Metal Gear Rising Review(Finally!)

Yes, yes I have been MIA for almost a year now. To tell the truth I had lost a little  of the passion for writing about games and game news. But since Rising finally came out and the constant requests from my friend Jordan Wyatt from Invercargill New Zealand; I decided to give it a shot.

On to the review!

I have to say that I saw this game as an opportunity for  Mr. Kojima to expand the  Metal Gear universe. Yes we all know about the awesome feats of Solid Snake, Big Boss, and even Raiden. But we don't have the point of view of the "Ninjas" that appear in the series. So for me Rising was an opportunity to peek into what a Cyborg ninja was capable in the Kojima universe.

There are several armors and skins available to unlock.

The game is ridiculous in a good way, it has some things that amazed me so much. For example; the amount of gushing blood you see during the first couple of cutscenes  Or the fact that you can take on a Metal Gear Ray without much problem. But this is just at the very beginning of the game. As explained in a codec call these Metal Gear Ray units are not only weaker than the ones we all fought in the Solid saga; but they also are no match for advanced Cyborgs like Raiden.

MGS4 Ray

MGR(Desperado) Ray

In my opinion one of the best features of this game is the Music, every time you trigger an alert that Heavy Metal sound starts pumping through the speakers and you find yourself hacking foes into pieces with lightning fast speed. Of course the game offers the "stealthy" approach as well. In this game you have two options of stealthy takedowns; it's called "Ninja Kill". You can choose to kill your enemy from behind; or you can bring death from above by jumping down from a high place impaling your enemy through the chest. The only thing I felt the game lacked was the always present option of flattening yourself against a wall, which would have been helpful for me. Too many times have I made the mistake of thinking I was out of the line of sight of an enemy; only to be spotted and immediately attacked. Not fun when you are going for the stealth approach. The famous Cardboard Box makes an appearance in this game, as well as the Oil Drum. Both items help a lot when trying to hide from enemies, just don't stand in the middle of their path...

One of the features that they sold this game from the start was the "Blade Mode". The Ability of cutting your enemies every which angle you want, and it delivers! You even get rewarded for cutting enemies in several pieces, such as Gekko's and . There is a side quest in the game worth an achievement or trophy, where if you collect certain officers left arms you are rewarded the title of "Big Fan Of Lefties". Most parts of the environment are "sliceable" like trees, cars, light posts, and even bridges. I have to say "Blade Mode" has become my best friend during the whole game, specially when trying to score points for upgrades.

"Ninja Run" is also a cool feature of the game, running to deflect bullets is very useful. It's great if you are trying to get "S" ranks on your game and if you are good at it you can combine it with slides to do Zandatsu from the ground(One of my favorite techniques).

Other weapons include rocket launchers, grenades and even holographic frames to distract guards since the old school magazines don't work on cyborgs. Most of these weapons are just for support. I found myself not using them often during the game. However they are useful if you really want to try the stealthy approach or if you want to avoid damage.

The story is short, but there is a sizable amount of codec calls. I have to admit that I haven't listened to all of them. Every cutscene is about 5 minutes long or so it seems. They aren't the long cinematic scenes form your typical MGS game; but then again this is not an MGS game. This is Rising so if you want to keep true to the "Lightening Bolt Action" under title then you've got to keep them short. However in some cases it felt like a little more "reel" would have been nice. Of course it wouldn't be a "Metal Gear" kind of game without some easter eggs!

Watamelans! Motha Fuka!!!

Sunny all grown up!

I've got to admit that the ending(I'm not going to include spoilers) got me choked up; chocked up in a way that I really haven't been playing a game since MGS4. The premise of the game has you believe this "darkside" of Raiden that he is a bad ass. In a way this is true, but pay close attention to the final cutscenes, there is a statement made about the true Raiden. The Raiden I know... The Raiden you know...

Jack The Ripper mode

Good ol' Raiden Mode