Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Konami

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is the latest game in the Metal Gear series, however it takes a completely different direction to previous games by focuing purely on fast paced hack & slash swordplay. It's developed by Platinum Games who also made Bayonetta and Vanquish so if you enjoyed any of them then you are likely to love this.

You play as Cyborg Ninja Raiden, who is working for the Private Military Company, Maverick Security, until a band of terrorirst cyborgs kidnap the prime minister that he was assigned to protect. I won't go too into the plot at risk of spoiling it for others, but it can be a rather dark story at times with a large part of it being based on child trafficking to steal brains to create a cyborg army.

Graphically it's the classic Metal Gear bland grey and white areas, it's nothing to shout home about but there are much worse looking games out there. However this graphical style seen to work perfectly and fits in with the high speed constant action. Music plays a big part with a strong heavy rock soundtrack during battles which fits perfectly with the game and keeps the intense fast paced action feeling flowing.


It can be a quite difficult game right from the start, with little explanation on how to do anything, the little it does show you is easily missed as it is just a small bit of text thrown on the screen while you are already in the midst of battle. I had to quickly watch a youtube video showing me how to parry after I was killed by the same one enemy about 10 times. To have any chance of succeeding in the game at all you really do have to master parrying enemy attacks. Even once I learnt how to do it I still found it very hard with most attacks still hitting me, but the more I played I could literally see and feel myself improving and mastering it, and even that feeling alone has a large sense of accomplishment.

A big part that grabbed people's attention when the game was announced, is Free Blade mode. Holding down the left trigger initiates a slowdown where you are given full control of the sword enabling you to slash and slice at any angle. This is good for targetting certain enemies limbs and chopping them up in a darkly entertaining bloody way while aiming for a Zan-Datsu, which means tearing out enemy spines to absorb energy and earn bonus points. It is also used to stop incoming rockets from Helicopter and then cut said Helicopter into 200 pieces.

One classic thing about Metal Gear is the epic boss battles. They are all long, challenging fights and you are bound to die a few times, but part of the fun is learning from your own previous mistakes and persevering until you are chopping up your enemy in a big bloody pile. I really enjoyed every single boss fight and they are possibly the best I've ever seen in just one game. It makes a nice change to rely purely on your own skill to win a fight with just a sword rather than just endlessly blasting away with some big gun.


It took me around 5 hours to complete on Normal, but so much happens in those 5 hours and it is so well paced that loads of things happen in that time that you really don't mind. There is also a large incentive to replay on higher difficulties with new weapons being available and a chance to upgrade your character into a stronger killing machine.

Achievement wise it's the typical bog standard list for this game type, kill X amount of enemy type Y, max out upgrades, level specific challenges and collectibles. Due to the high difficulty level most people will likely have a hard time maxxing the game, with achievements like get an S Rank on every mission on the highest difficulty and beat all bosses on hard without taking any damage at all.

I never really had any interest in Metal Gear Rising even though I'm a big fan of the series, due to the new gameplay direction. I tried the Demo and didn't like it at all, so I was very surprised at how much I actually loved the full game. I enjoyed every battle, every boss fight and every cutscene. Everything just runs so smooth and works so well that I can't wait to play through it again. I recommend everyone tries it because it makes a nice change from everything else out there at the minute and is truely a joy to play. I give it an awesome 9 out of 10.

Thanks for posting up a solid review of this. I will have to get it at some point as I loved bayonetta and vanquish, the high difficulty makes me want it even more to be honest. The gameplay is so damn tight when developed by platinum I love it!

A good review of a good game matey!

Nice review mate, didn't realise this was such a different style to the other Metal Gear games.

I have the demo downloaded but hadn't bothered with it - this makes me more interested to try it out now!

Great review mate, I think this game looks awesome and will definitely be getting it