After years of waiting and hours spent playing the games leading up to it, I finally got to play Metal Gear Rising. Honestly, I thought it would be better? There is a great action game in here, but a couple of factors I found lacking.
Firstly, I was really underwhelmed by the level design. Aesthetically, they are very 7th gen; gray and brown are the primary color palette. There are breaks from this, (the Japanese garden) and there are times where it works, (the dusty highway duel between Raiden and Sam) but the locations of this game have already begun to slip from my mind. It doesn't help that the levels are very simple mechanically. Rising is a very pared back Platinum game, and this may be a benefit for many people. Personally, the moments of brief puzzles, platforming, or minigames really add to an action game for me. The lower intensity moments help add to the electrifying combat. Rising does have brief moments where it lets the player look for collectables, but the campaign is laser focused on the core combat.
Speaking of said combat. It's solid, but there are things I found disappointing. The biggest issue for me is the menu system. Not every game needs to be Devil May Cry, and have every option available all at once, but the secondary weapons you can switch to are underwhelming. Mistral's staff is great, but Monsoon's sai and Sundowner's blades both felt disappointing. The sai really is the most sad piece of this. If there was a way to quickly swap I would be using it all the time, but giving up over half of your combo list for a tether just didn't feel worthwhile. Luckily, Raiden's parry and Zandatsu both feel great to pull off through the entire game. I think what I was most disappointed with were the enemies. Rising is one of those unfortunate action games where a lot of the more unique foes weren't fun to fight. Especially when it comes to projectiles. On the other side of the coin, the bosses were consistently fantastic! The music is energetic, and learning their combos were really fun.
One final thing to touch on, and it's the story. Rising's story has been absolutely regurgitated through memes. It's still fun, but I think certain moments lost their impact on me. The game is also extremely short? Even for one of these games it's really thin.
Overall it gets a thumbs up from me. It's a pretty middle of the road Metal Gear game, and a middle of the road Platinum game. Funny how that works out.
Firstly, I was really underwhelmed by the level design. Aesthetically, they are very 7th gen; gray and brown are the primary color palette. There are breaks from this, (the Japanese garden) and there are times where it works, (the dusty highway duel between Raiden and Sam) but the locations of this game have already begun to slip from my mind. It doesn't help that the levels are very simple mechanically. Rising is a very pared back Platinum game, and this may be a benefit for many people. Personally, the moments of brief puzzles, platforming, or minigames really add to an action game for me. The lower intensity moments help add to the electrifying combat. Rising does have brief moments where it lets the player look for collectables, but the campaign is laser focused on the core combat.
Speaking of said combat. It's solid, but there are things I found disappointing. The biggest issue for me is the menu system. Not every game needs to be Devil May Cry, and have every option available all at once, but the secondary weapons you can switch to are underwhelming. Mistral's staff is great, but Monsoon's sai and Sundowner's blades both felt disappointing. The sai really is the most sad piece of this. If there was a way to quickly swap I would be using it all the time, but giving up over half of your combo list for a tether just didn't feel worthwhile. Luckily, Raiden's parry and Zandatsu both feel great to pull off through the entire game. I think what I was most disappointed with were the enemies. Rising is one of those unfortunate action games where a lot of the more unique foes weren't fun to fight. Especially when it comes to projectiles. On the other side of the coin, the bosses were consistently fantastic! The music is energetic, and learning their combos were really fun.
One final thing to touch on, and it's the story. Rising's story has been absolutely regurgitated through memes. It's still fun, but I think certain moments lost their impact on me. The game is also extremely short? Even for one of these games it's really thin.
Overall it gets a thumbs up from me. It's a pretty middle of the road Metal Gear game, and a middle of the road Platinum game. Funny how that works out.