Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance - Conversational Review
Welcome to the very first video game review on Neon-Maniacs.com!
We're planning on making video game reviews much more of a regular occurrence on the site. While we're going to try and get some more traditional 'pre-release' reviews up, we will be publishing some slightly less formal conversational reviews - just two known games (or film) writers having in-depth discussions on recently released video games. At the end of the conversation, we will each give the game a score.
Today, I'll be chatting with my good friend and fellow film critic and games writer (as well as accomplished screenwriter) Anthony O'Connor!
Let's kick things off!
METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE
Anthony O'Connor: Let's talk a bit about our relationship with the Metal Gear series...
Stephen Lambrechts: Ok so this is probably blasphemy, but the first ever PlayStation console (aside from PSP) that I owned was the PS3...
Anthony O'Connor: EWWW. Slams, NO. BAD SLAMS!
Meh. That's okay. I'm a big fan of the series. Even though they're wildly inconsistent and bewildering in their narrative complexity. I think Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater is probably the best - but every entry has something about it to love.
Stephen Lambrechts: I had played Metal Gear 1, 2 and 3 before then, but it had always been at a friend's house. Eventually, I would end up purchasing all of them and playing them on PSP and PS Vita. The first actual Metal Gear Solid game that I owned and played was Metal Gear Solid 4.
Anthony O'Connor: Ahhh Metal Gear Solid 4. Two great levels and then just diminishing returns... I still love the game but it's maddening. I love the stealth and the chameleon suit. I didn't, however, love Raiden - so when I heard about Metal Gear Rising: Schwepervescence I was pretty unimpressed.
Posted by Stephen Lambrechts & Anthony O'Connor- 12/03/2013
Stephen Lambrechts: I feel like as a game, the original Metal Gear Solid was the best, if only because it was so focused and movie-like. That kind of approach was quite original back in those days. I remember watching my friend play the entire game, right through to the ending and thinking "why aren't there any games like this on my Nintendo 64?!"
Anthony O'Connor: Actually that's probably right. Part 1 felt like a GAME. Not a movie that the player has the temerity to interrupt. I still love the series, despite (and in part because) of its indulgent faults.
Stephen Lambrechts: I agree; Metal Gear Solid 4 might have had some structural problems, but at the very least it kind of rebooted Raiden as an undeniable badass, rather than his original role as 'guy that you don't want to be playing as' from Metal Gear Solid 2.
Anthony O'Connor: [Laughs]
Stephen Lambrechts: Everyone was there because they wanted Solid Snake, which is coincidentally the same reason almost everyone turned up to the nightclub in Irreversible.
Anthony O'Connor: [Laughs] HEY-OH!
Stephen Lambrechts: He's like the Arbiter in Halo 2. It's like "why the hell am I playing as this guy again?"
Anthony O'Connor: So with Rising, Platinum Games has somehow taken the character that no one wants to be and *BAM* makes you delight in being him! He still looks like the goth guy who tries just a little bit too hard to me. Like you're going down to the pub and he puts a cape on. You're all, Look, Morpheus, I appreciate your right to express yourself but we're just popping down the pub!"
Stephen Lambrechts: You’re right though, I don't think he'll ever quite live down that "I'm a badass, but I have pretty white hair" aspect of his character, but I think that's okay, because that only makes him less like Snake, which is exactly the direction this character should go in.
Anthony O'Connor: Raiden is now a merc with a sword who gets into adventures… or something? Honestly, I'm not sure what his go is and I don't care that much. They've done a soft reboot on him and it works. Although, again, he will always be the ‘goth-who-tries-too-hard’ to me.
It feels like a classic spin-off story where (thankfully) they don't spend too long rationalising the narrative.
Stephen Lambrechts: This is exactly why Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance works so well. Completely different genre, different take on an established character, but same world.
As a science fiction narrative, it doesn't have anywhere near the same depth as a normal Metal Gear Solid game, but the simplification lets you cut to the chase (or cut through some baddies) much, much quicker.
There are still lots of cut scenes, but they don't interfere quite as much.
Anthony O'Connor: Yeah, there are Metal Gear shout outs but it never gets too incestuous. This is its own animal and, everything else aside, is deliriously enjoyable. I defy anyone to play this game for me than 20 minutes without grinning like an idiot.
Stephen Lambrechts: Which is about half of the game's length, unfortunately.
Anthony O'Connor: Hah! I was about to say, without the cut scenes you could probably dash through this game in 4 to 5 hours.
Which is insane, honestly.
Now the combat is stunning. Slicing people apart never gets old and there is a genuine sense of excitement and joy to the proceedings. But then it's finished. You're sitting there, pulse racing, sweat-sheened going, "Um... is that it, fellas?"
Stephen Lambrechts: While that doesn't exactly scream 'value' from a length perspective (in before ‘that’s what she said’), this game has combat that I never tired of. Perhaps the short 5 hour campaign is something of a blessing, as the game never outstayed its welcome; I’ve found that similar games like DmC and Ninja Gaiden 2 tend to drag on by having you partake in pointless fetch quests (yes I’m looking at YOU one-eyed demon dude from DmC). This was all killer, no filler.
Anthony O'Connor: See, you have a wife and a life and people who care about you. I am a hairy shut-in and I DEMAND A GAME DISTRACTS ME FROM MY SAD AND LONELY EXISTENCE, DAMMIT!
That said, I agree. There's not a wasted second here and at the end of the game I wanted to play it all over again STRAIGHT AWAY.
Stephen Lambrechts: Combat is never anything but supremely enjoyable. Seriously, I was quite surprised that the slicing and dicing never got old. You just keep getting better at it, and the feeling of reaching into a baddie in mid air and tearing out his... whatever the hell that thing is, only to land on the ground and crush it in your hand? Sooo satisfying.
Anthony O'Connor: And chaining a few of those together? Like when you combo from one dude's spinal column jizz to the next - you genuinely feel like a total bad arse. It looks amazing and the controls are tight. It's a stunning, visceral sensation.
Remember with Metal Gear 4 how people complained that you could never do anything remotely as bad arse as Raiden? This time you CAN and it's brilliant.
It also demands total attention. Don't think you can lazily log into Facebook or eat hummus while playing this game. It's the kind of frantic gameplay that requires undivided attention and I kind of love that old school quality to it.
Stephen Lambrechts: Amen. I never thought we'd ever to get to perform all of that crazy ninja breakdance-fighting stuff from Raiden’s cut scenes in MGS4, but somehow Platinum Games have pulled it off, without ever feeling overly complicated.
When you know what to do, and how to do it, the game feels sensational. That said, there is a slight problem with the way that the game forgets to tell you a lot of its mechanics.
For example, I didn't know you could lock on to enemies until the second last level.
Anthony O'Connor: Wait, you can lock onto enemies?! *wink*
Stephen Lambrechts: [Laughs] Yup, and I also didn't know you could store health packs. It does make me feel pretty good, knowing that I made it all the way through the game with only the cool, blue spinal jizm of fallen enemies to keep me alive.
Anthony O'Connor: Don't the health packs just work automatically? You just have them and they work whenever you get killed.
The fact I'm even asking this is probably endemic of a somewhat dubious "tutorial"...
Stephen Lambrechts: Apparently you can set them to your D-pad in the menus, but I never used them.
Anthony O'Connor: Yeah you CAN, but if you just keep them in your inventory they activate automatically. It's the only way I made it through some encounters.
Usually boss fights. And there'd be plenty of them lying around. Especially with the cunty last boss.
I yelled at the PS3 sooo much with that last boss. Fuck that guy, man. Seriously.
Stephen Lambrechts: Oh man, that boss was such a son of a bitch. I yelled at my TV too, but eventually, after dying several times, I took him down, which I suppose felt super awesome. Would've loved to have some health packs, though.
Anthony O'Connor: The third act of the game is also when the story goes from charmingly over-the-top to borderline idiocy. It felt like an enormous satire of the USA (which is fine) but it kind of abandoned a lot of the meatier themes and ideas that were raised earlier in the game (which is less fine).
I kept expecting that last level to be an LSD-inspired fever dream or something. For me it represented a real disparity of tone...
... but then I was all like PEW PEW SLASH SLICE! And I got over it.
Stephen Lambrechts: True, it is that disparity which makes it most evident that this is by Platinum Games, and not Kojima Productions. The plot ended up being popcorn-style fluff in the vein of its earlier title, Vanquish.
Anthony O'Connor: Yeah, whereas I was kind of hoping for more of a Bayonetta feel. Now THERE was a game that earned its bizarre ending and felt just the right length.
Although, it looks like there is lots of DLC on the horizon, including one where you get the backstory of the robot wolf!
"Hey, man, I really would like to find out how the robot wolf character got to this point." - No Gamer EVER
Stephen Lambrechts: [Laughs] That's fantastic though, because this game needs a little something extra to give it some more replay value. Though, even without added DLC missions, it's still a must play title.
Anthony O'Connor: Yes, shockingly short but also STUNNINGLY playable, enjoyable and addictive.
Stephen Lambrechts: And you're right, it is the kind of game that makes you want to replay it.
Anthony O'Connor: The boss fights are epic (with some stunning imagery and imagination on show) and despite its shortcomings this is a rock solid game with some of the most enjoyable combat EVER.
How many Neon Stars from you, Slams?
(I used Neon Stars because you're Neon Maniacs. I didn't have to. I did. I'm nice, you see.)
(Don't bother thanking me or anything.)
(God I hate you.)
Stephen Lambrechts: [Laughs].
Anthony O'Connor: I'm torn between 3.5 and 4.
Stephen Lambrechts: I agree, I think that the combat in Revengeance is kind of the new standard when it comes to 3rd person action games like this. The Ninja Gaiden series needs to pull something really special out of its ninja outfit to have any hope of competing with this in the future.
I'm giving it 4 Neon stars out of 5.
How about you, Buckaroo?
Anthony O'Connor: Look, I'm giving it 3.5 - just because I honestly think you need to fatten up the experience a little. What's there is amazing but there just needed to be a little more.
Stephen Lambrechts: And this has been another episode of Slam & Ant-Man's Neon Arcade!
Anthony O'Connor: Next week I'll drink a bottle of scotch and call my ex girlfriends, weeping!
Stephen Lambrechts: And I'll bump into Richard Wilkins at a screening and try not to stare directly into his hair!
Anthony O'Connor: [Laughs] It's like staring into the puckered clacker of GOD!
Anthony: ☆☆☆½
Stephen: ☆☆☆☆
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