PlayStation Universe’s very own Timothy Nunes generated a video in regards to Metal Gear Rising: Revengence and why fans of the major franchise Metal Gear Solid should feel comfortable jumping into this next title.
If you’d like to read it instead, the complete text of the video is posted below it.
It’s hard to look at a game that doesn’t have the iconic Solid Snake as the main protagonist and still consider it a Metal Gear title, especially since the franchise has been based around our hero in some form or another since the late ’80’s. Regardless, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance attempts to take a slice of the namesake by having Raiden as the main character again, and, this time around, it’s not a surprise that makes us flip tables.
Well, what makes a game an Metal Gear game? Apart from Snake, fans are used to having complicated bosses, social commentary, and those little quirks that ebb from every title. All three of those are in Rising, and the game calls back to the long-standing franchise in so many appreciative ways. Only two characters return from past titles, one obviously being Raiden and the other the genius youngster Sunny, but the new character makeup holds onto the usual types of informational characters that are but a codec call away.
With codec calls in mind, Rising has many chances to call your contact team for contextual or personal information whenever an opportunity arises. Each chapter has a new batch of dialogue for each character, so conversationalists won’t lose that element of the Metal Gear series. One of the strongest changes to the series is the obvious gameplay style. Stealth is replaced by sheer action, though the game can be played without alerting the guards and hearing the shrill, startling alert tone that pops up with each exclamation point. One callback, which feels more like an appreciative parody, is the use of boxes to hide and sneak around. The box looks generic, and hiding in it looks rather silly, but even hiding in boxes that came from specific areas felt pretty silly and light-hearted in the old games, too.
Raiden isn’t the only one that can hide in boxes. Even some of the more cunning, or cowardly, soldiers throughout the game mimic the tactic. See if you can find them all.
One thing that some might not notice about the cutting mechanic featured in Rising is that the inspiration for it looks to have stemmed from the joystick controls that were briefly featured near the end of Metal Gear Solid 2. Raiden was first introduced to the High-Frequency Blade then, and Rising shows us exactly how much his technique has matured.
Right from the start, bosses became one of the more interesting focal points. They’re a mix of old and new inspirations, ranging from Crying Wolf, Screaming Mantis, and Vamp from Metal Gear Solid 4 to new looks and styles that benefits from the creative freedom from the guys at Platinum Games. There’s even a new take on the beloved final fights from MGS1 and 4 between Snake and Liquid in Rising; don’t fret, though: Liquid doesn’t make a return appearance through someone else’s right arm or something.
The dividing point between Kojima Productions and Platinum Games is really the difference between cutscenes and gameplay. Though the cutscenes are touched with action sequences common for Platinum Games titles, they generally take on a talkative, plot-building narrative that MGS fans are used to seeing–and vice versa–while the gameplay caters to an action-oriented following, which makes the combination perfect for anyone that has never played a Metal Gear game before to begin right here.
Clearly, the gameplay elements delve into extreme levels of fast-paced intensity that really make this a Platinum Games-influenced title, but it’s clear that the core story arcs that we’re used to seeing from Metal Gear titles work well with other genres of gaming. I don’t want you to base your thoughts solely on my recommendations, considering the game can easily stand out on its own, but the barrier between an old franchise and a new idea can be hard to traverse. Revengeance puts the ladder on the wall for players to climb, and, if fans widely accept a new direction like this, the Metal Gear series could accommodate every genre of gaming.