Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance [PS3/Xbox 360] review

[saturn-gamer]

I am kind of disappointed with this, or rather, at times I think its awesome but at other times I don't really enjoy it. The demo basically gave the full move set, bar the boss weapons. Those boss weapons eliminate your strong sword attacks so I don't really see a use for them. They don't really combo as seamless into your sword attacks as well, compared to DMC, Bayonetta etc... Parry is the only defense you'll have, but the risk reward is way too high on the harder difficulties... and if you don't hard lock your enemies you can also get fooled by the game itself. Hard locking in turn makes crowd control harder. The dodge doesn't feel that great as well.

The camera sadly didn't change from the demo. Its good for one on one bouts but place some more enemies on screen and especially rocket launchers and its a nightmare. Normal is very easy, you can take quite some damage... but on Hard this plus the lame stun locking is a complete bitch.

Chapters 0-4 were awesome, final ones were bad. This game is being developed in a very short time window, that much is obvious.

Bayonetta this is absolutely not. Not by a long shot, in fact. Its a fun game for sure but I can relate to the somewhat lower averages this is getting.

[rmoxon]

Only played the first level of this so far, it was kind of crap in all honesty, yet so bonkers it was fun.

It was basically just a load of button mashing and mindless boss fights with stuttering animation. I don't like the combat at all. However there's hardly any game here it seems, so it might be worth going through just to watch the ridiculously over the top cut scenes, becuase I found them enjoyable.

[dataDave]

However there's hardly any game here it seems.

Which game are you playing?

This is ****ing awesome. You're both nuts.

Parry is the only defense you'll have, but the risk reward is way too high on the harder difficulties..

You can cancel evades into parries and then escape with blade mode cancelling. The fight against the last boss will indirectly teach you all of this eventually. There will be no other way to S-rank revengeance mode if these elements weren't there. Blade mode cancelling is everywhere.



After you've rinsed a section a few times there's no need for lock on. Lock these enemies down with CC instead of the other way around.

Try playing on Hard, there's no brain work to Normal.

edit: last boss down. Now very hard.

edit 2: lol this is nuts!!1

[PaTaito]

Done first three chapters....game is at its best when you successfully pull off a stealthy section. For instance the bit that looks like a chernobyl rip off on chapter 2 or 3.

Some truly annoying parts though, like the blade mode part where you wait for the quick time event circle button to appear, it seems so random in when it decides to appear....sometimes you can pull off the QTE without even a promt appearing, other times it will blatantly ignore your command, even when you know you timed it well enough.

Overall in terms of the combat system, i would say i am not one of those people that is willing to learn intricate systems(cancel this into that etc) just for the sake of beating a single player game, if it were a online fighter with months/years of replay value maybe...of course it doesnt help to have to still think so hard when the other 80-90% is button mashing.

I am playing on hard.

[dataDave]

You mean the Zandatsu where you take the spine? Seems solid for me. Cut the orange box once highlighted with the cross then extract with A/circle. No problems with it, and not once out of over a thousand times has it ignored my command.

i would say i am not one of those people that is willing to learn intricate systems(cancel this into that etc) just for the sake of beating a single player game.

Blade mode cancelling takes around 10 minutes to master. You are going to learn it if you like it or not, some hard mode bosses are impossible to get past without utilising it.

What's wrong with a single player game that has months of replay value? 80-90% button mashing? o_O

I must have a different game to everyone else.

Anyway, tons of aesthetic upgrades to unlock. Nice to see another game where you don't have to pay for everything extra.

(MASSIVE SPOILERS)

->Open Spoiler<-

http://i47.tinypic.com/o53vpv.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/xszrc.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/11jrdc3.jpg

Very Hard mode enemy waves are absolutely mental:

->Open Spoiler<-

The first part of R-01 requires you to triple Zandatsu the first three blokes, or at least double Zandatsu then B+Y finisher on the third, before you can concentrate on a clean 1-on-1 with a Mastiff for the S

[Golgo]

Pushing a bit further into it and after the initial wow (MGS + DMC = nerdgasm) wore off a bit I'm coming round to Saturn-Gamer's view. I concede there's probably a deep and rewarding combat system in there somewhere, but it's not immediately gripping enough that I want to devote time to go searching for it when - by common agreement - this has been done much better elsewhere. Camera is indeed much less manageable than I initially anticipated. I think there should be an extra variable in the scores awarded for when you manage to wrestle it into actually looking at the combat. Don't know how Platinum can have screwed this up so royally, really. Wasn't an issue in Bayonetta or DMC (at least I don't recall, not to this degree anyway). The writing is in parts utterly execrable.

->Open Spoiler<-

Dying French-Algerian boss-crumpet to lover: (summat like this) "Je...je t'aime...avec tout mon couer...(croaks)": Him: "Mistral...no...NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"

. Meant to be a serious moment but me and the missus were pissing ourselves last night when that happened. This is a quick rinse-n-trade for me. I'd give it a 6/7 at the moment, might change that by time I finish. With mental note that I really need to give Bayonetta another (3rd) chance...

[gambit6613]

I had a good bash on this last night and i have to say initially it was pretty good fun too play, it also looks really nice but it doesn't seem to be a huge range of colour. The combat does feel good and it is nice and gory. But i did find the more i played it the more bored and frustrating i started to find it. The camera is really bad at times, especially when you have these cyborg things jumping all over the place, maybe its just me but is there no camera/target lock on feature?

The other thing that got on my nerves was just the amount of times the game would stop due to some cutscene with plenty of talking bits. Maybe it gets less frequent as it goes on but i was finding i could not go 2 mins of playtime without having the game stop due to said cutscene.

I will play again today as there is a good game in there, its just to the most enjoyable at the moment.

[Golgo]

R2 (or the Xbox equivalent) is lock-on. Not a great deal of use, mind.

[Red or Alive]

BE WARNING, AMATEUR REVIEW APPROACHING:

Finished my first run through the campaign last night. I'm glad I picked it up - it might be the last time I get to support Platinum Games for a while as I'm unlikely to pick up a Wii U - but, wow, what an inconsistent ride. The exhilarating opening was pure Platinum and a great set-piece-driven bit of fun. The rest, not so much. I suppose, given the bumpy production history, the fact that it coheres at all in places is an impressive feat, but the disconnect between Kojima and PG did hurt the overall game quite a bit, I think. In fact, the campiness of the final boss fight almost felt like a bit of tonal rebellion on the part of PG, gratuitous swearing aside.

But the real problem is the underlying combat mechanics - parrying feels not imprecise per se but the timing for the second-stage parry (block and follow-up) is too damned strict. The dodge mechanic shouldn't be an unlockable (and should be given a button command in the shop instead of the bizarrely staggered, optional, exit-the-current-chapter-to-complete tutorial system) as it's so fundamental to avoiding hits. Combined with the rough camera and I can imagine S-rank completionists are going to be pulling their hair out over the coming weeks.

Also, in a baffling oversight (unlike every other MG game since at least MGS) enemy cones-of-vision aren't visible on the SOLIDON radar. Considering the game wants you to take a more-than-token approach to stealth, this omission is a little baffling. Also, walking is a little difficult with the current analogue controls; it seems you've only got the tiniest radius of thumbstick space before Raiden breaks into a full blown sprint.

Anyway, anyway, the good: loads of fun CODEC conversations with likeable characters (except for ****ING George) and some follow-up on the world of MG, post-Patriots. The complete absence of Rose and John was a little odd but, I suppose, nobody wants unwelcome flashbacks to MGS2 in the case of the former. And the issues raised were interesting, if a little marginalised in the game itself, but at least in-game it was accepted that the rehabilitation of child soldiers doesn't really have an easy solution. And I'm definitely going back to grind the cash for most of the collectibles.

So, despite my issues with the game, it was still worth my time and money - there's more than enough replay value, after all.

[dataDave]

The lock on is fine. It'll fix the camera in place.

Sounds like you all need to work on crowd control. Ninja Run and 'sting' ranged enemies with weak slash, that'll buy you enough time to get to work picking them off without interruption. It takes two or three attempts to learn enemy placements, there's really no excuse.

[EvilBoris]

What are the key components to getting an S rank, I've had quite a few but I'm not really sure what I did to get them.

For example, does chopping someone into a million pieces in blade mode actually net me any more points than just doing it once?

How are people getting on with collecting left arms? It's really hard

[dataDave]

You only need to collect the glowing green arms. I'm 24/30.

For S rank you need time, score (Mainly Zandatsus and then combos), and most importantly zero damage received. Once you work out the requirement for a particular section you'll be able to pull it off every time.

There should be charts going around with the exact numbers for each difficulty. I was messing around in Easy mode today for some intensive BP farming and I was getting S without even aiming for it.

Now that Raiden is armed up to the tits even getting S on V.hard isn't that bad.

[EvilBoris]

I see loads of guys with a glowing red left arm, what is that?

Also, what are the requirements to stun an enemy? , I've noticed that has activated a QTE for some of the more armoured enemies, but I don't know how to start it off

[saturn-gamer]

If you use stealth you'll miss battles thus you'll never be able to S rank a chapter I think.

Glowing left arms are collectibles that get you rewards. There are 30 in the whole game.

[EvilBoris]

Ah, I think the crazy blade time excess counts towards your combo count, so it must have a slight affect on your score