This week in Los Angeles, Konami threw a three-day event to show off Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the oddly-titled action game theyâre developing in conjunction with Platinum Games, the folks behind Bayonetta and Vanquish
Although Kotaku typically turns down these sort of publisher-paid press events, I happened to be in Los Angeles this week anyway, so I stopped by Konamiâs event Wednesday night to check out Metal Gear Rising. Which is kind of insane.
Kirk warned me that Rising was intense, but I didnât really know what to expect until I saw it in action. I also didnât really know how much Iâd enjoy playing it.
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Here are some of the important notes I took along the way:
This is basically Metal Gear meets Bayonetta. Or Devil May Cry, or El Shaddai. Itâs got the setting, the style, and the bombastic cutscenes of Solid Snakeâs adventures, but itâs also got the high-octane frenetic battling system of a Platinum game. This sort of combination doesnât seem like itâd work, but it really does. During the gameâs prologue chapter, you get to use Raidenâs sword to slice open a Metal Gear. It doesnât get more satisfying than that.
Yeah, Metal Gear Rising stars Raiden, but not the lame Raiden. This is totally 2008âs Metal Gear Solid 4 Raiden, not that annoying dude who screwed over Snake and took over your controller in MGS2. Iâm not a big fan of his voice acting, but he is undoubtedly cooler than he was a decade ago. This is the ninja cyborg Raiden, the type of Raiden who, when one of his appendages is unceremoniously chopped off, responds with a simple âShit! Not again!â
The story is as Metal Gear as it gets: as Raiden, youâre sent on various missions where you have to infiltrate, slaughter, and take out bosses. You can codec call with your support group, which consists of an old leader with a foreign accent, a military support dude, a nerdy girl, and an eccentric doctor who can upgrade your equipment. There are lots of cut-scenes.
Your new boss is named Boris, and heâs as stereotypical a Russian as it gets. He likes to call you âtovarishââRussian for âcomrade.â You get the feeling he could drink you under the table.
There are also plenty of weird enemies and enemy bosses. Youâve got your standard cyborg soldiers and Gecko robots, but there are robot dogs with chainsaw tails and big Metal Gears and a guy named Jetstream Sam who can do very bad things to you very quickly, and does, within the first hour of the game.
Everything is destructibleâfrom barricades and fences to pivotal pillars, which you can slice in half in order to knock down the platforms they support. Since this is an action game, indiscriminately chopping things is not just allowedâitâs encouraged. To help you slice things more precisely, you can hit one of the trigger buttons to enter a freeflowing action sequence called âBlade Mode,â during which you can directly control the movements of Raidenâs sword. No Wii remote necessary.
Even though thereâs not a whole lot of stealth, that familiar-sounding Warning/Caution meter is still there. In case you feel like getting yet another Kojima-induced heart attack when your WARNING shoots up to 99%. Which happens pretty often.
Many of the early boss battles are half-cutscene in typical Metal Gear fashion. But Rising is really good at allowing you to do really cool things. When youâre leaping between missiles in the air so you can reach that, or when youâre swordfighting with a tough boss on the top of a moving train, itâs hard not to be suckered in by the thrill of the moment.
The hardcore metal music that plays during boss fights is less forgivable. But hey, it happens. Heavy Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance wouldnât have been as catchy.
The gameâs gorgeous, by the way. Not that this should be a surprise, if youâve played any Metal Gear game. But itâs worth mentioning just how great everything looks on both Xbox 360 and PS3.
At one point, you have to fight a robot dog boss who brags about how smart he is. So Raiden, being a wiseass, decides to crack a joke. (Remember, this isnât MGS2 Raiden. MGS2 Raiden would probably just break down crying.)
Hereâs the full dialogue exchange:
RAIDEN: Whatâs the meaning of life? Why are we here?
ROBOT-DOG-THING: I am here to kill you.
Itâs so fun and zany and bizarre and action-movie-esque, youâll almost forgive them for the QTEs. Yes, there are QTEs. No, the folks at Platinum donât seem to have realized that QTEs are obsolete and pointless. But the game feels so fun, so fast-paced, so interesting that yeah. I forgive them for the QTEs. And from the couple hours of Metal Gear Rising Iâve played thus far, I think itâll be one hell of a game.
Check back next week for more on Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, a name that I still have trouble writing without laughing.
