Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance – Swords & Cyborgs
I know it’s taken me a long time to get around to this game, but I was reluctant to pick up something called “Revengeance”. Come on, that’s a terrible name and I have no idea what it’s even supposed to mean. The game itself, however, turned out to be an exhilarating rollercoaster of an action game. I don’t say that sort of thing lightly, because I really hate it when I read reviews that fill up with snappy one line descriptions meant to get them on game boxes. This one actually got my pulse racing at times and had me on edge during the main encounters. It really does excel at being an amazing action game.
Cyborg ninjas all up in
I’m not the first person to say that Hideo Kojima is a little crazy… or a lot crazy. However, it’s that kind of creative crazy that we eat up and come begging for another helping. He knows how to push our buttons and it turns out that giving us a blood filled action game starring Raiden, everyone’s favorite cyborg working for a paramilitary freelance group, is one of those buttons. How do you kick off a game about a cyborg ninja? Have him do a multi-stage fight against a metal gear that even includes running down the side of a building as your introduction. And what fun is it if you’re not fighting other cyborgs with crazy powers every step of the way? But that’s still too tame, so Raiden needs to have an android companion that used to belong to the enemy forces and whose AI has been liberated so that it can freely decide to fight by his side because clearly that could never go wrong. Also, it’s a robot wolf named “Wolf” of all things. I love this game.
As a cyborg ninja your main weapon in Revengeance is your sword. It’s a high frequency blade that can cut through virtually anything, so just roll with it. One of the key points of the game is the combat mechanics built in to make you feel like an amazing badass. Firstly, ninja run lets you quickly navigate obstacles (jumping from platform to platform or scaling a building, for example) without having to do pesky things like press jump buttons while at the same time allowing you to deflect bullets with your sword. Then there’s blade mode where you slow down time to hack things into bits with your sword and try to extract the nourishing fluids (shaped into something oddly resembling a spine) from your enemies. And what kind of Metal Gear game would be complete without stealth? So you are rewarded with the ability to quietly one-shot enemies (or slice them to ribbons in blade mode) if you can take them out from behind or above before they notice you.
Darn government bureaucrats
The plot in Revengeance focuses primarily on Raiden’s desire to make a group of mercenaries pay for screwing up his protection contract and destabilizing a region in Africa to make it a hotbed of fighting once again. Things really get personal for Raiden when he finds out that they’re also turning street kids into child soldiers. Well… parts of street kids at least. It’s all very disturbing. That’s when a US senator from Texas enters the picture. The overarching message is one of greed and the efforts of some to keep a war economy going. There’s also a pretty heavy handed treatment of the evils of nationalism and blind patriotism as support for a war mongering government. Revengeance certainly does not shy away from making some very blunt political statements.
Revengeance has rhythm
While I normally like to talk about game mechanics, graphics, or storyline, I tend to gloss over music in games. That would be a huge mistake when talking about Revengeance. One of the biggest contributions to the overall feeling of badassery comes from the amazingly well paired soundtrack. During the main sequences that make up the space in between boss fights, the music will go from a barely noticeable ambient background to a driving metal instrumental as combat starts. Where Jamie Christopherson’s soundtrack really shines is during boss encounters where vocal tracks pound away as you lock swords with the opposing crazy ninja cyborgs. It makes you feel more like you’re in some kind of anime showdown than a traditional video game boss fight except that you won’t spend 5 episodes powering up and yelling.
Revengeance is definitely worth picking up even if you’re just an action game enthusiast that isn’t particularly familiar with the Metal Gear series. There are plenty of additional things to do in the game like cutting off the left hands of certain cyborgs, finding all of the enemies hiding in boxes, or completing all of the VR missions, that will add a good deal of replayability to the game. Personally, I wasn’t really ready to engage in that kind of goal oriented dismemberment. I managed to get through the campaign mode in under 8 hours, so it’s also a pretty easily digestible game for people that want kick ass action, but don’t have a lot of time to devote to it. Give it a try if you like robots, ninjas, or feeling awesome. Seriously though, what does “revengeance” really mean?
