We Played A Ton Of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance puts players in control of Raiden four years after the events in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Raiden now works at Maverick Security, a private military company, to provide for his wife and child. His day to day duties include slicing cyborgs into a zillion pieces and traveling to other countries. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance opens a little before the demo bundled with Zone of the Enders HD Collection and Raiden still has both eyes when he lands in an unspecified country in Africa.

The Power of Parrying

Instead of giving Raiden a dodge roll, Platinum Games made parrying the main defensive maneuver in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. After deflecting an enemy’s attack, Raiden can retaliate with a combo of his own. Some enemies carry guns, but bullets barely damage Raiden’s metallic body. You can use the Ninja Run move (hold R1) to dash through gunfire too. Ninja Run also makes Raiden show off his parkour skills since he will automatically hopping over or sliding under obstacles when it’s active. This is useful for certain action scenes like the one where Raiden has to run on a collapsing bridge, which takes place right after the demo.

The demo is about 1/3 of the second level in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance. LQ-84i, the dog-like android with a chainsaw tail, is actually a mini boss. Raiden will cut down a helicopter later in the stage by ninja running on missiles. Yeah, Metal Gear Rising: Revengance has some Bayonetta level over-the-top moments. Most of these are QTEs and the game creates a checkpoint for players that you restart at if you don’t mash X enough.

Menacing Mistral

Mistral grabs a bunch of Dwarf Gekkos (they’re like walking eyeballs with three arms), rips their arms off, and attaches them to her back. She grabs another two and fuses their arms together to make a Pole-arm for her weapon.

She’s one of the first major bosses in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance, but I didn’t find her that hard to defeat. Raiden can parry most of her moves and ninja run out of the way when she does a cartwheel attack. The swarm of Dwarf Gekkos that follow Mistral makes the fight really easy. If Raiden gets low on health you can cut up a Dwarf Gekko to get a healing item.

Raiden can also break Mistral’s Pole-arm by damaging her then switching to slice mode (it’s like bullet time with a blade). If Raiden cuts through the two blue parts on the Pole-arm, Mistral will retreat and grab more Dwarf Gekko arms. Small fry enemies also change their attack patterns after Raiden hacks a limb off. Slice off the arms from a brute cyborg and it will attack Raiden with jump kicks.

Platinum Games Snuck Stealth In

Raiden is the kind of guy that runs into the room with his high frequency blade flashing, but you can hide in a cardboard box and sneak up on enemies. If you get behind someone, Raiden can kill them with one hit. No, you can’t drag bodies, but enemies aren’t are attentive in Metal Gear Rising. Aside from checking suspicious oil drums, it’s fairly easy to ninja run behind a guard and take them out. Thinning enemies out is the main reason why you would want to use stealth.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance’s basic combat flow is weakening enemies with combos and finishing them off in Slice Mode. When the game switches to slow-mo, Raiden can get an item that restores his life and electrolytes (necessary for going back into Slice mode) if you can chop a certain part of the enemy. Players move from hectic battles to intense focus as you use the analog stick to position where Raiden cuts.

¡Viva Mexico!

The third level in Metal Gear Rising: Revengance has a hilarious opening scene with Raiden dressed in a mariachi outfit. He believes he is totally incognito, but the poncho barely hides his robot parts. People gawk at Raiden as he jumps into a sewer to search for a secret lab. Oh and remember that dog-like mid-boss. He’s your buddy now.

Raiden has the Pole-arm from Mistral as a sub-weapon now. You can attack with both weapons since he switches between the HF Blade and the Pole-arm automatically. The sewer area has new enemies like a flame shooting robot that’s kind of like a mecha water skater.

While you can run through the sewer chopping everything in your way, there are hidden passages to discover. I found a item boxes with precious healing items and a extra weapons. The trick to finding areas is cutting doors in half. Some boxes contained BP, which are essentially experience points.

Create a Cyborg

Raiden can use BP to purchase upgrades. You can increase Raiden’s attack, life bar, and purchase skills. Aerial Parry (3,000 BP) is a useful move that let’s Raiden defend himself in the air. You can also get a backstep slice, Raiden’s deadly take on the windmill breakdancing move, and a projectile attack.

Costumes, like the mariachi outfit cost a ton of BP. I think it was 20,000 to unlock that. The key to earning more BP is not getting hit during fights and using zandatsu to finish enemies off. That increases Raiden’s grade and the amount of BP he earns.

Did he say…. DOOMP?

Metal Gear Rising: Revengance’s story centers on the horrors of war and child soldiers. But, hey there are plenty of light moments in the game like when Doktor tells Raiden in a heavy accent to take a DOOMP. The description for holographic cubes which are used to distract guards make fun of the girly magazines found in other Metal Gear titles.