Metal Gear Solid games have the tagline “Tactical Espionage Action”, and that’s a fairly honest evaluation of what they’re all about. It may be easy to just call them stealth games, but if you were to take a random clip from their latter halves, you’re more likely to see a fight against a mech than careful sneaking. The reason this structure was used so consistently was for its effectiveness at creating action setpieces players could feel invested in. Stealth games are great at establishing an atmosphere of quiet vulnerability, so by introducing players to the game in this way, the highs of excitement later on are contextualized by contrast. Similarly, Metal Gear Rising isn’t exactly an action game, it just uses those sensibilities to contextualize its setpieces. The gameplay is kept simple with a small number of attacks and command inputs, with the idea being players should be able to enjoy the spectacle of combat even at a basic skill level. The lack of depth meant that anything more than the game’s six hour runtime would have felt drawn-out, but the sheer amount of hype it was able to pack into that space will probably never be matched. Every boss is a multisensory overload, and the action is easy to follow since it only demands mastery of simple mechanics even genre novices can understand. My biggest gripe though is that even with such simple requirements, the game is awful at explaining how they work, with the most notorious example being the parry, described as throwing out a barrage of light attacks when your foe is on the offensive. This is nothing like how the parry actually works, requiring you to hit the attack button while flicking the stick towards the attack you want to parry. So, while I would love to tell everyone to see how crazy this game gets, I recognize that its poor tutorializing, short length, lack of depth, and polarizing Metal Gear silliness will only make it hit for a certain demographic. It’s far from being a game I think everyone should play, but I hope everyone at least gives it a look, so they might experience the goofy joy this game gives like no other.