Metal Gear Rising - Revengeance review - Lvl cap interactive

Hey everyone, this is Ivan Alvarado with lvl Cap Interactive and today I'll be reviewing Metal Gear Rising: Revengence. There's no way to explain the story in MGR other than by calling it the perfect union of Platinum Games and Kojima Productions. Anyone familiar with the Metal Gear series knows how weird the stories can get. The same can be said of anyone who's played any of Platinums' previous games, they tend to be more on the far end of insane. In Rising, we're dragged forward at breakneck speeds along side the cyborg ninja Raiden who has, as it seems, left his family behind to begin working with a mercenary group to protect high ranking government officials. During the beginning of the game we see one of Raiden's clients get ambushed by a group of cyborg PMCs which forces Raiden to take action. To not spoil anything, Raiden eventually comes across one of the games antagonists, Jetstream Sam, who bests Raiden in a duel and leaves him severely injured. This leads Raiden to acquire some cool new upgrades and return to the front line for his, um, revengence. The story continues to take some weird turns, especially in the end, but it does fit in the universe and sits on the darker side compared to what Metal Gear fans are used to. Rising is on the short side in terms of overall length, taking about 7.5 hours to complete, but doesn't feel as if you're given anything less than what was intended. There should be no surprise that Rising is just gorgeous. The visuals are extremely crisp and do a great job of showcasing the vicious moves Raiden is able to pull off. The enemy design is well done and even more so on the boss characters. Trust me, in one boss battle, what should be possible for him to do in order to evade Raiden's attacks was made possible and is nothing short of cool to watch. Raiden's character model is also well designed, from his two piece sliding visor to his large and animated sheath, he's just cool to look at while standing still or while in the middle of one of his many insane combos. Rising is also insanely violent with bodies being cut to shreds by the player and other characters being decapitated or dismembered during cut scenes. But it's ok, they're just cyborgs, main menu. I have to say that it's one of the coolest main menus I've ever seen. But on to more serious things, the presentation in Rising is very sleek and fits well into the futuristic style of the story. Coming into this game at a full sprint did feel a little odd, this being a Metal Gear game and all. But as I began to get accustomed to the fast paced action that Rising provides, it was only clear that any other form of movement would be much to slow. Controlling Raiden was never a problem, and with his ninja run, navigating the levels became even easier since he vaults, hops and slides past obstacles without slowing down or requiring any additional inputs. From navigating through the levels to the combat, Raiden controls as precise as you'd expect. Entering blade mode to cut your enemies into hundreds of pieces to only further add insult to injury by ripping out their fluid filled spines and crushing them in your hand for a good old recharge never gets old. There are a few problems I have with Rising. Being forced to come to a complete stop to get into the item menu and the erratic camera name a few and in the middle of combat those can become a major problem. They break the flow gameplay and causes you to not only stop what you are doing to enter the item menu, but the many times you may try to stop to enter the menu, the enemies that are left off screen by the bad camera cause you to get hit by unseen enemies which stops you from being allowed to enter the menu. You're also never told how to use Raiden's new moves or combos when you buy new upgrades for him. I had to discover on my own that the move list is under the header "Help" in the pause menu which then revealed to me an entire slew of new moves that I had never done. There's also a large number of VR missions to engage in. They follow the series staple of being extremely challenging while staying fun. And for any fan of the older VR missions, the PS3 version is getting exclusive DLC in which the older VR mission presentation is on display and in full HD while you attempt to beat the clock while controlling Raiden or the Dwarf Gekko. Similar to the rest of the game, the sound design was well done. The sounds of slicing through enemies and objects is only matched by its physical fun and deflecting bullets off your sword would not be as fun without proper sound design. Where the problem tends to come in, and sadly so, is in Raiden's voice acting. The voice acting is good, but the production team did a bad job of deciding how and where to use the different levels of Raiden's character. Through your time with Rising you'll come across 4 different sides of Raiden, sometimes one right after the other. It doesn't break the game but it's noticeable. Other characters don't have this problem and just as the other Metal Gear games, the voice acting can be a little over done, but it works. Rising shouldn't be looked at by Metal Gear fans alone, since it's not designed as a standalone stealth game. It's a game made for gamers in general. It has its flaws and although some detract from the overall experience more than others, none of them utterly break the game. Metal Gear Rising is a fun, fast paced and brutal action game that keeps you entertained from beginning to end and I still consider it one of the better games to come out this year. Despite its flaws, you shouldn't miss this game. If you're still unsure, do yourself a favor and rent it.