Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Demo review

So Konami have finally revealed their true selves, "lets develop an entire series of stealth/action games, base it around weapons of mass destruction, global terrorism, a terrible conspiracy. And once we've done all that, lets trash it." Metal Gear Rising Revengeance a title you just have to laugh at, taking two words, revenge and vengeance and putting them together not realizing they mean the exact same thing.
The story takes place four years after the events of Guns of the Patriots, this is where it starts getting obnoxiously obscene, after Patriot control was lost the worlds PMCs have become countless smaller entities after cyborg technology had been proliferated, sparking new conflicts all around the globe.
So everything that Solid Snake, Big boss and everyone went through to end the control of the patriots a group of a hundred year old not so dead but probably dead men, Was for nothing.
So the year is twenty god knows what and Raiden has retired from the field of combat only to return, to the field of combat after being attacked in Africa by cyborgs, only to lose his arm and left eye. Konami seem to have a major eye issue, MGS3 Big boss loses an eye, MGS2 Solidus snake loses an eye, MGS4 Solid snake begins to feel left out and wishes he had lost an eye because he feels obliged to cover it with an eye patch anyway, oh and MGS1 Liquid snake loses an arm. So instead of using cyborg technology to give himself a new arm, Raiden decides to "enhance" and go for a new body all together and replace it with a cyborg body, this would mean that Raiden is technically a disembodied head, minus a lower jaw. At least that's the impression it gives. Everything about the character and the story looks and feels so typically anime that all the sense of realism that was Metal Gear Solid, has been completely scrapped by this spin off.



Raiden has never been a favorable character, not just to fans but in general, in MGS2 he was a loud, over talkative and whiny Nancy boy with the appearance of a fifteen year old girl, which made sense due to his very feminine slender build and acrobatic like skills which also appeared in MGS4, a game in which he spent most of the time unconscious and bleeding some rather suspicious white blood out of his mouth that looked as though he coughed up a mouth full of semen.



The good old hiding in lockers or role playing as foliage is no longer the means of getting around, unfortunately tactical espionage action is out the window and the hip new age of lightening bolt action is... well no not really it's typical hack and slash beat em up, nothing we haven't seen already but of course, Konami would beg to differ. The codec is still accessible calling your allies and team but there never seems to be any need, they just tell you everything you already know and during combat you're not going to need any information on how to kill a certain enemy NPC or boss fight for that manner since Raiden's weapon consists of a Hi frequency blade, it's pretty self explanatory really. Not a lot to be desired however the blade is capable of cutting through most objects, enemy NPCs and environmental structure. whether it's rockery, trees or just enemies in general, hacking things to pieces just isn't as satisfying as it sounds, once you've hacked an object up it just disappears, not giving you a chance to admire what a grand job you've made turning a rock pillar into a rather tasteless sculpture. Certain structures of the environment around you shouldn't be destroyed like say for instance, if you need to go up a set of stairs but you've gone completely insane flailing your arms everywhere and have destroyed said stairs and there's no boxes or crates to jump on, then your chances of advancing the plot have been foiled, leaving you no other alternative than to either start again or reload the latest save file and Raiden doesn't possess the ability to run and jump of all things.
Although as bitchy as all this may sound the combat is pretty remains to be solid bog-standard hack and slash controls, fighting is rapid as well as efficient, enemy NPCs can't be hacked to pieces unless the L1 button is held down and the choice of using square and triangle to swing the sword or using the right analog stick to chop them up. In doing this Raiden's health gauge can be refilled and if you are quick to press the circle button at the appropriate time, our cyborg vampire can extract their fluids and why not a souvenir of your kill. Taking the left hands of your enemies for upgrades from, Doktor as he calls himself, wonder what his profession is.



In addition to well balanced combat, boss fights are actually worth breaking a sweat over, giving you a real adrenaline kick and force you to fight as though you are actually fighting to the death, certainly a challenge. Throughout a boss fight enemy cyborgs will intervene, giving you a chance to go metal dracula and replenish Raidens health gauge.



Overall a rather disappointing presentation, though background and environmental art and structure is something to admire as well as the combat, the story and characters don't appear serious or believable. It's hard to believe that after creating peace, cyborg technology becomes the next big trend and everyone becomes a ninja/samurai of all things, it's like Deus Ex meets Devil May Cry.