Metal Gear Rising: ReVengeance. So many mind numbing decisions on this game that make it a pain to even think about or properly try to place into categories... My gripes with it are instant, constant, and they are frustrating indeed. So I will jump right into the bashing as I have rarely ever played a title that I waited for patiently for so many years that was as crap as this pile of junk! (Talking about the PC version here as always)
Buttons on the mouse that cannot be mapped, a variety of control options that cannot be controlled or changed, clumsy user interface, console port controls that make blade mode from being the strongest aspect of the game into the most annoying part of it, a grind fest that simply has you doing the same thing again and again... cinematic, voicecom interruption, get to point, kill enemies, rince and repeat with plenty more voicecomes along the way and changing the "get to point" objectives to "press the button" objectives.
Constant checkpoint interruptions, not just the score alone which gives a cool arcade feel to it, but stage limitations as well containing you into certain areas every few steps. The amount of these things is ridiculous, the score screen is so unrewarding as it is annoying, getting in your way to even moving properly disabling half of your controls, and instead of being an arcade like element reminiscent of the 90's, that feels like it pops up each time you achieve something, it becomes practically an overused annoying UI layout as if all the ridiculous voicecoms all over the place weren't enough.
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| The concept behind the game is so damn awesome, it still has hope for a sequel to fix all things done wrong... So much gone wrong with such an awesome concept in hand. They managed the impossible. |
Combat itself? Combos work ok and pretty cool, auto aim ruins half of them, as does the still console like movement to it all the likes of "direction input attacking" instead of "mouse look" (even though this is among the most minor of things) yet my biggest gripe is that it all ends up being specific predefined repeatable combat mechanics as opposed to a fluent combat system.
A camera that has gone completely bonkers, the design of it so damn clumsy I felt frustrated the more I played the game. Poor execution of the best parts about the game (Blade Mode), making it ridiculously fun when it works right, ridiculously annoying since it barely ever works and barely ever controlled fluently as it ends up being an entire pile of messy mechanics and controls (fun factor being proof that the game could have been so much more).
Annoying story interruptions throughout the entire experience. Cheesy story plot... and boring story plot... and lame story plot... featuring a lame cyborg dog that conveniently becomes your field scouting party only to simply add an extra voicecom talking to you, with really lame story events based on cheesy story points with one example being the "hero" suddenly having doubts after a simple psyche/shakedown the enemy plays against him, resulting in a headache that you have to walk through as if you are a cripple on a stick. Really reliable hero right there for ya.
The story takes itself so serious that it becomes laughable, whilst it is filled with convenient details all over the place and uneven character progressions that make Raiden look and feel like some psychotic schizophrenic that seems to be all over the place in his head.
I mean, I get the whole "he was captured as a kid and made into a war-machine and cyborg" thing, which is really one of the coolest plots to play around with to create a really deep character that is truly troubled. Yet he definitely feels like a concerned and self controlled philanthropist who has his philosophy on the war figured out so damn much he is positive and sure about every single choice and action he takes. He practically walks around like a rock star (not to mention that he is so damn cool that he doesn't even need to look at his prey once killing it, slowing down into a shot with Raiden looking into the camera again and again it becomes ridiculously overused to the point that he does it three times on the same boss until he kills it off! Seriously?), he has no scars shown in his character development (which he should), and then 3 hours down the line he becomes a unstable psycho bin. Seems the story at so many parts was taken up and left on the side again for long periods of time repeatedly, resulting in unbalanced plot characteristics as if they came back to it and forgot what they were going for to begin with, or simply were too lazy to begin with and conveniently threw in whatever they wanted to tell a story regardless of any continuity.
A taste of what they should have given us 5 maybe 10 years ago, this was abysmal for our time especially when we have Warframe out there and franchises the likes of Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, among others, that predate this game up to ten years.
The frustration levels of the game are 90's and early 00's. The playstyle? The same. The technology? Slightly improved. The story and plot theme styles? As lame and cheesy. Basically, it is a reboot of the old hack and slash button mash up Japanese games of the past, yet it does things other games already have done much worse and in half-assed attempts, whilst other elements that should be present it simply does not include period (I mean Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia had wall running 10 years ago... as does Warframe which is a free to play online space ninja game with much more difficult mechanics to accomplish such a feature, whilst Raiden, a cyborg ninja ultimate war machine, has trouble climbing up a single wall if it is not a predefined path? Which also reminds me, it is filled with very linear and uninspired level designs and mediocre bosses) whilst adding only one more element into it all when compared to similar titles (Blade Mode) with some hot-key executions included on timed intervals also added from what were the later lame designs of action games in the late 00's. Something which barely ever works right on the PC with mouse+keyboard, being one completely retarded control design period... Which cannot be customised! Seriously? For the time it took them to make it? What is this?
I wouldn't be so hard on it if I wasn't waiting for it for so long and if it didn't take them SO MUCH TIME TO MAKE! What on Earth were they implementing all this time?
Why is it addictive? Well, it has a lot of those 90's action game elements that we all loved included, and at times are really fun to go through. The repetitiveness and the confinement in half the design keeps slapping you in the face reminding you this is a lesser product of a glorious time that you would have truly appreciated 7 to 8 years ago if not more. I feel self violated for playing this game, and that is because it has some really addictive elements about it that keep you coming back. Just like the great games of old. They would frustrate the living hell out of us, but they had some really cool, casual and easy going elements to them that made them so addictive. Metal Gear Rising- ReVengeance is just that, however with mistakes sprinkled all over it and half finished jobs in every aspect of the game design. And from a studio that has successfully done this kind of thing before? This is unacceptable.
Even the name of the game changed who knows how many times. I don't even think they had any idea what the rest of the game was meant to be like other than the Blade Mode. Kojima reminded me how mind numbingly dumb his scenarios are, albeit very very cool and wicked awesome for when you are a youngster or when you are in the mood for a little cheesy. Oh, which reminds me, Raidens voice over. OH MY GOD! There must be a Japanese voice over and I simply didn't see it, because that English voice over was, well, violating. I kept shaking my head every time I heard him talk. Not to mention the tiring cliche conversations that are taking place, but Raiden sounds like Joeys' enemy cowboy in black from Friends Season 1. That is how fake the voice sounds, whilst being downright out of place.
This game simply reminds me of the many lame half-assed games Japan has developed again and again for so many years. Many better than this, many worst, but all just as frustrating and mind numbing, save a few precious gems that strayed out of the pack as amazing creations. And that is a fact. People supporting Japan developed games does not change facts. Everybody bitched about Crysis 2 being a console port when clearly only the graphics were mildly ported, mildly, until the new DX shader patches and resolutions were released. And whilst we are on the whole Crysis 2, everybody bitched about the story which was not usual cliche crap, that it had too many cinematics, and the quick time events... They also called it linear... Seriously? And MGR-RV is what exactly? More cinematics, and worse cinematics, on a story we end up not giving two shits about, constant quick-time-event-equivalent interruptions with a lame voicecom that keeps adding nothing to our gameplay but cheesy lame tiring conversation we simply need to skip through after a point and the inability to walk around properly during those, whilst they have absolutely no creativity whatsoever like that of the Crysis 2 quick time events.
Yet MGR-RV on PC had a relation of more positive than negative reviews by comparison to Crysis 2, and I am supposed to believe people know what they are talking about? The gameplay lasted half of what Crysis 2 lasted (and people complained about Crysis 2 being short at 10 hours, with this lame piece of import crap being around 5 hours and how many damn years put into it being made for a spin off to one of the biggest franchises in Japanese gaming history)... The console reviews were even better, when clearly the game only includes better controls when compared to PC (also playable on PC with a controller) which are still based on the same half-assed design whilst the rest of the game continues to be the same lame product in all other aspects as it is on PC.
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| What we start with? Potential for a fresh and one of the best action ninja games in a long time. What we get? A wasted opportunity and a generic action game that doesn't even try to do what other games done right, yet with small glimpses of what could have been shining through it from time to time. |
I actually defended these guys. MGS fans went ape-shit over the fact that this was not an espionage game. I defended it again and again, saying that MGS and MGR are different branches of the same universe, there are many of us that wanted to experience Raiden in a game like this and we finally get it, whilst MGS will continue making titles either way. I defended the crap out of this game, and even said "let them take all the time they need, that just means they are putting more effort in and making sure it rocks." What a pile of garbage.
This is probably going to be the most negative article I will ever write (who knows, the industry's idiocy rarely surprises me this much but it does happen) and that because like I said, I had high expectations for this title and large reserves of patience. What a waste. 3/10 guys, 3/10!
What a shame. It has addictive elements to it simply because the initial or core idea is cool yet it is completely ruined by all the half-assed content which is pretty much the entire game itself and the way it is all put together. I am so disappointed. What a way to ruin the possibility for a great new franchise spin off. It's almost like they got lazy with it on day one and all that development time was simply the team being too bored to actually even get up to make it. That blade mode has so much potential and even now has plenty of moments filled with awesomeness and fun, how can you manage to ruin such a great title in your hands which is almost ready as it is with all this other crap floating in the way to make it a painfully frustrating experience? Either they did it on purpose, or I really don't have the same mindset as that of the developers.
p.s. yes we get it, you don't care for PC's that much and aim for consoles... This thing was appalling even with a controller though. Again, what a waste!
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| I cant believe I allowed for so much violation to myself for so many hours. Even as short as they were for a game, they more than stayed their welcome in my life. No thanks MGR. You were a great waste of potential and a nice slap in the face with a constant reminder of the greatness you could have been. |
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