Day 36: Metal Gear Rising Revengeance
I'll be honest, I'm haven't exactly played the Metal Gear Solid series. I mean, it's not like I haven't thought about playing them, it's just not my preferred style of game. Like I said earlier in the marathon, I like a game that I can just pick up and play. It's not that I have anything against stealth (I play Sly Cooper for crying out loud) it's just not my go to genre when I want to play a game. Having said this there is one Metal Gear game I have played and I love to bits! What happens when you take the wacky mind of Hideo Kojima and mix it with the epic, over the top gameplay of most Platinum games? You get Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.
After a botched escort of an African Prime Minister, resulting in said Prime Minister getting killed and him loosing an arm and an eye to one of the game's bad guys, Jetstream Sam, Raiden decides to go after the organization responsible, Desperado. His quest leads him to places like Abkhazia, Mexico, Pakistan, and for brief moment Denver, Colorado. As Raiden's quest continues he learns that Desperado teamed up with World Marshall in an attempt to use children's brains and condition them so they become killers, and are placed in cybernetic bodies. So, basically, a similar situation to Raiden. However, towards the game's end, the main antagonist, Senator Steven Armstrong, is revealed to have used Desperado for his main goal: The assassination of the current president to start a War on Terror, allowing him to win the election by a landslide and create a world based solely on survival of the fittest.
Raiden clearly has a lot on his plate when it comes to the story. So how would one resolve most of these conflicts? Oh nothing much just hack and slash everything in sight!
Metal Gear Rising plays similar to most other games of the genre, you see an enemy, cut that bitch to ribbons. However, you're not limited to swinging your blade all willy-nilly. You have weapons like grenades and rocket launcher to use too, and for you MGS fans out there, Raiden has an option to stealthily sneak up on an enemy and snuff them out when they're not looking…and for good measure they bring back boxes and oil drums for Raiden to hideout in…now we're playing a Metal Gear game.
As you slash away at your enemies, you'll occasionally get quick time events that'll allow you to do a flashy finisher and finish it with a little Zandatsu, allowing Raiden to take the enemy's electrolytes and regenerate his health and FC gauge that allows Raiden to pull off Zandatsu as well as enter his Ripper Mode, which allows you to take everything out in one hit! Cut through those motherfuckers like the pieces of meat they are! Cover the walls and streets red with their blood! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
…What the hell was I talking about? Oh right, the gameplay.
After beating each chapter, you'll Raiden will have the chance to learn new moves, increase his overall stats, get new skins, upgrade his weapons, and even buy new weapons besides your regular sword, some of which are based on whatever boss Raiden recently defeated. (I love you L'Etranger!)
Speaking of the bosses, I love this game's lineup of boss battles (Monsoon not withstanding). My favorite would have to be the epicness that is Metal Gear RAY, especially since it's the first boss in the game and it really sets the tone for how over the top future battles will be, Jetstream Sam rematch for the environment and the satisfaction of finally beating this cocky cyborg, and of course the epic final confrontation with the Metal Gear EXCELSUS and Senator Steven Armstrong and his…
Armstrong: Nanomachines, son!
I love that meme.
And more often than not, these boss battles, as well as every minor battle preceding them, are accompanied with some of the best video game music you will ever hear. Screw Undertale and forget Super Mario Galaxy, this is my favorite video game soundtrack! Every song is fast paced, blood pumping, adrenaline fueled, dubstep goodness. There is not a single song I dislike from this amazing OST and I can listen to them over and over again without getting tired of it. Hard to believe the same guy who made the OST for Toontown responsible for this amazing soundtrack. Seriously, if you haven't heard at least one song from this game, do yourself a favor and do so right now.
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance is, in my opinion, Platinum's best work so far. I haven't gotten that far into Nier Automata or played Astral Chain, so we'll see how MGR stacks up against those, but for right now this is what I consider to be their magnum opus. Without a doubt my favorite hack and slash game.
