Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
- Jacob
Now, before I begin, let me make sure something is clear: I am a HUGE Metal Gear nut. I have only met one person in my lifetime that I would honestly say is a bigger fan than myself, and that honor goes to writer A.P. Stephens. No, I did not buy 2 copies of MGS 4 in order to keep one in the shrink wrap.
Jacob-0, A.P. – 1.
Jacob-0, A.P. – 1.
With that in mind, you can imagine how ready I was to dive into the latest installment in the series. The gaming style was very new, but it suited the character change so I was open to it. What did make me a little nervous, though, was Hideo Kojima’s decision to pass the game off to another developer. Platinum Games is not a bad studio by any means, but the Metal Gear franchise has seen nothing but success until now, with Kojima’s studio developing every game along the way. So, naturally, I was a little apprehensive, and upon completing the game, the reasons for such nerves showed themselves. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was not a bad game. It had a uniqueness to it that was really appealing. It just wasn’t Kojima’s Metal Gear.
Like I said before, the gameplay was cool. The defiance of physics provided an interesting break from the realism that games tend to favor, and it was logically justifiable because of Raiden’s cyborg state. Slicing hordes of enemies piece by piece and hopping from one missile to another to get on top of a metal gear ray unit were things that, after the first time, became customary in cleansing the world of mercenaries that used evil to fuel the need for war and fill their pockets. The only issue I seemed to have with the mechanics was the camera and its unpredictable wheel-arounds in the middle of battle that made it really difficult to keep track of the many onslaughts that I was faced with.
The story was a bit subpar for a Metal Gear video game, and I really think that this is the area that Revengeance lacks the most. Very little of what happens within it ties back to any of the prior Metal Gear’s, apart from a mention here and there of the Patriots and Raiden speaking about his wife and son for a hot second. Although this one is set four years after the events of Guns of the Patriots, there are some things that just don’t add up. For instance, for the first chapter of the game, Raiden’s full face is human skin and it doesn’t seem altered by any cyborg technology, but as the game progresses, Raiden gets enhancements that make his jaw cyborg material. Throughout the entirety of MGS4, besides his brief hospital room scene, Raiden’s jaw is that of a cyborg. How did it switch, and why? These kinds of things made it unclear to judge where and when the events of Revengeance were going on.
Vocally, the game was right on target except for one character, and that would be Raiden… Quinton Flynn, who has been the voice of our blonde cyborg for all of the games in which he has appeared, went a little too far with the gritty, revenge tone. Our past protagonist, Solid Snake, is famous for the wonderfully grotesque vocal quality that actor David Hayter gives him, but that is Snake. So let it be Snake. In Revengeance, Flynn switched to the scratchy, hate-driven, “you’re mine” quality that, to be honest, makes Raiden almost comical. His appearance doesn’t help to begin with, and Hideo Kojima did an excellent job in redeeming this character for that flaw in MGS4. The last thing he needs is an over-the-top vocal performance that knocks him back down to his post MGS2 status.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was a good game. It was entertaining and it challenged me enough to keep me interested. Now, if I weren’t such a Metal Gear fan, would I have completed it? I’m not so sure. Its appeal wasn’t even close to that of its predecessors, or its upcoming successor Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, for that matter. But Platinum Games did well with the project that they were handed, and I applaud them for the rising to the challenge of following 20 years of Kojima excellence. Therein, though, lies the problem: this project contained zero Solid Snake and zero Hideo Kojima.
Solid Snake + Hideo Kojima = Metal Gear Solid
No Solid Snake + No Hideo Kojima = Uh oh…
Solid Snake + Hideo Kojima = Metal Gear Solid
No Solid Snake + No Hideo Kojima = Uh oh…