As of typing this review, I have just finished the main story of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. I only just found out that there are separate DLC stories, but, since these campaigns have separate pages here on Backloggd, I will probably finish and review them at a later date. Before playing this game, I saw a lot of people sing its praises. Now that I've beaten it, I can definitely see why.
The actual gameplay was the strongest point in my opinion. The controls felt very smooth to me, never did I feel like the game was at fault whenever I died. The combat is fluid, although I was guilty of being overly aggressive and I feel that the parry is very abusable. I really like the whole Blade Mode and Zandatsu system, its a neat mechanic that's both fun to use and yields great benefits. Cutting enemies into a million pieces will always be fun and it is one of the main things that makes this game feel truly unique in comparison to other hack and slash games. I liked experimenting with the special weapons, but I was a little disappointed to find that the first one you get is the only one with much combo potential (the Sai kind of does but it wasn't very intuitive to me). I wanted to use the big ass sword with a sword attached to it but it can only be used once as far as I could tell. Something that I very much enjoyed about the flow of gameplay is the fact that you often have the choice of whether you want to defeat enemies stealthily or just brute force through them. I mostly chose the latter since I like to be right in the action, though there were a few times I used the stealth to my advantage. The final positive that I will mention here is the bosses. I imagine you don't need me to tell you that the boss fights in this game are a joy to play through.
I went into Metal Gear Rising Revengeance with little to no knowledge of Metal Gear's story. It might not have been a good idea since it made it to where I don't know certain references in the story (like I didn't know who the Patriots were), but the game's story still felt pretty interesting to me. While plot is a major factor of the game, I didn't feel like it was taking itself too seriously. The characters are pretty charming and goofy in their own ways. I will say that I found it intriguing how Raiden is challenged by the villains spouting monologues about their own philosophies and morality, but it didn't have as much of a thoughtful impact on me as was likely intended.
Overall I think this game was great. It is a little on the short side, but that isn't necessarily a detriment to me. It never feels like it overstays its welcome, nor does it feel like it never got started. Just a great experience all the way through, it gets a solid 4 and a half stars from me. Not quite good enough for a max 5 stars, but still an excellent game.
The actual gameplay was the strongest point in my opinion. The controls felt very smooth to me, never did I feel like the game was at fault whenever I died. The combat is fluid, although I was guilty of being overly aggressive and I feel that the parry is very abusable. I really like the whole Blade Mode and Zandatsu system, its a neat mechanic that's both fun to use and yields great benefits. Cutting enemies into a million pieces will always be fun and it is one of the main things that makes this game feel truly unique in comparison to other hack and slash games. I liked experimenting with the special weapons, but I was a little disappointed to find that the first one you get is the only one with much combo potential (the Sai kind of does but it wasn't very intuitive to me). I wanted to use the big ass sword with a sword attached to it but it can only be used once as far as I could tell. Something that I very much enjoyed about the flow of gameplay is the fact that you often have the choice of whether you want to defeat enemies stealthily or just brute force through them. I mostly chose the latter since I like to be right in the action, though there were a few times I used the stealth to my advantage. The final positive that I will mention here is the bosses. I imagine you don't need me to tell you that the boss fights in this game are a joy to play through.
I went into Metal Gear Rising Revengeance with little to no knowledge of Metal Gear's story. It might not have been a good idea since it made it to where I don't know certain references in the story (like I didn't know who the Patriots were), but the game's story still felt pretty interesting to me. While plot is a major factor of the game, I didn't feel like it was taking itself too seriously. The characters are pretty charming and goofy in their own ways. I will say that I found it intriguing how Raiden is challenged by the villains spouting monologues about their own philosophies and morality, but it didn't have as much of a thoughtful impact on me as was likely intended.
Overall I think this game was great. It is a little on the short side, but that isn't necessarily a detriment to me. It never feels like it overstays its welcome, nor does it feel like it never got started. Just a great experience all the way through, it gets a solid 4 and a half stars from me. Not quite good enough for a max 5 stars, but still an excellent game.