will reach in the enemy, grab their heart out, and heal from it! It's absolutely awesome! When fighting grunt enemies you can chain insta kills using this mode and it makes you feel like the strongest person around! Every level includes a boss fight and the ones on display here are some of the best bosses ever created. They all have multiple mechanics that you must master in order to defeat them and they often require all of your reflexes. Enemy varianty is also great. The game only has 8 levels and there are tons of different enemies for Raiden to fight. You will not get bored from fighting the same 5 enemies over and over again here! In between levels you get to level up Raiden and you also get the chance to go back and replay specific levels to grind out exp… I never felt that was necessary, but it is a nice possibility for anyone interesting in doing some grinding/replaying. The gameplay here is really exceptional. The combat is top notch, the bosses are all fantastic, the levels involve a small amount of stealth (which spices up gameplay), and the light RPG aspects are a really good touch. I genuinely think this is the peak of the genre. (10/10)

My Experience: I had an absolute blast playing this game! I was on the edge of my seat during all of the extremely awesome battles and was absolutely glued to the screen. MGRR was a peak experience for me and randomly selecting to play this reminds me of why I decided to do the Road to 360 challenge at all. I had an amazing time here! (10/10)

Overall: I think this is an absolute must play for any fan of the action combat genre and you need to get on it stat! The story is great, but not the best ever… but every other aspect of this game was a 10/10! You will enjoy your time playing through this game. Please go give it a try! (10/10)

I spent a total of 7 hours, 4 minutes, and 4 seconds playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

I have spent a total of 461 hours and 57 minutes on the Road to 360 challenge so far

Next Game: Record of Agarest War

Finally, after defeating the last boss (it took me 40 attempts, f**k my life), I can write a review for this game. And as you can see, I liked it. Let me explain why:

Finally, a good f**king soundtrack! Especially during boss fights, the music stands out. While I don't really remember what plays during regular fights, the music during boss battles... I can't stop singing it (even when all my friends muted me in voice chat). My favorite is "The Stranger I Remain."

Cool fight system. Well, when it comes to the "hitting" part, it's pretty straightforward. You simply spam left/right click (I didn't change my tactic throughout the whole game). But there's one major aspect - defense. And here, the game's mechanics make it really intense and interesting. You can only parry enemy attacks (aside from just evading), which adds a whole new level of tension to the fights. Personally, I started using parry more effectively after the second boss because it was the only way to defeat him.

Memorable bosses. I won't lie to you when I say that I bought this game after seeing the meme "nanomachines, son." Well, it's not just about one boss that made the whole game seem funny; it's also Sam with his "cowboy" style, Monson with his "special fight system" (f**king 100% dodge), and more.

Despite all the times I died against the last boss, I really enjoyed this game. It's something you must play.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on outo peli. Se on kokenut renessanssia siitä tehtyjen meemien avulla. Pelin tarinassakin höpistään jonkin verran meemeistä, tosin eri merkityksessä. Peli on myös Metal Gear joka ei ole oikein lainkaan kuin Metal Gear. Väkevä elämys se kyllä on.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on älytöntä turboahdettua toimintaa toiminnan perään. Kaikki on suurta, tyylikästä, näyttävää ja räjähtävää. Pelissä hypätään MGS2:sta tutun Raidenin saappaisiin, joka on tässä iteraatiossa käytännössä kyborgi-ninja, joka saa elinvoimaa vastustajia suolestamalla. Tarina lentää Concord-koneen lailla korkealla ja kovaa, vaikka pelissä liikutaan usein oikeissa lokaatioissa ja viitataan oikeisiin sotiin ja tapahtumiin. Yllättävänkin kiinnostava salaliittojuoni ottaa etenkin lopussa älyttömiä kierroksia ja viimeinen loppari on kaiken kulminoituma niin kohtausten kuin taistelunkin puolesta.

Ei pelissä ole paljoa motkotettavaa audiovisuaalisuudessa ja pelattavuudessakaan. Peli näyttää Xbox 360-peliksi hyvältä ja pyörii sulavasti (ainakin Xbox Series X:n taaksepäinyhteensopivuudella). Musiikit ovat joko sinemaattista maalailua tai älytöntä metalcore(?)-runttausta övereiden taisteluiden taustalla. Kontrollit ovat pääpiirteittäin simppelit, mutta erilaista kikkaa ja komboa on perehtyville palkkioksi. Vihollisten silppuaminen palasiksi ja mössön keskeltä sisusten kiskaiseminen on pelimekaniikkana erittäin hauska, ja tuo jokseenkin mieleen uusien Doomien glory killit. Parry-mekaniikan käyttöä varten tuli kyllä tehdä pieni googlaus, sillä se ei luonannut aluksi niin mitenkään. Ehkä isoin roso pelattavuuden osalta on outo kameratyöskentely. Pelissä ei voi lukittautua itse vihollisiin, vaan kamera hakeutuu automaattisesti vihuihin... enimmäkseen. Välillä kameraa saa pyöritellä ympäriinsä vihollisten löytämiseksi, ja pelin nopeatempoisissa taisteluissa tämä kamerakikkailu usein kostautuu osumien ottamisena.

Peli on myös todella tiivis paketti. Sen pelaa läpi helposti päivässä parissa. Lyhyenkin keston aikana samoja vihollisia pääsee näkemään ehkä inan liikaa, mutta tämä on melko pieni särö kokonaisuudessa. Läpipeluun jälkeen pelissä on vielä achievementtejä ja lisätehtäviä, mutta sanoisin, että näiden sijaan peliä pelaa mielummin uudestaan vaikeammalla vaikeustasolla.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance on pelien peli. Se överi, epärealistinen ja ylityylikäs – ja hyvä niin. Aivan joka asiassa se ei iske napakymppiä, mutta enimmäkseen kyllä. Tästä sopisi Platinumin ja Konamin joskus jatkaakin.

The combat is wonderful, since your different attacks flow into each other incredibly smoothly, the music is genuinely a contender for best soundtrack in a video game, and the graphics, while nothing outstanding are definitely serviceable. But then there's the one thing this game has that no other (that I've played) has. The memes. Now, of course, there are other games that have memes, or references to internet culture in general, in them. There are games that have memes about them. But no other does this quite as well as Revengeance.

In game, dialogue is downright insane because of how over the top it is, and makes meeting new bosses exciting just because of the insane exchanges. There's like, 10-15 minutes of basically straight cutscenes right before the final boss, and yet I didn't feel like it drag on a second simply due to how bonkers it all was. This game has it's fair share of flaws but the good is SO good that it ends up being amazing regardless.

This is such a little gem of a game. If you had told me that around 6 years ago when I initially tried it, I would have argued with you. I would have told you about how unfair the fight against the robo-dog early on was and how bad the camera jumped all over the place. But today I can say I finally finished it after picking it back up again in the steam summer sale. And what a blast it was.

I have a rocky relationship with hack n' slash games. I'm no good at memorizing button input combos so it's hard for me to feel like I'm truly using the full spectrum of my character's power when I can't remember how to execute most of it. However, I also love the high of the breakneck speed combat these games typically feature and the brutality of tearing through groups of enemies in the most stylish way possible, so I try to play them anyway.

From start to finish, this was nearly nonstop adrenaline, splicing my enemies into hundreds of pieces with the soundtrack driving me through each mission like a freight train. Nothing could stop me.

Except... when something did.

My few problems with this game stem from the moments of frustration where I'm smashing through a level then out of nowhere I hit a wall. It could be a boss that spends all his time with a shield in front of his face, an annoying set of quicktime events, or even just a normal grunt with an RPG just offscreen. Those little moments that bring the momentum of combat to a halt are there as learning experiences, of course, because then I'm motivated to try to avoid them, which leads to getting better at the game typically. They're just part of the genre, really.

But in this game, for all the fun I was having, they often did feel like they were out of my control. Nobody told me I would need to actually use manual blade mode at any point up until Mr. Shield Boss decided that was the only viable way to fight him around 3/4 into the game. I didn't expect to be prompted with a sequence of quicktime button inputs in the middle of a cutscene. And I sure as hell wasn't able to do anything about an RPG flying towards me when it came from offscreen as I was fighting 4 other enemies at once.

It's a small nitpick, and not enough to bring down my experience significanty, because it's sort of expected to a degree. But these kind of weird hangups happened often enough that they brought this down from a near perfect game to just a really good one, in my eyes.

That said, the plot strikes a perfect balance of tone between dead serious and downright absurd that just makes it an absolute joy, as long as you're willing to take it all with a grain of salt. Especially the final boss, who has become legendary in his own right.

I typically put these types of games down and don't really touch them after completion, but I might don my cyborg suit and katana in the near future for another taste of Revengeance.

Whatever that word means.

This game had very high highs, but also very low lows. When the combat clicks, it feels REAL good, especially with the way the soundtrack ramps up as boss fights go on. The Monsoon fight was maybe my favorite part. But unfortunately there were way too many times where I had to deal with some frustration to figure out how it works alongside with fighting severe camera issues.

If you're a hack-and-slash aficionado there's a lot to sink your teeth into here, and I could see why others love this game. But for me, I'm fine with going through it once. Overall, I'm glad I finally got around to playing it, if only to see what the fuss was about.

Finished story on Easy

Final thoughts:

Even though I'm generally not good at Action Beat-em-ups, this game is so satisfying to watch and play asides from a few minor issues (Camera is too close, and parrying/dodging would've been much easier if it had a dedicated buttons). It's essentially like they made an entire game around the Raiden cutscenes from Metal Gear Solid 4 and turned up the Metal Gear absurdity from 11/10 to a 12/10! All boss feels intense especially for the final boss which is memorable for being one of the most American caricatures I've seen in a game. The music absolutely helps too!

It might not be a Kojima directed Metal Gear in the end, but this game, despite the unique aesthetics, still feels like it part of the Metal Gear Universe. At least... much more than whatever the hell the franchise is doing with zombies lately.

I've been having a ton of fun for the last 6 months or so as I make my way through the Metal Gear series for the first time. MGS 1 plays pretty well for such an old game, and I was absolutely blown away by the HD collection versions of 2 and 3. MGS4 was absolutely incredible as well, despite an ending that was a bit too long. Through the course of playing through MGS4 I came to a sudden and unexpected realization. One that many may be surprised about. Now I'm ready to admit it to the world.

I like Raiden more than I like Snake.

How could you not?

I totally like Snake, don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with him whatsoever. Raiden though, wow. I liked him just fine in MGS2. Sure he was a little bit of a whiner, but can you blame him with all the nonsense going on? His presence in MGS4 is nothing short of absolutely incredible from start to finish. So imagine my excitement to start playing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, where you play as MGS4 Raiden the entire time. On top of that, the gameplay looked is similar to the new DmC: Devil May Cry, which I loved. I was REALLY excited for this.

Unfortunately, I found myself not enjoying Revengeance as much as I had hoped. The story, and more importantly the spectacle, is certainly unique and has that signature Metal Gear craziness. It's just not presented in as cohesive and interesting a way. The main bad guy, or the guy I assumed was the main bad guy is completely uninteresting to me and feels really poorly imagined. He looks less like a murderous force and more like a drunk 45-year-old from your softball team that found a combat suit and decided to try it on. You fight him at one point in the game and he gets away, setting the stage for him to reappear in the final battle.......except he doesn't. That's the last you see of him. The actual end boss kind of just drops into the story out of nowhere near the end.

"Okay. Who brought the keg?"

Some of that might be slightly inaccurate. I'm not 100% sure to be honest because I found the story in this game really boring. I didn't skip cut-scenes because I thought those were pretty well done, but I was starting to skip a lot of in-mission dialog by the end. It was just so slow and uninteresting, and really wasn't contributing to a compelling narrative. With most MGS games I care deeply about the story, but can't always figure out every detail. Revengeance is exactly the opposite. I'm able to understand it, I just don't really care.

I mentioned the gameplay as being similar to DmC and it is....sort of, but that's giving Revengeance too much credit. The key to the combat is definitely the parry mechanic. If you don't get very proficient at parrying very early in the game, you're going to be in for a great deal of trouble. This became very frustrating because parrying was very touchy and inconsistent. The timing and directions didn't work the way you expected, and attacks chaining multiple strikes were almost impossible to properly defend against. This all came to a head about 30 minutes into the game when you square off against a robot dog similar to Crying Wolf from MGS4. You've barely finished being tutorialized at this point, and you're thrown into a battle against a very fast enemy you MUST parry consistently to conquer.

Not to be mistaken with this robot dog, who is actually pretty awesome!

A unique gameplay mechanic is the sword-time slow motion slashing. You manually control where you're slashing Raiden's sword with the analog sticks. It's pretty fun, but not when you need to do it quickly and with precision. The final battle features multiple such moments where screwing up results in an instant fail-state. Failing on a boss fight over and over again on what amounts to a poorly laid out quicktime event is really frustrating, especially when that quicktime event comes more than halfway through the fight, making you start all over again every time you mess up.

On the other hand, Revengeance is a game featuring Raiden kicking ass swiftly and consistently, and that's pretty great. The spectacle definitely reminds me of DmC, and I imagine it would remind me of Bayonetta if I had ever played Bayonetta. That's probably the best I can say about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in general. I really like getting to play as a badass Raiden, and it makes me really want to pick up a WiiU to play Bayonetta, so I can see this sort of thing done properly.