Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review - Memes, Raiden. Memes.

Reviewed on: PC (Steam)
Game time: 8 hours

I finally did it. I played the meme game: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I have never played a Metal Gear game before, and this decidedly non-stealth entry is probably not the right starting point for a stealth series, but I couldn't stop myself. I can't comment on the game in relation to the wider Metal Gear franchise, but I might as well share my thoughts on the game in a vacuum.

Story
The story of Revengeance opens with Raiden, an agent of security company Maverick, on a mission to defend an African Prime Minister. The transport suddenly is attacked by agents of Desperado, another 'security' company who are essentially war profiteers, and the Prime Minister is kidnapped. After slicing a giant robot in two, Raiden catches up to the attackers and attempts to rescue the captive, but is stopped in his tracks by rival sword-wielder, Jetstream Sam, of Desperado's Four Winds of Destruction. After being cut (literally) to pieces by Sam, Raiden manages to escape with his life, despite having failed the rescue. Weeks later, Raiden's body has been upgraded with cybernetic enhancements -- well, replaced might be more accurate -- and is sent to Abkhazia to quell a Desperado military coup. From here, Raiden's battle against Desperado's cyborgs continues until he learns of the truth behind their enterprise, and its leader.

Even though the game is quite short, the pacing of the story is excellent and the content of that story is even better. I'm not an overly political person, but even I can appreciate the themes and ideas at play here. Revengeance is a story about morals, politics, war ethics and the devastation of war, artificial intelligence and combat cyborgs, the value of life, and memes. Not kidding. Multiple characters actually use the word 'memes', in the sense of its actual definition, and memes are one of the central ideas of the game. But jokes aside, I think these themes are handled quite well. The bosses aren't merely roadblocks; they each have their own beliefs about the war situation in the world. It is as much a game of conflicting ideals as it is a game of memes. It also has an incredible twist antagonist, whose final speeches punctuate the lengthy fight to show you what you're really fighting to prevent. You probably already know who it is -- you know, from the memes -- but regardless, Revengeance's true big bad leaves a huge impression despite his minimal screentime. I really didn't expect the plot to be this thought-provoking when I went in, but if you can stop laughing every time a "He said the line!!" moment pops up, this really is a story worth paying attention to. Though, some of the cutscenes do tend to feel quite long. Which is only an issue because...

Gameplay
...the gameplay is actually incredible. I expected the gameplay in Revengeance to be a little button-mashy, but I was entirely wrong -- precision is the secret here. Raiden's got the basic run and jump, a light attack and strong attack with his blade, and a slide move triggered by using a strong attack while running. But the two key pieces in his arsenal are the parry and Blade Mode.

The parry is your main means of defending yourself, and by far the most effective. Raiden doesn't start with a dodge roll, and I didn't find the one you can purchase to be too useful. If you hold the light attack button and move in the direction of an enemy's attack, you'll block the attack; if your timing is correct you'll also get an opening to attack that enemy, both avoiding damage and scoring some free hits. There's no limit to how many times you can parry in a row, and pulling off multiple in quick succession before countering is part of what makes the combat so addictive. Of course, you can't parry everything: a later enemy type wielding a hammer punishes you for trying to parry, forcing you to dart in and out to get a few hits between attacks. Of course, this itself is fun -- but nothing beats the feeling of demolishing a horde of enemies while barely even moving.

But how do you finish enemies quickly? This is where Blade Mode comes in. Provided your Fuel Cell gauge has enough energy, holding the left trigger will let you enter bullet time and use the right stick to unleash a myriad of slashes, cutting enemies to literal shreds. Sometimes, like after a successful parry, a red target will appear on an enemy, and if you line up your strike correctly and hit that target, you'll be able to hit a button to instakill an enemy AND heal yourself to full health. This mechanic transforms each encounter from what would be a hack-and-slash-y mess into a satisfying, fast-paced, precise battle. Movement is responsive and zippy, which makes practicing to improve your combat rank fulfilling, rather than frustrating. You'll want to avoid taking damage, line up two or three enemies at a time to finish with Blade Mode, and take out everyone as quickly as possible. The one tiny gripe I have is the camera; it's mostly fine, but sometimes it does leave you in a situation where you're trying to parry something you can't see. But again, it's not a huge problem, and definitely didn't hinder my enjoyment enough to matter.

Boss battles, then, are a proper test of those skills. Each one requires you to recognize which attacks to parry, and when to jump in and attack. Blade Mode is also used ingeniously here, as a kind of puzzle mechanic: when you're given an opening to use it, you usually have to target a specific area -- or areas -- of the boss' body to break their weapon, knock them down, or otherwise disable them, after which you can usually beat them up a little. The boss on top of the World Marshal building is my absolute highlight -- although you can beat him without doing this, the idea is to line up your sword with the gap in his shields to split them open, and then cut the shields off entirely, leaving him exposed. It's almost funny that one of the game's most simple and brutal characters requires this much precision, but it's an incredible fight when you hit the mark. And they all are. They're full of spectacle and set-pieces, and the quick-time events aren't intrusive in the slightest. I mean, the first boss sees Raiden catching the arm of a massive Metal Gear robot, throwing it back, and then jumping on it and running down its back, slashing it to bits. The boss fights are the highlight of an already great combat system, and each one is something to look forward to.

Characters
Again, Revengeance is a short game, but I think its cast is pretty well handled. Raiden is a good protagonist, even if he comes off as a little edgy at times. I don't quite have full context of his character, since I haven't played previous Metal Gear games, but here at least, I think his development is satisfying. Raiden struggles with his role as essentially a killer, even if he does kill for justice, and his interactions with rival Jetstream Sam only serve to further this. He goes through quite a dark turn around the World Marshal arc, but we do get to see a softer side to him when he reunites with who I...think is a returning character from Metal Gear Solid 4. Apart from Raiden, the Maverick team includes leader Boris, scientist Doktor, and navigator-type allies Kevin and Courtney. They don't get a lot of screentime, but I think their personalities are fairly well developed through their Codec calls with Raiden. Despite the short runtime, I didn't feel like any of these characters were worthless.

And then there are the bosses. With the exception of the Metal Gear robots, the other bosses are all characters in their own right. As I've said, each boss has their own reason for siding with Desperado, and even though some of them are introduced just before you fight them, the pre- and post-battle cutscenes are effective in making them feel more real, rather than monster-of-the-week fare. The characters aren't overdeveloped to the point where the pacing of the story is sacrificed, and I can appreciate that. At the end of the day this is Raiden's story, and he receives the most attention.

Graphics/Performance
I played Revengeance on a run-of-the-mill 2023 laptop. It's a 2013 game. It runs great. The graphics in this game are extremely detailed, and this remained true on the PC I used. No frame drops at all, no bugs -- all good here. Just be aware that based on your setup, results may vary.

Music
Memories broken, the truth goes unspoken, I've even forgotten my NAAAA-- Oh, um, sorry. What? The review? Oh, right. Revengeance's music is incredible. Stage and cutscene themes are good, if forgettable, but each boss has their own battle theme. And they all have lyrics. And -- it gets better -- the lyrics correspond to the boss' character. And, and, and -- they are all amazing tracks. You've no doubt heard It Has To Be This Way or Red Sun from the memes, but while they're funny in that context, it helps that each track is superb in its own right.

Even better is the way they're implemented ingame: the tracks start off instrumental, but when you progress to the final phase of the fight, the lyrics come in and the song immediately jumps to the chorus. This means the climax of every boss fight is accompanied by a musical climax that truly seals the deal, turning these already cinematic fights into pure art, and providing a massive adrenaline rush. The Monsoon fight made my heart beat faster than going on a date and realizing I'm wearing two different socks. Short of VR, this is the most immersed I have ever been in a game, and I have to recommend it even for the boss fights alone. And because of the memes? The fights were both epic and hilarious.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance did not surpass my expectations. It entered Blade Mode and slashed them up into tiny pieces. There are very few games I want to instantly replay as soon as I finish them, but this is one of them. Memes aside, I'm delighted with just how good it was. Morbius this ain't -- it lives up to the memes' reputation.

Quando ganhei meu Xbox 360 em 2014 esse jogo veio junto e meu Deus, eu joguei essa bagaça minha vida inteira e ainda jogo até hoje. Lembro de na época ninguém gostar tanto do jogo principalmente por fugir muito do resto da franquia mas mano é um spin off tá ligado? Sei que é meio chato ver sua franquia mudando mas a maestria que esse jogo faz junto com a continuação da história do Raiden (que já era um personagem não muito gostado e mais um motivo pra não gostarem do jogo) faz ele ser um dos jogos mais importantes pra mim. Espero um dia platinar mas se eu não consegui em 9 anos acho difícil.